Better Call Saul (season 5)
The fifth season of the AMC television series Better Call Saul premiered on February 23, 2020, in the United States, and concluded on April 20, 2020. The ten-episode season was broadcast on Mondays at 9:00pm in the United States on AMC; excluding the premiere episode which was broadcast on a Sunday. Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, and Giancarlo Esposito reprise their roles from previous seasons and are joined by Tony Dalton, promoted to the main cast from his recurring role in the previous season. Better Call Saul is a spin-off prequel of Breaking Bad created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould.
This season picks up where the fourth season left off, also taking place in 2004; four years before Saul Goodman meets Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. The season, the second-to-last planned by AMC, shows the further evolution of Jimmy into the titular character, criminal defense lawyer "Saul Goodman", after regaining his law license, while fully rejecting the goodwill that Howard extends to him in the wake of Chuck's death. Kim is dismayed by Jimmy's secretive and sporadic nature as well as her own willingness to go along with Jimmy's morally-ambiguous motives to move ahead in her casework. Lalo Salamanca's presence in Albuquerque disrupts Gus Fring's legitimate restaurant business and his reputation with the Juarez cartel. Both Nacho Varga, fearing for his father's safety, and Mike Ehrmantraut, struggling with his killing of Werner Ziegler, are caught between Gus and Lalo's conflict, eventually drawing Jimmy and Kim in.
The fifth season received universal acclaim from critics. It received four pending nominations at the upcoming 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Drama Series.
Cast and characters
Main
- Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman / Gene Takavic, recently reinstated to the New Mexico bar association, now practices criminal defense law as Saul Goodman. In the present, Gene is a fugitive working at an Omaha Cinnabon.
- Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, a Madrigal corporate security consultant, "fixer" for Gus Fring's criminal ambitions.
- Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, primarily a corporate banking lawyer with a moral passion for public defense cases, Jimmy's girlfriend/wife and legal confidant.
- * Katie Beth Hall portrays a young Kim in a flashback in "Wexler v. Goodman".
- Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin, the sole managing partner of Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill following Chuck McGill's death in the third season.
- Michael Mando as Nacho Varga, a lieutenant in the Juarez drug cartel, now overseeing daily operations in Albuquerque; torn between the vicious Salamanca enforcers and Gus Fring's ambitions for removal of Don Eladio, his allegiance is co-opted by Fring, after trying to kill Hector Salamanca.
- Tony Dalton as Lalo Salamanca, acting head of the brutal Salamanca family of enforcers, fixer for Don Eladio's Albuquerque distribution.
- Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring, Chilean national, now Albuquerque narcotics distributor under Don Eladio's Juarez cartel; using his fried chicken chain, Los Pollos Hermanos, as a legitimate front.
Recurring
- Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca, a once brutal drug enforcer who, following a stroke, has been left unable to walk or speak.
- Max Arciniega as Krazy-8 Molina, a meth distributor working for Nacho.
- Josh Fadem as Camera Guy, a UNM film student who helps Jimmy on various projects and schemes.
- Hayley Holmes as Drama Girl, a UNM film student.
- Julian Bonfiglio as Sound Guy, a UNM film student.
- Kerry Condon as Stacey Ehrmantraut, Mike's widowed daughter-in-law and the mother of Kaylee Ehrmantraut.
- Jeremiah Bitsui as Victor, one of Gus's henchmen.
- Ray Campbell as Tyrus Kitt, one of Gus's henchmen.
- Juan Carlos Cantu as Manuel Varga, Nacho's father, owner of an upholstery shop.
- Dean Norris as Hank Schrader, a DEA agent; reprising his role from Breaking Bad.
- Steven Michael Quezada as Steven Gomez, an Albuquerque DEA agent; reprising his role from Breaking Bad.
- Dennis Boutsikaris as Rich Schweikart, founding partner of Schweikart & Cokely, Kim's boss.
- Barry Corbin as Everett Acker, the sole homeowner contesting property that Mesa Verde plans to use for a call center.
- Rex Linn as Kevin Wachtell, CEO of the Mesa Verde Bank & Trust.
- Cara Pifko as Paige Novick, senior counsel at Mesa Verde Bank & Trust.
- Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux, professional pickpocket, Jimmy's security and fixer.
- Javier Grajeda as Juan Bolsa, a Juarez drug cartel underboss.
- Peter Diseth as Bill Oakley, deputy district attorney.
Guests
- Robert Forster as Ed Galbraith, a vacuum cleaner repairman, creates new identities for fugitives; reprising his role from Breaking Bad and .
- Stefan Kapičić as Casper, a team member of Werner Ziegler's failed project for the construction of Gus' meth "superlab".
- Ben Bela Böhm as Kai, a member of Werner Ziegler's team for the construction of Gus' meth "superlab".
- Sasha Feldman and Morgan Krantz as Sticky and Ron, a pair of drug users and petty criminals who become Jimmy's clients.
- JB Blanc as Barry Goodman, a doctor on Gus Fring's payroll.
- Steven Ogg as Sobchak / Mr. X, a criminal and private investigator.
- Ed Begley Jr. as Clifford Main, founding partner of Davis & Main Attorney's at Law, second season.
- Norbert Weisser as Peter Schuler, the CEO of Madrigal Electromotive, the parent company of Gus's Los Pollos Hermanos restaurants; reprising his role from Breaking Bad.
- Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, a Madrigal Electromotive executive, liaison to Gus Fring; reprising her role from Breaking Bad.
- Daniel Moncada and Luis Moncada as Leonel and Marco Salamanca, Hector's nephews, Tuco's cousins, brutal Juarez cartel hitmen.
