(I will be discussing spoilers for the first two episodes below)

A lot can be said for Better Call Saul, and how it does or doesn’t recapture the magic of Breaking Bad in its first two episodes, and I’m sure I’ll get to a lot of it below. However, first I would like to examine a single shot in one of the first scenes of the pilot.

The scene, a courtroom waiting for public defender Jimmy McGill (the future Saul Goodman), is a beautifully executed moment of patient impatience. The sound design in this scene is superb; the omnipresent hum of the fluorescent lighting, the pitter-patter of the court stenographer, the ticking of the clock, the creaking of chairs, the occasional stray cough, the slushing of ice in a Big Gulp convenience store soda, all contributing to the rooms increasing ennui. The prosecuting attorney, a stern-looking man in a suit, appears to be jotting notes on his notepad. We then get “the shot,” a close-up of his notepad, where he has been drawing a barbarian on a unicorn.

That shot is the perfect symbol for what makes Vince Gilligan and his team so special. It’s all about colorful specificity within the mundane, even when it serves no real narrative purpose. Where other creative teams would fill out their script with the most obviously functional characters and types to progress the story, Gilligan and Peter Gould (who created the Saul character and is co-showrunner with Gilligan) go out of their way to make things unique.

Take Saul’s brother. It would be easy to have him dying from cancer, or an unnamed rare disease. Instead, he seems to be afflicted by a strange hypersensitivity to (or phobia of) electromagnetism. The skaters Saul hires to scheme a deal out of a potential client are extremely specific as well: red-haired, bearded twins. The car they follow is a medium-sandlewood (or baby-poop brown) 1998 Mercury Sable wagon. Details, details, details.

While Saul retains the locale and specificity that gave Breaking Bad its flavor, it manages to claim its own identity as well. Instead of a long-simmering morality tale, Saul takes its cues from film noir. Double Indemnity feels baked into the premise of Saul, also about a down-on-his-luck suit who schemes to get a big payday and gets in far over his head.

If there’s any cause for concern in the first two episodes, it’s the use of the character Tuco from the early seasons of Breaking Bad. While his appearance here does not contradict anything that occurred in the earlier series (Tuco died a few episodes before Saul was introduced), his inclusion does create an expectation of “coincidences” that often hinders prequel efforts (Star Wars, The Hobbit, etc.). However, as far as coincidences go, this one was fairly innocuous: Tuco plays a major part in the story, but doesn’t have to be present in the future of the series. The fact that his friend (and possible underling?) is going to be recurring gives me a bit of pause, but this team’s history has earned the benefit of the doubt.

That history is why, while many seem to have dismissed Better Call Saul long before it aired, I’ve always been highly optimistic. Breaking Bad had an explicit ending, and I wouldn’t wish to continue that particular storyline, but it’s great to be back in the suburban-desert landscape of Albuquerque, New Mexico. These first two episodes give little reason to doubt that Better Call Saul will honor the legacy of Breaking Bad.