Better Call Saul is perfect for our extremely online times because it knows how much we love a good scam

The Verge

"If Breaking Bad showed us what entitled toxic masculinity looked like when it ran rampant in the life of the most milquetoast protagonist imaginable, Better Call Saul is about a slower, sadder thing: a man who learns that having feelings is for suckers," says Joshua Rivera. "It’s a show for the irony-poisoned and extremely online where nothing is assumed to be genuine, and everything is probably a scam. Better Call Saul is concerned with what happens when people decide that scamming is the only way to win, and the immense harm inflicted by people who have convinced themselves that anyone behaving earnestly is just playing the game wrong. In Saul, this is illustrated by Kim Wexler, Jimmy’s longtime friend and girlfriend / partner, a damn good lawyer in her own right with a bit of a grifter’s streak in her. Kim, however, is a character of integrity with a sense of justice and lines that she only crosses when that notion of justice is violated. She’s a vigilante scammer where McGill is an equal-opportunity swindler. At the end of the day, she believes in the system and in Jimmy’s capacity to be an honest man. This means, in Better Call Saul’s universe, she’s doomed."

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• It's amazing how Better Call Saul is still consistently brilliant: "I am well aware of what a fantastic, thoughtfully crafted piece of television Better Call Saul is," says Jen Chaney. "Still, whenever I come back to it after a between-season hiatus, I’m astonished all over again by how well it’s crafted on every single level. Every aspect — the writing, directing, acting, production and costume design — has been rendered with tremendous precision, but the series still feels like an independent organism going in surprising directions all on its own. One of the pleasures of Better Call Saul is the extent to which watching it is like looking backward with 20/20 hindsight."
• Better Call Saul invites viewers to take ruthless inventory of themselves