“The problem is that Kim’s ideals haven’t stopped,” she said. “But the way you deal with them is.”
Across five and a half seasons, Kim’s long slide toward doom has become It can be said that it is the narrative bedrock of this series. This was not always the case. When it started, “Saul,” a prequel to “Breaking Bad,” seemed to focus primarily on Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk’s) basically decent transformation into Albuquerque’s worst attorney, Saul Goodman. Kim’s final role was uncertain at the time, even for the writers.
“We had no idea, when we started, how important her character was,” said Peter Gould, show director and co-creator. “If you watched the show pilot, she would probably have three lines of dialogue.”
However, it soon became apparent that Sehorn’s character, who started (ostensibly) as a straight arrow with a promising legal career, would be an integral part of Jimmy’s transformation. Like Jimmy, Kim was breaking badly. Unlike Jimmy, Kim never appeared in Breaking Bad, which has led many fans to assume the worst. The stakes were always greater for her than the man with his name in the title.
This seems like a lot to bear, given that “Saul” is one of the most popular series on TV. But if that’s the case, Seehorn, 50, who’s been acting on screens and on stage since the ’90s, is handling the matter gracefully. Unlike Kim with a tight and mysterious lip, Seehorn isn’t afraid to be weak, either on a professional level or, as it turns out, in conversation. She has no problem, for example, talking at length about the rash. She’s funny, and has a blind, unguarded smile that made me wonder if I’d actually seen Kim Wexler’s teeth (despite all those brushing scenes).
