What will it take for ‘Better Call Saul’ to finally win an Emmy? As we all know, this is the absolute last opportunity for the show to win an award – any award. Thanks to AMC’s decision to split the show’s final season into two halves, we still have the show’s final six episodes for your attention – and even though we’ve said goodbye to “Saul” there’s almost a year, it still deserves our attention.
And of course, at the top of that list is star Bob Odenkirk, who transformed what started as a guest spot on “Breaking Bad” into one of the most iconic characters in television history. Last year, we finally got an Emmy nomination for Rhea Seehorn, and the show as a whole has landed 46 nominations over the years. But this is not enough.
I do not hide my love for “Saul”. I’ve been a fan of the show since the very beginning – which wasn’t hard, I know, since we were all obsessed with “Breaking Bad” before that. But I’ve felt a special connection to the Vince Gilligan universe since I had the honor of moderating the first “Breaking Bad” panel at Comic-Con in 2012, and I’ve been moderating “Saul” panels since the beginning.
So yes, I am biased. No bones about it. But don’t listen to me. Listen to American treasure Carol Burnett instead. The iconic superstar has found herself in a central role in these final six episodes of “Saul” as Marion, an elderly woman who ends up dropping a penny on Saul Goodman – then going under the pseudonym Gene Takavic – after having enlisted his son in some crime.
“I was a huge ‘Breaking Bad’ fan and knew Vince Gilligan, he’s a buddy and a friend,” Burnett recently told me. “When they started ‘Better Call Saul’, I got hooked on it. We were having dinner one night and he said, ‘you know, maybe I’ll write you something for Saul.’ I said, I don’t care if it’s a sentence. I’ll be there. Because I love their writing. I spent two and a half months in New Mexico doing this and it was just a delight.
Burnett is also a huge fan of Odenkirk, which makes perfect sense: two comedians who changed the game for sketch comedy – “The Carol Burnett Show” and “Mr. Show” among the most influential in history. Burnett says if she had a show today, Odenkirk would be at the top of her guest list.
Which is no surprise. Odenkirk can do it all. His memoir even escapes this in the title: “Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama”. Odenkirk’s transition from sketch comedian to acclaimed dramatic actor to…action hero (“Nobody”) is now legendary. And by the way, Odenkirk’s physical transformation for ‘Nobody’ – which gave him the best shape of his life – probably saved his life too, when he survived a massive heart attack on the set of ‘Saul “.
We are lucky that Bob Odenkirk is still with us. And fortunately, he even has another series for us. And he even goes by the name “Lucky Hank”.
But back to “You better call Saul”. Because Emmy voting is a bit of a crap shoot, sometimes the award misses recognizing a historic show or actor before that series ends. Steve Carell has never won an Emmy for ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks & Recreation’ has never won an Emmy (including for star Amy Poehler) – just two examples of Emmy injustices. I fear we are about to experience another. Odenkirk has at least two Emmys already — both written for a variety or music show, via “Saturday Night Live” in 1989 and “The Ben Stiller Show” in 1993. That was 30 years ago — and he is time. Somehow, somewhere, Emmy better reward “Saul.”