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" When Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff centering on Bob Odenkirk&amp;#039;s sleazy lawyer, was announced by AMC, the first thing my friend and I did was plan how we would watch each of the episodes together, just as we had for the last season of Breaking Bad. Such is the slavish devotion to AMC&amp;#039;s greatest series, its world of drug dealers and New Mexican grime that, now, feels weirdly familiar. Odenkirk will always be Saul to me. And Jonathan Banks will always be Saul&amp;#039;s fixer Mike Ehrmantraut. Now Banks has joined the spinoff. The term &amp;quot;veteran character actor&amp;quot; is overused these days, but in Jonathan Banks&amp;#039;s case, it applies in a special way. Before Breaking Bad, you probably knew him as that guy playing supporting roles in various Hollywood action movies like 48 Hrs and Beverly Hills Cop. (Hint: He plays a cop a lot.) On Breaking Bad, he plays the retired Philadelphia cop who&amp;#039;s stooped to cleaning others&amp;#039; messes in order to give millions of dollars to his granddaughter. (Warning: Spoilers ahead for non-Breaking Bad viewers.) You can see Banks&amp;#039;s experience playing all those cops. It&amp;#039;s in his eyes, and the way he looks like he&amp;#039;s going through the motions. The edge is gone. There&amp;#039;s a resigned sadness but also a gentle warmth to Mike. It&amp;#039;s no wonder his death caused as much consternation as any on the show. Walt should&amp;#039;ve died in his place, we told ourselves. And maybe Walt did, too: another signpost on his way to innocence lost. Since Better Call Saul is unlikely to be the same kind of harrowing experience we got from Breaking Bad, hopefully we&amp;#039;ll get to see a little more of Mike&amp;#039;s warmth this time, like the kind he&amp;#039;s been showing lately on Community. And hopefully he gets to live. Read More Breaking Bad on The Culture Blog &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27103/breaking-bad-mike/>