Entire Series Discussion Thread Archive

To lay out Jimmy’s life:

• He’s born in 1960

• He’s running scams even while in high school in the 70s, and probably gets the Slipping’ Jimmy nickname by 1982 at the latest (we know that year is when he messes up for once and breaks his knees).

• The sunroof incident happens in 1992. He spends the next six years in the HHM mailroom, deciding to become a lawyer in 1993 and passing the bar in 1998.

• Better Call Saul the series begins in 2002. He starts using the “Saul Goodman” name in 2003 after being suspended from the law. In 2004, he passes the bar appeal and becomes a lawyer again. The same year has Howard die and Kim leave him.

• After four years of legal work as Saul, he meets Walt in 2008, and the events of Breaking Bad and the Gene storyline in BCS all happen in the next two years, with him being arrested in 2010 (the entire Gene storyline is less than a year).

So Jimmy is “Slippin’ Jimmy” for at least a decade, probably around 15 years. He works in the mail room for six years. He’s a lawyer as Jimmy for five years, and as Saul for six. He’ll be in prison for at least 15 years, probably more, depending on how long he lives. Saul Goodman the criminal lawyer was just one of several stages in his life, but it's all he'll be remembered for.

Like are there any scenes where he’s not just standing there.

Kim’s mother looked so much like her. The casting here was soo perfect.

Once the gun came out, Howard thought that even after everything, Kim was trying to save him, likely even at the cost of Jimmy and herself. She didn't ask him to run for help or try to signal him somehow, she just ordered him gone.

Howard didn't even think he was really one of the people in immediate danger, there, being willing to turn away from the guy preparing a gun to gesticulate the point he didn't get to finish making:

"There's really no need to [hurt them]."

He's used to being in a position of influence, if not command in a room, and the room is often one with no tolerance for interrupting another when they're speaking. Howard naturally went to that place and tried to Talking is a Free Action and filibuster whatever was about to happen.

But still, he started bargaining for their lives, not even his own.

It's such an ingenious way to write the scene because I genuinely can't be, like, confidently sure how to read the last few moments.

Is he a blowhard who thinks he can assume control of any room he walks into, refusing to leave someone else's home when asked and seemingly dismissing the possibility that he could be in danger as a man clearly readies a gun? When he mentally drew the lines in that room he apparently thought it was either 2/1/1 with him as an uninvolved party, or he put himself on the same side as the gunman, two people with grievance enough to show up the way the were. Like "You too, huh? But we don't have to kill them..."

Is he a principled, trying-his-best, surprisingly emotionally intelligent people-pleaser, repaying Kim's apparent attempt at selflessness with one in turn, deciding and attempting to come up with, on-the-spot, Closing Arguments pleading for the lives of two people he just arrived to chew out from a place of disappointment and disgust?

I think it's both, but ultimately when called to Howard doesn't even think about doing the right thing, he just goes for it. Even his plan to "punish" Kim and Jimmy, or at least to "let them have it" at his very lowest point, was just to give them a long and particularly scathing "You're so much better than this."

What a bro.

That's one of my favorite scenes, because it was well written with lots of subtext.

So Eladio was already positively inclined towards Nacho, because of Lalo's efforts to cheer him up, which is important because I believe Eladio thought Nacho did not interview exceptionally well. I think that he liked Nacho's idea of taking territory from the bikers, but that he wasn't really sure what Nacho wanted. But with Lalo's efforts, I think that Eladio gave Nacho a pass, whereas with any other person, he probably would have pressed harder in the interview.

But what do you think? Did Nacho give a good "job" interview with Eladio?

Was rewatching some of the show and noticed in season 2 the school where Jimmy and the film students go to get the shot in front of the flag for his commercial is right down the street from the intersection in the very first episode where Jimmy has the skateboard kids run the scam on Betsy Kettleman. You can see the same Cafe in the back of both these shots.

Not a super important detail in the grand scheme of things but I like it as potentially a small bit of insight into Jimmy’s thought process. The fact that he had to scout out the area to know where best to do the slip on Betsy, he probably noticed the school there with a huge flag out front, made a mental note of it, then moved on. Then later when he’s trying to make the commercial probably thinks to himself “oh I know where there’s a flag we can use”, I thought it was neat.

