Shadowing Practice: ‘Better Call Saul’ Is the Most Well-Written Show on Television | The Watch Podcast | The Ringer - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Better Call Saul is the best written show on television.
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Better Call Saul is the best written show on television.
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I was good, Kim.
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Why?
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Because it doesn't really have to play by the rules that most prestige TV shows play by.
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Its creators wrote those rules.
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Better Call Saul is one of the rare acts of franchise storytelling that feels on a level with the original.
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You think about it, how many sequels or prequels ever reach the same heights as the story they are building off of?
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Godfather 2?
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Empire Strikes Back?
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It's a really short list.
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Breaking Bad was part of a generation of prestige television shows that broke our brains.
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Somewhere along the line, it felt like all the best shows became obsessed with their own mortality,
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and all the conversation around those shows were about how they would end and how they would feel once they were done.
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Saul does not have that problem.
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Sure, there are some lingering questions.
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What happens to Kim Wexler?
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What happens to Nacho?
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Does Gene make it out of Nebraska alive?
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But by and large, we know what happens.
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We just don't know how.
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How is where Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan,
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the creators of Better Call Saul, make their bones.
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If you think of it in basic journalism school terms,
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a show is responsible for who,
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what, when, where, why, and how.
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Saul is almost entirely concerned with how.
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The end point of the show is known,
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so Saul can indulge in a level of detail that most other stories would breeze by.
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Most shows have moments where characters simply tell you who they are or who they want to be,
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because they need to make sure the audience understands the stakes and knows the direction.
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We're not bad people.
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But we did a bad thing.
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We already know all that stuff with Better Call Saul.
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It's a show about process.
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Yes, of Jimmy becoming Saul,
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but it's really about how enormous moments in life are consequences of seemingly minor decisions and actions.
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In the Breaking Bad past,
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those actions could be harrowing.
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Think about a sequence from Breaking Bad like the opening of Box Cutter from the beginning of season four.
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We learn so much more about who and what Gus is
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by watching him get dressed in that infamous orange jumpsuit while Walt pleads for his life
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than we would have if he had given a classic villain speech.
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We could listen to him talk about how he will stop at nothing to get what he wants,
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or we can watch him kill his own henchman Victor in front of Walt, Jesse, and Mike.
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Better Call Saul's actions may feel a little bit more pedestrian,
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but they say just as much about the characters.
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Just think about one of the best episodes of Saul, Season 4's Cushada.
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With Huell facing serious jail time,
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Jimmy goes on a bus trip from ABQ to Huell's hometown in Louisiana,
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enlisting his fellow riders to help with a postcard campaign to compel the judge to be more lenient with his bodyguard sentencing.
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We learn so much more about the lengths that Jimmy will go
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and the ways he can game the system to get what he wants.
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He will never go straight at a problem.
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He always looks for a shortcut,
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even if that takes him across state lines.
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When you're telling a story largely through process and action,
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where the action is mail fraud or the construction of a super lab for the cooking of meth,
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you can allow themes to emerge over time rather than be explicitly stated with dialogue.
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When Breaking Bad was breaking big,
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there was an off-repeated Vince Gilligan quote that served as the show's elevator pitch.
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Mr. Chips to Scarface.
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We were going to follow the sharp descent of a family man who becomes a drug lord.
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Saul doesn't have a convenient tagline,
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but there is an idea emerging from the show,
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and it's one about reinvention and adaptation.
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The characters on Saul that we know move forward into the Breaking Bad world are the ones who adapt,
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whether they change their names,
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the side of the law they work on,
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or the people that they work for and with.
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We're talking about Mike, Saul, and Gus, of course.
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It's a cop-turned-bagman, a Mr. Fix-It for a drug dealer,
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a drug dealer turned respectable businessman who really is still a drug dealer,
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and a lawyer who is so certain of who he needs to become,
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he changes his name into a catchphrase.
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It's all good, man.
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The people who have real connections in the world are the ones at risk.
