# Better Call Saul (Season 3)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 8, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040 "2017-04-08T04:28:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 27

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**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/521 "2017-05-13T04:43:17Z")

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> [@DrForrester](#):
>
> Saul’s throwaway line about the name change being because some of his clients preferred a “member of the tribe” was an excuse, not a reason. In other words, it was a lie intended to move the conversation along to other things.

I would say it \*could \*be a lie, but I don’t think we have enough information to say that for sure.

We of course know that he also stopped specializing in elder law somewhere along the way.

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**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/522 "2017-05-13T07:13:25Z")

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One thing that definitely doesn’t work with the BCS and BB timelines is Mike’s eternally youthful granddaughter.  
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/523 "2017-05-13T09:12:48Z")

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> [@Biffster](#):
>
> One thing that definitely doesn’t work with the BCS and BB timelines is Mike’s eternally youthful granddaughter.  
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, definitely. In the last episode we saw her (3.04, I believe?) she seemed older than she ever did in Breaking Bad…

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/524 "2017-05-13T09:45:35Z")

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Is it the same actress?

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**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/525 "2017-05-13T15:20:36Z")

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> [@AK84](#):
>
> Is it the same actress?

Or perhaps a clone of the same actress? Maybe they have a shop where they can manufacture them to be any age as needed.

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**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/526 "2017-05-13T16:25:58Z")

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> [@Martini\_Enfield](#):
>
> Possibly, but the current series of BCS is set five years before BB so unless the pace picks up a bit, we’re going to run into a situation where the name change is still recent enough for it to be remarkable or vaguely memorable, IMO.

Do you really remember the names of lawyers who come up in commercials or back page news stories from five years ago? And are you concerned enough about this to come up to the lawyer and interrupt his often heated conversations with other people to ask him about it? The behavior you’re noticing the absence of seems like really bizarre and unusual behavior, not something I’d expect to see. I think if you went to a town of at least half a million people and did a survey asking people name as many lawyers from that town that they saw on TV commercials in 2012 (not lawyers they work with or hire or are family friends with), you’re going to get an awful lot of ‘uh, none?’. I mean, I’d have to look up the name of the two lawyers I used for buying and selling a house, and that wasn’t even five years ago.

> [@Biffster](#):
>
> One thing that definitely doesn’t work with the BCS and BB timelines is Mike’s eternally youthful granddaughter.

Yeah, the show runners have said that they decided to completely ignore her age because it makes for better stories if she’s old enough to talk to Mike.

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**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/527 "2017-05-13T16:36:13Z")

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> [@Biffster](#):
>
> One thing that definitely doesn’t work with the BCS and BB timelines is Mike’s eternally youthful granddaughter.

Less jarring but we see it all the time is how Mike himself does not look any younger in BCS than BB, to me looks older by pretty much the expected natural aging of Jonathan Banks between the filming of the two series. I guess the idea is to convince yourself there’s no difference and that Mike is a particular guy and of a general age where he just wouldn’t look any different 10+ yrs earlier (last season of BB to start of BCS). Mild suspension of disbelief.

They do seem to apply de-aging/aging makeup to Bob Odenkirk but only in scenes that are flashbacks from BCS time or of Gene. If anything the aged appearance of Gene seems a lot v Saul at end of BB assuming the Gene scenes take place no later than now. But I guess the idea is also that hiding in plain sight has been highly stressful.

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/528 "2017-05-13T16:40:23Z")

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Odenkirk is 15 years younger than Michael McKean, yet looks more than 20 years younger.

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/529 "2017-05-13T16:55:50Z")

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> [@Martini\_Enfield](#):
>
> Possibly, but the current series of BCS is set five years before BB so unless the pace picks up a bit, we’re going to run into a situation where the name change is still recent enough for it to be remarkable or vaguely memorable, IMO.

Judging from the previews it looks like the pace is picking up NOW as regards to the name change. So ~five years is a reasonable span.

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**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/530 "2017-05-13T16:56:10Z")

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> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> Do you really remember the names of lawyers who come up in commercials or back page news stories from five years ago? And are you concerned enough about this to come up to the lawyer and interrupt his often heated conversations with other people to ask him about it? The behavior you’re noticing the absence of seems like really bizarre and unusual behavior, not something I’d expect to see. I think if you went to a town of at least half a million people and did a survey asking people name as many lawyers from that town that they saw on TV commercials in 2012 (not lawyers they work with or hire or are family friends with), you’re going to get an awful lot of ‘uh, none?’. I mean, I’d have to look up the name of the two lawyers I used for buying and selling a house, and that wasn’t even five years ago.

I again agree it’s plausible the people Saul deals with that we see would not care that much about the back story (assuming it’s not that he was a police informant 🙂 ) and the ‘clients like a Jewish lawyer’ thing would just be small talk/joke. OK they’d figure, that might not really be the whole reason, but what’s it to us?

That said I think it would also have been plausible if somehow the writers foresaw the sequel enough to plant a reverse-Easter egg in BB where somebody brought up Jimmy and elder law commercials.

There are lawyers who appear on local commercials where I live, the biggest US metro area, though I’m talking about local cable, that everyone knows. Some are running jokes. I’m thinking of one guy, on commercials under an apparently WASP last name: everybody around here would still remember in a few years if he switched to being in commercials under an apparently Jewish name (especially since unlike Jimmy/Saul, the background of this guy seems very apparent, not to say which type of name it’s consistent with). And Saul is also in his own commercials. But again would any of the people we see Saul with in BB necessarily mention it at those particular times? Not IMO.

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**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/531 "2017-05-13T20:27:11Z")

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Well, I know one lawyer from commercials. His name is “the Texas Hammer” and he apparently gets results. Or so he says. I might recognize his face if I met him in a legal context but I wouldn’t be able to give his real name to save my life.

