Another facet introduced in “Hero” is the wealth of well-spoken and authoritative female characters in this story universe. Where Breaking Bad had very few women in the circle of Walter White’s life beyond his family, Better Call Saul already focuses on two. (Three, if you count the attorney who deals professionally with Jimmy and Hamlin’s dispute over the billboard font.) The first is Betsy Kettleman (Julie Ann Emery), always speaking on behalf of her husband and nervous about having Jimmy be the man that is hopelessly devoted to her family’s case. “Just pretend you never saw the money,” she proposes, with a sleazy smile. “How hard is that?”
The second is Kim, who may be one of the meeker members of the Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill staff – as evidenced by the camera’s placement outside her office door, belittling her – but has loyalty and intelligence. Despite her friendship with Jimmy, we have not yet seen her fall into one of his schemes.
If “Hero” lacks anything, it is the sense of danger that permeated through the first three hours of Better Call Saul. Although Jimmy speaks candidly with Nacho, released from police custody near the episode’s start, the consequences the latter promises don’t appear at all during the course of Jimmy’s boastful billboard adventures. Meanwhile, the heroic “publicity stunt” with Jimmy climbing up 65 ft. to rescue a worker trying to take the billboard down who is dangling off the side, is predictably a scheme of the devilish attorney, given how the episode introduces Slippin’ Jimmy’s illicit cons. The charade works into getting news coverage and, alas, clients, as Jimmy returns to his office to find seven new messages waiting on his machine. (Still, it does look like Odenkirk did a lot of climbing stunts in the sequence, showing his commitment to the role.)
Even without a lot of danger or conflict or anything near a Walter White-level transformation of character, this hour was riotous fun. While Breaking Bad had its killer meth-making sequences, Better Call Saul fares just as well with montages of Jimmy turning his attention to routine court cases or, here, calling newspapers in an attempt to “expose the injustice” of Hamlin removing his sign. The former’s montages were controlled, while Saul’s are loose and improvised, complete with a jaunty, clap-based soundtrack. Frothy and frequently funny, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s new series is starting to settle into a groove, as Odenkirk combines a dramatic range with his debonair comic skills.
