The Uncle Saul problem
He’s a puzzle, isn’t he, that old man? Of all the many, many characters on Brothers & Sisters, — and I’m including here Julia, who’s had a total accumulated screen time of about five minutes — Uncle Saul is the one who’s remained the most undefined. Maybe it’s because we’ve never seen him outside the confines of work or his sister’s family drama (Holly being part of that). Does he have a life? Has he ever had a wife? Does he have an apartment of some sort, or does he just hang upside down from the Ojai Foods rafters waiting to be called into service? What does he even do at the company?
Early on, he seemed like a somewhat shady fixer, hiding William’s crimes and maybe conspiring in them. When he first went out with Holly, it looked like maybe he was just doing it to get secret codes out of her. Sneaky, and not above hurting his beloved sister if the plan calls for it. But wait! He’s such a sweetie at Hanukkah, saving Paige’s day; he defends Nora to their mother; he practically weeps when Tommy announces twins. Aw, he’s a teddy bear! Or maybe not. You never know. He’s unknowable, and that’s not a good thing.
He cracked like an egg when Nora expressed guilt about hating Holly, and told all about Rebecca, making himself persona non grata among his nieces and nephews. But couldn’t it have easily been the other way around? He was the voice of reason with Sarah and Kevin and Tommy, pointing out quite rightly that they should have learned more about the danger of keeping secrets — but if that scene had played just the opposite, with the siblings wanting to tell and Saul insisting on concealment for the sake of his dear sister, that wouldn’t have seemed out of place.
Saul’s kind of a moral utility player, able to go soft or shady as called for. That’s useful to the writing staff, I guess, but it sure would be nice to know if anything makes the guy tick besides the click-clack of computer keys. I don’t know, maybe he used to be a spy or something, and has trouble losing the moves.
Photo: ABC.com
Brothers & Sisters, ABC, commentary, Saul, Ron Rifkin
Leave a Reply