‘Better Call Saul’ Production Gets Underway For Season 4

AMC

The first two seasons of the Breaking Bad spin-off, Better Call Saul, premiered on AMC in February. Last season premiered in April, and it looks like this season of the hit show won’t kick off until at least this fall. Production on season four the series didn’t begin until this week, according to a tweet from Peter Gould.

The first episode of season four, according to the clapboard, will be directed by Minkie Spiro, who last directed the penultimate episode of season three, “Fall.” That’s a slight departure from past season premieres, which have been directed by long-time veterans of the Breaking Bad universe, Vince Gilligan (who directed the seasons one and three premiere) and Thomas Schnauz (who directed the second-season premiere).

It is not surprising to see that production has gotten underway later than in previous seasons. Few shows, if any, spend as much time in the writers’ room as Saul, which often spends six months meticulously writing scripts before they start shooting. Season four will be particularly challenging, as Jimmy will have to deal with the fall-out following the death of his brother, Chuck. The events of last season, in fact, bring Jimmy McGill ever closer to his Breaking Bad years, and the death of Chuck is fully expected to hasten Jimmy’s transformation into Saul Goodman.

There is also a definite possibility according to Bob Odenkirk that we may revisit those Breaking Bad years and see them from Jimmy’s perspective. “If we’re going to get to know him as well as we have in Saul,” Odenkirk said last year, “perhaps some of those sequences in Breaking Bad, we might get to see behind Saul’s story a little more. His side of the story that might make him a different character in the course of seeing that — [a side] even I haven’t seen yet.” Revisiting those years from another perspective would be particularly challenging for the writers room, which might explain the slight delay in production this season.

We’ll see how it shakes out in season four, which I expect will return to AMC in September. In the meantime, it’s nice to see most of the gang back together again.

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