The Endless Hustle; or, Saul Goodman Out of Time

This essay argues that the alternating rhythms with which AMC's Better Call Saul moves though time, and the alternating temporal frames of reference with which it represents Saul Goodman's “hustling” specifically, represent self-conscious efforts to clarify the narrative affordances of the serial television medium. These temporal experiments also elucidate the felt endlessness of waged work in the context of go-nowhere careers. In both capacities, Better Call Saul adumbrates formal and thematic concerns central not only to Breaking Bad, but also to twenty-five years of prestige TV.