A role that was only supposed to last three episodes. When Bob Odenkirk steps into the shoes of Saul Goodman, a crooked lawyer in season 2 of “Breaking Bad”, broadcast in 2009, it is a short-lived job. But amazed by his performance, the screenwriters Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan decided to make him a recurring character, who would ultimately be present until the fifth and final season of the series.
Better: Saul Goodman was entitled to his own fiction derived from the original, “Better Call Saul,” whose action takes place before the premiere. And presto, six more seasons on the clock.
Caustic tone
Bob Odenkirk is back this Tuesday, September 19 in a new series, “Lucky Hank”. Nothing more to do with “Breaking Bad” this time, except the talent of the actor, now 60 years old.
He plays Hank Devereaux Jr, a literature professor at a second-rate university in Pennsylvania. Writer with only one title to his credit, president of the English department of his establishment but without ambitions, he lives above all in the shadow of his father, a renowned novelist and academic, with whom he has not had contact for a long time. .
However, Hank is not to be pitied, he is the husband still very much in love with Lily (played by Mireille Enos), and father of a daughter who is now a young woman, Julie.
With this role, Bob Odenkirk reconnects with his first love: comedy. Because if Hank is in the middle of an existential crisis, he handles irony like no other and demonstrates a humor that is certainly caustic, but irresistible. If his role in “Better Call Saul” earned him six nominations (one per season) for the Emmy Awards (without winning any, although he still has a chance at the next ceremony), the actor already has two of these trophies.
He won them as a writer, for his contributions to the sketch shows “Saturday Night Live” in 1989 and “The Ben Stiller Show” in 1993.
A comeback after a heart attack
Saul Goodman was a character who made people laugh a lot, but was much more of a tragic hero and, in the dramatic register, Bob Odenkirk proved to be masterful. With “Lucky Hank”, he delivers a lighter score, although also very nuanced. This is not a frank comedy, but a bittersweet series that does not hesitate to be scathing at times.
Barely a few months since the end of “Better Call Saul”, broadcast a year ago, we did not expect to find Bob Odenkirk again at the head of a series. Because the actor suffered a heart attack in July 2021, in the middle of filming the last season of the previous one.
A traumatic episode which tired him out a lot. We can only rejoice at this high-flying return to a fiction which, once again, fits like a glove.
“ Lucky Hank “, American series by Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein (2023) with Bob Odenkirk, Mireille Enos, Cedric Yarbrough… Eight episodes of 38 to 48 minutes each. On OCS.