“Better Call Saul” is often called the “Best Show on TV” and sometimes even “the last great TV drama,” referring to how 20’s television is definitely trending more towards “quantity” than “quality.”
And it’s true that every year there are a dozen heralded “new” series that feel more like interesting trifles than shows that can sustain lasting creative momentum. At one time, critics were downright orgasmic over “Atlanta,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Westworld,” “Better Things,” “The Crown,” etc. but who honestly even looks forward to their new seasons now? Far too often, we see a series come in hot, have a sophomore season where the mob has clearly moved on, and then fizzle out completely after only 2 or 3 seasons (like just about any show that’s ever been on Hulu). If I had a crystal ball, I can almost see it happening to shows everyone is “raving” about as we speak, such as “The Bear” or “The Boys” or “Euphoria” or “P-Valley.” It may even be happening as we speak to some of 2021’s “hottest shows;” did anyone even realize “Reservation Dogs” or “Kevin Can F**k Himself” were back?
Considering all that, “Saul” truly was something of a rarity. It was a consistently excellent drama that ran for six seasons in a TV landscape where shows are lucky to get three full seasons, and even luckier if the audience even wants them to continue. And so part of me wonders if I will miss the idea of watching a show like that more than I will miss “Saul” itself–which could often be frustrating, repetitive, and never had the runaway train momentum or “got to watch each episode live” feeling of “Breaking Bad.” After all, “Saul” wasn’t really in the same league as those “Apex Dramas” from yesteryear like “The Shield,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Deadwood,” or, yeah, “Breaking Bad” itself; a list of shows that just might be the best TV series ever made.
What I might really miss is the idea that a series should even try to reach a wide audience and/or at least not actively alienate them with sermons, gimmicky “fast” pacing, incredibly low stakes (“can this chef dice onions quickly and be a good person?”), and moralistically-flat characters. After the gutting of the Broadcast networks and the increasing reliance on streamers, “TV” executives (who are mostly tech executives now) seem to think “anti-hero drama” and “broad appeal” are completely incompatible, and if a series can only capture the transgender Eskimo market between 18-to-24 for a year or two, then they’ll really have something. “Saul” is part of that wave of quality dramas that actually wanted anyone to watch it or enjoy it, and hopefully for many years, and wasn’t so much concerned with any one group’s identity as exploring the rich, realistic characters that could (hopefully) be universal enough to just about any audience member. A lot of current shows are downright terrified of exploring moral nuances and complications, or to admit their main characters even could be wrong about something.
That wasn’t “Saul”‘s problem, as it often explored the paradox of a “confidence man” who didn’t seem to have much confidence deep down, as Jimmy McGill almost seemed to feel like he shouldn’t be getting away with his crimes. Truthfully, I can’t remember the last time a series seemed to think it’s main character should be punished, and so the series finale was certainly unique, well-crafted, beautifully shot, possibly inevitable, and a little unsatisfying–probably a fitting encapsulation of the show itself.
“Worst” Season: Season 2…All seasons of “Saul” are better than any season of 99% of dramas on TV right now, but this season was my personal least favorite. The opening flashback begins with Jimmy/Saul/Gene locking himself in a trash room where he would have to push open the emergency exit (thus alerting the police) to get out, so he merely waits many hours for a janitor to find him. That is both a perfect representation of Saul’s newfound “life” as “Gene,” the Omaha-Cinnabon manager, and the daily dread he faces over even mundane activities–his best outcome for the day is being invisible and forgettable, which must surely be torture for the one-time flamboyant fame-seeker Saul Goodman.
However, it also shows the fundamental problem with this season. It’s all about things that don’t happen. Mike doesn’t assassinate Hector Salamanca. Gus–who is around the edges of the season–doesn’t yet appear and hire Mike. Jimmy doesn’t last long at a white-shoe, stuffy law firm where they bust his chops about font sizes and spacings, but also isn’t particularly close to being “Saul Goodman” yet. And Jimmy’s feud with his brother is mostly stagnant (it begins at the end of season one, but only really intensifies during their season 3 battle). It’s a season of frustrations, stagnations, and thwarted plans, which are difficult things for any show to explore and make interesting, so it’s miraculous that “Saul” (mostly) does. Grade: B
5. Season 4…Chuck McGill is one of my least favorite characters in the “Breaking Bad” universe. And so it’s a mixed-blessing that this season doesn’t have him in it (he commits suicide by fire at the end of season 3), but his ghost looms large as several characters either mourn him (Howard Hamlin, and even Kim to an extent) or try to find a way to best him even in death (Saul, of course). In this season, Saul is temporarily suspended from practicing law and forced to take a job at a cell phone store–which is about as exciting as it sounds until he finds a way to sell the leftover burner phones to criminals and begins building his criminal network. My frustrations with this season are mostly in the first half or so, as it begins to feel like the series is jerking us around; after all, we signed up for a show about a scheming criminal lawyer (it could do for legal procedurals what “The Shield” did for police procedurals) and it’s become apparent that Saul isn’t actually practicing much law on the show.
