Self-Hatred as Identity

The transformations of Jimmy McGill and Mike Ehrmantraut into the criminal figures they will eventually become do not take place primarily through a sense of resentment towards others. Instead, their loathing and anger is above all directed at themselves. The originality and dramatic force of Better Call Saul stems above all from the fact that its central narrative arc—the transition of Jimmy and Mike into the characters they will be on Breaking Bad—takes place through their gradual acceptance of a negative image of themselves, or what the contemporary philosopher Martin Hägglund calls a “negative self-relation.”