Bob Odenkirk as Saul frowning in a suit in Better Call Saul.Image via AMC
By
Thomas Butt
Published 2 hours ago
Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.
Sign in to your Collider account
Summary
Generate a summary of this story
follow
Follow
followed
Followed
Like
Like
Thread
Log in
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Try something different:
Show me the facts
Explain it like I’m 5
Give me a lighthearted recap
Spinning off Breaking Bad — which was immediately celebrated as one of the high-water marks of television — two years after its conclusion seemed like a questionable move on the part of showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Setting this prequel series around the rise of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) before he became Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) consigliere in the drug trade seemed like an even more fraught move. Saul was an electric comic relief who instantly improved every scene, but audiences understandably thought he might have been too one-note and thematically thin to be the lead of a prestige series. Across 6 seasons of remarkable television, Better Call Saul rivaled — if not topped — its predecessor as a morality tale.
The AMC legal/crime drama was filled with iconic lines that reflected the complexity of its characters, notably the pre-Breaking Bad version of Saul, Jimmy McGill, who could've gone down the straight and narrow path if he wanted to. As his equally complicated older brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), would tell him, however, Jimmy was always going to be Albuquerque's most notorious criminal lawyer.
The Relationship Between Jimmy and Chuck McGill Was the Heart of 'Better Call Saul'
Saul Goodman using a pay phone in 'Better Call Saul'Image via AMC
From the get-go, Better Call Saul separated itself from the prodigious legacy and expectations of Breaking Bad. The series would take its time before Jimmy devolved into Saul, and it never tried to match the visceral thrills of the original series, which featured many more explosive and intense moments. Instead, the spin-off, running from 2015 to 2022, was more cerebral, meditative, and nuanced in its diagnosis of why people lose touch with their sense of right and wrong. The remnants of Breaking Bad, including Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), were used not as fan service, but to further explore their pathos and the unromantic motivations to enter the criminal underworld.
A diligent, hard-working, and self-reliant attorney, Jimmy McGill is a man of multitudes whose actions are primarily defined by two pillars in his life: Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) and Chuck McGill. The former is his colleague, close confidant, and eventual wife, and the latter is his brother and highly venerated lawyer now living hermetically as a result of a psychological condition making him allergic to electricity. The back half of the series (a breakout for Rhea Seehorn, proving herself as one of the great acting discoveries on television in the 21st century) revolves around Kim's simultaneous disgust and attraction to the practice of Saul Goodman.
Related
HBO's Grim Crime Series With 93% on Rotten Tomatoes Is a Haunting Winter Binge From Start to Finish
You'll be shivering just watching it.
Posts By Jen Vestuto 2 days agoDuring the first three seasons, the tension between the McGill brothers is palpable. Jimmy defies the sanctity of Chuck's livelihood, the law, yet he longs for his approval. Chuck wants the best for the troubled Jimmy, who never intended to follow his career path, but only as long as his ambition is repressed. Ideally, Jimmy wishes that Chuck would turn a blind eye to his shady dealings and illicit ways, and Chuck wishes that Jimmy would just stay in the mailroom at Hamlin Hamlin McGill. The brilliantly orchestrated love-hate relationship culminates in a climactic Season 3, where Chuck's reputation is tarnished after his outburst in "Chicanery," and Jimmy sees his law license suspended.
One of Chuck's Last Lines in 'Better Call Saul' Underlined the Darkness of Saul Goodman
In what would be their final interaction before his death by suicide, Jimmy and Chuck air out their differences in the Season 3 finale, "Lantern." To his surprise, Jimmy walks in and finds the record player and other electronic devices activated, signaling that Chuck is making a miraculous recovery. For Jimmy, there is no better time than to show repentance for his wrongdoings, stemming from his forgery of legal documents in his brother's possession that kicked off the events this season. The shockingly solemn and remorseful Jimmy is shut down by the arrogant Chuck, who is offended by his brother's cycle of hurting people and then asking for forgiveness, a routine that goes all the way back to childhood.
"In the end, you're going to hurt everyone around you. You can't help it, so stop apologizing and accept it — embrace it. Frankly, I'd have more respect for you if you did," Chuck says to our main character in his final episode (not counting a flashback in Season 6), an earth-shattering line that serves as a thesis to Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman's dichotomy. If that wasn't punishing enough for Jimmy, Chuck tops off his speech by proclaiming that apologies are irrelevant because he "never mattered all that much" to him. Better Call Saul superbly played with our emotions and allegiances with the characters, constantly shifting from sympathy to dismay toward Chuck. It would be easy for Gilligan and Gould, now that Jimmy has begun his transformation into Saul, to continue villifying him, but this biting line undercuts any sense of black-or-white. Chuck may be the upright lawyer, but his selfishness and pride only motivated Silppin' Jimmy (a disparaging moniker coined by Chuck) to lose his moral compass.
