If you were looking to cast a lead in an action movie involving a lot of fight scenes, Bob Odenkirk might not be your first choice. You’d be wrong, of course; the 2021 action thrillerNobody,starring Odenkirk as a retired hitman, was a success both critically and at the box office.
The sequel is due to land in theaters on August 15, and while you’re waiting, here are seven other excellent Bob Odenkirk shows and movies to get you in the mood.
2021
Action thriller
Runtime
1 hour 32 minutes
If you’re a fan of Bob Odenkirk, then you should thank the 2021 action thrillerNobodyfor the fact that he is still with us. In July 2021, Odenkirk suffered a heart attack on the set ofBreaking Badspin-offBetter Call Saul. He was given CPR on the set while the ambulance took 25 minutes to arrive. OnThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Odenkirk said that his heart was helped to survive that incident by the fact that he went through two years of fight training to play his role inNobody, which left him in excellent shape.
InNobody, Odenkirk plays Hutch, a man with an apparently ordinary and mundane life. However, when a group of thugs harasses a woman on a bus, Hutch fights them all off with impressive and brutal skill and almost kills one of the thugs. Unfortunately, the thug turns out to be the brother of a Russian crime boss, who seeks out Hutch for revenge.
Odenkirk isn’t an obvious choice as an action hero, which is kind of the point of the movie, but he pulls off the role with aplomb. The fight scenes are excellent, and Odenkirk performed many of the fighting sequences himself.
Prime Video
Nobody stars Bob Odenkirk as a seemingly ordinary man with a hidden and violent past.
2014
5
51
Status
Ongoing
Creating a spin-off series of a movie as iconic as the Coen brothers' 1996 cult classicFargois a bold move, but writer and creator Noah Hawley somehow managed to craft a show that perfectly captures the tone of the original film. The show is ananthology series, with each of the five seasons telling a different story with new characters. The show has featured some big names, including Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor, Chris Rock, Jon Hamm, and Ted Danson.
The first season stars Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Martin Freeman, and Colin Hanks, and follows the story of Thornton’s psychotic hitman, whose chance encounter with Freeman’s insurance salesman leads to a spiraling series of murders that local cops Tolman and Hanks attempt to solve. Bob Odenkirk plays the recurring character of Bill Oswalt, the inept chief of police who continually gets in the way of Tolman’s investigation.
If you enjoyFargo, you should also check outLegionon Hulu, also written and created by Noah Hawley. It’s a superhero series, but unlike any other. If you’re suffering from superhero fatigue, this show might just cure it.
Hulu
Fargois an anthology series based on the 1996 cult classic Coen brothers movie of the same name.
=
Comedy drama
1hr 50 min
Nebraskais another movie featuring Bob Odenkirk, but this one is very different fromNobody. It tells the story of an elderly man, played by Bruce Dern, who believes that he has won a million-dollar sweepstakes thanks to a mail scam letter he received. He is trying to get to Lincoln, Nebraska, to claim the prize.
Despite realizing that the letter is a scam, his son David, played by Will Forte, agrees to drive his dad to Nebraska in order to spend more time with him. Odenkirk plays David’s older brother, Ross, who is initially skeptical of David’s plan and believes his confused father should be placed in a nursing home, but eventually joins up with his father and brother.
Nebraskais a gentle mix of drama and comedy, filmed entirely in black and white, and while Odenkirk isn’t a lead character, he’s a key part of the ensemble cast.
An elderly man is trying to make it to Nebraska to collect a million-dollar prize he believes he’s won.
2019
2
16
Ended
Undoneis an Amazon Prime Video original drama series that features Bob Odenkirk in a way you’ve never seen him before. The show is an adult animation that was made by filming the live actors performing in front of a green screen and using motion capture and rotoscoping to transform those performances into animation. The result is an animation style that captures every nuance of the actors' performances.
The story centers around a woman named Alma, played by Rosa Salazar, who is involved in a near-fatal car accident. After the accident, she starts to have visions of her dead father, played by Bob Odenkirk, who was killed in a car accident when Alma was a child. In the visions, Alma’s father reveals that his death was no accident; he was murdered.
Her father then reveals that Alma has the ability to move through time, and tasks her with traveling back through time to prevent his murder. Throughout, the audience is left guessing as to whether all of this is real or whether Alma is suffering from schizophrenia, a condition that also afflicted her father.
The show is visually stunning and more than a little mind-bending. Bob Odenkirk is excellent as the dad, and the animation is so good that it’s easy to forget you’re not watching real actors.
Amazon’s first adult animated series is a mind-bending drama that questions the nature of reality.
1985
4
30
Canceled
Bob Odenkirk is now best known as an actor, thanks in large part to the final two entries on this list. However, he started his career as a comedian and comedy writer. He cut his teeth as a writer onSaturday Night Live, as well as writing and performing on shows such asThe Larry Sanders ShowandThe Ben Stiller Show. It was on the latter show that he met fellow actor and writer David Cross, and the pair started performing in live sketch shows.
This culminated in the TV sketch showMr. Show with Bob and David,which ran from 1995 to 1998. Each show is a series of often surreal sketches that transition into one another, with the key characters usually played by Odenkirk and Cross. The show also includes an impressive roster of actors and comedians, such as Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, Scott Aukerman, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. Originally anHBO comedy show, Netflix briefly revivedthe similar W/Bob & Davidshowin 2015.
Mr Showshowcases the impeccable comic timing of both Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, as well as their somewhat surreal writing skills. You’ll never look at three holes in the wall of a barn in the same way ever again.
David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s classic sketch show.
2008
62
Breaking Badwas a hugely successful show that regularly appears at or near the top of lists of the greatest TV shows of all time. It tells the story of a high school chemistry teacher who is dying of cancer and decides to turn to manufacturing and selling drugs to ensure that his family will be provided for. Over five seasons, we see his transformation from a man trying to do the right thing for his family into a hardened and dangerous criminal.
This is the show that brought Bob Odenkirk into the mainstream. He was cast as the shady lawyer Saul Goodman, but was initially only meant to appear in a handful of episodes in season two. However, show creator Vince Gilligan liked the character so much that Odenkirk became a central cast member for the remainder of the show. Odenkirk himself has described Saul as a once-in-a-lifetime role that he considers himself incredibly lucky to have played.
If you’ve never watchedBreaking Bad, you should count yourself lucky, because it means you still have one of the best TV shows ever made to enjoy in its entirety. Just verify you watch it at some point.
Netflix
The story of one man’s descent from high school chemistry teacher to drug baron.
2015
6
63
Odenkirk was so good at playing the character of shady lawyer Saul Goodman inBreaking Badthat the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, decided that there was more of Saul’s story that needed to be told.Better Call Saulis a spin-off series that follows the story of how a small-time lawyer named Jimmy McGill ended up transforming into a sleazy defense lawyer in the pocket of serious criminals.
Following up a show as popular and critically acclaimed asBreaking Badis almost impossible, butBetter Call Saulmore than lives up to the quality of the original series. It has a different, more character-driven feel, but some people considerBetter Call Saulto be even better thanBreaking Bad. If you’re an Odenkirk fan, then six seasons of watching him play Saul Goodman is about as good as it gets.
Discover how small-time hustler Jimmy McGill became the legendary Saul Goodman.
Despite starting life as a comedy writer and comedic actor, Bob Odenkirk has become best known for his dramatic roles, with many of the shows and movies on this list being far more dramatic than comedic. That’s not to say he still doesn’t have his comedy chops. This sketch from the truly amazing Netflix sketch showI Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinsonproves that Odenkirk can still do funny just as well as he always could.
