Here's a mystery about BREAKING BAD I could never really solve: the series loved a meth cooking montage. And yet, they never seemed to get old. There was never a point where some sweet song kicked in and they started cooking that I was like, Seriously, this again?
But why? These are repeated sequences with as far as I can remember no essential story component. It was just, "Now people cook meth."
I was thinking of this watching the BETTER CALL SAUL 605, "Black and Blue," written by Alison Tatlock. Because SAUL, too, loves a montage. And 605 begins with what actually looks like a meth cook sequence. We've got the liquid, the powder, a lab in which we're waiting for things to harden.
It's actually yet another example of a SAUL caper--we know something's up, but we're not told what. And, as SAUL sometimes does, it's not until the very end that the significance of this moment is revealed. (And even then...deep cut, Alison!)
But as I was watching this weird random montage about creating a transparent cube with a ruler in it, the thing that hit me was how much the creative team of SAUL loves a craft. They absolutely fucking love watching someone make something, in the finest of detail. These montages really are craft porn: C'mere kid, let me show you a guy making a funeral memento. WHAT? And yet it's so fucking compelling, both because they actually are super-interested in the process by which things are made, and because that's what they're doing, too. From top to bottom the BETTER CALL SAUL creative team is in love with the craft of telling a story.
And the story they're telling is also about people who are absolutely invested in their craft. Jimmy McGill is a mess--seriously, my guy, what are you doing letting Howard lead you around by the nose? You know better. But in a sense these first five episodes have been a longform story version of a SAUL montage. It's just, instead of building a lucite block, they're building the perfect climate catastrophe. Kim nods to that, when Jimmy asks why he did what he did. "Because you know what's coming next."
Lalo, too, is building something in these first five episodes, a bomb maybe, or a missile. And the fact that he's come all the way to Germany to try and figure out where Gus built his lab is itself a statement of the craftsman he is, endlessly patient and resourceful.
So, why do the montages work? Obviously in part it's because they're beautifully shot and scored; also, they're not all about meth. But I think it's also about character, story and theme. SAUL, like BAD, is a story about a kind of craftsmen--crooks--and their capers. And every montage is by nature of both what it represents and the way it's produced a little story about some kind of craftsmanship, an in depth look at the making of some thing. So rather than a flourish, the montages expand this central idea of the show to its broader world. Everything is craft (which also means that everything is kind of a scam).
Everything we do in a script has to come back to character, story and theme. If it's not connected to these elements--and I think when it comes to flourishes, especially to theme--it's not going to land.
If you're looking for an exercise of your own today, look at any special touches you have in some script of yours--montages; dream sequences; opening and ending moments; time jumps; flashbacks; musical numbers. And ask yourself, how do they build upon the theme? Are they there yet? Or do they need another very patiently-applied polish?
