Better Call Saul

[Amor de Cosmos]

Better Call Saul

Yeah. I'm really finding this difficult to watch, I'm glad it's a short season but not sure I can handle another.

[WOM]

Better Call Saul

Difficult how?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Better Call Saul

Depressing, sad, hopeless (literally).

Those qualities aren't bad in themselves, but the structure of the series (discussed above) makes any transformation impossible. So far as I can see Jimmy/Saul isn't going anywhere, neither is Mike. It will be one failure after another until we reach Breaking Bad. They're the same people, there's no possibility of character development.

SPOILER

I was hoping Jimmy would take the $20 million, at least for awhile he'd have a different kind of life, but it doesn't look as if he's going to.

[WOM]

Better Call Saul

$20,000 you mean.

[Cal Alamein]

Better Call Saul

Well, eventually a chunk of $20 million.

[WOM]

Better Call Saul

Right. It was $20K now and 20% of whatever later.

In an earlier episode, we see him opening an envelope in the back room of the salon and tearing up a check for $20K from HHM.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Better Call Saul

Yeah. A big chunk of change that ain't gonna happen.

[Cal Alamein]

Better Call Saul

I rode my bike past this popular location this morning.

The property has been a number of different bars over the years, maybe now it can stick around for a few years.

[linus]

Better Call Saul

Amor de Cosmos wrote: Depressing, sad, hopeless (literally).

Those qualities aren't bad in themselves, but the structure of the series (discussed above) makes any transformation impossible. So far as I can see Jimmy/Saul isn't going anywhere, neither is Mike. It will be one failure after another until we reach Breaking Bad. They're the same people, there's no possibility of character development.

SPOILER

I was hoping Jimmy would take the $20 million, at least for awhile he'd have a different kind of life, but it doesn't look as if he's going to.

SPOILER cont'd

It was kind of a Charlie Brown moment, you just knew that he was going to screw up, disappoint his lawyer friend and not take the money.

It's a good show overall but there is a number of false notes, like the talking toilet client or his yellow jalopee car, I mean you can get a decent-looking used car in the west (where old cars don't rust) for $100/month.

[MsD]

Better Call Saul

I've just watched ep9, and had a FB conversation about the size of Ontario.

It's The Matrix, man.

[VTTBoscombe]

Better Call Saul

You won't be suprised to hear I am loving this series.
It's like eating your favourite food, you've had it before; but it's still delicious, you don't want it to develop away from itself too much.

And anything with lots of the Man Trout in is fine by me.

[Toro Toro]

Better Call Saul

Absolutely stunning. I just don't recognise AdeC's take on it at all.

[VTTBoscombe]

Better Call Saul

Sniff, last one finished.
Spoilerish - Highlight to see.
Rather disappointing ending, mainly around the moment when Jimmy "broke bad", found it a bit underwhelming, and something Jimmy could have done at any point of the series..

I guess following last week was going to be difficult to maintain the standard.

But parts of the episode were great, and Marco's role in the whole Slippin' Jimmy "legend" was very interesting, and the hold he had over Jimmy. The meltdown on the bingo, Howard being a nice guy, honest, shock.

10 episodes only arghhhh!

[Toro Toro]

Better Call Saul

***UNWHITED SPOILERS***

I don't think he's broken bad yet - as the producer was saying in an interview afterwards, he's a long way still off the man who works for Gus Fring.

I think it's more like an alcoholic slipping. He got along well going straight, even liked the law... but it'll never be as fun. Someone comparwed Marco's ring, and its later significance, to the rubber band smokers sometimes wear when they're giving up, to snap on their wrist when they feel a craving, only in reverse. There's something in that.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Better Call Saul

Finally catching up with this, thanks to a DVD Christmas present. Seen 5 episodes so far, and love it.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Better Call Saul

finished the series. Overall very good, in particular I loved the gradual use of flashback revelations (edit: plus the revelation in Jimmy's bingo calling rant). Thought the ending was a bit weak though. Felt as if they were going through the motions of ticking some obvious plot line boxes.

[Cal Alamein]

Better Call Saul

Just through second episode of series two. Still solid, no disappointments.

The hummer steals the show.

[Satchmo Distel]

Better Call Saul

*******SPOILERS******

I'm not sure about the love interest in this. She's a nice enough personality but it softens the series a little too much, and I'm not sure her motivation is plausible (she's about six divisions above Jimmy in the attractiveness stakes and can pull much bigger fish than him, surely? Her role in the series is wish-fulfillment for male viewers). I prefer the scenes that have real menace, like the drug-money exchanges.

The brother turned so nasty at the end of Series 1 that I kinda hope he has some redemption in Series 2.

[MsD]

Better Call Saul

Is her role to be Jimmy's conscience, and to have him speak what he's feeling? Otherwise, I agree, the romantic interludes are a bit cute/boring.

[Satchmo Distel]

Better Call Saul

Based on Series 2 Episode 2, "Jimmy's conscience" is a good call, and I'd infer from the ending that Jimmy's going to ignore that conscience, so the question then is when does she walk?

The brother is also in that picture, seemingly ready to forgive but about to be let down again, I fear. OTOH as I said above the brother is a very unsympathetic character at this point, very dark, solipsistic and no empathy.

[Satchmo Distel]

Better Call Saul

Presumably an inside joke: Tuco is played by an actor who looks like Eli Wallach, who in turn played a character called Tuco in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

[Haddock]

Better Call Saul

Of the two competing plotlines going on at the moment, I lounge on the sofa watching Santa Fe Law or whatever it's supposed to be, vaguely interested at best, and then sit up and watch intently the strand featuring Mike and Tuco, Krazy 8 and Héctor. Problem is the latter only makes up about 20% of the show.

[Satchmo Distel]

Better Call Saul

The main plot has humour when Jimmy is doing his schtick but for much of Ep 5 he was not even on screen. The other lawyers just don't hold enough interest as characters to carry those scenes. Who gives a fuck whether the girlfriend is in the doghouse with the employer? She's annoying anyway (see above).

The opening scene with Chuck and his wife was just too uncomfortable; another female character to patronize Jimmy and be disappointed with him.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Better Call Saul

I continue to find this show difficult. It's like watching a car-crash in ultra-slo-mo. But I do always watch. It's meticulously produced, the references to Breaking Bad through tiny scenes and incidental characters make it worthwhile (and I particularly love David St Hubbins as Chuck). That aside, I don't know what's going happen to Jimmy after Cinnabon. If I did, I don't think I'd bother. Because in other respects it's like watching the final episode of Breaking Bad before you start season 01.

[Haddock]

Better Call Saul

The Guardian told us the other day that we shouldn't complain about the slow pacing of this show. Well, I love slow; Jarmusch, Ozu, Wenders at the flicks, as well as Rectify and, I don't know, Tinker Tailor off the telly, I also know the difference between measured and absorbing on the one hand and tedious and unnecessarily drawn out on the other.
First episode of the third series has all the besetting faults of the previous two. I really don't care about the moral quandary of Jimmy's lawyer partner, and a little of his OCD brother goes a very very long way. I'm just not interested in lawyers as a dramatic species unlike, for example meth cooks and distributors.
Mike's going to hook up with Gus Fring soon, apparently, so I'll probably hang on for that. But Jeez...