- Steven Bauer as Don Eladio Vuente, the head of the Juarez drug cartel.
- Roy Wood Jr. as Grant, an Albuquerque public defender.
Production
Development
On July 28, 2018, AMC renewed Better Call Saul for a fifth season, just prior to the airing of the fourth season. At the time of renewal, the number of episodes had yet to be specified, and even after the conclusion of the fourth season in October 2018, Gould said they were still in discussions with Sony Pictures Television for how long the fifth season would be, given that Better Call Saul had a finite amount of content. AMC confirmed that the fifth season would have ten episodes with the November 2019 announcement of the season premiere on February 23, 2020 with a special two-episode showing on consecutive days before returns to a normal weekly release schedule; prior to airing the fifth season, AMC also announced they had green-lighted Better Call Saul for a final, 13-episode season. The fifth season concluded on April 20, 2020.Writing
On what to expect in the fifth season, series co-creator Peter Gould said:Casting
Main cast members Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, and Giancarlo Esposito return from previous seasons as Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman, Mike Ehrmantraut, Kim Wexler, Howard Hamlin, Nacho Varga, and Gus Fring. Tony Dalton, who recurred in season four as Lalo Salamanca, was promoted to the main cast for the fifth season. In January 2020, it was announced that Breaking Bad actors Dean Norris and Steven Michael Quezada would reprise their roles as Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez, along with actor Robert Forster who appeared posthumously as Ed Galbraith. The first episode of the season was dedicated to Forster.Filming
Filming for the fifth season began on April 10, 2019, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and ended in September 2019.In the first scene of the season, Jimmy is hiding his real identity under his Gene Takavic alias while working at a Cinnabon in a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska. The Cinnabon scenes in Better Call Saul are set in Omaha, but filmed at the Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Episodes
Broadcast
In the United States, the season debuted with a two-night premiere, on Sunday, February 23, 2020, before returning to its regular time slot on Monday, February 24. In the weeks prior to the premiere, AMC had run a Breaking Bad marathon leading into the AMC premiere showing of as lead-in to Better Call Sauls fifth season. Regarding the decision to air the fifth season nearly a year and a half after the fourth, Sarah Barnett, the president of the entertainment networks group at AMC Networks, said the long hiatus was "driven by talent needs, which we would not override if it would result in a worse show."Outside the U.S. in certain international markets, like previous seasons, season 5 is released on Netflix with episodes available the day after the episodes are broadcast on AMC.
''Ethics Training with Kim Wexler''
AMC released ten mini-episodes of Ethics Training with Kim Wexler alongside the fifth season of Better Call Saul, which were presented on both YouTube and AMC's social media sites. This series follows similar series Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training w/ Gus Fring for season three and Madrigal Electromotive Security Training presented by Mike Ehrmantraut for the fourth season. The ethics training videos are presented as continuing education videos mixing live-action segments of Kim with Jimmy filming her behind the scenes along with animated segments, and are a product of "Saul Goodman Productions". The animated segments include nods to both Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. The series received a nomination for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.Reception
Critical response
The fifth season of Better Call Saul has been universally acclaimed by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 99% based on 40 reviews, the best reviewed Better Call Saul season on the site, with an average rating of 8.89/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Grounded by Bob Odenkirk's endlessly nuanced, lived-in performance, Better Call Sauls fifth season is a darkly funny, vividly realized master class in tragedy." On Metacritic, the season has a score of 92 out of 100 based on 16 critics, the highest score of all seasons of the series, indicating "universal acclaim".Kelly Connolly of TV Guide gave it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "This is why Better Call Saul is better at being a prequel than other prequels are: It understands that the tragedy of fate is baked into the story." Writing for Collider, Adam Chitwood gave it a perfect 5/5 star review, stating "Better Call Saul is revealing itself to be a possibly even better series , and one with more nuance. In addition to the thematic complexity, the direction and execution of this series is unparalleled by anything on television right now."
The final few episodes of the season were particularly highly regarded by critics as they finally had the two stories of Better Call Saul, Jimmy's story involving legal work, and Mike's story involving the drug cartel, fully intersect after several seasons to a great effect. The episode "Bagman" received universal acclaim from critics and audiences, with some considering it to be the series' best episode. The following episode "Bad Choice Road" received similar acclaim.
Rhea Seehorn's performance as Kim during the fifth season was highly praised, particularly with the final scene from "Bad Choice Road" in which she stood up to Lalo for Jimmy, and her revealing that Kim appeared to be "breaking bad" herself on her last scene in "Something Unforgivable". CNN's Brian Lowry said "This has, in essence, really been Seehorn's year, crystallizing what has drawn Kim to Jimmy, and his mounting fears that his activities were endangering her."
Ratings
Accolades
For the 36th TCA Awards, Better Call Saul received nominations for Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Drama and Rhea Seehorn is nominated for Individual Achievement in Drama.For the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, it received four pending nominations–Outstanding Drama Series, Giancarlo Esposito for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Thomas Schnauz and Gordon Smith each for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the episodes "Bad Choice Road" and "Bagman", respectively. Further nominations include Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for Employee Training: Legal Ethics With Kim Wexler, Outstanding Music Supervision, Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series, and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series. Several critics felt that Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn were significant Emmy snubs. Brian Tallerico of Rolling Stone referred to Seehorn's work as "one of the best performances on any show in the last decade" and Liz Shannon Miller of Collider wrote, "Seehorn in particular hurts after turning in career-best work; Kim Wexler's journey in Season 5 was a heartbreaking, even chilling experience".