Bob Odenkirk's Better Call Saul Rule Is What Makes The Spinoff Great
One reason Better Call Saul is such a good spinoff is a smart rule invented by star Bob Odenkirk. It's not always the case that actors get to weigh in much on how their characters should be portrayed, at least at first. Show creators, writers, and producers generally have an idea of how they want a character to behave, and how they want that character to be perceived, long before anyone actually steps in front of a camera to shoot the first episode.
In Better Call Saul's case, though, it makes sense that Odenkirk's opinions and ideas would be given their due weight by those crafting the show, as Odenkirk had made the Saul Goodman character his own over multiple seasons of Breaking Bad. He was first introduced when Walter White and Jesse Pinkman needed a criminal lawyer to get them out of a jam in season 2, and quickly became a fan-favorite member of the extended Breaking Bad cast.
Related: Better Call Saul: Bob Odenkirk's Season 6 Theory Is Better Than Kim Dying
The thing was, Saul was a pretty scummy person as depicted on Breaking Bad. While he was funny and entertaining, he often behaved in immoral — or at least amoral — ways, willing to do all kinds of awful things for his equally morally compromised clients. That's likely why Bob Odenkirk came into Better Call Saul with a single demand for co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould: Saul, aka Jimmy McGill, had to be a likable character. Odenkirk didn't believe Breaking Bad's Saul was a likable person, and if the spinoff was going to be a success, he felt Jimmy needed to be presented in a more likable light. This rule has definitely paid off.
While Breaking Bad itself proved through the moral devolution of Walter White that a show doesn't necessarily need a likable
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