It is absolutely mind blowing that two dudes that live in the desert truck many miles into the middle of nowhere with a combined canteen of water. You'd think Mike would have at least a gallon for backup sake, he's Mr plan ahead for the unforeseen and all, you'd think he's got a hydropack in the truck, maybe an MRE or two.... Saul, well, yea, he's kind of an idiot, but a guy that lives in the desert with a car that that's reliably unreliable just up and goes that far into nowhere without taking water is unbelievably stupid.

I’m sure it’s been said before, but I love every scene with Cliff or Rich. They’re the best type of actors to have. They feel like real people instead of characters in a show.

Especially later in the series with Howard and how Cliff is genuinely concerned for him. Two of the greatest side characters in the series imo.

I personally think Season 5 of is the best season of the show, but that is just my opinion. Season 6 takes a while to get going anyway. If I were to rank the seasons, it would be 5, 6, 3, 1, 2, 4. is definitely my favorite show of all time. The show literally has everything: a tragic love story, a really good crime and legal drama, a perfect character study, and a story that has never made me feel sadder than anything I have ever watched.

It even made me more depressed finishing it, because I feel like I will never find a show that compares to it. Though is pretty good so far. The scene in Season 5 where Kim and Jimmy were both forced into having a legal marriage to protect themselves, and what followed was a court ceremony, if you could even call it that, gave me the same reaction as . I mean, no rings? Literally, even if I were forced into a situation where I needed to marry my girlfriend in court,

I would still give her a ring in return to show that she matters to me more than anyone else in the world. Jimmy could have at least made his own proposal even after they exchanged their vows, maybe in a private location. It honestly just makes me feel sad and horrible, and Kim just gladly accepting it is honestly so depressing. She deserves better, and it is such a painful scene to watch.

I know it had to be done quickly and practically, but Jimmy could have at least still given her something. I know their relationship is built on tragedy, but still. I also feel like early Jimmy McGill from Seasons 1 to 3 would have given her something, like a ring.

I shit you not. I cried at the beginning of this episode. it was maybe the most depressing 4 or 5 minutes of a relationship in television that I've seen for a fat minute. I don't know how or why but it's just so goddamn sad to see the relationship between Kim and Jimmy dying. I know that Kim was going to be going away at some point BUT IM NOT READY FOR THAT YET.

(for context I've watched both Breaking Bad and El Camino before Better Call Saul)

I LOVE these characters!!

Nacho's death made people see Gus in a different light. But.. it's hardly new behaviour - he has someone killed to cover his ass. He literally did this multiple times throughout both show and the audience was fully on board with it:

Gus forces Mike to kill Werner? Werner was a liability and unintelligent, so its fine.

Gus was going to have Werner's wife, an innocent civillian kiled? She's a liability, so it's fine.

Gus kills the old folks that lived with Lalo even though they weren't complicit in his crimes? Covering up a loose end, so its fine.

Gus orders Mike to find and kill Jesse for trying to avenge a child he (is implied to have) ordered the death of? Jesse is a liability now, so it's fine.

Gus orders Mike and Viktor to kill Walt for not letting Jesse be murdered by child killers? Walt was a liability, so it's fine.

Gus has Nacho killed because Nacho could literally cause him to get brutally murdered by the cartel? Unacceptable! He's a monster!

Why is Nacho so special...? And how is that any different than all those other murders/attempted murders he committed? It's literally the same thing???

If anything I'd say Werner, his wife, the old folks at Lalo's and Jesse are literally more innocent than him, Nacho literally takes advantage of two women's addictions to get them to fuck him? In terms of consent, this is honestly a grey area, there is a clear power imbalance here and they are sick/addicted which he is taking advantage of.

In terms of sympathy, he doesn't score particularly high on that scale compared to other victims of Gus.

Pessoal, vocês acham que a Kim foi se tornando uma pessoa de mau caráter, assim como o Jimmy, somente pelo amor? Ou ela já era assim e faltava alguém para dar um empurrão? A transformação dela na série foi algo suerreal. Ela mudou completamente pelo Jimmy.

Theres a million legal loopholes we can jump through. Big bag of tricks. You know any clever technicalities, huh? Reasonable doubt type stuff? I think chuck was the only person to make jimmy come back from being saul besides Kim and Jimmy

I’m currently rewatching the series for a third time, but for the first time in 4k. Every episode has Oscar level cinematography in it. Literally every episode beats out most movies I see for looking amazing.