Jimmy McGill Officially Became Saul Goodman at the End of 'Better Call Saul' Season 3
Chuck and Jimmy McGill looking at legal documents in Better Call SaulImage via AMC
Jimmy took this to heart in the premiere of Season 4, as he not only showed little sadness over his brother's death, but he also deflected any guilt over his downfall, passing that "cross to bear" onto his business partner, Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian). With Chuck gone, Kim was the last bastion of Jimmy's benevolence, but her innate attraction to her husband's cons and tricks enabled him to become a friend of the cartel in Season 5 and 6. Realizing that playing the woe-is-me card, Jimmy gradually turns into the monster who would support an even worse monster in Walter White, with the ultimate turning point being Howard's tragic death.
Jimmy's soul was not the only one to corrode following this moment. As a result of the "Chicanery" blowup, Chuck's spirit also died. We know that he cares about Jimmy deep down, but the preceding events in the season were the last straw, and he can't bring himself to reform him. There's no getting around it anymore: Jimmy is a menace to society, and it's foolish to pretend otherwise. Chain reactions are prominent in Vince Gilligan's oeuvre, continued in his new Apple TV series, Pluribus. Chuck overshadowing his inexperienced younger brother forced Chuck to approach the world in unorthodox ways. Chuck's frustration with his younger brother's carelessness led to genuine loathing of his law aspirations. Jimmy's lack of support from Chuck kept him on the wrong side of the tracks forever. This domino effect speaks to how we are all formed by our family, for better or worse, as well as how we approach the world.
The spirit of Chuck McGill lingered with Jimmy throughout Better Call Saul, even if the latter insisted he was an afterthought. No one understood the mindset of Saul Goodman more than Chuck — not even Jimmy. He carried himself as an autonomous, self-made lawyer, but approval drove all of Jimmy's actions. Jimmy became Saul at the behest of his brother's wishes, and Chuck's envy, stemming from an over-protection of the law, would lead to immeasurable deceit and bloodshed.
Better Call Saul
Like Follow Followed TV-MA Crime Drama Release Date 2015 - 2022-00-00 Network AMC Showrunner Peter Gould Directors Vince Gilligan, Thomas Schnauz, Peter Gould, Michael Morris, Adam Bernstein, Colin Bucksey, John Shiban, Michelle MacLaren, Melissa Bernstein, Larysa Kondracki, Terry McDonough, Gordon Smith, Minkie Spiro, Jim McKay, Daniel Sackheim, Andrew Stanton, Norberto Barba, Rhea Seehorn, Scott Winant, Michael Slovis, Keith Gordon, Deborah Chow, Giancarlo Esposito, Bronwen Hughes Writers Ann Cherkis, Marion Dayre, Ariel Levine, Jonathan Glatzer Franchise(s) Breaking BadCast
See All-
Adam Dorn
Self - Songwriter
-
Bob Odenkirk
Jimmy McGill
Expand
Collapse
-
Better Call Saul
-
Bob Odenkirk
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Be the first to post Images Attachment(s) Please respect our community guidelines. No links, inappropriate language, or spam.Your comment has not been saved
Send confirmation emailThis thread is open for discussion.
Be the first to post your thoughts.
- Terms
- Privacy
- Feedback
Aug 13, 2025
3 Years Later, Bob Odenkirk Says 'Better Call Saul's Last Cigarette Scene Hid a Painful Truth
6 days ago
Forget ‘Star Wars’ — This Cult ’90s Sci-Fi Series Is Still a Masterclass in Space Warfare
Nov 28, 2025
Marvel Brought Back Blade Long Before 'Deadpool & Wolverine,' but No One Remembers
2 hours ago
8 Quirky Cult Classic Movies That Are Painfully Overlooked
More from our brands
37 Shows on Netflix That Couples Can Binge-Watch Together
The 25 Best Shows on Crave to Watch Right Now
25 Best R-Rated TV Shows of All Time, Ranked
Why Jimmy Left Shameless
Breaking Bad's Forgotten Spinoff Is So Bad, I'm Glad Most People Don't Know It Exists
The Real Jimmy McGill Only Appeared In 1 Episode Of Breaking Bad
The Correct Order To Watch Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul
What To Watch
July 20, 2025
The 72 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
Trending Now
2:03
The 33 Best Shows on Netflix That Are Longer Than 5 Seasons
3:11
25 Best Seasons of 'The Simpsons,' Ranked
2:09
The 55 Most Iconic Animation Duos of All Time, Ranked
