Better Call Saul was the perfect show for America’s grifter era
The best conman show ever came at just the right time, asking a simple question of its title character: How do you live with yourself?
TV Features Better Call Saul
[Editor’s note: This piece contains spoilers of season six of Better Call Saul.]
Americans love a grifter. We always have. It’s why so many people call Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), arguably television’s greatest conman, who will be facing the music in tonight’s final episode. But after Saul, née Jimmy McGill, goes down, where will that leave us and our fascination with getting scammed?
Last week, following our latest check-in on the sad reality of Cinnabon manager Gene Takovich, America turned its attention to another bad lawyer, Andino Reynal, the attorney for Alex Jones, professional conspiracy theorist, convicted liar, and a father of four who once forgot his kids’ names because he ate a big bowl of chili. Reynal biffed it real good when he sent the contents of Jones’ phone to the plaintiff’s counsel. It was a rookie mistake. “Do you know what perjury is?” asked Mark Bankston, attorney for the parents of a Sandy Hook massacre victim that Jones has made millions defaming.
In 2015, Better Call Saul hit AMC, promising a continuation of the Breaking Bad story, diving into the life and times of ambulance chaser Jimmy McGill. While we expected more heists concocted by bald, gravelly white men, a zeitgeist-capturing treatise about the black heart of a grifter arrived just in time.
The year 2015 was the beginning of a boom time for conmen in America. The next seven would see the rise of the MAGA movement, Fyre Festival, NFTs, QAnon, and a grifter-led insurrection. Conmen and scammers are not a new American phenomenon. But Better Call Saul, a show about a gifted grifter, countered their mainstream success and prevalence with a question: How can these people live with themselves?
There are few things more dangerous than the truth in Better Call Saul, and Jimmy wields and fears it in equal measure. Watching Jones on that stand, flailing for an angle that could explain away his lawyer’s mistake, I couldn’t help but think of Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), confronted with a truth he couldn’t explain away. In the 2017 episode “Chicanery,” Jimmy and Chuck face off on the stand, pitting lawyer against lawyer in a battle of wits. Jimmy, however, has a secret weapon. He knows Chuck lives in a Jones-style conspiracy theory of his own making—a truth Chuck can not accept.
Believing himself to have electromagnetic hypersensitivity, a self-diagnosed and unproven health condition, Chuck is a gifted lawyer but a social pariah. Over the course of a season, Jimmy exploited Chuck’s condition, causing his brother to question his tenuous grip on reality. It all came to a head on the stand.
Jimmy checkmates Chuck by slipping a phone battery into his brother’s pocket, proving Chuck’s condition false. The truth ruins Chuck, leaving him on the stand pleading to these symbols and officers of truth and justice to believe him, but the cross-examination already doomed him. The scene ends with Chuck apologizing for his outburst. He would self-immolate in his home later that night.
People like Chuck are Jimmy’s big game. They are people in his life that he believes underestimate him, that hold him back from the glory of being clever. But his actions go beyond throwing a bowling ball at a luxury car. He gaslights his targets to a breaking point. Chuck’s partner Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) suffered years of Jimmy’s nonsense before he was driven to professional and personal ruin in the final season. Confronting Jimmy and his wife Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), all Howard wants to know is, “What justification makes it okay?”
Unlike Chuck, who tries to puncture Jimmy’s thin-candy shell of self-interest with one-upmanship, Hamlin asks Jimmy to consider his humanity in the episode “Plan And Execution.” It can’t simply be about money or jealousy. But for grifters like Jimmy and Kim, the action is the juice; they “get off on it,” as Howard says. “I will be okay, but you two are soulless. Jimmy, you can’t help yourself. Chuck knew it.” After Lalo kills Howard, the fallen lawyer smacks his head on the side of Jimmy’s coffee table, recalling Chuck’s collapse at the copy center. Are all the members of Jimmy’s doomed-client list marked by a bruised temple?
It’s important for Jimmy to face this in the final season as he begins to unravel how he could do this to Kim. He didn’t just trick her; he made her a co-conspirator. He dragged her down to his level, picking up on a slight mean streak and a taste for tequila and turning her into a little Slippin’ Jimmy.
