When I first saw this character, I thought to myself "Oh here's the stereotypical Prince Charming who is actually a conniving arrogant asshole that the audience is supposed to hate". Oh how wrong I was. He was actually a tragic character that didn't deserve his fate.

I’ll never stop screaming it- Howard deserved better! He was surrounded by psychos and in the end he paid for all of their sins. Dude was just a stand up guy, doing his best. By the end, I found myself loathing Saul and Kim so much. It most certainly is not all good, man. 😒

Howard Hamlin deserved so much more. On paper he's a guy that a lot of young men would WANT to be when they grow up. He's decent looking, in decent shape (for his age), he's very successful, even-tempered and respected in his profession. But the reality was that he was quite a lonely and unhappy man. His wife was very cold to him, he slept out in a separate little house (and he didn't cheat on her, despite ample reason and ability to do so), his boss was a jerk and made him be a jerk to employees who deserved better, he believed he was at fault for said mentor/idols death and had to face depression, and in the end his whole life and reputation were destroyed by a pair of people he had previously stuck up for which ultimately led to his death when he went to give them a piece of his mind. It's hard to think that half-way through Season 1 this guy would end up being one of the most sympathetic characters fans feel really bad for and who had a tragic arc whose end he didn't deserve.

I just realized that Chuck used gaslights in the house with Jimmy and was actually gas lighting him figuratively as well. Genius writing.

I really appreciated how Gilligan & Co wrote this character. It would’ve been the easy option to have had him fill the antagonist role of authoritative arrogant boss but they fleshed him out much deeper. He was a fundamentally decent man who had his flaws and didn’t always do what was morally correct. In other words he was very human and probably the closest thing to a moral compass in the Better Call Saul universe.

"You've mistaken my kindness for weakness" Howard's quoting Al Capone

Huell was the only character to get a happy ending it's shown he is back with his family back in New Orleans

This is morbid I know but I appreciated the symbolism of Howard’s jaw breaking after being shot. Everything about Howard is carefully crafted by him; his tone of voice, his vocal cadence, his hand movements, his suits, his hair, his tan, you even see that in the latte he makes his wife, he is incredibly meticulous about his image both physically and his reputation. His image is EVERYTHING to him. Saul & Kim had ruined his reputation, but becoming disfigured on the way to the ground (after already being dead), they’d destroyed the whole image of Howard.

I love howard hamlins outfits albeit being the same outfit every episode. Theres literally nothing wrong with dressing up by the way, especially if you're the CEO. The guy says almost as if its a bad thing.

I find it funny when Jimmy called Howard "Lord Vader" or "Darth Vader". Despite initially being a offhand joke, Darth Vader is a perfect analogy to Howard, where as Chuck is his Palpatine. A One-sided Mentor-student relationship, where the Mentor only uses the Student as a tool for his own selfish gain and the Student is a suffering person with no agency. The said Mentor is also a two faced villain who tried to act like a good senator/brother, when really he is a petty elitist who hates his own Brother. In the end , even Howard is forced to go against Chuck just as Vader tossed Palpatine down the Death Star Core

Jesse being isolated in Alaska is the happiest ending he could get. After being a slave both to his addiction and to Todd and his Uncle being in an open area alone is the happiest of endings for Jesse.

Howard was the man. Tried to prop everyone up around him. Always put the firm first. He’s the only one that handles everything he’s dealing with in a healthy way and yet he’s the one whose character was defamed in the end

2:49 “You’re a shitty lawyer Howard, but you’re a great salesman. So get out there and Sell!” “Fuck you Jimmy.” “There you go, use that.”

Patrick Fabian has the most “id have a beer with that guy” energy ive ever seen from an actor.

All he did wrong was just, he had a douchebag face... He didnt deserved it. He was one of the best kind hearted people in the breaking bad universe

It takes Howard dying for his wife to care. No way she wasn’t stepping out on him, no doubt part of why she feels so bad.

It really makes me sad that Howard’s body was never found. Something about that just is wrong. To be gone without any sort of resolution to those who knew him. Just “dude disappeared on a drug binge”

What I really love about Howard is how most people would look at him and just think he’s a prude stuck up rich guy who is selfish and a stereotypical businessman/lawyer, but when you get a deep look at him it really shows his character to be the exact opposite.

Up until what they did to Howard, I was rooting for Saul and Kim. From that point on I was happy kim stopped being a lawyer and even happier she left Saul. What ever dark future Saul has coming to him, he deserves it.

Really liked your Charlie Hustle observation - I hadn't thought of that, but it makes perfect sense when you point it out. Thanks!

