Saul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill: The Better Call Saul Critical Companion

The complete critical companion to AMC’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated series Better Call Saul from the author of Breaking Bad 101 and The Sopranos Sessions

Across six critically acclaimed seasons, Better Call Saul surprised audiences and subverted Breaking Bad fans’ expectations for what a prequel/sequel series could be. Bob Odenkirk reprised his role as the morally compromised defensive attorney and revealed the tragic and inevitable downfall of Jimmy McGill, a small-time con artist with big dreams and even bigger schemes. Audiences were introduced to now iconic characters, including Rhea Seahorn’s Kim and Michael McKean’s Chuck, as well as villains like Tony Dalton’s Lalo, who rivaled Breaking Bad’s most sinister creations. In Saul Goodman v. Jimmy McGill: The Better Call Saul Critical Companion collects chief TV critic at Rolling Stone Alan Sepinwall’s critical essays on every episode of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated series. Sepinwall covered Better Call Saul from start to finish, and conducted exhaustive interviews with creator Vince Gilligan and stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seahorn, reproduced here alongside new interviews with series cocreator Peter Gould. Timed to the 10th anniversary of the first season, this ultimate companion book, and follow-up to Breaking Bad 101, serves as a guide to the series’ greatness and place in pop-culture history as fan’s kickoff celebratory rewatches and new fans discover the series for the first time.

Alan Sepinwall has been writing about television for more than a quarter century and is considered one of the preeminent voices in the world of TV criticism. He has written or cowritten many books on the medium, including The Revolution Was Televised, New York Times bestsellers TV (THE BOOK) and The Sopranos Sessions, and Breaking Bad 101. Prior to his current job as the chief TV critic at Rolling Stone, Sepinwall worked as the lead TV columnist for the Star-Ledger newspaper of New Jersey, and later moved online to review television for HitFix and Uproxx. Slate has said Sepinwall ＂changed the nature of television criticism＂ and called him the ＂acknowledged king of the form.＂