Better Call Saul might have officially ended, but many are still reminiscing about the show and the characters. The show would not be what it turned out to be without its well-written characters and, of course, the actors who played these characters for six incredible seasons. So for those still clinging to the bittersweet farewell of Better Call Saul and who would like to see those familiar faces, we have compiled a list of the actors’ must-see performances in other films and television shows.
The list proves that Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Tony Dalton, Michael McKean, and the rest of the Better Call Saul cast members have mastered their crafts as some of the greatest actors of our time.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Nobody’
Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is an ordinary “nobody” trapped in a mundane existence. When two burglars break into his home, Hutch fails to defend himself, his wife, and his children from the incident. Hutch’s wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), and their teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe), are left with nothing but disappointment and find themselves pulling away from him.
The repercussions of this event propel something in Hutch: summoning the courage, he never knew he had. In a brutal storm of fists, gunfire, and moving transportation, Hutch must save his family from the Russian drug lord, Yulian Kuznetsov (Aleksei Serebryakov), and his men.
Rhea Seehorn in ‘Cooper’s Bar’
While Rhea Seehorn’s Better Call Saul character, Kim Wexler, is deadly serious, her role in the short-form comedy series Cooper’s Bar is the opposite. “Somewhere” in Los Angeles, TV executive and self-described “biggest d*ck in Hollywood” Kris Latimer (Rhea Seehorn) stumbles into Cooper Marino’s (Louis Mustillo) backyard tiki bar, Cooper’s Bar. She is there because English director David Butler (David Conolly) falsely promised her they would meet Amy Schumer, who would star in a show (Butler pitched) about a struggling character actor who opened a bar in their backyard.
Though Cooper’s Bar only consists of six short episodes, Rhea Seehorn’s brief performance (and co-creator role) earned her an Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series category.
Giancarlo Esposito in ‘The Mandalorian’
Much like Giancarlo Esposito’s role as Gus Fring in Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, his character as Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian is a dangerous man who "seems to know everything about everyone." He will not hesitate to kill anyone who gets in the way of what he wants.
Though many consider Moff Gideon, a villain, Esposito believes that his character is not as black and white as many might think. In an interview with Radio Times, Esposito noted, “Why does Moff Gideon know everything about what’s going on everywhere?…I always hold out that there may be an altruistic reason that he is taking control or trying to. Certainly, The Child represents the possibility of a new humanity, of a new consciousness.” Esposito’s role in The Mandalorian has earned him two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Jonathan Banks in ‘Wiseguy’
Wiseguy is a crime drama series that ran from 1987 to 1990. The story follows Vincent “Vinnie” Terranova (Ken Wahl), an undercover agent of the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau) for the FBI. Superior to Vinnie is Frank McPike (Jonathan Banks), who assigns him to cases, provides the necessary information to conduct his undercover work, and calls for backup support when needed.
Although Wiseguy explores a different set of central characters and story arcs throughout the series, it keeps its focus on the workings of undercover work and the consequences that come with it. Banks’ breakthrough role as Frank McPike earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Michael Mando in ‘Orphan Black’
Orphan Black is a science-fiction thriller series that begins with a British con artist, Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany), who witnesses the suicide of Beth Childs (Maslany), a woman who looks exactly like her: a doppelgänger. Soon, Sarah discovers that she has other “sister" clones spread across North America and Europe who are by-products of an illegal human cloning experiment. When Sarah learns that she and her clones are in great danger, she goes on a mission to find and warn the others before it's too late.
Vic Schmidt (Michael Mando), Sarah’s abusive drug dealing ex-boyfriend who is still obsessed with her, believes that Sarah has committed suicide. But when he learns that Sarah is still alive, he blames her for faking her death. Things spiral out of control as Vic becomes involved with Sarah, her clones, and the people who want to hunt them down.
Patrick Fabian in ‘The Last Exorcism’
Much like his father, Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) is an evangelical minister who preaches his faith and performs exorcisms, not because he believes in them but because he was raised believing he had to become a minister. But as he steers further away from his faith and beliefs, he decides to expose the hoax behind said “exorcisms” with the help of a documentary crew who would film his last exorcism on a young girl, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell).
As Cotton Marcus exposes his “exorcism” tricks for the documentary, he believes that people will finally see the truth: exorcisms are not real. But he soon realizes that Nell is different and evil entities, such as Abalam, do exist in this case and that he must now face them.
Tony Dalton in ‘Hawkeye’
There is no denying that Tony Dalton is a great actor. However, the Texas-born actor had only acquired Spanish-speaking roles until he landed a minor role in Sense8, and later a more significant role where he played the charismatic villain Lalo Salamanca in Better Call Saul.
During this time, Marvel took notice of him and eventually offered him to play Jacques “Jack” Duquesne (Swordsman) on Disney +’s miniseries Hawkeye.
Michael McKean in ‘This Is Spinal Tap’
If you recognized Chuck McGill (Michael McKean) from Better Call Saul, that is because you probably recognized him from the rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. McKean plays one of the members, David St. Hubbins, of the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap. In the film, he and his fellow band members Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) are doing an American tour while being filmed by a documentarian (and actual director of the film) Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner).
Spinal Tap originated from an ABC sketch comedy pilot called The T.V. Show, starring director Rob Reiner. The band was intended as a mock promotional video for “Rock and Roll Nightmare,” a song written by Reiner and the band. Spinal Tap eventually inspired Reiner to make it the fictional subject of his rockumentary film. The film was so well-received that it had gathered a cult following and was preserved by the National Film Registry.
Mark Margolis in ‘Pi’
Pi, or π, is a neo-noir psychological thriller that serves as Darren Aronofsky's feature directorial debut. Filmed on a black-and-white reversal film, Pi is a stylistic masterpiece that follows mathematical whiz Max Cohen (Sean Gullette), who spends most of his time in his Chinatown apartment fiddling with equations and his homemade supercomputer. Max firmly believes life is made of three principles: mathematics is the language of nature; everything around us can be represented and understood by numbers; if you graph the numbers in any system, patterns emerge.
These principles dictated Max’s life and motivated him to create a system that would predict the behavior of the stock market. He reports his findings to his mentor Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis): a 216-digit number that would become the prime target of a Wall Street company, and Ben Shenkman (Lenny Meyer), who believes the numbers are code sent by God. But while Max is a genius, he also suffers from extreme paranoia, headaches, hallucinations, and a personality disorder.
Carol Burnett in ‘Annie’
No introduction is needed for the mega multitalented actress, comedian, singer, and writer Carol Burnett. Despite only having played a minor role as Marion in Better Call Saul, she was thrilled to be part of her favorite show, and her limited screen time certainly did not go unnoticed by the viewers.
From an extensive list of projects credited to Carol Burnett's name, one of her most iconic roles was in the widely beloved musical Annie, where she played Miss Agatha Hannigan, an alcoholic manager in the orphanage Annie was living “the hard knock life.”