Better Call Saul is the prequel series to Breaking Bad. Both shows are incredible, and probably my two favorite shows. The characters in these shows, especially Better Call Saul, have great nuance to them, and most of them have multiple “wants” or “needs” that are in opposition to each other.
It's my third watch of ‘Saul. I think - though I’ve also seen a couple of reactions to the series - and it clicked for me at last that the core of Saul/Jimmy is this desire to be seen as ‘good enough’. Or to see himself as good enough. At least that's how I'm thinking of the character at this point. The many other elements of his character, like his tenacity and intelligence, the way he cuts corners and so on - all that stuff is there to be explored and revealed.
As much as I love Jimmy, his companion Kim Wexler might be an even more interesting person - she's got conflicting desires as well. She wants to help people - she wants to be successful as well - and sometimes she has a craving for the dark side: she enjoys that rush. We see these opposing desires play out through the series and it leads to some wonderful, sometimes unpredictable moments. I'm not as solid on the “core” of Kim - but it has something to do with being a fixer, maybe. Not in a criminal way - but as a person she seems to want to take care of things and fix things. For herself, for her loved ones, for her clients.
These kinds of characters might be particularly well suited to the Crime genre - that's a genre where shades of gray belong! For plenty of stories, characters with this kind of inner turmoil probably aren't the best choice.
I don't know how often this level of character complexity and inner conflict exists in media - this show is more sophisticated than most in terms of character.
I mean no disrespect to other great movies, shows, books and so on, by the way - there are plenty that deliver in a powerful way on character. Novels, especially, can have extensive nuance to characters.
But a character with multiple opposing desires - with a core that makes sense - that's something special. Of course, it brings these fictional people in line with actual people; we real-life humans have wants and needs that contradict each other! That's life, even though it's probably too complicated for most fictional stories (other than series or novels) to delve into.
See you next time!
Character Wants - The Next Level
Banes at 12:00AM, June 27, 2024
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Banes at 3:34PM, June 27, 2024
@PaulEberhardt - absolutely, and if you do watch them I hope you’ll let me know what you’re thinking as you go along. Watch in release order to avoid those prequel spoilers!
Banes at 3:32PM, June 27, 2024
@marcorossi- yeah, having a “big thing” for a character (a ‘core’ or maybe ‘an itch to scratch’?) and building out from that can give plenty of facets to a character - its in the building out part that all these nuances can appear(and how they deal with specific other characters and situations and pressure. I do think that for plenty of stories, a multifaceted character is not really needed. If I understood you on that part.
Banes at 3:29PM, June 27, 2024
@Ozoneocean - I hope you’ll finish BB sometime, if you haven’t yet! XD - I haven’t seen Justified. But yeah, the ambiguity of characters can be addictive watching. Braking Bad (and Saul) definitely have fun with the journey from right to wrong, and (sometimes) back again…
PaulEberhardt at 5:03AM, June 27, 2024
These two series are definitely on my wanna watch list now. I've almost given up on TV and even movies as far as offering really outstanding characters and stories are concerned - don't get me wrong: you don't always need either, this is just about where to look for whatever amount of character depth I currently happen to want for my evening entertainment - and I'm glad to note that was a mistake. In real life, conflicting wants (and needs too) don't even have to make sense, although a core that does can normally be expected. That's what makes the human experience so interesting and is doubly so when exploring it in a character.
marcorossi at 4:07AM, June 27, 2024
I have this doubt: is it really a good thing to have very multifaceted characters? Wouldn't it be better to have each character have his/hers "big thing" and build them from that? I think the big problem of oversimplified characters is this, that since they and their world are created by an author, and therefore from a specific moral point of view, they will seem hollow if they come out as just a representation of that point of view (e.g. if an author is antiracist and all the characterisation of all the baddies consists only in them being racists for no apparent reason). But outside of that specific effect of hollowness, it seems to me that if there is a character whose main drive is that of being a racist asshole, it makes sense to build the character with the purpose of making him/her with the purpose of making a believable racist asshole (e.g. building his/her infancy to explain why he/she became racist).
Ozoneocean at 1:30AM, June 27, 2024
Interesting post Banes! I've never seen Saul but that was definitely a thing with Breaking Bad. No one was ever the goodies or baddies really, when there was a bit more shown of the character at least. It was quite like real life in that regard. Justified is a bit like that but from the other angle in that instead of the natural default of being a baddie, he's a default goodie, but we're shown that he's really made up of a lot of tones of grey... But even so he stays good, which makes him more heroic because of it