Facing the truth is what all grifters are outrunning, and Better Call Saul forces us to face responsibility for the lie. In the penultimate episode, Kim tries to come clean and Jimmy wants to get caught, engaging in a scheme so haphazardly he seems ready to turn himself in but can’t. In his office, wallpapered by the Constitution, Jimmy drapes himself on the promise of America, using it as the sizzle for his legal steak. America has always been a country of grifters like Jimmy. The country founded on a “take first, repent never” philosophy is still awash in calls for reparations for slavery and the Native American genocide. And yet, Americans, every day, put these crimes behind us. We put on a fresh suit, look in the mirror, and declare, “It’s showtime, folks.”
And what is “the show,” exactly? Jimmy ruined the lives of his loved ones for the sake of the cons, the thrill of being smarter, craftier, and more adaptable. Jimmy always lives to fight another day, and so does Jones. The $40 million is but a drop in the bucket of his boner pill empire and there will always be another group of ghoulish conservatives looking to muddy political waters. Just as it wasn’t the last we heard of Milo Yiannopoulos or Mike Cernovich or Anna Delvey, grifters don’t stop. They just find someone else to leech off of. And when they do, who can you call?
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Apparently Det. Williams does not.
Beating everyone else to it: Chuck didn’t die later that night. He tried to get therapy and straighten himself out, and didn’t end up committing suicide until 5 episodes later.
Yep and it was Jimmy reporting his mental issues to an insurance agent which truly pushed him over the edge. Jimmy took away his ability to practice law and that was all he really had left.
Jimmy didn’t take away his ability to practice, insane malpractice fees and giant legal corp HHM unwilling to pay them took it away.
This is a really key moment in the show that is often overlooked. Jimmy’s actions at the hearing could be somewhat justified as self-defense against Chuck’s relentless grudge against him. But that petty, completely unnecessary action of letting the insurance agent know about Chuck’s condition, really set events in motion that would lead to his brother’s suicide. And then the following season, he simply refuses to deal with the guilt. This smothering of his conscience seems to become a permanent part of his psyche, leading to everything that follows.
People were like “Why does Jimmy seem fine in S4 after Chuck dies?”The answer is, he’s not fine. He’s the opposite of fine. He’s responsible for a good deal of that pain, plus that consequence was one of the main propulsive factors for Jimmy smothering responsibility.
He didn’t take away Chuck’s ability to practice law. Chuck could still have practiced law, but he took the insurer’s requirements for continuing to insure him as an affront to his dignity.
Chuck killed a guy and switched his body, pulling out his teeth Novocaine-style to make it look like he was there. He appears at the end of the finale with a hatchet and yells “surprise, motherfucker!”
Just like Lalo did? Lenny’s Revenge!
Chuck killed a guy and switched his body, pulling out his teeth Novocaine-style to make it look like he was there
Dammit. I’m going to miss this universe terribly.BTW, has there ever been a day going into a series finale where you just KNEW the writers were going to knock it out of the park?Maybe The Shield—and maybe PoI (although I binged that, so I’m not sure how the first-run viewers felt).
A good amount of shows honestly. On AMC alone, I had high confidence in Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Halt and Catch Fire because all of those shows had nailed big moments before. A lot of FX shows as well.As someone who did watch Person of Interest live, I wasn’t as sure on that one at the time. I knew it would likely be somewhat good but also knew CBS shortened their final season and screwed around with the release of episodes and thought that may impact some of the storylines being closed out (which it did, but they were able to cover all the major ones that mattered most).
Is Halt and Catch Fire as good as people say? I haven’t watched it yet.
Is Halt and Catch Fire as good as people say? I haven’t watched it yet.
Arguably better? (I’m one of the few who also really enjoyed the first season…)
While H&CF was on the air the AVClub would not get away from the comparisons to Mad Men. Those comparisons are, at most, tangential. But the quality is similar. If you stick with H&CF beyond the first season, its world opens up, its characters become more sharply defined, and it becomes a cross between The Right Stuff (imperfect people with a transcendant mission) and a caper movie.
Yes. The first season seems like it was trying very hard to be a PRESTIGE TV SHOW on AMC, and while it’s enjoyable, I think it gets much better as the show goes on and the character grow and develop.