Howard didn't in the slightest deserve what happened to him. His kindness was taken for weakness through his entirety on the show. He was played by both Chuck as well as Jimmy, and it killed him.

Howard is one of the very few actually good people in the show.

Chuck is the reason why Jimmy became Saul Goodman.

Howard is a name partner of HHM. He's basically a CEO. They HAVE to be overdressed to for their image.

He IS more of a businessman than an attorney. He’s the face of the company. His suits are beautiful.

Patrick Fabian looks like he is related to Michael Douglas.

Howard seemed like a jerk initially. It comes out he was actually a standup guy, with a lot of complexity. He deserved so much better. Hamlin was actually Hamlet. It was cringy the way Jimmy and Kim plotted against him.

They’re wrong about the photo of the judge scam: The detective switched the photos. Howard did not hallucinate, he just looked high and couldn’t explain his way out of the situation because he was flustered by the drug.

Howard is morally grey. Howards actions although they may come across as superficial or phony, are just a reflection of his character, and it only comes across that way, because we are standing in Jimmy's and Kims perspective. If you take a moment to analyze his character throughout the series, he is one of the more morally correct characters, even if that signifies passivity. He stands on the sideline with Chucks and Jimmys conflict, because he sees it as personal and does not wish to create a crack between them by telling jimmy the truth. Later, it is the fact that Howard has been able to heal off his trauma, that pisses jimmy off, because he himself is pushing down these emotions about Chucks death, instead of confronting them. Kim's reason for hating him is because to her, howard got all of his success handed to him, and the fact that hes her superior, and controls her professional life deeply enrages her. Even then, when she cuts ties professionally with Howard, he still feels entitled to give an opinion on Kims personal life, pointing out how jimmy is no good for her. And although (i think) he does this out of genuine concern for her, its evident Kim sees it as another instance of Howard thinking hes Kim's authority. In this case morally. Which is the detonating factor on her misguided revenge plan, that culminates in his death. In my opinion his death feels so crude and shocking, because he was one of the characters who didnt actually act out of malicious intent. Even when his actions were not right, he was not motivated by spite, resentment, etc. Unlike jimmy's bowling balls, or Kims plan to humiliate him, when howard errs, he seems to do so more out of neglect of his own surroundings, not understanding how his actions affect others, or even more importantly, the colder mistakes he makes imo, are almost always in the line of keeping his company and professional life working. It is the only life hes ever known, and as such is the most important thing to him. Keeping up appearances, having the biggest clients, making the company money, rewarding success and punishing failure, are all things he does in order to protect his lifestyle, because in my opinion, this is the only world hes ever known. Albeit a little small and protected bubble, in the rougher scope of Kim or Jimmys life.

Howards story is so sad.

The thing is I didn't see Howard as a Snotty Boss at the Beginning. When Jimmy was in the Mailroom Howard Nicknamed him "Charlie Hustle" Out of Admiration cause Jimmy was working during the day school at night and passed the bar. Howard liked Jimmy he really did, and was proud of him because becoming a Lawyer of any kind is hard work. He was only painted as the bad guy because people like to "Shoot the Messenger" no Pun intended (Poor Howard) Chuck used Howard to tell Jimmy he didn't want him working at HHM. Much like Chuck used everyone around him because he was a spoiled selfish man who seeming felt like people were only around to do his bidding. Mean while Howard who looked up to Chuck as a Mentor ended up caught up in the crossfire of Chuck and Jimmy's family feud. Then after Chuck committed suicide Howard blamed himself undeservingly. Jimmy let him believe it was his fault just utterly crushing the man and then Howard had to take on a Shit load of shit to keep HHM going, a bitch of a wife that very much reminds me of Jada and Will. Poor guy just the BB universes Punching bag. Than to be killed like a roach for no reason.

Howard's character makes me so sad... He didn't deserve any of this. Like the title says, he was a fine man, the FINEST man in this universe, and was done dirty. I honestly don't like that Kim got away with it, but whatever. Another thing I don't have clear is if his reputation got fixed or not. I felt they left it kinda open, maybe I missed something. But it's really sad if I did not.

He did have some flaws. I noticed in the last episode or two that he started taking some tips from Slip'n Jimmy McGill when it came to twisting sympathy in the court of law.

One of the greatest characters ever put in a show. So tragic. The actor is amazing, I believe patrick fabian is his name. I hope we see him in other shows cause he was masterful. I felt bad for him after hating him so much

One of the saddest deaths in tv history.

