Better Call Saul
It's like putting on your favorite pair of old shoes.
The characters slip right on.
Saul still makes you laugh.
The bad guys make you cringe.
"The writing is so good," Sam said to me. "How do they do that?"
Certainly there's no short answer to that question. I debated telling him about character development and the hours and hours it takes after you begin asking:
'What if?'
The show starts at 10 p.m. - last week it was on Sunday and Monday nights.
Sam and Jake watched the show first.
I made sure they taped it for me.
When I woke up on Monday morning there was a text there from Sam.
"Wait until you see who's there at the end!" He wrote.
I smiled.
When I got home from work Sam sat beside me as I watched the first show. He told me when the good lines were coming up. He stared at me as the episode went to black to gauge my surprise at the ending.
"Oh boy."
We talked about the possibilities.
The battle of choosing good over evil.
Where would those writers take us in the next episode, or the one after that, or the one after that?
I mentioned to Sam that writing well and making up something that people connect with is the greatest feeling in the world.
Sam sorta' dropped out of the conversation, but it kept rattling around in my head.
You know when it's good.
You know exactly what the character is going to do before he does it.
You're making up the words that come out of their mouths, but you really don't have a choice.
You put them in the moment...
...and their words just come out.
Years and years ago I wrote Waldorf & Juli.
I still say that if I saw Juli walking down the street now I would recognize her.
She was alive.
And it's weird, but you sorta' miss them when they're gone.
I can't imagine writing on the scale of what Vince Gilligan is doing...
...but it's gotta' be the same.
The exercise is no different.
Set Saul and Mike in a room.
The scene will write itself.
Catch the show.
Just great stuff.
Thank God they're still allowing storytellers to tell stories.
I was a little nervous there when all of entertainment seemed to be heading the way of reality bullshit.
We still need talented writers.
Go get 'em Saul.
err....Vince.
The characters slip right on.
Saul still makes you laugh.
The bad guys make you cringe.
"The writing is so good," Sam said to me. "How do they do that?"
Certainly there's no short answer to that question. I debated telling him about character development and the hours and hours it takes after you begin asking:
'What if?'
The show starts at 10 p.m. - last week it was on Sunday and Monday nights.
Sam and Jake watched the show first.
I made sure they taped it for me.
When I woke up on Monday morning there was a text there from Sam.
"Wait until you see who's there at the end!" He wrote.
I smiled.
When I got home from work Sam sat beside me as I watched the first show. He told me when the good lines were coming up. He stared at me as the episode went to black to gauge my surprise at the ending.
"Oh boy."
We talked about the possibilities.
The battle of choosing good over evil.
Where would those writers take us in the next episode, or the one after that, or the one after that?
I mentioned to Sam that writing well and making up something that people connect with is the greatest feeling in the world.
Sam sorta' dropped out of the conversation, but it kept rattling around in my head.
You know when it's good.
You know exactly what the character is going to do before he does it.
You're making up the words that come out of their mouths, but you really don't have a choice.
You put them in the moment...
...and their words just come out.
Years and years ago I wrote Waldorf & Juli.
I still say that if I saw Juli walking down the street now I would recognize her.
She was alive.
And it's weird, but you sorta' miss them when they're gone.
I can't imagine writing on the scale of what Vince Gilligan is doing...
...but it's gotta' be the same.
The exercise is no different.
Set Saul and Mike in a room.
The scene will write itself.
Catch the show.
Just great stuff.
Thank God they're still allowing storytellers to tell stories.
I was a little nervous there when all of entertainment seemed to be heading the way of reality bullshit.
We still need talented writers.
Go get 'em Saul.
err....Vince.
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