From Cicero to Albuquerque to Omaha, as Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman and Gene Takavic, Berwyn’s own Robert John “Bob” Odenkirk has gifted us with one of the all-time great multi-series characters in the history of television, alongside the likes of Ed Asner’s Lou Grant, Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier, Richard Belzer’s Detective John Munch and I’d argue for Sherman Helmsley’s George Jefferson and Isabel Sanford’s Louise Jefferson to join those ranks.
First seen in the eighth episode of Season 2 of the epic, Shakespearean meth opera “Breaking Bad” in 2009, Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman was quickly established as the speed-talking, fast-thinking, conniving and late-night commercial, locally famous court jester; but thanks to the amazingly fertile imagination of “BB” and “Saul” creator Vince Gilligan and Odenkirk’s brilliantly executed work, we’ve seen Jimmy/Saul/Gene evolve into one of the most complex, intriguing, manipulative, cunning, sometimes downright evil and yet somehow empathetic characters this side of Tony Soprano.
