Better Call Saul Season 3 Rewards Patient Viewers

There's the documentary genre that presents hypnotic unedited footage of slow-paced events like a train ride from Oslo to Bergen, and there's the critical term to describe shows with "unrushed, atmospheric narratives," as the New York Times' Frank Bruni puts it.

The latter was coined in 2010 by The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman to describe shows like In Treatment that contained long, quiet periods with little to no plot momentum.

The definitive Slow TV show was Sundance's Rectify, a riveting show in which almost nothing ever happened.

There's a wordless seven-minute scene in which Mike fiddles with electronic equipment that will have even the biggest Trautheads drifting to their phones and saying they'll read a recap to see if what happens is important.

Mike is a meticulous planner who will tolerate the most tedious tasks if it gives him a deeper understanding of his objective and allows him to plan for the payoff down the line.

The premiere picks up immediately where the Season 2 finale left off, with addled but cunning lawyer Chuck McGill (Michael McKean) having just secretly recorded his brother Jimmy confessing to falsifying evidence to make Chuck look bad in court, resulting in Chuck losing a big client to Jimmy's romantic partner Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).

[...] Mike was about to assassinate drug kingpin Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis), only to be interrupted by a blaring car horn that led him to a note that said "DON'T," left by an unknown party on his windshield.