Better Call Saul/Staffel 6

The sixth and final season of the AMC television series Better Call Saul premiered on April 18, 2022, in the United States, and will consist of 13 episodes split into two parts. The second half of the season will premiere on July 11, 2022. The season is also streamed on AMC+ in the U.S. and on Netflix internationally.

Better Call Saul is a spin-off prequel of Breaking Bad created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Bob Odenkirk (Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman), Jonathan Banks (Mike Ehrmantraut), Rhea Seehorn (Kim Wexler), Patrick Fabian (Howard Hamlin), Michael Mando (Nacho Varga), Tony Dalton (Lalo Salamanca), and Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring) reprise their roles from previous seasons. The season mainly takes place in 2004, four years before the events of Breaking Bad. Vorlage:Toc limit

Cast and characters

Main

• Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman, a criminal defense attorney practicing under the name Saul Goodman, and Kim Wexler's husband. In the present, he manages a Cinnabon store in Omaha under the alias Gene Takavic.
• Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, a fixer in Gus Fring's criminal enterprise.
• Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, a lawyer and Jimmy's wife and confidante.
• Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin, managing partner of the Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill law firm.
• Michael Mando as Nacho Varga, a lieutenant in the Salamanca organization who oversees daily operations in Albuquerque.
• Tony Dalton as Lalo Salamanca, acting head of the Salamanca family, drug dealers and enforcers for Don Eladio's Juárez Cartel.
• Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring, an Albuquerque narcotics distributor for the Juárez Cartel who uses his fried chicken chain Los Pollos Hermanos as a front.

Recurring

• Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca, a once brutal drug dealer and cartel enforcer who suffered a stroke and is unable to walk or speak.
• Daniel and Luis Moncada as Leonel and Marco Salamanca, twin hitmen for the Juárez Cartel.
• Ed Begley Jr. as Clifford Main, founding partner of Davis & Main Attorneys at Law.
• Ray Campbell as Tyrus Kitt, one of Gus's henchmen.
• Javier Grajeda as Juan Bolsa, a Juarez drug cartel underboss.
• Jeremiah Bitsui as Victor, one of Gus's henchmen.

Guests

• Julie Ann Emery as Betsy Kettleman and Jeremy Shamos as Craig Kettleman, a married couple whom Jimmy, and later Kim represented during an embezzlement case, and who attempted to extort Jimmy. Since Craig's release from prison they have operated a shady tax preparation service.
• Jessie Ennis as Erin Brill, a lawyer at Davis & Main.
• Rex Linn as Kevin Wachtell, CEO of Mesa Verde Bank & Trust.
• Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux, professional pickpocket and Jimmy's bodyguard and fixer.
• Juan Carlos Cantu as Manuel Varga, Nacho's father who owns an upholstery shop.
• Julie Pearl as Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Ericsen.
• Tina Parker as Francesca Liddy, Saul's secretary.
• Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a middle-aged high school chemistry teacher who, during the events of Breaking Bad, becomes involved with the drug trade and enlists Saul to help launder his money.
• Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, a former student of Walter's who works with him to produce meth.

Production

Development

In January 2020, AMC renewed Better Call Saul for a sixth season. Showrunner Peter Gould and AMC representatives confirmed it would be the series' final season and would consist of 13 episodes, higher than the usual 10. This will bring the series' final episode count to 63, one more than its predecessor Breaking Bad. Gould stated, "From the beginning when we started this, I think all our hopes and dreams were to be able to tell the whole storyVorlage:Nbsp... and make it to be a complete story from beginning to endVorlage:Nbsp[...] We're going to try like hell to stick the landing of these 63 episodes." Giancarlo Esposito had previously speculated in April 2019 that the series would end with a sixth season because it was the "comfortable way" to do so, similar to how Breaking BadVorlage:'s fifth and final season was split into two halves, giving the feel that the latter half was the sixth season. Gould said he initially doubted how he could do 13 episodes because the 10-episode count of previous seasons proved physically exhausting for him, but executive producer and writer Thomas Schnauz convinced him to go for 13, saying, "You'll know it's the last 13 so you'll see the barn in the distance. You'll be like the horse that gallops down the last bit."

Writing

In February 2020, Gould suggested the sixth season would explore Saul Goodman's flashforwards as Gene Takavic to a greater extent than previous seasons. By April 2020, scripting for the season had already begun. Gould did not want the season to be anticlimactic, so, to deliver a satisfactory conclusion to Better Call Saul, he brought co-creator Vince Gilligan back to the writer's room "for a good chunk of the season". Gilligan had not been involved in the writers' room since early in season three. By December 2020, scripting was still not complete, with Gould saying the writers having to communicate through Zoom, rather than in person, was like "trying to dance in quick sand".

Gould later said, "Anybody who watches the show carefully and is thinking about where this is all going, one of the questions you have to ask yourself is: 'What does this man deserve?'Vorlage:Nbsp[...] Not just: 'What's going to happen to him?,' but 'What would be a deserving end to this? Does Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Vorlage:Sic deserve death? Does he deserve love? What would be the most fitting end for this guy – for the show?' Obviously the end for everybody is death, but that may not be where we leave this guy. Is there any way for him to win any redemption after everything that he's done?" During filming of the season, series star Bob Odenkirk said that Gould told him that "when Better Call Saul is done it will shed new lightVorlage:Nbsp... you will see Breaking Bad and the story of Breaking Bad in a different way", comparing to its final season where Gilligan had "start[ed] knocking things down and start[ed] lighting fires and burning everything down".

Casting

In March 2022, Laura Fraser, who portrayed Lydia Rodarte-Quayle in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, confirmed she was unable to reprise her role due to COVID-19 restrictions preventing travel between the United States and Scotland, where she lived when the final season began filming. Prior to the season premiere, it was announced that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul would reprise their roles from Breaking Bad for the final season as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively.

