What’s Saul about?

1

Shady, fast-talking lawyer Saul Goodman first appeared in the second season of the acclaimed crime drama Breaking Bad as comic relief to the show’s increasingly grim, violent world.

2

Originally intended to appear in just three episodes, Odenkirk’s happy-go-lucky portrayal quickly saw the minor character become a favourite of fans and the series creator Vince Gilligan and its story editor Peter Gould. Subsequently, Goodman’s narrative importance grew exponentially with each season.

3

Once Breaking Bad concluded, Gilligan and Gould decided to write a prequel series exploring the origins of the shamelessly slick lawyer. Written as a tragicomedy character study, Better Call Saul charts how circumstance transformed the good-natured Jimmy Mcgill into the slimy criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.

4

Before Breaking Bad, Odenkirk was known primarily as a comic actor. He wrote for American comedy institution Saturday Night Live,

created the cult favourite sketch series Mr Show

with fellow comedian David Cross, and had roles on The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Breaking Bad was his first dramatic role.

5

Better Call Saul has been praised for the inventiveness and creativity of its cinematography, its unrivalled use of music and the ambition of its storytelling. A favourite example of how every aspect of its production reinforces its story appears in the season three episode, “Fall”. A montage set to an upbeat and happy mariachi tune shows Goodman moving all the pieces and watching the blocks fall into place of his “elder law” scam; you see him helping out old people, calling their Bingo numbers, signing them up, and then grinning as his riches grow. The music, which will most likely have a nagging familiarity, is called Korobeiniki, aka the Tetris theme tune.

6

In a 2018 interview for the NZ Herald’s entertainment magazine Timeout, Gilligan was asked about putting in those sorts of sneaky details. He replied, “That’s some of the most fun we have.”