Hot Box: Dying to save lost souls

It began as a joke in the writer's room of AMC's Breaking Bad but now the spin-off show, Better Call Saul, created by Breaking Bad originator Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, is seven episodes into its first season and due for a second season next year.

The show follows the trials and tribulations of Albuquerque ambulance chaser Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) in the years leading up to his reinvention as Saul Goodman, the slippery strip mall lawyer who became the man who did Walter White's dirty work in Breaking Bad.

Jimmy is a desperate, lonely, sometimes morally questionable defence lawyer with an essentially good heart. He drives a jalopy, wears cheap suits and has an office in the back of a Vietnamese beauty parlour where he sleeps at night, taking advantage of the footbaths and massage chairs as he sips his cocktails trying to figure out the scheme that will propel him into the big time.

His days are spent defending obviously guilty lowlifes and petty criminals, fighting with the dour parking attendant at the court parking lot - Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), familiar to Breaking Bad fans as the man who will become druglord Gus Fring's fixer. Ehrmantraut becomes another significant figure in the show and the fifth episode detailing his back story as a reformed alcoholic former Philadelphia homicide detective is one of the best in recent television memory.

There's also Jimmy's brother Chuck (Michael McKean) who was a lawyer until his allergy to electricity forced him into retirement in his dark, book-laden house where no electronic devices are permitted. Jimmy's foray into the world of elder law helps to provide some classic comic material as he dons a Perry Mason-inspired suit and figures out as many ways as possible to advertise his services in old age homes.

While the New Mexico universe of Better Call Saul is familiar from Breaking Bad, Gilligan and Gould have made a conscious decision to give this show a lighter touch without skimping on a dark atmosphere that reflects Jimmy's struggle to avoid completely crossing the ethical lines that will ultimately transform him into Saul.

There's a clever and refreshing use of time in the show - things take as long as they must and the writers revel in small moments and precisely observed details as they slowly pull together the threads of their stories.

With three episodes of the first season left to screen in the US, things seem to be getting closer to the point at which McGill's transformation into Goodman will begin but it's difficult to predict as the show's creators are not above changing tack, introducing new characters and confounding expectations. They have said in interviews that viewers should be alert to the last two episodes in particular in which there seem to be some surprises in store.

Though not every network show should now start thinking about spin-offs, for now Better Call Saul is a clever and funny piece of comic human drama that stands on its own in spite of the long shadow cast by the success of Breaking Bad.