Yes. I rewatch it every year or so and it is always a good watch. The characters are all great and the show isn’t afraid to let them grow and change multiple times as the series goes on.I personally like the entirety of the show but some people do think of the first season as a bit weaker.
Welp, looks like I have my next binge watch!
No, it isn’t. It may improve from season to season, but it started very low and even at its best wasn’t that great.
H&CF is, to me, in the top tier of Peak TV-era shows (alongside the likes of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Americans). It is absolutely not a show that should be binged. Watch one episode every few days, and give yourself time to stop and think about each episode. Take a break between seasons (maybe not as long as the actual season breaks). Go back and read the AV Club recaps of each episode after watching them.People unfavorably compared the first season to Mad Men, in that it’s about this sort of fast-talking Corporate Guy with a mysterious past, but that’s a very shallow reading that also ignores the other three leads (none of whom have any Mad Men analogs). Lee Pace’s Joe MacMillan is ultimately very different from Don Draper (most significantly in that he experiences substantial character growth over the course of the series, whereas Don is essentially the same outwardly-confident and inwardly-cowardly asshole at the end of the series that he is at the beginning).I seriously cannot recommend the show enough. I actually ran into Mackenzie Davis at a farmer’s market between the 3rd and 4th seasons, and she was as annoyed as I was that the network wouldn’t tell them when the 4th season (which they had already filmed at that point) was going to air.
I don’t know if I’m THAT certain. But am I certain I’ll be happy? Reasonably.
If a show hasn’t really gone through a decline in quality at any point in its run, you know the series finale will at least be a valiant effort.
The Shield still has the best last five minutes in television history, full stop. Absolutely perfect.
The Shield was god damn perfect. I’m hoping Saul sticks the landing.
The Good Place
Ehhh, I kinda was lukewarm on that finale. To me the show was really at its absolute peak in season 1 and the early parts of season 2 when Michael was still evil.Plus the premise of Heaven in and of itself is that you wouldn’t “get bored” because nothing negative is supposed to happen to you if you reach the Pearly Gates, so I didn’t really care for that ending.The Shield and PoI were nearly flawless though. And while I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Sopranos and Six Feet Under as whole series (Sopranos was very good, but also very overhyped), I loved both of their endings. I’d probably put them pretty close to the top.
The Shield gave us seven seasons to care about, even root for, an absolute monster — somehow forgetting that Vic Mackey murdered a fellow cop in the very first episode — only to rip away the façade at the very end.
That’s why Seasons 4-5 are the best—-we root for Vic even though Kavanaugh (brilliant Forest Whitaker, who has been great in a LOT of things) is the righteous one.
So bummed – have to travel for work tonight and will be in the air as the finale airs. Not sure how I will be able to watch it once I land either.
It streams on AMC+ for $4.00/month
They’re showing it three times back to back to back tonight if that helps. It’s an extra long episode so maybe you’ll be to your hotel (hopefully with AMC) in time for one of the add’l showings. Or … cancel the flight.
AMCPlus offers a free trial (for a week I think), and allows you to download the episode… if you have wifi at 9PM EST, you can download the full episode to watch
Well, it’s really easy to buy on Prime and there are many other Internet ways to watch it if you know where to look.
Don’t do that, though.
If your cable company plays ball, you can download the regular AMC app and sign in using your cable credentials when prompted. If not, you can do the 7 day trial of AMC+ via Prime if you haven’t done it yet.
I’m working tonight to and this is the ONE episode ever where they don’t do a 2AM-3AM repeat for some godforsaken reason, they’re showing Kevin Can %$% himself instead. There’s a repeat at 1AM Wednesday but I’m suspecting the internet and my youtube feed would spoil it for me. So I’m going to try to tricky situation of buying the episode on youtube (hopefully goes up for purchase tonight by 1:30 AM) while not also looking at my youtube feed. lots of taking off my glasses and squinting.
sort of tangental to the point of the article, but the sustained energy of better call saul memes also must reflect why this show was perfect for this era. every show has memes, but saul laps all of them IMO.
Damn, I hadn’t even thought of this parallel (mainly because we already knew Saul from Breaking Bad, years ago), but you’re right, it does fit perfectly. The conman that has just enough charisma to make people want to root for him despite being a thoroughly evil SOB.
I’ve been waiting for Season 6 to show up on Netflix, but this is making me wonder whether I should just bite the bullet and buy it.