Great content, I love the analysis

Such great writing about and around Howard. We start the series by hating him, we then see him as straight up guy albeit a douchebag, and at the end he is revealed as a decent man that was drawn into the Sliiping Jimmy Black Hole of death

HHM didn't reject the suit, they just said that Jimmy couldn't be part of the firm. They were willing to buy the suit from Jimmy, but, wouldn't make him an associate.

The boxing match was brilliant. So he could legally kick his ass. Damn, did he pay for that one.

underrated video, keep up the great vids mate

Great video!

Howard was actually my favorite character in BCS. I hated him from the start but after we found out Chuck was the one who did the gaslighting, I started to like him gradually. I started to despise Jimmy and Kim from the Wendy prank. Lalo too was my favorite character, but after 'Plan & Execution' I hated him too. I really want Howard to get justice before the show ends.

He did not deserve any of the nonsense that happened to him

Poor Howard.. He just really needed a hug and some love after chuck died and basically any time after that

19:40 To be fair it's implied that there'd been no love in Howard and Cheryl's marriage for years and that they only stayed together for appearances. Cheryl probably regretted their distance after Kim told the truth about her and Jimmy ruining Howard and him being killed by Lalo.

spoiler His death shocked me and sent me into a bout of depression for days. he was killed by my least favourite character too.

During the series, Jimmy and Kim send a shady guy to search for compromising information about the owner of the Mesa Verde bank. The guy finds absolutely nothing compromising and Kim and Jimmy are left in disbelief. In reality, however, if we are to see most of the characters belonging to the upper-class caste represented in the series, they are all exactly like this. From this point of view, the series is disarmingly flat. Howard is the same exemplification, the same perfect representation of this bland character drawing style. In Gould's imaginative representation of the American upper class, its representatives are devoted body and soul to work, always dress the same, have no double lives, no secrets, at best like Howard, play golf at the club and go by the analyst because it is fashionable. The sports photos at his funeral are of the actor who plays him, do not be under any illusions. In the end, almost nothing is revealed to us about Howard, apart from a marriage crisis, where his wife has forced him to sleep out of bed for a year and he prepares insipid huge cappuccinos, drawing on the sign of peace, trying to rebuild a relationship. with her. If we asked his wife Cherryl what problem they had, she would answer that the problem with Howard was boredom. The truth, which would have made Cherryl much happier, if he had really taken drugs, had dated prostitutes, tried to seduce colleagues and maybe, maybe, occasionally remembered to fuck her too. When they reveal that she had a double life, she remains skeptical and with reason. Let's say if Kim's problem was that she was having too much fun with Jimmy, Cherryl had the tragic opposite problem...

I never caught that double meaning of Charlie Hustle. That just hits different now!

I’ll say that in the end, Jimmy paid for his sins, voluntarily. He wasn’t a great guy but he’s not as bad a man as we originally thought.

That pop up sound sounds like a dog. A few times I had to pause to see if it was my dog

At least Bill Oakley managed to get a happy ending… for now

The story is even sadder than nacho's 😞

12:42 Any respect Howard had for Chuck ended there.

I ended up feeling really bad for Howard

It’s funny you say he first came off to audiences as a “villain”. I as a professional business owner, just saw him as a level headed businessman running a large law firm. He was a businessman as well as an attorney, and he dressed the part. I never had issues with him.

I can listen to Patrick Fabian on a podcast or radio for days

Give us a video about Pryce played by the inimitable Mark Proksch.

Excellent analysis on BCS's most tragic character. One small nit pick, a baseball field is a diamond, not a pitch.

I wonder if anyone ever found Howard and Lalo’s bodies after the super lab was destroyed?

12:25 "Howard LITERALLY felt the knife twist in his back." How fkn dumb can you bet? Metaphors are not literal!

Saul Terry Bull, the story of Howard Hamlin

Isn't ironic Patrick Fabian is in a movie called "Jimmy" lol

Jessie does have a happy ending. He was in a dark spot that progressively got worse and worse and got out of it with his sobriety and a fresh start.

Seeing this just now, Jimmy got 80 something years (basically life) in prision and Kim is basically IMO methaphorictly dead. You can see her 9-5, day to day, dead inside as she seems numb either by trauma or the boring mundanity of life

Is this Fabian related to the surfer Fabian of surfer movies?

what I don't see people talking about is that chuck was gay, in a episode I think most people missed we see chuck secretly kissing another man, that man was Howard, jimmy walks in stunned and says "it's ok chuck I still love you" and chuck says "get out you F*got! N word" And later in another episode the episode before chicanery jimmy confront Howard and Howard tells jimmi his hatred for African Americans and gos to chuck in a panic and tells chuck that jimmy is saying chuck is gay, at that moment chuck says "good bye Howard, I've had enough" and closes the door on Howard. So no the real reason chuck killed himself was because he was a closeted homosexual and also a terrible person and he was racist.

