Do we like them?

Do we like Saul Goodman?

A character from Better Call Saul (2015–2022)

Our score: 4 out of 10. Charming, funny and loyal to the people he loves. He is also a con man who keeps picking the shortcut. We'd back him over a beer, but not with our savings.

Better Call Saul starts with Jimmy McGill, a struggling lawyer in Albuquerque. He works out of a makeshift office at the back of a nail salon. He is a former small-time hustler from Cicero, Illinois, trying to earn respect and a decent living. Standing in his way is his brother Chuck, a respected lawyer at a big firm. The show is both a legal drama and a character study of how Jimmy becomes the Saul Goodman that Breaking Bad viewers already know.

Jimmy's biggest strengths are his gift for talking and his loyalty to the people he cares about. He will go to great lengths for a client the system has written off. He also tends to take the easy route and cut corners. His ambition is often at war with his moral compass. That tug of war is why he is so easy to root for, and also why you keep wincing. We score him a 5 because the good he does and the harm he does are about equal.

The show's central question is whether Jimmy is a good man pushed into bad choices or a hustler who was always going to end up here. He goes from young lawyer Jimmy McGill to the corrupt Saul Goodman, and finally to Gene Takovic, a persona he adopts to avoid the law. By the end of his story, the people he hurts include the people he loves most. He often seems to know what the right thing is and chooses otherwise. That keeps him at a middling score, with real affection from us and plenty of exasperation.