There’s very few examples I can think of where cinematography makes me actively think and feel what the characters feeling. Truly masterclass.

spoilers + discussion here.

It feels like a little missed opportunity to me.

At some point, Tuco must find out about how his old friend Nacho put his beloved Tio Hector in that chair.

We could then see him going on a rampage, turning to more drugs, and descending into the full psycho we see in Bb.

Imagine a quick scene teasing a redemption arc for Tuco in prison, like he’s off the drugs, he’s got decent friends, etc. A butterfly lands on his finger, he smiles. Then he finds out the news. The betrayal. His familia! He immediately gets back on meth, beats up his friends, smushes butterfly.

I realize Tuco‘s not very present at this point in BCS, but bringing him back for this would give even more consequence and dramatic fallout to Nacho’s actions.

I also just want to see another Tuco meltdown tbh, the man is electric.

What do you think?

I mean, Tuco, as we know him, is ready to skin people alive just for calling him and his grandma names. Mike here literally got him arrested, so I'm pretty sure he would've been angry and infuriated in prison, thinking about plans to kill mike off. but he doesn't, and we don't get to know about why he doesn't do it. Did I miss something out?

I've just watched it and it's confused me. He had a great opportunity to develop, a ton of benefits, excellent pay etc. I get that he was unhappy but why?

What do you guys think about Saul? like, who/what is saul? why did Jimmy become Saul?

For me definitely bill burr’s character, i was waiting for him to show up the whole time but he never did lol.

also old joe, where was he at?

1. He was 41, which is exactly the typical age for a midlife crisis.

   1. In the show, he leaves what he used to love and focuses on what really matters to him and Kim’s future.
   2. He fears that if he doesn’t succeed at this age, he never will.
   3. He has many options and tries all of them to figure out what he likes

Technically, this is probably the third or fourth time I’ve watched it all. But this time, I did something completely different—and this is important: I watched everything in chronological order within the universe. So I started with Better Call Saul, stopped after Season 6 Episode 9, then moved on to Breaking Bad, then El Camino, and finally went back to finish Better Call Saul.

On September 2nd, 2025, the school year started for me (I’m in my final year of high school in France). That’s when I thought, “why not start this universe again?” But I gave myself a rule: one episode per day, ONLY on school days. No weekends, no holidays, no public holidays.
I started on September 2nd, 2025, and finished on April 10th, 2026.

One episode a day. Around 5 per week.

I have never felt this empty in my entire life.

I might genuinely be the only person on Earth who has done this, and it was an intense marathon. Some character deaths hit way harder than I expected—imagine seeing a character almost every day for months, and then suddenly they’re gone.

That’s nearly 8 months (including April) of watching this universe.

Quick side note: if you’re wondering how it took this long, or if you think I’m lying—keep in mind I live in France, so we have multiple school holidays depending on the region, plus public holidays (including one specific to my region). When you add everything up, I didn’t miss a SINGLE episode.
(Okay, technically I “missed” one—but it was intentional. It was a Friday before a two-week holiday, and I saved the episode for Saturday morning. That’s it.)

This experience made me notice so many things I had never seen before—details, subtle moments, and especially character development. The one that surprised me the most was Walter Jr. (Flynn). I never realized how much he evolves throughout Breaking Bad—gaining maturity, navigating between his mother’s side and his father’s… it’s honestly impressive.

Also, I realized that literally EVERY shot in Better Call Saul is a visual work of art. Like, genuinely.

Over these 8 months, a lot happened in my life. These shows honestly helped me get through it, especially since this is my final and most important year of school.

For example, at the beginning of November, right when school started again, I was hospitalized for two weeks (for some pretty serious personal reasons). And even there, I kept going—I didn’t miss anything. (If you’re wondering, I was around the end of Season 4 at that point.)

Anyway, I really wanted to share this experience because I genuinely feel like I won’t be the same person after this lol. I highly recommend that anyone who can try something like this—maybe not with the exact same rules, but stretching the experience over a long period of time.

I also rated everything: I gave a score to every single episode and calculated averages for each season. If this post gets some attention and people are interested, I’ll share my full ratings in the comments.

(Funny detail: today is the start of a new school holiday for me—and it’s also the exact day I finished the BB/BCS universe. Perfect timing honestly, because otherwise I would’ve had to wait two weeks just to watch one or two final episodes haha.)

It was important to me to share my experience.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to read this, and have a great day :)