BETTER CALL SAUL at TCA: Live-Blog

The BREAKING BAD spinoff BETTER CALL SAUL has already been renewed for a second season, and AMC is presenting the new show’s panel during press tour with co-showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Follow along for a live-blog…

5:11 PM: “It’s a challenge,” Vince Gilligan allows of knowing where Saul ends up when we meet him in BREAKING BAD as they craft this prequel.

“It reminds me of season 5 and we had the machine gun in the trunk,” Peter Gould says. He notes they thought it was a cool visual, but they didn’t know what it was or how it was going to pay off.

5:14 PM: “I still think in my heart of hearts think Fox missed a trick by not reupping it for a second season,” Gilligan says of THE LONE GUNMEN. He maintains he’s very proud of it and thinks in a different era it would have been a hit.

5:15 PM: “There’s always a chance,” Gilligan says of bringing back Giancarlo Esposito’s Gus. Gould says there’s so much more to say about Gus, but he notes they’re trying to make something that stands on its own: “It’s not a series equivalent of a clip show.”

5:17 PM: “We could have made the deadline, but I’m slow as mud as a TV writer,” Gilligan says. He notes their pace on BREAKING BAD was slower than normal television. He says they want to do the same thing on BETTER CALL SAUL, because they feel it “pays dividends.” He thinks they would have been able to get season 1 in on time, but they wouldn’t have been able to get season 2 in on the same time. He also says that’s the same reason the final season of BREAKING BAD was split up.

5:20 PM: “BATTLE CREEK is a show I’m really proud of from a spectator form,” Gilligan says. He’s not really involved at this point. And he’s partnered up with Gould on this show, which he says is an interesting experience, since he’s a bit of a control freak.

5:22 PM: “It’s always daunting,” Giligan says about whether it’s nerve-wracking about going back into the BREAKING BAD universe after the finale got generally positive reviews.

“All we can say is yes it’s totally daunting, but I think we’re going to be true to the tradition of BREAKING BAD,” Gould says.

5:24 PM: “It’s true, I did originate him…but I think everything that came out of the BREAKING BAD writers’ room and everything that comes out of the BETTER CALL SAUL writers’ room is something we did together,” Gould says. He says the character was “a leap into the void for me.” He notes that “Saul moved the universe two degrees to the left….I was so worried we were going to break open the BREAKING BAD universe and he wouldn’t fit.” But he worked. “He made the drama more dramatic and the comedy more comedy-esque,” Gould says.

5:28 PM: Gilligan says that the new series takes place in 2002. He points out that with BREAKING BAD, they tried really hard to not pinpoint a time period, but now they have to be a little more specific. He calls it a period piece — since it was a dozen years ago — which has led to them trying to find cars, etc., that fit the time period.

5:30 PM: “We have Michael McKean playing a guy named Chuck….he plays [Saul’s] brother.” (It’s also an X-FILES/LONE GUNMEN reunion for Gilligan and McKean.)

5:33 PM: “I learned my lesson…I’m never going to write a less-than-perfect woman again,” Gilligan jokingly says of the Skylar hate and the lessons he learned. He notes he always found it out people hated her, since she’s more likeable than Walt was.

5:34 PM: Michelle MacLaren will return to the BREAKING BAD world to direct BETTER CALL SAUL. They have the director of the original “Better Call Saul” episode of BREAKING BAD.

5:35 PM: Shows Gilligan has noted he likes: THE LEFTOVERS and FARGO.

5:37 PM: “I think the best way to answer this and not get yelled at…is you saw with BREAKING BAD we like non-linear storytelling,” Gilligan says. “We like jumping around in time.” He says that anything that was possible on BREAKING BAD is possible on BETTER CALL SAUL.

5:38 PM: “There’s a lot of focus on cause and effect, and what does this mean to this character and what does this mean to that character, and where was that car parked when we saw it last?” Gould says of using every part of story possible. He says it’s not out of the question they could do standalone episodes, but they are following a rhythm where “it locks together.”

Gilligan says that that kind of storytelling makes it feel like all the blood, sweat, and tears is worth it. He notes it “makes it feel as real as possible for us.” They get to imagine every nuance. He says, “the more real it feels for us, the more real it seems to feel for the viewers.”

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