Filming

COVID-19 delays

In April 2020, Michael Mando and Tony Dalton separately said filming was scheduled to begin that September, but both were unsure if it would be delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Rhea Seehorn said in July that filming would not begin until it was safe to do so. In August, producer Mark Johnson said the pandemic could limit where the series films by eschewing specific indoor locations: "Like a lot of other people, we're going to have to be very creative in where and how we shootVorlage:Nbsp[...] A lot of places just won't let you inVorlage:Nbsp[...] We don't want everything to be a chamber piece". In the same month, Gould said filming was unlikely to start in 2020 due to the pandemic, adding that while Sony Pictures Television was doing "everything humanly" possible for the series to resume filming safely, "I think we are probably going to delay a little bit unfortunately." In October, Esposito said filming would begin in March 2021, which was echoed by Odenkirk in February 2021.

Filming officially began on March 10, 2021, in New Mexico. Each episode was expected to take about three weeks to film, a longer filming schedule compared to previous seasons, where a typical episode was filmed in nine days. Production was predicted to last roughly eight months, but filming instead wrapped after eleven months on February 9, 2022.

Odenkirk's on-set collapse

On July 27, 2021, after filming for twelve hours with Seehorn and Fabian, Odenkirk was riding his exercise bike when he suffered a heart attack. Health safety supervisor, Rosa Estrada, and assistant director, Angie Meyer, administered CPR and deployed an automated defibrillator; it took three attempts for his pulse to return. Odenkirk was rushed to Presbyterian Hospital, where two stents were put in his body to relieve plaque buildup. Odenkirk was treated without further surgery and took a short break from filming, requiring production to make some schedule changes to accommodate this. In mid-August, Dalton said scenes not involving Odenkirk were being filmed, but Odenkirk had not yet been given clearance to return. Odenkirk confirmed by early September 2021 that he was back on set filming.

Averted IATSE strike

In October 2021, a potential strike by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) would have resulted in all productions in the New Mexico film and television industry shutting down, including Better Call Saul. Odenkirk, Gould, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and several members of the New Mexico state legislature voiced their support for the IATSE and for creating better working conditions for the unionized crew members. On October 16, 2021, a tentative agreement was made before the deadline between the IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, temporarily averting a strike. The contract was ratified by the IATSE members on November 15, 2021, ending all prospects of a strike and allowing production to continue without interruption.

Broadcast

When the sixth season was ordered in January 2020, it was scheduled to premiere in 2021. However, in April 2020, Gilligan said that would depend on whether the cast and crew would be able to film in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, AMC confirmed that the sixth season would likely premiere in the first quarter of 2022. Gould's preference was to have all 13 episodes of the sixth season aired weekly and not for the season to be split in any manner; however, he noted that only AMC would decide the scheduling.

In early November 2021, Variety reported that the season would air over two halves, which was confirmed on the official announcement date in February 2022. The first seven episodes began airing on April 18, 2022, and the last six episodes will air starting July 11, 2022, with a six-week break in between both halves. This was a a much shorter break compared to the final season of Breaking Bad, where the two halves aired a year apart. The reasoning for the split is to nominate each half of the season for different Emmy Awards ceremonies, as the first half would be eligible for the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2022, while eligibility for the next year's ceremony begins in June.

In certain international markets, like previous seasons, the sixth season is being released on Netflix with episodes available the day after the episodes are broadcast on AMC.

Reception

Critical response

The sixth season of Better Call Saul has received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 100% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 9.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Better Call Saul remains as masterfully in control as Jimmy McGill keeps insisting he is in this final season, where years of simmering storytelling come to a scintillating boil." On Metacritic, the season has a score of 94 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Vorlage:Television Rotten Tomatoes scores

Related media

American Greed: James McGill

On April 1, 2022, a few weeks before the season premiere, the CNBC Prime YouTube account uploaded American Greed: James McGill. Written by Peter Gould's assistant Valerie Chu, the ten-minute short is a mockumentary done in the style of the documentary series American Greed and recaps the events of both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Narrated by Stacy Keach, the mockumentary features interviews of several recurring Better Call Saul characters, including DA Suzanne Ericsen (Julie Pearl), Deputy DA Bill Oakley (Peter Diseth), and Kim Wexler's former boss Rich Schweikart (Dennis Boutsikaris). Also making reappearances are Betsy and Craig Kettleman (Julie Ann Emery and Jeremy Shamos, respectively), who had not appeared on the series since the first season, but made additional canonical appearances in the short film No Picnic, which was released after the third season, and on the Inside the Gilliverse podcast in 2020. The short film was shot in Albuquerque in March 2022, a year after Emery and Shamos filmed the Better Call Saul episode "Carrot and Stick".

Better Call Saul Employee Training Video

For the sixth season, new episodes of the Better Call Saul Employee Training Video series, which had begun with the show's third season, were announced.

Slippin' Jimmy

Variety reported in March 2021 that AMC was developing an animated spinoff series, Slippin' Jimmy. The series was later revealed as a short-form series; a six-part animated series to be aired online during the sixth season of Better Call Saul. Told in the style of cartoons from the 1970s, each episode is an ode to a specific film genre — from Spaghetti Westerns and Buster Keaton to The Exorcist. The series will be produced by Rick and Morty animators Starburns and written by Better Call Saul writers Ariel Levine and Kathleen Williams-Foshee. Voice actors include Chi McBride, Laraine Newman, and Sean Giambrone as Jimmy. It is set to premiere on May 23, 2022.

External links

• Vorlage:Official website
• Vorlage:IMDb episodes