So good that even though I was left a bit unsatisfied with the final 10 minutes, I still stand in deep appreciation. More on the ending later. As I have harped on before, this concludes the short but happy moment in history when television was not just a common culture but a proper art form. Let me be specific about what is gone.
Action emerging from characters. Now actions emerge from events. If you're lucky the characters will react in accordance with their individual personalities but more often characters react to these events in a way that will allow the writer to trigger the next event, and so barrel on to the conclusion. I suspect this is symptomatic of some deeper societal ill, perhaps a loss of sense of agency, but I am not qualified to say. Everything in Saul was the result of specific character traits of the primary characters, going all the way back to Howard's jealousy of Jimmy for their mother's attention and Jimmy's yearning for Howard's approval. That led Jimmy into a kind of righteous shadiness and Howard to a kind of grandiose mental illness. Jimmy/Saul and Kim responded to difficulty by embracing the very streak of nihilism that they saw in each other, ultimately leading to their spiral into tragedy. Even Saul's ultimate capture grew from his hubristic faith in the dark underbelly of the world. True Greek Tragedy in that all the characters were brought down by their own flaws.
Action over exposition. This is more of an implementation detail but, in Saul, motivations could be summed up in a look or a camera angle or the intonation in dialogue. You trust the audience to understand and build, or interpret, the narrative. You don't have to do that with other shows these days because the writers will have the characters tell you exactly what to think.
In the absence of those two things, we can safely resurrect the notion of TV as a wasteland: Entertaining at times, but uninspired. It's a product, not a creation.
As far as the ending goes, I just don't think Saul would have given up his sweet deal like that. Even for Kim. Even for his brother. Vince Gilligan did the same thing with Breaking Bad. At the end the gray was gone and it was clear who the bad guy was and that justice was done.
I should be more nuanced. Both Saul/Jimmy and Walter White eventually faced and acknowledged their own guilt. In the name of that guilt Walter got himself killed and Jimmy/Saul will spend his life in prison. This too, a la the Greeks, is a very traditional and even virtuous narrative path. It probably should be admired that Gilligan had the courage to do this in the face of the deep cynicism of the current culture. I still don't think it would have played out like that. I think, especially in the case of Saul/Jimmy, they would have still attempted to dodge consequences. Accepting your own guilt and accepting the consequences are two very different things. My experience is that even the acknowledgement of guilt doesn't stop the fight against the consequences. Human nature can rationalize just about anything including the magnitude of just desserts. Perhaps my disappointment with it says more about my personal cynicism than anything else.
Lastly, Odenkirk deserves every award possible.
So the era that started with The Sopranos, peaked with Deadwood and Mad Men, and ultimately dwindled into the long tail of Better Call Saul is over. We will not see its like again. But hope springs eternal, perhaps at some point in the future someone will find a way to generate artistic value out of 30 second social media videos. May I live to see it. In the meantime, thank goodness for streaming.
