Better Call Saul?

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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby cmsellers » Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:10 pm

Ericthebearjew wrote:Well, that's the end of the
Spoiler: show
Kettlemans
.

Good riddance.
although
A large part of me expects Betsy to hire a hitman for the season finale.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Masonator » Wed Mar 18, 2015 1:16 pm

Spoiler: show
I'll miss the Kettlemans if their role in the show is over, though I'm not sure how Betsy can afford a hitman without the money and with her husband in prison for the next year. Previews for next week show Mike going to the vet who 'knows people' about getting some work. I know this is probably too much to hope for so early in the show, but if this leads to a meeting with Gus, this show could rapidly raise the stakes in short order. I'm assuming Saul isn't so morally bankrupt at this point that he'll get roped into working with Gus just yet, so either that won't happen until after (presumably) Saul's brother dies and he no longer has him as a moral compass, or Saul gets compelled to work for Gus in some way.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:28 am

Is it just me, or are all white collar criminals in Albuquerque so cartoonishly impulsive? I mean,
Spoiler: show
The retirement home's attempt at dealing with Jimmy was a bit over the top and obvious to passer-byes.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Tesseracts » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:37 am

So, despite social pressure, I never really watched Breaking Bad. However I've been sort of slightly watching Better Caul Saul over my parent's shoulder. This is one of those shows where I can't be ADHD and watch it in the background of attending to my many internet tabs, so today, I sat down for a whole episode and payed attention to it. I like it, a lot.

The photography is incredible. There's a lot of good art here. All the characters are really interesting and everything is so well done. I don't know, I normally hate lawyer shows, but this isn't like that. I can't explain it.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:44 am

Well, this isn't so much about lawyering as it is Jimmy McGill and his struggle to do the right thing at any cost, a quirk that inevitably will turn him into the amoral attorney Saul Goodman.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby jbobsully11 » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:21 pm

My brother has been trying to get me to watch Breaking Bad for a while now, and at this point, I'm mainly just refusing to annoy him. He did get me to start watching this show, however, and I actually really like it; I saw the latest episodes last night.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:17 am

Well, I lost all respect for Chuck.

Spoiler: show
Oh boo hoo, widdle Chuck's pwide hurts because Jimmy didn't earn his degree the old fashioned way.So, he has to have Hamlin reject him and condemn him to a career as a pathetic wreck of a back alley lawyer.


Also, I'm starting to suspect that Hamlin's a proud sociopath.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Masonator » Tue Mar 31, 2015 1:33 pm

The thing that really annoyed me about Chuck was

Spoiler: show
He's accusing Jimmy of taking shortcuts to get where he is, but Jimmy had to pass the bar in New Mexico same as every other lawyer. Never mind the fact that Jimmy wanted to actually work this case for HHM rather than sit back and take the easy money. I guess it's fine for Jimmy to do wills and probate work for elderly clients, but anything that makes him more than a two bit lawyer scrounging for $150 to write a will is apparently too good for him because he got his JD online.

I will say, Jimmy probably didn't do himself any favors when he said that he would rather burn the case to the ground than turn it over to HHM. Probably not the smartest thing to say when your brother holds the law in such high esteem, even though he was mostly being dramatic.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:08 am

And thus, we have Saul.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Aquila89 » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:43 am

I must say I found the finale underwhelming.
Spoiler: show
Jimmy's sudden choice to turn down a honest, successful career just didn't make sense to me.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Australia » Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:44 pm

Aquila89 wrote:
Spoiler: show
Jimmy's sudden choice to turn down a honest, successful career just didn't make sense to me.


Spoiler: show
I couldn't agree less. The whole episode was building up to it. The whole "coin facing east, towards the past" con that came to life at the end when Jimmy was facing east towards a future he'd thought he wanted was really well done, and of course, when he embraced who he was and what future fit him best, he drove out west towards conscience-free Sauldom. (Yes, it is a word. Shut up.)

Though, yeah, the episode was slow for a finale (bingo isn't particularly exciting TV) but that's because all the big plot stuff happened last week, with Chuck the Catalyst setting up the beginning of Saul that developed in the finale.

Sidenote: Crapping on a kid's head and Saul has the gall to judge a sex toilet? Poor Chandler.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:01 pm

So, Season 2 premieres tonight.
Spoiler: show
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:08 am

Well, that was a slow and steady, but still pretty good start to a second season. That cold open was something else.

Also, I'm pretty sure they're setting that
Spoiler: show
pharmaceutical IT guy
up as Jimmy's client for his
Spoiler: show
new firm
.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby gisambards » Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:22 pm

Better Call Saul is definitely very good - not yet comparable to Breaking Bad at its best, but certainly engaging. I like the fact it definitely feels like Breaking Bad - any scene in BCS so far wouldn't have seemed massively out of place in a Saul-focused subplot in Breaking Bad - and it's had some great moments that expanded on stuff from the original show: the best of which (and, I think, the best scene in the first season) being the sequence in which we find out about Mike
Spoiler: show
killing the guys who killed his son,
in which Jonathan Banks' performance was amazing.
The only notable flaw in the first season (and the first episode of the second) is that sometimes Saul's motivations seem a little too hard to understand, when I don't think they're supposed to be. This means sometimes it's hard to engage with the character, as I'm not sure where he's coming from. However, this is only occasionally an issue for me and Bob Odenkirk is very likable regardless.
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Re: Better Call Saul?

Postby Aquila89 » Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:52 am

I have the same problem (and I already had it with the finale.) Jimmy's motivations make no sense to me. And neither do Kim's. The reviewer from the New York Times said it well:

Spoiler: show
Kim segues into con artist sidekick far too readily. She has spent all of her screen time, thus far, as Jimmy’s moral compass. In a flash, she is inventing a pseudonym and playing Ken for a mark.

The co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould carefully eased an assortment of characters toward the dark side when they worked on “Breaking Bad.” Here, they take Kim and, poof, she morphs from upstanding law firm associate to associate flimflammer, in a matter of seconds.


And why is she so excited by the whole thing? Bullshitting a guy for hours just so they could rip him off for some overpriced tequila? Big whoop. And she's not worried about Jimmy any longer. She asked him just what he wants to do if he's quitting law, and he showed her - small time con man. And she's like "oh, you're fine then"?

And then:

But the twist that most disappoints is when Jimmy decides, during a subsequent float in the same pool, that he’d like a job with Davis & Mane after all. Nothing of substance signals this change. One moment he is dreaming up a new con, and then — after 15 seconds or so of silent reflection — he contacts the law firm on his flip phone and apparently offers some variation of “On second thought, I’m in.”

It’s here that I audibly groaned. I found myself hoping that the next scene, in which he glad-hands colleagues at the office, was shot in slow motion because it was a fictional daydream. But no. In the span of a few days, divided by episodes in two seasons, Jimmy decided to join the firm, then decided he didn’t want to be a lawyer, and then joined the firm.
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