Breaking Bad.

When you hear those two words said aloud, several things may come to mind.

Blue methamphetamine. Jesse. New Mexico. And possibly one of the greatest television shows to ever be aired.

In fact, Breaking Bad received 262 nominations for awards, and a stunning 110 awards throughout its five seasons.

Better Call Saul, the prequel to Breaking Bad, doesn’t involve Walter White, at least not yet.

But the fans of Breaking Bad will most certainly remember Saul, Walter’s lawyer who seemed like he could solve a problem no matter how bad the situation got.

Well, at least until the end of the show, when he needs to leave town along with Walter.

That’s actually where Better Call Saul begins. It starts in on Gene, the manager of a Cinnabon inside some mall.

Gene is who we know as Saul Goodman.

But Goodman is just another alias.  In fact, just inside two episodes of the show, we know that Saul has three different names that he has gone by.

James McGill, is his real name, and so far in the show, this is what he goes by.  James is a lawyer just like he is by the time that he meets Walter White, yet he’s not the criminal lawyer that we knew him as in Breaking Bad.

Gene is the last alias that we know of James. This is the name that he is given after he leaves everything behind in New Mexico because of Walter’s transgressions.

We don’t quite know how or why James takes the name of Saul, but the series should make a point as to tell us why this happens.

So far, the audience has enjoyed two episodes of the series, with a third one set to come out next Monday, Feb. 16.

The first episode, like most pilot episodes, sets us up with James.  It opens up with Gene working at Cinnabon.  It sets us up to know Saul after the opening ends, and we are watching the Saul during a trial.

During this time, he’s not the smooth talker that we know him as…yet.

We come to know some friends of James, which mainly consists of Chuck McGill.  Chuck is a strange character.  He lives in a house without any electronics and all of his guests have to step onto a metal plate before stepping inside so that they discharge the static electricity.

Even in the second episode, when Saul mistakenly takes his cell phone inside his house, Chuck throws it outside into the front yard.

The pilot episode of the series also shows us somethings about James.  He’s trying to make sure that Chuck recovers from the disease that he has.  He’s trying to make ends meet with himself, while the law firm that Chuck started is screwing him and Chuck over.

His office is in the back of a nail salon and is about the size of a closet.  Nothing seems to be going his way.

To make some extra money, he pairs up with some skateboarders.  They take dives to make money, and when they’re plans go awry, James ends up meeting with Tuco (the meth kingpin from the first season of Breaking Bad).

At the beginning of the second episode, Better Call Saul continues to pay homage to Breaking Bad, by showing the ruthlessness of Tuco by taking the three to the desert and breaking the legs of the skateboarders.

And those injuries only occur because James managed to sweet talk Tuco out of killing the pair.

This is much more like the Saul that we know.  At the end of the second episode, Tuco’s cousin comes to James’ office, and tries to get James to help him steal money from the skateboarders.

If James does end up helping him, then perhaps this is how Saul gets into the business of helping criminals.

Overall, I would say this show is about 4.5/5 stars,  only because the show needs time to settle into what it’s doing.

It’s uncertain how it’s going to connect back to Breaking Bad (which is what it needs to do in the end), nor is it sure how it’s going to solve some of the questions that fans are asking of it.

As an audience, we know who and what James will become.

But how does James become the Saul with whom we are familiar?

The answer will hopefully reveal itself as the show continues.

Who knows, maybe Better Call Saul, will pick up as many awards as Breaking Bad did.

If you want to watch Better Call Saul, the show airs every Monday, 8:00 p.m., on AMC.