Primetime Program Analysis: AMC’s Better Call Saul
AMC’s Better Call Saul is a prequel or spin off to the critically acclaimed drama, Breaking Bad. It is a continuation of the themes of economic inequality, drugs and the usurpation of the American dream. Better Call Saul moves from Breaking Bad’s moral dilemma of a teacher at the verge of succumbing to cancer to a struggling attorney who has to contend with a rude and unwelcoming corporate world. It is an exploration of human vices that force individuals to break societal rules and in the end become outcasts. It tries to illuminate the problems inherent in America’s legal system. This paper seeks to analyze Better Call Saul by focusing on the tragedy of America’s legal system as well as rabid consumption that forces individuals to be greedy and socially unconscious. It also looks at the treatment of stereotypes of women and minorities. Season 2 episode 8 is looked at deeply.
The definition of success in modern America has changed as people begin to realize that the American dream has its drawbacks. Jimmy McGill is morally un-conflicted individual who works hard to get himself through law school and tries to find a place in the corporate law world. He lives a modest lifestyle for an individual who is an attorney. He works as a public defender and realizes that there is no justice for the small man. Thus he has to make plea deals in bathrooms before trial. Without enough money, his clients are not capable of beating the legal system that is stacked against the poor.
In order to understand the consumerism of Better Call Saul, we have to understand the character of Jimmy. For people like Jimmy, there is hope for a fair and working judicial system and he hopes to be part of the evolution. This goes on until an ethical dilemma presents itself when a public official expropriates $2 million dollars and it ends up in Jimmy’s hands. Because he is a man invested in the proper working of the system. He returns the money in his hands, hoping it turn around his legal career. It partly does but not for the best. It is an episode that in the end drives Jimmy to be Saul Goodman, it tests his moral character. It also tests his loyalties.
Jimmy cannot be called a successful lawyer because of how he lives. He drives an old yellow car, lives in a small room at the back of a Vietnamese nail salon. He is struggling. Jimmy is not a rabid consumer of goods and even if he wanted to, he simply cannot afford. Jimmy’s conduct can be described by Schor’s observation that “large majorities hold ambivalent views about consumerism. They struggle with ongoing conflicts between materialism and an alternative set of values stressing family, religion, community, social commitment, equity, and personal meaning” (1999, n. p.). His brother Chuck is the direct opposite of Jimmy. He is a partner at one of the biggest law firm in town. Jimmy does not realize that his brother detests his presence until the moment he is about to crack his biggest case and seeks the help of his brother and his female friend Kim that he discovers that Chuck had for a very long time wanted him to fail. It is apparent that Jimmy’s moral code in the beginning does not allow him to be an ignorant consumerist. When he discovers his brother’s hatred, he figures that his brother was ashamed of him. From then he begins to twist his moral code which results in him representing one of Mike’s drug dealing clients.
Success and gender also plays an important role in Better Call Saul. Kim Wexler, Jimmy’s lone confidant is a professional and hardworking legal expert who is working hard so that she can one day become a partner at HHM. She is the moral compass for Jimmy as he navigates his conflicted world. From the beginning Kim comes off as a successful individual. She often tells Jimmy that if he works as hard as he was doing, his labor was going to bear fruit. What Kim does not realize from the beginning that the odds are stacked against her as well. She thinks Howard is going to realize one day that she is essential to HHM but Howard and Chuck never does. It is actually through Kim that Chuck gets news about Jimmy struggling which makes him happy.
As the only consistent female character in Better Call Saul, Kim believes in following the rules as the only way to success. The truth is that it is not because she is stuck in one position doing all the work for Howard and Chuck with little appreciation. Kim gets made when she watches a video with Jimmy, a video Jimmy had created to get Mike’s drug dealing client out of prison. Kim wants Jimmy to be successful but not through dirty schemes, something that Jimmy can't help himself of.
Better Call Saul through the differences between Jimmy and Kim shows that it does not matter how you do it, if people in positions of authority want you to not succeed, you won't. It is mocking both the traditional idea of hard work and the idea of hustling. At the core of the message is that success is sometimes awarded by powerful people. This message is clear when Jimmy moves to Davis and Main. His new job comes with a new luxury car and a fancy office. This gives the illusion of success. Jimmy is aware that Davis and Main is there to stifle his talent. He is suspicious of the corporate ladder and rightfully so because Davis and Main refuses to let him practice law, the way he knows best.