AMC+ is $4.00/month. You can stream BCS there.
Yes. You should.
It, like Breaking Bad, does a tremendous job of getting you on the side of the antiheroes and then taking its time revealing what they’re ultimately capable of. I was thinking about this watching Heat a few weeks ago. You don’t see DeNiro’s crew do anything especially ugly until the bank heist shootout, at which point they don’t skip a beat before blasting their way down a public street, grabbing a kid as a human shield, etc. These are not good people. Goodfellas, same thing. You even find yourself pulling for them after the reveal.
I don’t love or even like the real-life grifters, though because the harm is real. A certain blight on the White House ruined so many people by just refusing to pay for work they did and hence the debt they accrued paying for materials doing those jobs, knowing they couldn’t afford to fight him in court.It’s theft pure and simple and not skillful, just grotesque. The fact that people follow this monstrosity can’t seem to grasp they’d be treated the same way and he’d take them for everything in a heartbeat. I mean he still is, just usually not quite as much because they aren’t doing work on one of his properties.Fictional shows are fine as the harm isn’t real and sometimes there’s a comeuppance.Here’s hoping in real life.
That’s because you Aussie, and reasonably sane. Yarpie bloke I know said “Yeah, South Africa wouldn’t have put up with Musk’s bullshit but the Yanks seem to love it.”Americans like the fantasy, it seems.
Lol are we gonna pretend Australia isn’t a hotbed of racism now
I wouldn’t be so sure they can’t grasp it. The saving grace for them is he was hurting the people they don’t like. Many of them see their own ruin as a small price to pay as long as that condition continues to be fulfilled.
Plus there is always the “other” to blame their ruin on. Never Trump, never Republicans. Obviously not.
I’m with you that I cannot understand why any contractor would work on a Trump development. They KNOW what’s coming.
The grifter era of America started in, like, 1619
I mean that was kind of the point of the article
Spain in 1565 and England in 1587, but who’s even counting anymore once you’re past 400 years
It’s amazing that this show full of flawed humans, and in this culture where even the behind the scenes is fully out in the open, this show has given me some pure heroes to root for: the people that make this show.My protagonists are Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, Tom Schnauz, Gennifer Hutchison, Michelle MacLaren, Dave Porter, the cast, the crew… and they all seem to be decent people that really like each other!
Very well put.The amount of cognitive dissonance spewing out of Trumpistan is perplexing and depressing. Trump just keeps lying and stealing more and his followers just keep accepting it. These people are beyond reason. The best we can hope for is that enough people that did vote for him, after being hit over the head with Trump’s criminality for decades now, will at least be shamed and embarrassed enough to no longer support him and to see the cruel bankruptcy of his movement.Better Call Saul, aside from being wildly entertaining, is relevant art that lays bare a very dark side of the human condition. We can only hope that it can influence a few people to see and revile that darkness.
They absolutely will continue to support him. There is no depth to which he can sink, no deed too monstrous, that will cause them to reflect for even a moment. If they were capable of it, they never would have started supporting him in the first place, and certainly would have abandoned him by now.
I’d respect if more if they just admitted they hate democracy and think scamming people is a good thing
They all think they are the ones that are too smart to get scammed.The perfect suckers.
yeah, there used to be a type of person who was an asshole and proud of being an asshole. now that same person is an asshole but if you call them an asshole they freak out. they want to be a bully and be called a hero for it.
Their defense mechanism is they convince themselves he *didn’t* do any of that. It’s the swamp, the deep state, making it all up. And even if he indisputably *did* do something, if he literally shot someone on 5th Avenue, well then, he must have had a good reason.
5th Avenue, 5th Amendment, whatever….
I’m sure I’ll get hated down for this, but “Lost” made this overarching point through several characters (Sawyer and Ben being the most obvious) about the nature of American politics, capitalism, history, etc., long before Saul. I really appreciate the style of Saul as a show, but I can’t marvel at the idea of the singularity of its theme because it has been done before. “Lost” saw it through the lens of W. Bush/Cheney, who arguably laid the foundation for the Trumpian approach to truthiness. The rest is, literally (literally!), history – which “Lost” alluded to through character names, story arcs, and historical and literary references. All that said, it’s great to see how many of you connected to Saul’s story. I hope you enjoy the last one tonight.
