The finale of Better Call Saul

spoilers for my fan fiction of how if should have been written

What is the ultimate moral content of Better Call Saul. What’s the “message”, if you were to look at it that way, and not just see it as a commercial product spread as thin as possible to milk Netflix subscriptions of a declining business model. If we were to take it seriously as art or literature, what would the “moral content” of it be?

You, who are relating to and sympathizing with, the main character Jimmy/Saul, are irredeemable. You are a piece of shit, and even if you try to not be, you always end up returning to your bad habits. Even if you go through a complicated process of self discovery and discover your own hideous nature, you can’t really do anything about it. Ultimately, the only moral action you are capable of is accepting imprisonment. You are an inherently destructive force in the world, and even if you try not to be, you will be. There is no action you can take. The only moral action is letting yourself be neutered. You can never be a good man.

It’s the story of a man indulging in his own self pity. In the final scene of the story, where he has finally accepted imprisonment, he is fundamentally the same person as in the first scene of the show. The world changes around him, the world reacts to him, he never changes. The fact that he never changes is presented as the tragedy of the show, as a contrast to the tragedy of “breaking bad” in Breaking Bad.

Jimmy’s change of heart during his final courtroom scene is not him accepting punishment. He is still in control, and he is still the smartest guy in the room. There’s never a real moment of surrender. He doesn't accept imprisonment, he doesn’t even really accept the moral judgment on him by others, as having done anything bad. He just happens to decide on a whim to punish himself. Even in his moment of supposed humiliation, he is still completely in control, and he decides. Not the court, not the judge, not the law. It’ just me, me, me. There’s no moral change in the character, just some kind of pointless pseudo-nietzchian self aggrandizement: to save all the little people you don’t respect from your terrible influence, you just have to fall on your own sword. You’re too smart. They will never catch you. isn’t that just flattering! What could be a greater compliment to a narcissist than this? Life imprisonment for being too smart. Where breaking bad ends with Walter losing everything, losing his family, Better Call Saul is not really a tragedy. It ends with Jimmy getting everything he has ever wanted: the ultimate undeserved punishment, for him to wallow about and feel overlooked and unappreciated about, by people who are dumber than him and don’t deserve to sit in judgment of him. A little masochist jerk off session.

The problem with making a story about a character who “never really changes”, who “fails” to change, is that it’s just not very compelling plot and drama, and it really becomes noticeable if you do it for, what was it, 60 hours or something? 70? And it’s at odds with the concept of “telling a story”, which is exactly about a character undergoing some kind of change. Ultimately, the only change Jimmy undergoes is material, his material surroundings. He goes from outside of jail to inside of jail.

Accepting punishment and letting yourself be imprisoned is not a change in character. From the first episodes of the show, Jimmy was always doing that, by his brother. “oh if the world didn't hold me back, if my brother didn't conspire against me, then I'd be a good lawyer”. Jimmy was always in prison.

To contrast and show what I mean, here’s how you would do it if you actually believed in human agency:

Instead of making it a huge flashback to create a bunch of story because you don’t know how to progress the character living under an assumed identity in hiding, and give him an ex wife so you can fake a kind of emotional payoff at the end, and instead of making it about lawyer stuff, you just make a story about Saul, disgraced criminal lawyer, living in hiding, and making it about him settling into his new environment. It’s not a show about a lawyer, it’s a story about a star bucks manager, who used to be a criminal, and used to be a lawyer.

You have him gradually settling into his new life, and the theme is about him overcoming his own resentment for being belittled and forced to work such a menial job, and gradually coming to see value in his new life. No mobsters, no Mexican hitmen showing up. No cartoon violence. Just an old man past his prime, coming to terms with failure, and eventually moving past it. It’s very rare to get a chance to start completely over. The plot is about him learning to appreciate that.

THEN, when you have him settled in, and made new friends, and made a new life for himself, THEN you have his past catch up to him. And then you resolve it by having him use the lessons learned and the friends he’s made in his new life. A mexian hitman shows up and says “this is for the cartel gringo”, but instead of using his lawyer powers to talk himself out of it, Jimmy remembers the time he went hunting with his new local friend he made over the past season, who he initially resented for being a small minded hick who didn't understand cool lawyer big city stuff. And he remembers that you can shoot a gun at an animal, which kills it. Then he uses that lesson to resolve the conflict, and on a thematic level, his new life resolves the returning demons from his past. It’s out of character for Jimmy to do so, which makes this a crucial moment of change for the character, as he rejects his past and embraces his new life.

You should demand more of your redemption than to just be punished for how cool and smart and charming you are. The plotlines of mainstream “entertainment” cultural artefacts is all being written by people who don’t believe in human agency, human redemption. It’s all just various degrees of defeatist, indulgent, narcissistic nihilism.

Also every single episode had at least 30 minutes of filler, its extremely bloated, the netflix model has been a disaster for direction. All the cartel plot should have been cut, completely pointless filler. The concept warranted perhaps 1/10th of the runtime in total. A huge waste of time.