Warning: This story contains spoilers from episode “Pinata” of \u201cBetter Call Saul.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nHoward Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) finally told off Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) with an f-bomb in Monday night\u2019s episode of \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d \u2014 as Howard continued to spiral into an abyss of self-loathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the very first episode, when Jimmy burst into Howard\u2019s boardroom and did that \u2018Network\u2019 speech on him, I think this \u2018f-you\u2019 has been boiling since then,\u201d Fabian says of the scene, in which Jimmy noted the usually fastidious Howard\u2019s disheveled appearance. \u201cYou\u2019re a s\u2013tty lawyer, Howard,\u201d he said to him, \u201cbut you\u2019re a great salesman\u201d \u2014 triggering Howard\u2019s explosive retort.<\/p>\n
The sartorial Howard, with his fancy suits and gold tie bars, has been virtually unflappable since Day 1. But this season he\u2019s been crushed by guilt following the suicide of his emotionally disturbed ex-law partner \u2014 and Jimmy\u2019s brother \u2014 Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), whom Howard fired in last season\u2019s finale. He tried to make amends with Jimmy, who told him Chuck\u2019s suicide was his \u201ccross to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the beginning, Howard has done everything to help Jimmy along,\u201d says Fabian, 53. \u201cHe\u2019s given him jobs, given him breaks, shielded him from Chuck, tried to take the guilt of his brother\u2019s suicide off of him. And this is Jimmy\u2019s response?<\/p>\n
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\u201cHoward\u2019s just trying to keep the business afloat; it was the McGill brothers who were really muddying up the waters,\u201d he says. \u201cIt turns out [Howard] was covering for Chuck, and this season, the ramifications of all of Chuck and Jimmy\u2019s actions are coming home to roost. In contrast to Jimmy, Howard is completely internalizing [Chuck\u2019s suicide] and trying to find some way out of it. Howard has been so buttoned-up and in control all this time \u2014 it\u2019s a nice payoff when all of a sudden he\u2019s awash and out at sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard is just one of Fabian\u2019s long laundry list of roles over a 25-year acting career (who can forget Professor Laskey on \u201cSaved by the Bell: The College Years\u201d?). \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d is his highest-profile TV gig \u2014 ironic, since he\u2019d never seen its acclaimed predecessor, \u201cBreaking Bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he auditioned for series creator Vince Gilligan. \u201cI was hoping to get a three-episode arc on \u2018The Walking Dead\u2019 and get eaten by a zombie,\u201d he says. (The same people who cast \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d also cast that AMC series.) \u201cThen I watched \u2018Breaking Bad\u2019 and was like, whoa . It\u2019s one of the greatest, if not the greatest, TV shows ever and I was sort of thankful I hadn\u2019t seen it walking into the audition. I think it would\u2019ve freaked me out. Someone once asked me if Vince [Gilligan] offered the job to me and I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t think he watched \u2018Saved by the Bell.\u2019\u201dFabian, who has two young daughters with his wife, writer\/comedian Mandy Steckleberg, credits series costume designer Jennifer Bryan with helping him get into character. \u201cThat suit is like putting on a suit of armor for me. I\u2019m as overdressed as you can be for circa 2002 in Albuquerque,\u201d he says. \u201cHoward is wearing his wealth; he\u2019s peacocking. When I put that [suit] on I imagine it\u2019s like an athlete putting on a uniform to compete. Every scene is a competition to Howard.\u201cOnce you take that tie bar away it\u2019s like a Kryptonite thing \u2014 \u2018He\u2019s not showing his Adam\u2019s apple, how gauche!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
www.NYPost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michael Starr<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains spoilers from episode “Pinata” of \u201cBetter Call Saul.\u201d
\nHoward Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) finally told off Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) with an f-bomb in Monday night\u2019s episode of \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d \u2014 as Howard continued to spiral into an abyss of self-loathing.
\n\u201cFrom the very first episode, when Jimmy burst into Howard\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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