Even the most passionateBreaking Badfans had to be slightly skeptical of the prospect of making a spin-off series based on Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), the “criminal” lawyer who helped Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) expand their meth empire in theVince Gilliganseries. After all, Saul, along with his special services that got Walt and Jesse out of countless dire circumstances, was more or less a source of comic relief, aided by Odenkirk’s background in sketch comedy as a writer and performer. UnlessBetter Call Saulleaned into Saul’s comedic roots and veered into being a half-hour sitcom, how could Gilligan’s follow-up, co-created byBreaking BadwriterPeter Gould,match the dramatic stakesand complex characterization of the rise of Heisenberg? In an era where television upended all artistic expectations,Better Call Saul, which celebrates the tenth anniversary of its premiere today,outmatchedBreaking Badby carving out its own path.
Premiering about 18 months afterBreaking Badconcluded,Better Call Saulhad tremendous shoes to fill on AMC, especially since the channel’s other prestige drama,Mad Men, was wrapping up imminently. While each season’s prologue would depict an incognitoSaul working at a Cinnabonin Nebraska following the fatalistic conclusion ofBreaking Bad, the series is a prequel set years before Walter White was diagnosed with cancer and when Saul Goodman was Jimmy McGill, a low-level attorney hustling for clients through illicit means and managing his thorny relationship with his older brother, Chuck (Michael McKean) and colleague and future wife, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).
From the beginning,Better Call Saulimmediately established itself as an independent entity.Perhaps to the detriment of its overall viewership, the series, which featuredBreaking BadalumJonathan Banksas ex-cop and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut andGiancarlo Espositoas meth kingpin Gus Fring, refrained from an endless barrage of fan service and callbacks to its predecessors. For the viewers who abandoned the spin-off after holding their breath too long to see a cameo by Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), they missed out on some of the finest character development and moral quandaries of cable television’s golden age. As the series progressed, the heart of the show resided in the layered dynamic between Jimmy and Kim, who were both dramatic foils and complementary lovers. Furthermore, when the show pivoted back to the cartel storyline, involving Mike, Gus, and newcomer Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), they gradually felt more obligatory and distant from the core narrative.
The bifurcated nature ofBetter Call Saul’s story prevents it from being as diamond-cut and finely-tuned asBreaking Bad, but at the show’s peak, it proved to bea richer and moremeditative study of moralitythan its predecessor. Every episode ofBreaking Badoffered a cardiac arrest level of intensity, and the propulsive quality of the narrative transformed it into a binge-watching classic on Netflix. Gilligan’s focus was unmatched, and anytime “nothing” occurred in an episode, such as in the divisive “Fly” bottle episode, many fans were in uproar.
Better Call Saul, on the other hand, opted for a methodical pace.Gilligan and Gould displayed incredible restraint by not rushing Jimmy’s progressionof morphing into Saul. Where Walt turned too villainous in his respective show’s final season, the divide between Jimmy and Saul was hazy throughout the spin-off. Bob Odenkirk, in a remarkable performancerudely snubbed of any Emmys, underlines that Jimmy is an inscrutable misfit, unsure if he wants to be a renowned attorney like his brother or an unscrupulous, conniving con artist like his youthful alter ego, Slippin' Jimmy. The relaxed flow of each season allowedSaulto be less rigid in its plot and more exploratory of the law milieu. The various “side quests,” such as Jimmy meeting with an eccentric client or pulling favors for Mike, didn’t advance the main plot, but they added refreshing levity and depth to the world.
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‘Better Call Saul’s Characters Faced Complex Moral Dilemmas
Unbeknownst to the writers,Better Call Saulstruck goldwith the casting of the then-unknown Rhea Seehorn, whose passive role in the early seasons was greatly expanded in the back half and quickly became the heart and soul of the series. Kim Wexler, a gifted and honest lawyer who worked her way up the corporate ladder, should loathe Jimmy’s scheming ways, but she finds herself drawn to his free spirit. While she never deserved the level of vitriol from corners of the Internet, Skyler White (Anna Gunn) ofBreaking Badoften devolved into tropes of the nagging wife.Kim, on the other hand, was a power player who could simultaneously reject and exploit Jimmy’s unethical practices.There’s no denyingBreaking Bad’s exceptional craft, Shakespearean performance work, and dramatic tension, but its chops as a morality fable pale in comparison toSaul. The divide between right and wrong, ethical and unethical, and justified or unjustified were ambiguous for each character.
ThroughoutBreaking Bad, every day sawlife-or-death stakesfor Walter White. Relatively speaking,Better Call Saulwas inconsequential — up to a point. A testament to its cast and writers, the show was endlessly compelling despite having legal files serve as MacGuffins. Even after Chuck’s tragic end, Jimmy and Kim never considered that their acts of chicanery, as Chuck would call them, would affect anything beyond establishing relationships with clients. It seemed like it was all “Fun and Games,” an aptly named Season 6 episode ofSaulwhere Jimmy and Kim deal with therepercussions of Howard Hamlin’s(Patrick Fabian) shocking demise. Following this brutal death at the hands of Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton),their relatively mundane lives abruptly spiral into a dark web of agonizing remorse for their reckless actions.Suddenly, the two are forced to flee, drop their identities, and reckon with these unshakable consequences.Better Call Saulrecognized that downfalls transpire without warning.
Better Call Saultested audience patience more than anyone could’ve imagined. By the time a Heisenberg-like combustion occurred in Season 6, viewers were horrified rather than gratified. The series piqued our curiosity with the prospect of telegraphing howSaul Goodman broke bad. Walter White, for better or worse, became an audience favorite by powering up from a mild-mannered high school teacher to a mastermind drug kingpin. Although he’s far from noble, the beauty ofBetter Call Saulwas that you didn’t want Jimmy McGill, a smart and intuitive lawyer with a loving wife and a legitimate chance at reformation, to transform into the titular alter ego. While it’s impossible to separate it from its source material,Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s prequel spin-off stands on its ownby inverting theBreaking Badformula on its head.
Better Call Saulis available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
Better Call Saul
