‘Better Call Saul’ Has Ruined ‘Breaking Bad’s Version of Saul Goodman

In 2009, Breaking Bad introduced Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) in 15 perfect words: “Hi, I’m Saul Goodman. Did you know that you have rights? Constitution says you do.” From that terrible legal commercial was born one of the most interesting, entertaining, and sympathetic characters ever brought to screen. But in the wake of Better Call Saul, that once delightfully greasy commercial now feels gross. It’s only by revisiting Breaking Bad that you can truly feel how far this character has fallen: a clown who became so good a playing a part, he forgot who he was.

After six seasons of Better Call Saul, it’s hard to remember just how slick Breaking Bad‘s version of Jimmy was. That’s largely because Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s masterpiece has always taken care to center itself around the two conflicting truths about Jimmy. He is both an open-hearted person who wants to do the right thing and a man who is disturbingly great at breaking the law. We all have our own superpowers in this life, and Jimmy’s is crime.

It’s a juxtaposition that’s led to some of the most interesting points the series has made over the years. Both Jimmy and his more reputable colleagues have proven that they can bend truth, expectations, and circumstances to deliver the impossible for their clients. Yet whereas others have been praised for their sharp legal minds, Jimmy has almost always been criticized for his more innovative, bordering on illegal strategies. At its most legally inquisitive, Better Call Saul has asked what’s the difference between a great lawyer and a great liar? Even as it’s made these points, the series has been careful never to paint Jimmy as the scum the rest of the world sees when it looks at him.

That infusion of humanity was amplified by the most important people in Jimmy’s life. Through his brother Chuck (Michael McKean), the series made Jimmy sympathetic, highlighting a family member who was hellbent on always seeing our antihero as a criminal. Even after Chuck’s death, the more that Jimmy has leaned into his late brother’s expectations, the more honest that transformation has felt. Chuck was so dismissive and emotionally abusive that Jimmy’s response of throwing up his middle fingers and giving up made sense. Conversely, Kim (Rhea Seehorn) has always embodied the good man Jimmy wanted to be. This is especially apparent in Season 6, an installment that has seen Kim scheme with her husband against Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian). With every intricate lie, you see a conflicted man, someone who is both committing the crimes he loves but also someone aghast that he’s morally corrupting the woman he adores.

None of that nuance or hand-wringing appeared in Breaking Bad. Jesse (Aaron Paul) perfectly summed up Jimmy’s new persona when he told Walt (Bryan Cranston), “You don’t want a criminal lawyer. You want a criminal lawyer.” In Breaking Bad, Saul Goodman emerged as so-slick-he’s-slimy comedic relief. As much fun as it was to watch him, there was little more to the character. And that’s what makes Jimmy’s introduction in “Better Call Saul” so sad.

In the span of one episode, “Saul” happily suggests that Jesse and Walt let their arrested dealer Badger (Matt Jones) get shivved while in prison. He enlists the help of a professional fall guy without so much as a second thought. He makes gross comments about his assistant’s butt even when she’s out of earshot. All of these suggestions that once appalled Jimmy — murder, needless imprisonment, creepy sexism — flow out of his mouth without so much as a grimace. There’s no trying or even pretending to be a decent person. As Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul writer Thomas Schnauz phrased it on Twitter, in the four years between the two series “‘The mask has become the man.'”

By the time Jimmy enters Breaking Bad, he’s been stripped of all his humanity, stripped of the moral hand-wringing that defined this complicated man throughout his entire life. Instead, the only person who’s left is a criminal lawyer, and both Jesse and Chuck are right about him. It’s a title that fits. Breaking Bad convinced us that Saul Goodman was a joke in this kill-or-be-killed world. But only Better Call Saul has explained the cost of becoming a living caricature.