“Fifi” the latest episode of Better Call Saul opens up with a long scene of an ice cream truck crossing the US-Mexican border. The driver goes through all the motions and in the end is allowed to enter the United States. The truck is shipping contraband for Hector Salamanca, a drug lord who is threatening Mike and his family. This scene introduces into the fray a number of problems affecting the US society. Better Call Saul like Breaking Bad is an exploration of the drug industry. Hector runs a family crime syndicate and is also in pursuit of the American dream only that he prefers crime as a way to riches. There is an element of family loyalty in the Salamanca crime as evidenced by Hector’s forced request to Mike to drop the gun charges against Tuco Salamanca. There is also however suspicion and plotting since Nacho is determined to have Tuco killed.
The depiction of the Salamanca family and Nacho’s acts does reinforce stereotypes about latinos in the United States. The people bringing drugs across the Mexican border are Mexicans and they are the architects of crime in the series. Nacho and Tuco are crazed individuals who are not bothered with the killing of people. Hector’s a man determined to make sure that his drug empire does not crumble.
As one goes through the “Fifi” episode, they begin to draw contrasts between the pants and suit world of HHM and the world of the Salamancas. Rodriguez helps us understand this latino stereotype in an analysis of the show “The Bachelor”. Rodriguez notes that “The National Hispanic Media Coalition commissioned a study on the impact of media portrayals of Latinos and immigrants that revealed that news and entertainment media have a strong influence on non-Latinos’ perception of Latinos and immigrants” (2014). A recent result of this prejudiced depiction of immigrants is the outburst by the Republican Presidential Candidate of the United States, Donald Trump that Mexicans were bringing in drugs and are rapists. Fifi is an episode that shows Mexicans bringing in drugs, hence it plays to stereotypes.
There is a question about what is more distasteful, a soulless corporate world or a passionate drug and crime family. The Salamancas’ contribution to society is horribly bad but HHM is also tainted by corporate greed. An example of corporate greed is how Howard derails Kim’s goal of creating her own private practice by removing the rug under her feet. He teel Kim’s potential client, Messa Verde that Kim is not prepared to deal with corporate pressure and to deal with complex tax codes. Kim had earlier sold passion to Messa Verde but Chuck is able to crush her ambitions by pointing to the massive nature of the HHM law empire.
There is a certain sync between the episode “Fifi” and commercials in between the episodes. AMC aired trailers of its upcoming show The Night Manager. They also however aired a commercial of Cialis, a male libido enhancement drugs. The cialis appeal has to do with the time the show aired. It was during the night. It also shows that people at AMC know that their target audience is middle aged to older males. It is a product that promises men that they can get back their youth though enhanced virility. The men targeted by commercials during the airing of Better Call Saul are what Daniel Boorstin in Twitchell’s “What We Are to Advertisers” call “consumption communities” (2012, p. 1). They are a show watching community. The presence of Cialis commercials is not shocking since the culture in Better Call Saul is male dominated. Kim the only female character in the show works had to make it in a male dominated world with little success.
Conclusion, Better Call Saul provides critical lenses to explore the consumption culture and what fuels it in the United States of America. It is also an indictment on the United States’ legal system. It shows that the workings of the judicial system is like a giant conspiracy. Poor people have no recourse and those in high corporate law offices are indifferent to the plight of the disadvantaged. The show also shows that despite decades of fighting, women also have a long way to go in getting fair representation even in popular culture. Kim Wexler works hard but she does not get the recognition she deserves.
References
Gilligan, V. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2016). Better Call Saul. AMC. Season two.
Rodriguez, C. (2014). Does Hollywood have a Latino problem?. CNN. Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/showbiz/latino-stereotypes
Schor, J. (1999). The New Politics of Consumption. Boston Review
Twitchell, J. (2012). What we are to advertisers. In Signs of Life in the U.S.A: Readings on
Popular Culture for Writers. 4th ed. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