Your voice sounds a little bit like Howard's hahah

The people trying to say Howard was bad are ridiculous. Howard was easily the most genuinely good people in the entire show out of the main ish characters. Yeah he made it look like he was the bad guy when Chuck didn't want Jimmy to know that he was keeping him from getting the job but when you have someone who has been a business partner for 30 years you are obviously going to step up to bat for them. Nothing that he did was immoral. Not hiring jimmy didn't make him a bad guy lol. Anytime that he threatened or did anything it was when they were literally trying to destroy his life and career. The dude was honest and loyal and was trying to better himself for his relationship with his wife and while I wouldn't say he was perfect because no one is, so many people defend characters in the show because they like them like Kim wexler. Kim wexler is a lying corrupt p.o.s just like Jimmy. And most of the other characters are lying cheating murdering drug cooking drug muling drug dealing scum. Yes Howard is a good-looking dude and he cares about dressing nice and has confidence borderline cockiness but that doesn't make you a bad person lol. He busted his ass for what he got and has every right to have self-confidence even if it is a front for his depression. Dude in no way shape or form deserved what he got. He didn't deserve to be cheated out of his job he didn't deserve to be framed for being a drug addict. I love this show and I love Kim and Jimmy because they are fun characters but people let that blind them to the fact that they were horrible human beings and someone like Howard a good hard-working guy

His end is so dark he did nor diserved that death

Yea they did a good job the end will be epic

Several states away, not miles.

Ok. the 180 by Howard makes sense now.

*The Problem with Howard is that he never sees it coming until it's too late...*

2:52 You meant to say "entrepreneur"

He is the stereotypical lawyer. A perfect fit for the role.

Dude did everything he could to be a good person who plays by the rules, yet in the end he still ended up in a grave beside Lalo

no matter how hard i try, I still feel so bad for disliking howard at the start, seeing how things would turn out for him thanks to slippin kimmy and slippin jimmy, I have never felt so bad about disliking a character at first. also side note: I love the nick name slippin kimmy so much

The car was found near Malibu in California.

2:49 I wouldn't say businessman, I'd say corporate/commercial lawyer (the lawyers who are only out to make big businesses richer) than, say, a divorce attorney or personal injury etc...

Okay trademarking a color and then wearing that color on your suits is kinda sick though

HE DEFECATED THROUGH A SUNROOF

There really was no need to-

Hmm yes lore of better call saul momentum 100

Is howard Hamlin narrating this video?

They shouldn't have fucking killed Howard.

I didn't like how they went at this man. I kept watching believing that Jimmy would see the error of his ways and make peace with Howard as I felt Howard was the only redeemable person on the show. After Howard's death, I can no longer watch this show because there is no longer any character I care about. Jimmy is awful and way worse a personality than the one portrayed in Breaking Bad. The lead character Jimmy could have got shot and I wouldn't have cared.

Hamlindingo blue 😂

Because of his inflection and unfamiliarity with the content, I can tell the announcer didn’t write what he’s saying. As for my small click, when you settle on an effective voice I just may. I quite like the point of view, but it seems like you are hiring people online instead of using voice actors. This is holding you back (and the gas lamp-lit room was a stretch). Worthy analysis.

THE ONE PIEEEECCCCCEEEEE ITS REAAAAAALLLLL

Chuck was getting $26k/week allowance?

it really made me upset what happened to Howard, he didn't deserve it at all , not just they'll never find his body , he also had to share the same grave with the one who killed him , it was so depressing

It really gets under my skin when people talk about chuck like he actually had that electromagnetic shit. He was clearly suffering from delusions and some severe anxiety. Like cmon man! Did u Even watch the show???

Whoa whoa whoa.... Its pronounces Hamlindigo, not Ham-lan-dee-go

It wasnt howard. It was chuck

Your observations are really poor. You are painting Howard as someone who didn't want Jimmy at HHM when it clearly came out that it was Chuck who didn't want Jimmy and it was Chuck who manipulated Howard into being the bad guy who had to tell Jimmy that he wasn't going to be hired as a lawyer.

At least you tried

This is not an analysis, this is a dictation of events.

27:22.

Before becoming a lawyer, Howard Hamlin was a professor at UC Berkley where he was fired after it was revealed he was having an affair with a student named Kelly Kapowski. He soon recovered from that and rebuilt his life as one of the top lawyers in New Mexico.

I'm liking this without seeing because I believe it's probably true.