After the two-night premiere of the Breaking Bad-spinoff Better Call Saul a few weeks ago, I (desperate to avoid doing billable work) was talking with one of my friends at work about the show. She pointed out that seeing Jimmy McGill’s struggles to make ends meet as an attorney gave her deep anxiety about her own future as a lawyer. Her comment has stuck with me as I watched the three subsequent episodes. At the end of my February 12 column initially reviewing the show, I stated that I would revisit the show two or three more times in the season. For now, I am going to save my thoughts about what I think about the show artistically. Instead, based on my friend’s comment, I want to explore the show’s excellent depiction of attorneys, both small-time and big-time.
On one end of the spectrum is Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk). Jimmy (and as I mentioned in my previous column, I will be referring to the title character as “Jimmy” instead of “Saul” for the time being) is an attorney in dire straits. He is forced to sleep in a bed in his tiny, spartan office, which is in the back of a nail salon (somehow even less glamorous than Doc Sportello’s room in the back of a doctor’s office in Inherent Vice). The highlight of Jimmy’s day is being able to drink the salon’s cucumber water after hours (though, to be fair, the cucumber water looks pretty awesome).
Jimmy also has to scramble in order to obtain clients. He dreams of representing Craig and Betsy Kettleman, who have been accused of embezzling money from the county coffers. But the Kettlemans instead hire Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, the show’s fictional behemoth Albuquerque law firm. Undeterred (and partially to save himself after the police think that Jimmy’s client Nacho (Michael Mando) kidnapped the Kettlemans), Jimmy traipses through the desert on foot and discovers the Kettlemans hanging out in a tent, clearly having faked their own kidnapping. Despite the damage that the trek has inflicted on Jimmy’s business wardrobe, Jimmy is elated, believing that he can blackmail the Kettlemans into hiring him. But the Kettlements nevertheless reject Jimmy, with Betsy cruelly telling Jimmy that he is the “kind of lawyer that guilty people hire.” While we know from Breaking Bad that this description will eventually become accurate (and will make Saul Goodman a very wealthy man), this line completely devastates Jimmy. Odenkirk plays the scene perfectly, as his face portrays how deep the insult cuts, as his dreams of being a legitimately successful attorney are further thwarted.
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Even though the Kettlemans do not retain Jimmy, they nevertheless offer him a bribe to keep quiet about the faked kidnapping. In a darkly hilarious scene, Jimmy sits in his office late at night, drinking alcohol (probably mixed with cucumber water — a potent potable that will hopefully sweep the nation) and trying to “bill his time” to account for the illicit cash.
As an associate at a firm, I sometimes take for granted the process of actually obtaining clients. But for Jimmy, his entire livelihood depends on somehow convincing the moronic Kettlemans to hire him. As I was watching the scene, I was reminded of the great Alfred Molina scene in the film Boogie Nights (with the fantastic use of “Sister Christian” and “Jessie’s Girl”), which served as the nadir in Dirk Diggler’s life. This scene in Better Call Saul was arguably an equally low point for Jimmy on the show so far, a scene that asks the audience whether, given similar circumstances, they would succumb to accepting a bribe (my official answer for any New York State Bar officials reading this column is that I would obviously never take one!).
On the other end of the spectrum is Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, whose co-founder Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) is at odds with Jimmy due to the firm’s treatment of Jimmy’s brother Chuck (Michael McKean). The audience’s point of view character into the firm is associate Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn). The show had done a fantastic job over the past three episodes of using Kim to depict the aimlessness of Biglaw life.
My favorite example comes from the February 23 episode “Hero.” Thanks to Jimmy’s sleuthing, the Kettlemans (Howard’s and Kim’s clients) face possible criminal prosecution for faking their own kidnapping. Kim is sitting at her desk as Howard walks in. Ever trying to please the firm’s name partner, Kim helpfully asks Howard’s permission to hire a public relations firms for the Kettlemans. Instead of responding to Kim’s query, Howard just stares out into space and says “mmm-hmm,” clearly preoccupied with the fact that Jimmy has rented a huge billboard where Jimmy is dressed up to look exactly like Howard. Mindful that Howard has not even remotely answered her question, Kim responds by nervously again asking Howard if she should go ahead and hire the PR firm.
This scene really resonated with me. I can think of countless instances where I have asked a partner a question, only to have the partner half-answer my question and then launch into a tangent about something completely irrelevant. I am then forced to re-ask my question, hoping that the partner does not get angry at me. This subtle scene was probably 50 times more effective at encapsulating life as an associate at a law firm than any scene that I have seen in Suits.
Part of this is Seehorn’s excellent performance as Kim. I love the way that her voice becomes much more timid and nervous when she talks to Howard than when she speaks with anyone else. For example, in Monday’s episode, she is hanging out with Jimmy at the nail salon in a jovial mood, but when Howard calls her on the phone, her voice and tone completely changes. As opposed to a show like Suits where every character — no matter how junior — is always champing at the bit to argue with the senior partners, Better Call Saul is much closer to reality, where associates like me are often scared of speaking up in front of senior partners. Moreover, I really liked Seehorn’s line delivery in this week’s episode when she forlornly lamented to Jimmy that “even [his] lousy days are more interesting than [her] good ones.” I think a lot of unhappy Biglaw associates like me would yearn for one of Jimmy’s “lousy” days (where — among other things — he met with a prospective client who wanted to secede from the United States).
Even Kim’s office space hits home. As opposed to the cavernous law firm offices on a show like Suits (one thing I forgot to mention in my Suits column last week is the fact that every lawyer at Pearson Specter Litt seems to only have a tiny laptop on his or her desk; that firm needs to begin a two-screen experience), Kim’s office is small and full of papers. After Howard asks her to accompany him to see the billboard, Kim has to literally maneuver her body to avoid an avalanche of papers. I chuckled at that scene, and was reminded of my own desk, which is full of so many binders and random papers that I could have an original copy of the Declaration of Independence in there somewhere and I probably wouldn’t know it.
In an interview with Vox from early February, co-showrunners Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan stated that in creating Better Call Saul, they hung around court and spoke with numerous lawyers for research. Gould and Gilligan explained that they learned that the vast majority of life as a lawyer is not as glamorous as portrayed in television shows and films like Law & Order or A Few Good Men, a conclusion that is obvious to attorneys but is perhaps a surprise to television producers. Gilligan added that they planned to “showing a different side” of life as a lawyer “that you don’t see in other TV shows and other movies.” Through both Jimmy and Kim, they have definitely succeeded so far. And, of course, the show has been equally successful in its depiction of cucumber water.
Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.