However, the pace picks up dramatically with a resolution to tedious subplots about the construction of Gus’s laundry (Werner looking at the stars right before his fate could’ve been in an excellent 70’s or 90’s noir film) or Saul’s legal suspension, and the introduction of great things to come like Lalo Salamanca (the smartest Salamanca by a mile) and–finally–the birth of “Saul Goodman” in the very last moments of the season. Grade: B+
4. Season 3…The feud between Chuck and Jimmy eats up huge chunks of this season, and possibly too much of its time. Don’t worry though, because their courtroom showdown and Chuck’s subsequent ending are some of the best moments of the series. There’s also some genuinely interesting “B-Side” stories with Mike robbing Salamanca trucks, Nacho’s plan to kill Hector leading to his forced coercion to Gus’s side (and his inevitable undoing), and the reintroduction of Gustavo Fring, “Bad”‘s poker-faced, devious criminal mastermind. Although it should be noted that Gus’s stories on “Saul” lack the punch of his complicated relationship with eventual nemesis Walter White, another “hiding in plain sight” kingpin that’s grossly underestimated. Grade: A-
3. Season 1…Sets up a world that is adjacent to “Breaking Bad” and yet still distinctive from it, something spin-offs often attempt but rarely get right. Right off the bat, this appears to be the dramatic equivalent of “Frasier,” in that the least likely spin-off character from a runaway hit show makes you realize maybe you didn’t really know him at all, and gets you curious to find out more. Conflicts are introduced here that will play out throughout the entire series like Mike vs. the Salamancas, Jimmy vs. respectability, and Chuck’s seething resentment towards Jimmy finally being made apparent. “You’re not a real lawyer” is probably the most devastating words spoken between brothers since “I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart,” and Bob Odenkirk should’ve won the Emmy for Best Actor for his absolutely gutted reaction to this pronouncement. Grade: A
2. Season 5…One of the more action-packed seasons. “Saul” is a prequel, so we have a rough idea of who does and doesn’t die before the events of “Bad” begin, and so it’s amazing the series manages to wring maximum tension out of moments like Saul and Mike doing dangerous errands in the desert or Lalo interrogating Saul in his own home. Lalo is the suavest, smartest, and possibly most dangerous Salamanca based on his ability to hide psychopathy behind a smoother demeanor than the menacing twins or unhinged Tuco. He’s a worthy antagonist to juice a series that could’ve begun to feel stale in season 5, but instead injects fresh life by having Saul finally begin practicing law. Grade: A
“Best” Season: Season 6…I think the series finale is largely unsatisfying as it asks Jimmy/Saul/Gene to take on the sins of every character in the “Breaking Bad” universe by being the only one to serve life in prison, and all because he deliberately threw his life away. [That’s a very hard thing to accept Jimmy/Saul would do, even if the series did go to great lengths to show he had self-sabotaging tendencies.] You could almost imagine some writer pitching the idea as “Saul wanted to pull one last con…on himself” as he wound up much worse off by his own hand than the feds even (initially) wanted him to, and doing that to atone for all the wild cons he’d pulled over the years that sometimes had unintended, fatal consequences (like Howard’s doom earlier in the season). And I understand that the flashbacks and final scenes with Chuck, Walter, and Mike were all setting up the theme of a “withholding older brother-type looks down on Jimmy for having less ethics or regrets,” and he might’ve been trying to win their posthumous approval, but… Come on… Really? Him being locked up for the rest of his life isn’t really going to help Kim out of that civil suit and/or much of anyone, is it?
Yet the final season before the last ten minutes of the series finale were so strong that I couldn’t possibly elevate seasons 5 or 1 to the top spot. Think back on the brilliant 12 episodes before the series finale: Nacho’s tragic fate, the elaborate con on Howard with tragic results, Lalo’s near-season-long trickery, more glimpses into Gus’s life than we’ve ever gotten before, soulful moments with Mike and Kim, and the genuinely riveting episodes taking place largely from “Gene”‘s life.
Sidenote: I love the decision to shoot the “present” in black and white while “flashbacks” are in color, the reverse of how most shows or movies do it. It’s admitting the characters have no future, best represented by Carol Burnett’s laptop videos of colorful “Saul Goodman” playing out over Gene’s grey, depressing glasses. Grade for Series Finale: B-…Grade for Final Season: A