There are montages, and then there are Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul montages. They’re not style over substance, they’re meaningful, and every image makes an impression. It’s tough to whittle down the many genius examples in Better Call Saul to just one standout, but one of my absolute favourites has to be the depiction of Jimmy and Kim’s slowly diminishing relationship in Season 4’s ‘Something Stupid’.
With the camera in split screen mode, the right side of the screen begins in pitch black as we see Saul’s hand picking up his toothbrush and toothpaste, whule the image glides up to see both Jimmy and Kim about to brush their teeth. The right half then comes into life to reveal Kim’s viewpoint. It’s a fairly simple establishing shot, but an undeniably elegant one with the neatly aligned bathroom mirrors on each screen. The couple’s mundane daily routine is shown on both sides before depicting their separate days, contrasting Kim’s burgeoning Mesa Verde partnership as she designs her new office with Jimmy and Huel’s more shady activities, as they set up the burner phone business, all appropriately to the tune of – you guessed it – ‘Something Stupid’. Every minute detail of Kim’s professional setup is neatly set against Jimmy’s seedy dealings in every image, from his flimsy paper card to Kim’s shining name embossed on the gold frame of her office door.
Contrasts and intimacies are shown in subtle and unconventional ways that you’d just never get in your standard TV series. Besides the pair sitting close together in bed, there’s a sly editing wink as both sit at different edges of their apartment dining table, at first initially suggesting they’re apart with the split screen black line separating the two. However, Jimmy then picks up the bottle of wine, which passes through the black line as he tops up Kim’s drink, confirming that they’re in the same space.
Disparity starts to be implied as they brush their teeth separately, and the camera again switches to their workdays, with powerful shots of Kim helping her under advantaged pro bono clients set against Jimmy and Huel hiding in their van to avoid rain and eating after a dishonest day’s work. Heck, even the subtle differences in lighting as the pair sit in separate spaces at home is enough to create a sense of drifting apart without needing to single word to articulate the fact. Repeated images emphasise separation as they again complete bathroom routines and dinner separately, with the repeated refrains of ‘Something Stupid’s ‘I love you’ very much working at odds with the images on screen. The song finally fades away as the scenes transform back into diegetic sound, with the final images of Jimmy and Kim lying directly opposite each other confirming the lukewarm state of their relationship as Kim’s split screen sharply cuts to black, followed shortly by Jimmy’s own.
My descriptions probably aren’t doing justice to how great this scene is, so make sure you watch the scene on YouTube (WordPress helpfully won’t let me post the link). Also, shout out to Rhea Seehorn, who’s genuinely of the finest women acting today. If you fancy looking at the various other pieces I’ve written about Better Call Saul, check ‘em out below.