Better Call Saul is an American legal crime drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould for AMC. Part of the Breaking Bad franchise, it is a spin-off from Gilligan's previous series, Breaking Bad (2008–2013), to which it serves as both a prequel and sequel. Better Call Saul premiered on AMC on February 8, 2015, and ended on August 15, 2022, with a total of 63 episodes over six seasons.
Set primarily in the early 2000s in Albuquerque, New Mexico, several years before Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul examines the moral declines of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), an earnest lawyer and former con artist who becomes the egocentric criminal-defense attorney Saul Goodman, and Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), a former corrupt police officer who becomes a fixer and enforcer for drug traffickers. Other main characters include Jimmy's romantic interest and colleague Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), his brother and rival Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), Chuck's law partner Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), the drug dealer Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), the drug lord Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), and the cartel enforcer Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton). In addition to the primary storyline, Better Call Saul includes black-and-white flashforwards set in 2010, after the events of Breaking Bad, which explore the consequences of Saul's eventual partnership with the drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston).
Gilligan, who created and developed Breaking Bad, and Gould, who wrote the Breaking Bad episode "Better Call Saul", began considering a Saul Goodman spin-off in 2009. Because Saul's role in Breaking Bad had expanded beyond the writing staff's plans, Gilligan felt he could be explored further. He and Gould considered making a half-hour legal comedy featuring Saul and his various clients, but settled on an hour-long tragedy showing how he develops into the character seen in Breaking Bad. Better Call Saul's development began during the production of Breaking Bad's final season in 2013, with Gilligan and Gould serving as co-showrunners and numerous production staff returning. Odenkirk, Banks, and Esposito reprise their roles from Breaking Bad, as do many others in guest appearances. Gilligan left Better Call Saul early in the third season—making Gould the sole showrunner for the remainder of its run—though he returned to help write the final season.
Better Call Saul received critical acclaim, with praise for its acting, characters, writing, direction, and cinematography. Many reviewers considered it a worthy successor to Breaking Bad—some deeming it superior to its predecessor—and one of the greatest television series of all time.[6][7][8] It has garnered many awards and nominations, including two Peabody Awards, 53 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards, 19 Writers Guild of America Awards, 20 Critics' Choice Television Awards, nine Screen Actors Guild Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards nominations. At the time of its airing, the series premiere held the record for the highest-rated scripted series premiere in basic cable history.
Premise
Better Call Saul follows the transformation of Jimmy McGill, a former con artist who is trying to become a respectable lawyer, into the personality of the flamboyant criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (a play on the phrase "[It]'s all good, man!"), over the six-year period prior to the events of Breaking Bad, spanning from approximately 2002 to 2008.
Jimmy is inspired by his older brother Chuck to leave his Chicago-area conman past, when he was known as "Slippin' Jimmy". He initially works in the mailroom at his brother's Albuquerque law firm, Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM), where managing partner Howard Hamlin becomes his nemesis. While at HHM Jimmy befriends Kim Wexler, a fellow mailroom employee who completes law school and becomes one of the firm's associates, and their friendship later turns romantic. Jimmy is motivated by Chuck's success to finish college and complete a Juris Doctor degree through a correspondence law school, the fictitious University of American Samoa.
After attaining admission to the bar but being denied employment at HHM, Jimmy's pursuits focus on low-paying clients, including working as a public defender. He later begins to build a practice in elder law, which leads to a prolonged lawsuit against a nursing home chain he discovers is defrauding its clients. He and Chuck begin working together on a class-action suit, which Chuck quickly punts to HHM, squeezing Jimmy out. Jimmy begins to unravel due to Chuck's constant belittling, sabotage, and vindictive behavior towards him. Jimmy's life and career begin to intersect with the illegal narcotics trade and feature characters and story arcs that continue into Breaking Bad.
Among these arcs is the uneasy truce between the Salamanca family that serves the Juárez Cartel drug interest, and Gus Fring, a fried chicken entrepreneur whose restaurant chain is a front for the drug trade. The Salamanca family is led by Hector Salamanca, and later by his nephews Tuco and Lalo. Those caught up in the ensuing turmoil include Ignacio "Nacho" Varga, a Salamanca associate who wants to protect his father from harm, and Mike Ehrmantraut, a former Philadelphia police officer who becomes a fixer for Gus. As his interactions with criminals continue, Jimmy takes on the persona of the flamboyant, colorful Saul Goodman, and he starts to draw on his conman past while his work as an attorney goes from questionable to unethical to illegal.
In addition to selected scenes that take place within the Breaking Bad timeline, the show includes flashforwards, shown in black and white, to events following Breaking Bad. These scenes, taking place in 2010, show Jimmy living as a fugitive under the identity of Gene Takavic, the manager of a Cinnabon store in Omaha, Nebraska. In the final episodes of the series, these flashforwards take up nearly the entirety of the episodes, with the majority of them taking place after or during Breaking Bad.