He dragged her down to his levelI get why people say this, but it smacks of being a bit reductive, of being overly willing to excuse Kim for her own complicity and darkness and agency in all that they did. Jimmy was a bad influence, no argument, but he didn’t ‘drag’ her anywhere; she joined him willingly, and even arguably began ‘dragging’ him places at times as well. Because she found it fun. Because that life appealed to her on some level as well.
If Kim had ever chosen to leave Jimmy because of his red flags, they would have broken up long before the events of the pilot. And Kim’s childhood flashbacks show her behavior in adulthood is likely a result of her wrestling with her mother’s complicity far more than Jimmy’s.
Agreed, a lot of people are removing her agency, though i think the show itself has gone out of its way to show that she wasn’t roped in or dragged down without her knowledge… we slowly see her embrace the scams, even in the courtroom, but then it is explicitly her driving the last big scheme against Howard… and after it all went that way, it’s clear she’s not excusing herself for any of it
Her ambition was driven by a lot of the same resentments as Jimmy’s, only she was marginally less petty so it took a prod or two from him to act on them.
I was just about to post something similar. There were times (e.g. when they were confronted by Howard’s widow) when Kim proved herself to be just as evil as Jimmy, if not more so.
The fact that Kim had a dark side that could surpass that of Jimmy’s is quite evident. However, it seems as though the self-realization that being with Jimmy made it hard for her to “know when to stop” and as opposed to Jimmy clearly understood that the thrill she got from it was something that would have inevitably taken her down the same road as Jimmy; whether that be the same road or one of her own. I believe that’s the obvious difference between them and why she left him. She obviously loved him, she didn’t blame him for anything, and she had no other reason to leave him than she probably foresaw a future for herself that would clearly violate her own morals. Kim has always been characterized by her desire to help others throughout the entirety of the series on a regular basis. But what is one’s motivation for such pursuits? Everything we do has some motivation whether conscious or otherwise. Therefore, I believe that Kim was either trying to make up for the remorse she likely felt after getting a thrill from one of her and Jimmy’s exploits and/or it had some basis in her childhood and growing up with the type of mother she had. We see early on it Jimmy and Kim’s relationship that he brought out her “badside” when she initially started to push the envelope when they were pulling that con with the guy at that restaurant. She was the one pushing things further and, in retrospect, seemed to be surprised with herself that she did what she did. Overall, it’s the calculated risks that Jimmy was comfortable with taking throughout his life that Kim couldn’t as easily write off afterwards that made her feel unhappy with who she was. She made a tough call in leaving Jimmy as she foresaw the future in store for her if she stayed with him. In the end she made the right call and after living a life that she seemed to feel she deserved and was unhappy with she was able to be free of her own guilt by making a tough decision when she came clean about Howard. On the other side of the fence we have Jimmy who, despite having conned his sentence down to 7 years, saw what it was that Kim couldn’t live with and likely to show his love and understanding to her he self-sabotaged himself and came clean in the end. It’s 2 sides of the same coin with the difference being one takes the honest look at themselves and decides to stick with their principles while the other falls to temptation. Epic series and definitely a great ending.
I hate when people write this about any characters (unless there’s abuse or coercion, everyone is an adult, making adult choices), but I really hate it when it’s about a man “dragging” a woman to his level, and I really, really hate it when it’s about Kim.
Kim is an effin’ boss. No one drags Kim anywhere. Did people who suggest this even watch the show?
I’m glad this is a top comment. . . Kim’s immediate change in direction is a more extreme version of rejecting your base instincts when faced with the gravity of the consequences. Kim was a willing and active participant, with fully formed and arguably meritorious reasons for her participation. But when harsh consequences for others are put on display, she recalibrated, extricated and fundamentally changed her life.
lol GFY leftist scum
God you people are easily triggered.
No one pointed out the return of Emilio Koyama in last week’s review since it was overshadowed by Jesse’s scene with Kim right afterward. Pretty great callback to the Breaking Bad pilot.
Was that scene supposed to be set during the BB pilot?I wondered but thought it would have to be long before that. No divorce takes 4 years to do.
