It wasn't long after Breaking Bad finished its run that series creator Vince Gilligan announced there would be a follow up in the form of Better Call Saul, a new show revolving around the exploits of Walter White's shifty lawyer Saul Goodman. Had this new series flopped, doomed to forever live in the massive shadow of that earlier show, it's unlikely anyone would have been surprised. That was a big act to follow indeed, but amazingly enough Gilligan and company pulled it off. Better Call Saul proved an immediate commercial and critical hit and for good reason: it's very compelling viewing.

The series introduces us to Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), the brother of hotshot lawyer Chuck (Michael McKean) who just so happens to be a partner in Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, a massive law firm. Jimmy looks up to his brother and wants to be a lawyer too, but at least initially he's doomed to work away his days in the mailroom. Even after he graduates the bar, there's no way that Chuck's partner, Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), is going to give Jimmy a shot on their team. Chuck, however, suffers from a strange disorder in which he simply cannot be around electromagnetism. This causes him to take a leave of absence from the firm and it leaves Jimmy with some responsibilities he may not want, let alone understand. But he pitches in, he helps his older brother out and he doesn't complain too much when he has to leave his cell phone in his rundown car before entering a house where lights and other electrical devices cannot be used.

At the same time, if he's not going to get that shot at the firm then Jimmy's got to do something, right? Right. And so he starts up his own practice that he bases out of the back office of a nail salon. Business isn't very good, not to start with, and so he starts picking away at some low hanging fruit by specializing in senior law… doing wills and estate planning. Eventually though, Jimmy gets a couple of breaks. He meets Craig Kettleman (Jeremy Shamos), a county treasurer currently being investigated for embezzlement and he uncovers some interesting documents while dealing with his clients at the seniors home. Along the way he tries to keep things going with an old girlfriend named Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) who still works at the firm, and kinda-sorta strikes up an unusual friendship with a parking lot attendant named Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks).

The ten episodes that make up the first season of Better Call Saul are spread across the three discs in this collection as follows:

Disc One: Uno / Mijo / Nacho / Hero

Disc Two: Alpine Shepherd Boy / Five-O / Bingo

Disc Three: Rico / Pimento / Marco

A prequel to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul does something exceedingly difficult: it brings a supporting character (and one played almost always for comic relief at that) and puts him front and center in his own show and it makes it work. Jimmy, not yet Saul at this point, is an amusing character. We see how, in his early days, he and his friends would run different cons to make a few bucks here and there and we see the seeds being sewn for the transition into Saul but at the same time, given that he is the central focus here, we get to know him. What exactly will turn him into the huckster he becomes in Breaking Bad remains to be seen but here he's complicated, funny and a really interesting person to watch. Much of the credit for this goes to Bob Odenkirk's amazing lead performance. He handles every aspect of this character perfectly. The sadness he feels when betrayed, the joy he feels when he hits pay dirt, the vindictive side that creeps up now and then under certain circumstances and the good natured and kind side that shows up when Kim is around are all made to feel natural and believable thanks to Odenkirk's delivery. The supporting cast are just as good. No faint praise there, everyone in front of the camera nails it. Michael McKean is perfect as Chuck, every bit as good as Odenkirk is. His character has an interesting sense of pathos but at the same time, we know Chuck's no fool. Patrick Fabian and Rhea Seehorn are rock solid in their supporting parts while Jonathan Banks tends to steal every damn scene he's in. Watching the cast members bring these characters into the spotlight is a treat.

As to the storytelling, it's excellent. This moves at a slower pace than Breaking Bad did (it's hard not to occasionally make the comparison) but it's no less interesting for it. There's a certain sense of inevitability to things here, without spoiling it the opening of the first episode speaks to that, but how we get there, well, that's where a lot of the show's draw comes from. The writing team focuses on the human side of the story in a big way. Yes, there's a lot of humor and often, particularly in the last half of the season, there's some pretty great suspense to but as all of this builds and starts to pay off what impresses is the emotions that the characters experience and how, even if you've never tried to start a law firm, you can relate to them. Add to that the fact that the series is really nicely shot and that it features a lot of great music throughout and this series, even in its infancy as it is here, proves to be ‘can't miss TV.'

Video:

Sony offers up all of the episodes of Better Call Saul: The Complete First Season in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. Details in both the foregrounds and the backgrounds are generally very sharp and in close up shots almost a revelation. Texture is strong, facial detail is excellent and color reproduction impressive and natural looking throughout the entire run of episodes. Skin tones also look good and there's a lot of appreciable depth to the picture at times. There are no problems with any compression artifacts nor is there any edge enhancement. As you'd expect, the image is pristine and perfectly clean looking. There's really nothing serious to complain about here at all, outside of some occasional banding the picture quality is outstanding.