Though AMC’s upcoming comedic drama Better Call Saul will be on a completely different tonal wavelength than its nail-biter predecessor Breaking Bad, it will hopefully follow suit in turning familiar actors into instantly memorable characters. With three solid leads in Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks and Michael McKean, creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have signed on another talented trio in Patrick Fabian (The Last Exorcism), Rhea Seehorn (Whitney) and Michael Mando (Orphan Black). And it sounds like everyone may serve to make Saul’s life a living hell.
As a prequel, Better Call Saul will delve mostly into the pre-Walter White days for the half-sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman (Odenkirk). Discussions about the actual plot and format of the series have been pretty loose, so not a lot of details are out there; but these character descriptions cement Better Call Saul in the world of law, lest anyone thought Saul’s profession would take a backseat to more personal drama in his life.
According to E! Online, Fabian will star as a “Kennedy-esque lawyer” named Burt who is one of the highly successful partners at his firm. As prestigious lawyer Beth, Seehorn plays a woman in a romantic relationship with someone else at her firm, which is making her life all the more difficult. Finally, Mando will play a sly and cunning criminal named Eddie. He’s probably going to need some legal help soon.
Michael Mando is no stranger to playing someone on the opposite side of the law. The Canadian actor had a breakout role last year in BBC America’s stellar sci-fi drama Orphan Black as the scene-stealing sleazeball Vic. Also starring in last year’s dance-off musical Make Your Move, Mando was most recently in the Canadian crime drama La Marraine.
Though I’ll always think of him as the Kelly Kapowski-banging Professor Lasky from Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Patrick Fabian has been in about a million things since that early 1990s series. He’s had stints on everything from Veronica Mars to Big Love, and has most recently been seen in episodes of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy. He’s also enjoyable opposite Danny Trejo and Charles S. Dutton in the recent indie actioner Bad Ass and its more recent sequel.
Another TV vet, Seehorn has a recurring role on TNT’s law-related Franklin & Bash, so she should have picked up some keen tricks, right? (Is that really the second Mark-Paul Gosselaar show I mentioned in this story?) She also starred in two of last month's episodes of Showtime’s House of Lies.
Better Call Saul is set for a November bow, so expect more casting in the coming weeks. Keep those Breaking Bad cast member bingo cards handy.