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/532 "2017-05-13T20:36:50Z")

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In legal circles, everyone is going to know the story. It’ll be recounted for years. His low level clients probably won’t know nor will they care. They’ll just know he’s the guy on tv. The big clients will have done their research and will know but they just care about results. I’m sure that the writers will come up with something fun and plausible that will satisfy most of us.

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**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/533 "2017-05-13T20:50:02Z")

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> [@Corry\_El](#):
>
> Less jarring but we see it all the time is how Mike himself does not look any younger in BCS than BB, to me looks older by pretty much the expected natural aging of Jonathan Banks between the filming of the two series. I guess the idea is to convince yourself there’s no difference and that Mike is a particular guy and of a general age where he just wouldn’t look any different 10+ yrs earlier (last season of BB to start of BCS). Mild suspension of disbelief.
> 
> They do seem to apply de-aging/aging makeup to Bob Odenkirk but only in scenes that are flashbacks from BCS time or of Gene. If anything the aged appearance of Gene seems a lot v Saul at end of BB assuming the Gene scenes take place no later than now. But I guess the idea is also that hiding in plain sight has been highly stressful.

What thing about Bob though is that he lost a fair amount of weight which makes him look younger. Lots of wigs though but that’s understandable. A suspension of disbelief is required for pretty much any story, so that’s also understandable. It’s going to be to make a thirtysomethjng Aaron Paul look like a 12 year old Jesse, should he ever make an appearance.

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**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/534 "2017-05-14T00:34:08Z")

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> [@hajario](#):
>
> In legal circles, everyone is going to know the story. It’ll be recounted for years. His low level clients probably won’t know nor will they care. They’ll just know he’s the guy on tv. The big clients will have done their research and will know but they just care about results. I’m sure that the writers will come up with something fun and plausible that will satisfy most of us.

Definitely. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do it.

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**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/535 "2017-05-15T16:34:19Z")

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One of the great small details that help make this show great: remember the scene in the diner a few episodes back when Mike gives Jimmy the photos of Chuck’s house, and Mike says, “It’s nice to fix something…for once.” Did anyone else notice that in the next scene Mike is in his parking booth reading “Family Handyman” magazine?

And a question: one of the terms of Jimmy’s plea is that he must only associate with law-abiding citizens. Assuming he isn’t disbarred or suspended, doesn’t that put pretty strong restrictions on the cases he can take?

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**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/536 "2017-05-15T16:40:57Z")

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> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#):
>
> And a question: one of the terms of Jimmy’s plea is that he must only associate with law-abiding citizens. Assuming he isn’t disbarred or suspended, doesn’t that put pretty strong restrictions on the cases he can take?

Well, all citizens are considered “law-abiding” until proven not in court. The presumption will be in in the favor of “innocent” (and I’m sure most of his clients will swear up and down “they didn’t do it” LOL), so Jimmy should be good-to-go case-wise.

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**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/537 "2017-05-15T16:50:21Z")

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The only lawyers I would recognize are the ones I actually know personally.

I really don’t mind if Mike looks old, since he always looked kind of old. Jimmy/Saul/Gene, I think they have done a pretty good job with. But no one on this show is working as hard at the de-aging thing as they did on the most recent episode of _The Americans_, where it was really impressive (and surprising, because in the first season, they tried the same thing but the CGI was not nearly as good). Not a fair comparison, though, because that was very brief and gauzy. Meanwhile, over on the NBC hit _This is Us_, it is pretty widely felt that they do a terrible job with old-age makeup.

> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> Yeah, the show runners have said that they decided to completely ignore her age because it makes for better stories if she’s old enough to talk to Mike.

This OTOH bothers me. You can suspend disbelief on wrinkles and such when someone still talks the same. But I don’t like the idea of making her endlessly able to talk to him, yet not be a teenager in the _Breaking Bad_ era. Tch-tch.

> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#):
>
> And a question: one of the terms of Jimmy’s plea is that he must only associate with law-abiding citizens. Assuming he isn’t disbarred or suspended, doesn’t that put pretty strong restrictions on the cases he can take?

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. I have got to assume that is meant to be about who you socialize with? Although if he stayed in elder law (which we know he doesn’t), that would be fairly unlikely to conflict.

ETA:

> [@divemaster](#):
>
> Well, all citizens are considered “law-abiding” until proven not in court. The presumption will be in in the favor of “innocent” (and I’m sure most of his clients will swear up and down “they didn’t do it” LOL), so Jimmy should be good-to-go case-wise.

I thought of that, but what about when it comes time for sentencing? Or how about clients with priors?

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**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/538 "2017-05-15T17:49:36Z")

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> [@SlackerInc](#):
>
> This OTOH bothers me. You can suspend disbelief on wrinkles and such when someone still talks the same. But I don’t like the idea of making her endlessly able to talk to him, yet not be a teenager in the _Breaking Bad_ era. Tch-tch.

It would bug me if it was a main character, but she isn’t. I didn’t notice she was a vampire (the only reasonable explanation) until the inconsistency was pointed out in this thread.

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**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/539 "2017-05-16T00:23:25Z")

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> [@Mijin](#):
>
> It would bug me if it was a main character, but she isn’t. I didn’t notice she was a vampire (the only reasonable explanation) until the inconsistency was pointed out in this thread.

Perhaps she gets put into cryogenic suspension for a few years as part of a school science experiment, so that she can remain youthful—younger even—when we meet in her in Breaking Bad.  
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-3/784040/540 "2017-05-16T12:34:03Z")

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Well there we have it, the fist televised ad for Saul Goodman!

and holy crap it’s Lydia!!

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