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Nacho is doing what he can to protect his father,
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and Kim is doing what she can to save the Jimmy she loves from becoming the Saul she is repelled by.
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And why is she repelled?
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Because she knows exactly how effective that Saul can be.
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Better Call Saul is a show that stays within the lines,
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but colors in those lines beautifully.
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And you can see that in the smallest of moments,
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the kind any other show would skip by.
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Take this brief shot in the second episode of season five, 50% off.
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Kim is trying to organize her in Jimmy's closet and contending with the influx of garish Saul Goodman outfits.
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But of course, what she is really doing is realizing
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that there is less and less space for Kim Wexler in Jimmy's new life as Saul.
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And you can see that feeling just below the surface in almost every interaction that the two have.
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Even when they're having a renaissance moment in the house they are looking to buy,
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Kim knows they are just pretending,
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just running another con, and the con is the normal life that they could have together,
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living on the level.
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She can't have that with Jimmy.
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When it comes to the underworld side of things,
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Better Call Saul is able to invert crime show tropes with subtlety and humor.
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We have already been through multiple seasons learning about the ins and outs of the Salamanca and Fring crime networks.
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Walt and Jesse served as audience avatars pulling us deeper and deeper into the dark world of meth cooking and distribution.
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In Saul, the audience avatars are people like Lalo Salamanca.
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He is the detective of the show,
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basically Saul's answer for Breaking Bad's Hank.
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He is always asking to be shown how things work,
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where things are, who is doing those things.
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In 50% Off, when Nacho pulls off his daring extraction of the remaining drugs in Mouse's apartment,
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Lalo watches like a kid checking out a movie.
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The car windshield is his screen,
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and he munches on what looks like popcorn, enjoying the show.
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It is a brilliant inversion of the usual fish-out-of-water cliche.
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We're only two episodes into season five of Better Call Saul,
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and you could already teach a class on screenwriting using just Magic Man and 50% off.
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This is how you tell a story.
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We know that Better Call Saul is coming to an end with season six,
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but don't think about how they'll land the plane just yet.
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Enjoy this perfect show while it's still in flight.
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We'll see you guys next time.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills by engaging with the dialogue from the critically acclaimed television series Better Call Saul. This session focuses on the intricacies of storytelling, character development, and dialogue delivery which are vital components for effective communication. By employing the shadowing technique, you'll enhance your pronunciation, intonation, and overall fluency. You can use a shadowing app to assist you in replaying specific sections of the transcript that interest you, allowing for focused IELTS speaking practice.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Franchise storytelling: A narrative that expands on existing stories or characters.
- Prestige television: High-quality television programs that are critically acclaimed.
- Consequences: The outcomes or results of actions, often significant.
- Pedestrian: Commonplace or ordinary; used to describe scenarios lacking excitement.
- Enlist: To recruit or engage others in a particular effort or activity.
- Postcard campaign: An organized initiative to send messages or requests via postcards.
- Character development: The process by which characters evolve or grow throughout a story.
- Lingering questions: Unresolved queries or uncertainties that remain at the end of a narrative.
Practice Tips
To effectively practice shadowing with this content, follow these tips for optimal results:
- Start Slowly: Initially, slow down the playback speed of the video. Focus on understanding the nuances of the dialogue before attempting to speak along.
- Identifying Tone: Pay attention to the emotions and intentions behind the lines. This will help you replicate not just what is said but how it is expressed.
- Repetition is Key: Repeat each section multiple times to internalize the phrasing and rhythm of speech. This practice will improve your fluency and confidence.
- Use a Shadowing App: Consider utilizing a shadowing app that allows you to pause, rewind, and replay specific parts easily. This will enable you to focus on tricky phrases or vocabulary.
- Record Yourself: After practicing, record your own voice. Compare it to the original to analyze your pronunciation and intonation.
By consistently applying these techniques, you'll significantly enhance your English speaking abilities and prepare yourself for situations such as IELTS speaking practice, making your learning experience both effective and enjoyable.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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