"Better call the salt": the chronicle of the loser

What is the spin-off "in the whole" surpasses the original?

On the AMC channel on April 10, the third season “Better Call the Solu” began - a series that finally turned into the mirror “All Great” and spoke with the viewer about his most hidden fears. The Medusa Film Overalger Yegor Moskvitin tells how the swindler Sol Goodman became a psychotherapist for the audience and what “better call the salt”, one of the most depressed series, surpasses “all heavy”.

The drama “In the Great” is still considered the greatest of the stories told on television about the moral fall of the hero. The ratings of the show are recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Steven King himself joined the unanimous admiration of the critics. And Anthony Hopkins (or at that moment the character Gannibal Lecter) wrote to Brian Cranston (or the Methamaphtaminsky King Walter Whita who settled in him), in which he confessed his love for his acting work.

But hardly the drama “in all difficult” would have achieved such success if each of the central characters did not have to one important secondary, personifying everything that the main characters seek to kill in themselves. For a small drug addict Jesse Piknman, who was tired of apologizing to the whole world for his nature, his neighbor was such a mirror - a girl who introduced himself as a superheron Apology Girl. How their love story ended is not worth talking about - suddenly in the world there are still a couple of people who have not watched the series.

But for Walter White - a man who was earned from the chain to all, who had been breaking out of the chain - the authors of the series prepared a gift more. In the eighth series of the second season, “all the hard”, a lawyer Sol Goodman appears - a genius of chewing, who all the time lacks only a drop of luck and will for genuine success. Goodman, like the ominous Heisenberg, is a pseudonym, and at first it seems that similar people are hiding behind both masks - ambitious, tired of their insignificance and ready to stop the law to take their own. But the chemist Walter White is all magically formed, and even the most terrible losses (son, wife, shelter Hank) cannot destroy his new personality, because they have no place there. But the lawyer Sol Gudman does not develop anything - so in the magical space of the television series he is a messenger from real life. And invariably brings bad news.

The series in which Gudman first appeared was called "Better call the salt." Her only author was the recently increased screenwriter Peter Gold. When the “grave” ended, their famous Showranner Vince Gilligan (the person whom students of the carts put, perhaps, even higher than David Lynch) conspired with Gold to make the impossible to release a series in which all dreams and hopes of heroes are destroyed at the end of each episode. History without the slightest lumen, a chronicle of clinical depression. The series was called "Better call the salt." The pilot started in 2015 with the highest rating at that time among all cable dramas in history - 6.88 million spectators. Half of them, horrified, fled to the end of the first season. And in the second season, the average audience decreased by 33 percent - to 2.16 million spectators.

But those who survived consider this series almost the best in the world. There are a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, “it is better to call the salt”-this is the background “in all heavy”, and the opening black and white frames of the series do not leave hopes for the success of the hero. In the final of his path, Sol Hudman will be a intimidated seller of Cinnabon supercaloric donuts - that is, the same drug dealer as Walter White or Hus Fringe, but a hundred times lower. However, there is no Gudman's salt yet, but there is Jimmy McGill - an unlucky and honest lawyer who is trying to conduct his own practice and make a name for himself, but is constantly below the food chain. Jimmy has a super-Russian fraternal legalist Charles, but he despises him. Jimmy has a cunning chief Howard, but he does not appreciate him. Jimmy has a beloved Kim, but she fears that he will pick up Bacilli of Laserity from him. In other words, Jimmy has nothing. Even the truly ambitious cannot be called him: he just wants to be at least someone, and for the sake of this he is ready to plow desperately. But he collapses even in this, turning traditional tales about the American dream into a documentary about an American nightmare.

Secondly, “better call the salt” is an unconditional fan service for fans “Great”. The original series is still so popular that the audience admitted to him in love in the most extravagant ways - for example, they throw pizza on the roof of the main character’s house, because he did just that in a fit of rage. In the house where the shooting was going on, ordinary people live today, and they are not very delighted with this ritual. Therefore, let the fans watch “Better call the salt” - a series, somewhere and then guests from the original appear, for example, the dangerous old man Mike Ermantraut, Gangster Tuko or, as in the third season, the drug lord of the HUS Fringe. Fring, recall, worked under the cover of a network of snacks Los Pollos Hermanos. When in March of this year, the AMC channel brought its series to the SXSW festival in Texas, one of the cafes in Austin suddenly turned into a Los Pollos Hermanos point. People began to flock to her so that it was completely unclear why Fringe needed drugs when he had wings, albeit chicken.

Thirdly, where it is more willing than “Graceful”, the new series quotes the Bible and ancient Greek mythology. Critics are finally confused with whom to compare Jimmy McGill. In the first season, the most popular version was that he is a modern Job, who is subjected to terrible trials only because he is truly kind and strong internally (unlike the same Walter White). In the second season, the authors gave a hint: on the poster, Jimmy crossed the street, but the prospect in the picture changed - it seemed that he climbed uphill with inhuman efforts, stoically overcoming the black stripes of the road zebra. That is, he is not a biblical Job, but an ancient Sisyphus who will sooner or later be under his stone - and this will happen at the moment when the viewer finally turns away from the series. But the most accurate characteristic of the salt was given by the TV critic of the newspaper NewsDay Verne Gay, who drew attention to the fact that Jimmy and his brother Chuck - like Isav and Jacob (chap. 27 of the Books of Genesis), rival for the recognition of his father. Before his death, his father was about to bless Isava, but Rebeka's mother loved Jacob more - and sent him under the guise of Isav to a blind father. The deceived father blessed the wrong brother. In “Better call the salt”, this scene is played as follows: Jimmy and Charlie are sitting at the mother’s hospital bed. Jimmy takes a minute to buy a chocolate bar, and the mother dies at the same moment. Before her death, she whispers the name “Jimmy”, but the jealous Chuck never admits this brother.

By the third season, “Better call the salt” turns into a champion on TV through such piercing scenes. There is a suspicion that there was not a single senseless frame in this show - it’s just that we, spectators, are not always able to make out the message. Each gaze of heroes, every movement of the hands, any road sign and all replicas, without exception, serve the same goal - to remind the audience that life is more complicated than the series. In recent years, there have been too many drams, convincing that anyone can become anyone. “Better call the salt” explains: nothing like that. And instead of telling fairy tales, he offers the viewer to honestly talk about his most hidden fears associated with family, love and career.

This radical honesty has already frightened millions of spectators, and the remaining can cause real physical pain. But it is thanks to her that the spin-off is superior to the original series. “All Great” is the story of a loser who finally succeeded. “Better call the salt” - the story of a loser who will never succeed. But the more inspiring heroism in his attempts.

And yes, we always have never mentioned the wonderful actors playing in this series - Bob Odenker, Riya Sikhorn and Jontanate Banks. This story is not about them at all.

Egor Moskvitin