Better Call Saul (#22)

It's all good, man.

Last week I wrote about Breaking Bad, my fourth favorite TV show of all-time. I held back on discussing Better Call Saul until the show finished it’s series finale earlier this week.

When I started this list, I will admit that I was worried putting BCS on the list at all was risky because the final season was still in progress and a serious misstep (see: Thrones, Game Of) could knock it down a few pegs and therefore off the list entirely. What I didn’t really consider was whether the final season would be so good that ranking it 22nd would be way too low.

Taking a step back, after Breaking Bad finished its masterful run, showrunner Vince Gilligan had a lot of options on his plate. One of his initial thoughts was to create a 30-minute sitcom based on Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). For those who have seen it, this show is decidedly NOT a comedy despite the character of Goodman providing a lot of comic relief in Breaking Bad. Indeed, BCS is a prequel to Breaking Bad, which makes a lot of sense when you have seen that original show all the way through. (That said, it also jumps forward in time as well.)

Better Call Saul is the slogan “Saul Goodman” - an alias we briefly learned about in the original show - uses for his law firm, one in which he represents low-level criminals (and eventually high level ones like Walter White). But his real name is Jimmy McGill, or “Slipping Jimmy” as he’s termed by his brother Chuck (Michael McKean) who is a successful partner in a law firm. Jimmy is a smart guy but someone who constantly is taking shortcuts, running scams, etc.

The beauty of the show is that it works to tell his story on its own, but for Breaking Bad viewers, it’s also a mystery of how we get there from here. And in fact, the show starts with a flash forward, where we see Jimmy/Saul in black and white, being called Gene and working in a Cinnabon in Nebraska. Then, we’re way back several years before the BB timeline, and seeing Jimmy in action.

And he’s glorious. One of the maxims so many people talk about is how hard comedy is, and that the actors who are great at it are fantastic actors who rarely get a chance to shine in more dramatic roles. Over the years, many of these folks - Robin Williams, Bill Murray and others - have broken through, and I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Odenkirk shows similar chops. We see Jimmy unable to get out of his own way, unable to simply play by the rules and earn his stripes - and we also see that part of this is that his reputation precedes him. Even when he does it right, people still think of him as Slipping Jimmy, the guy who always has an angle.

Someone who doesn’t discount Jimmy is Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), an exceptional attorney who (perhaps despite her best interests) is attracted to Jimmy and even the shadier sides of him. The two develop a romance that to me first seemed a bit unlikely, but grows into something both believable and heartbreaking.

It’s really worth taking a step back to praise just how good Seehorn is as Kim Wexler. Her character is complicated and really critical to what makes this show work, and she absolutely nails it. (It also brings me joy to learn that Odenkirk, Seehorn and Patrick Fabian, who plays Howard, all rent a house in Albuquerque that they describe as being “full of ice cream” during the filming of the show.)

It’s really fun to watch Jimmy become Saul, and to answer the question of how he got from Jimmy to a guy all the criminals in ABQ go to wearing the most grotesque suits possible. BCS also gives us a lot more background on Breaking Bad character Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) who plays a major role in this series, too. We learn a lot about his back story and how he comes to work for Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) who of course also shows up here.

For a show that is incredibly focused on pretty, creative shots and angles, it’s refreshing that they essentially decided not to care that Banks, Odenkirk, Esposito and others look about a decade older than they did in Breaking Bad (because - checks notes - they are) even though the timeline would suggest they’re 5-10 years younger. Instead of CGI or bad makeup, they just let the viewers deal with it.

Of course, we also meet a slew of great new characters - whether it’s Chuck, Howard, Lalo Salamonca (Tony Dalton), Nacho (Michael Mando), or Clifford Main (Ed Begley, Jr.) there are some great new additions to add a lot to this complicated story.

One thing that knocks BCS down just a peg for me is the visual storytelling. Vince Gilligan loves a gorgeous shot and they were littered all over Breaking Bad. But too often - for me - BCS gets a crazy camera angle or a beautiful backdrop and shows something happening that takes three or four minutes (an eon in television) and yes, it’s stunning. But at the end of the scene, I’m often wondering why it took so damn long to see this (and often have no real idea whether the story was advanced at all from it.) It’s akin to a film school student who wants a shot “because it’s cool” rather than because it’s important to the character arc, etc. A little of this is great, but for me BCS had quite a lot more than that. Far be it from me to equate Vince Gilligan to a wide-eyed film student, but hey - I guess I just did that.

Better Call Saul almost didn’t have a final season as star Bob Odenkirk suffered a heart attack in 2021 - the show has been quite forthright that there was and would be no “Plan B” and thankfully Odenkirk was back on the job in just over a month. When you put Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul together (and sure, throw in the El Camino film as well) it’s remarkable - and even moreso when you realize how close both shows came to not being what they finally evolved into.

I wrote a little in the Breaking Bad piece about how much I love the character of Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and how though BB couldn’t exist without Walter White, Pinkman was the heart of that program. In that same vein, Kim Wexler (Seehorn) is that lynchpin to BCS. She sees something in Jimmy/Saul that others don’t, and the way we see her character grow, laugh and eventually suffer is so critical to the story being told. She deserves, like Aaron Paul, all the Emmys. (That said, this final season notched her first and therefore only nomination from the series. Sigh.)

There’s been a sort of hipster chatter over the last few years that “ACTUALLY, Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad.” And if my rankings didn’t already indicate such, I’m here to tell you that for me that’s not true. It is exceptionally cool that the show can live on its own, and it had a higher bar to clear (how to set up the show, make it interesting on its own but also tell a story that for sure wasn’t planned during the original program) … but it’s just simply not as good for me. Breaking Bad was mayhem and problem solving, a constant “OH MY GOD THEY DID NOT JUST DO THAT” in the middle of suburban drama and heartbreak and Better Call Saul is just a much smaller story. It’s brilliant in its own way, but to me it’s not really in the same neighborhood. That’s why for me, it’s my 22nd favorite show of all time.

Next up .. the top three shows on my list. My god, I may actually finish this dang thing.