‘Better Call Saul’ Star Bob Odenkirk: How He Became Saul Goodman

Is there anyone who doesn’t love Bob Odenkirk? He has managed to turn the moral corkscrew that is Jimmy McGill into one of the most memorable characters in television history for the 13 years he’s been playing him on Breaking Bad and now Better Call Saul, which has just returned for a feverishly anticipated final season.

Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman has become the all-time con man/charmer in television history, and the Illinois-reared Odenkirk infuses the character with a sort of Midwestern decency and humility that counterbalances the unspeakably shameless and vile acts of the character to effect a dramatic tension rarely approached in any art form. Odenkirk is one of the reasons why serialized television has surpassed the motion picture as the leading storytelling format in American life. Chief credit, of course, must go to the current crop of writer-producers who are crafting narratives with a depth to match that of the finest novelists. Odenkirk recalls a day before he became the great American shyster when he was considering a pile of movie scripts and a pile of television scripts. The worst TV script, he says, was better than the best movie script.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Is there anyone who doesn’t love Bob Odenkirk? He has managed to turn the moral corkscrew that is Jimmy McGill into one of the most memorable characters in television history for the 13 years he’s been playing him on Breaking Bad and now Better Call Saul, which has just returned for a feverishly anticipated final season.

Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman has become the all-time con man/charmer in television history, and the Illinois-reared Odenkirk infuses the character with a sort of Midwestern decency and humility that counterbalances the unspeakably shameless and vile acts of the character to effect a dramatic tension rarely approached in any art form. Odenkirk is one of the reasons why serialized television has surpassed the motion picture as the leading storytelling format in American life. Chief credit, of course, must go to the current crop of writer-producers who are crafting narratives with a depth to match that of the finest novelists. Odenkirk recalls a day before he became the great American shyster when he was considering a pile of movie scripts and a pile of television scripts. The worst TV script, he says, was better than the best movie script.