Nah, that was pre-BB. Right before Walt goes in to see Saul for the first time, Jesse mentions how Saul got Emilio out of serious legal trouble twice. This was the first time, and since Emilio dies in the pilot, it’s likely that this is not too long after Kim breaks it off with Jimmy.
Gene Takovich?
No, and it’s not Takovic either.
The actual spelling of his Best Quality Vacuum name is Gene Takavic.
I don’t wanna be that guy, but *Takovic. Vic and Mc names always get botched for some reason. ie: Weird Al Yankovich, Seth McFarland
Just realized Jimmy did to Kim what Mike did to his son. Dragged her to his level, debased her. Only difference is Mike felt bad about it, Jimmy not so much.
Huh? She seemed pretty thrilled with it all. Until one milli-second before she wasn’t.Jimmy wanted to postpone the judge thing cuz he had a broken arm. Kim turned around and willed that scam into existence as scheduled.
you’re definitely right, and Kim drove that entire scheme… but no way she did that without Jimmy. I think he definitely wore down her morality by the repeated scams (I remember her genuinely being aghast when Saul told her about the ‘Squat Cobbler,’ since it was fabricating evidence, and then shortly later she’s the one buying art supplies for Huell)
Well, time to rewatch the entire last season again.
Agree with Marty. Saying otherwise is saying she had no agency in her own life, which she very definitely had. The difference between her and Jimmy is she saw what she was doing/becoming and decided to step away from it, and ultimately come clean about it. Jimmy is unlikely to ever do that now.
Or is he?
I always forget that women can’t do wrong on their own.
OOOOoooooooo…. would we consider America’s “Grifter Era” Over?! (To be read the same way Hugh Grant says, “Ooooooooo, would we call her chubby?”)
Maybe this is why I think the series peaked at season 3. After Chuck died, there was noone left to call Jimmy out on his shit. Worse, Kim was there to fuel it and basically egg him on even more. I still, for the life of me, cannot figure out WHY Kim pushed Jimmy go after Howard after he wanted to back off.
Because their relationship got off on grifting. They both knew deep down there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to their motives to ruin Howard’s life. It just came out of a primeval need to keep the spark in their relationship alive.
honestly I think Howard was kind of accurate when he said “you do it for the thrill like Leopold and Loeb.” The money, or just pure revenge on Howard don’t totally add up, but they’re contributing factors, but I think it was mainly those schemes that fueled their relationship.Also though, keep in mind that Kim doesn’t know about Jimmy telling the insurerer about Chuck, so she seemed to have some genuine disgust about how Howard acted, Plus she definitely still held a grudge over how he stuck in her the bullpen for months as punishment
Same. This is where I think the writers went wrong in this season. They had Kim be the one to keep pushing. Actually, I think it was largely her idea. It’s been so long since it started though, I can’t recall for sure.Or maybe I’m just disappointed that a character I liked decided to break (very) bad.
Yes, but the show would have been super facile and boring if Jimmy did literally “drag Kim down” as the article writer erroneously put.Having them both take turns at being complicit is far more compelling and complex.
This is a really good article except I don’t know if I’d agree that Jimmy “dragged Kim down to his level”. I think the show has been pretty explicit about rejecting that viewpoint and about how it’s patronizing to her to think that she can’t make her own decisions. At most I’d say maybe they bring out the worst in each other (except even that might not be true because we see how much worse Jimmy gets after she leaves lol)
Jimmy did not drag Kim down to her level lol. Not sure how more clear the show could have made that point clear; she makes her own fate. Also Chuck did not die that night. This is such a shallow read of the show, with just a little bit of vague pop-culture points politics things thrown in to make some kind of rambling thesis. The article reads more like rambling thoughts based on reading the wiki of Saul and then scrolling Twitter.Disappointing to say the least because BCS has so much more depth to it than this.
“He didn’t just trick her; he made her a co-conspirator. He dragged her down to his level, picking up on a slight mean streak and a taste for tequila and turning her into a little Slippin’ Jimmy.”What a grievous misunderstanding of the series this represents. I feel so bad for the writers and the actress who put in so much work to give you dozens of ways to see it wasn’t this simple, and you managed to miss, or pretend to miss, all of them. For what? For some hamfisted idiot article pretending any of this had to do with your political opponents?Communists can only see propaganda, can only produce propaganda.