The Alleged Morality of Chuck McGill (Better Call Saul)

It was hard for Chuck to give Jimmy respect and sympathy because that would require humility and an admission that he is not always right.

Chuck is a classic representation of lawful evil. Evil is maybe a harsh judgment, Lawful Asshole is maybe more fair, but yeah. Aligning with the law doesn't make you a good person.

The fact Chuck lived in that huge, empty house while his brother slept in the back of a nail salon and lived paycheque to paycheque back in S1 told me everything I needed to know about his hypocrisy. And then when we find out he personally tutored Howard then did everything in his power to push Jimmy out of the law… It doesn’t absolve Jimmy for becoming Saul, but if Chuck had offered him even a shred of approval or support, he would have made better choices.

Say what you want about Chuck, but his dynamic with Jimmy is the most interesting and compellingly written sibling dynamic I’ve ever seen in a TV show.

sure chuck could have lied to jimmy about their mother to save him the guilt. but she flatlined shortly after he left the room. he was still in the building, and the nurse offers to call him back. chuck refuses and allows their mother’s body to be wheeled out, robbing jimmy of a final goodbye. that’s the real cruelty of what he did, at least to me.

Ironically, Chuck’s statement of “do good work and the clients will come” is exactly what lead Jimmy/Saul to success, just not in the way he intended. He ended up going great work for his clients. He cheated, bent rules and broke laws, and he gained more and more clients for his services. One of my favorite scenes in the later seasons was when one of his new clients came to the nail salon and asked if he was “Salamamca’s Guy.” By being a lawyer for the “bad guys”, be attracted more business than he could have dreamed.

I truly believe that if Chuck had supported Jimmy being a lawyer, Jimmy would’ve turned out better. He’d still cut corners, but in a more harmless way.

Damn roasted him on frame 0 with that title; "alleged morality"

Jimmy turning into Saul was a sort of self fulfilling prophecy. By actively trying to stop it from happening chuck ended up accelerating it

3:55 me doing precise muscle control so that the fart comes out silently