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Better Call Saul

Started by jazmunda, January 12, 2014, 03:06:52 PM

SaucyRossy

Quote from: jazmunda on March 24, 2015, 06:02:40 AM
Ha ha ha. Blow my magic flute.

Loved it. Jimmy is so great....his fall will be so sad.

bateman

What a great episode last night. It's got all the quality of Breaking Bad but it's dinstinctly its own thing now.

lonevoice

Only two more episodes left for this season, then no more Jimmy Saul until spring of 2016.  That sucks worse than Noorie.   :'(

SredniVashtar

I think I prefer this to Breaking Bad now. Although we know, in a sense, how things are going to end up with Jimmy/Saul, you watch each episode not knowing what is going to happen. Great as it was, BB had to be slightly predictable because we knew that the main characters were all going to stay in tact. Other than Jimmy and Mike, everything else is up for grabs. It manages to be both more interesting and more human - I am sure most people were rooting for Chuck in the last episode as we watch the relationship develop between the brothers. Two episodes to go and Mike is getting into the New Mexico underworld now; does that mean he is about to make the acquaintance of a certain fried chicken restaurant proprietor?

phrodo

I absolutely love the show. The pace, writing, acting, directing and lighting ... just everything about it. I only saw a few of the early episodes of BB .. am gonna watch it all eventually. But never knew anything about Saul -- so it's true that the show can stand alone.

bateman

I really want some more post-BB scenes of Saul managing the Cinnabon.

SaucyRossy

Quote from: bateman on March 25, 2015, 08:35:34 PM
I really want some more post-BB scenes of Saul managing the Cinnabon.

I'm expecting the season finale to have a bit of that.

I couldn't help but feel like Saul sitting in his living room watching the VHS is just seconds away from getting a bullet in the back of his head.

bateman

Quote from: SaucyRossy on March 25, 2015, 08:48:31 PM
I'm expecting the season finale to have a bit of that.

I couldn't help but feel like Saul sitting in his living room watching the VHS is just seconds away from getting a bullet in the back of his head.

You know what would freak people the fuck out? Flash forward to right after the BB finale. Jesse's car slamming into a tree.

SaucyRossy

Quote from: bateman on March 25, 2015, 08:51:06 PM
You know what would freak people the fuck out? Flash forward to right after the BB finale. Jesse's car slamming into a tree.

Haha that would make people go nuts.

SnapT

SAUL stands alone!  It's a great show.

jazmunda

I'm going to call it now and say that Jimmy's turn to the dark side will involve either a betrayal by his brother or the death of his brother. His girlfriend is also a goner.

SaucyRossy

Quote from: jazmunda on March 25, 2015, 10:29:48 PM
I'm going to call it now and say that Jimmy's turn to the dark side will involve either a betrayal by his brother or the death of his brother. His girlfriend is also a goner.

I've been thinking about this a lot. I see his gf dying and his brother taking revenge on jimmys behalf and then jimmy having to figure out how to get his brother a new identity, thus begins the downward spiral. He meets the mechanic through Mike. Lost, confused, and depressed Mike shows him pity and suggests there's another type of law he can be practicing and that Mike can bring him clients.

I don't see all of this happening til the end of the next season. Just my guess.

SredniVashtar

The only 'problem' is that it is so much fun at the moment, with all the different elements of the show moving along nicely that you never feel that they are relying on one character to carry the show, that when it has to turn darker it's going to turn into something different. At least it seems that way to me, but the writers have done such a good job so far that you have to admit they certainly know what they are doing. I agree that something nasty has to happen to someone close to Jimmy if he has to change into Saul. I hope Chuck hangs around though.

SredniVashtar

How about this for a potential end to the season:

Mike has got some wet work lined up by the shady vet. He doesn't want to do it but the money is irresistible, and he decides if he does that one job then his daughter-in-law and granddaughter are financially secure. He messes with their brakes/shoots them/whatever assassins do...and the big reveal is that it turns out to be Chuck. Chuck was the target because he's the brains behind the class action lawsuit and the high-ups know they are screwed if it all goes to court. Mike, of course, doesn't know who he has killed until later.

That would certainly liven things up.


SaucyRossy

Quote from: SredniVashtar on March 26, 2015, 10:02:25 AM
How about this for a potential end to the season:

Mike has got some wet work lined up by the shady vet. He doesn't want to do it but the money is irresistible, and he decides if he does that one job then his daughter-in-law and granddaughter are financially secure. He messes with their brakes/shoots them/whatever assassins do...and the big reveal is that it turns out to be Chuck. Chuck was the target because he's the brains behind the class action lawsuit and the high-ups know they are screwed if it all goes to court. Mike, of course, doesn't know who he has killed until later.

That would certainly liven things up.

Oh crap. That could happen

jazmunda

I don't think Chuck is going to bite the bullet so soon.

SaucyRossy

Quote from: jazmunda on March 26, 2015, 02:28:14 PM
I don't think Chuck is going to bite the bullet so soon.

Hope not, I love the actor and his character.

Juan

I think Howard is going to screw Jimmy once again, this time using Chuck.  Maybe Jimmy will hire Mike to take out Howard.

SaucyRossy

Quote from: Juan on March 26, 2015, 03:37:01 PM
I think Howard is going to screw Jimmy once again, this time using Chuck.  Maybe Jimmy will hire Mike to take out Howard.

I don't know....I don't remember Saul ever killing anyone in breaking bad, Am I wrong?

bateman

Quote from: SaucyRossy on March 26, 2015, 03:44:44 PM
I don't know....I don't remember Saul ever killing anyone in breaking bad, Am I wrong?

He suggested killing Badger, in a very cavalier fashion.

SredniVashtar

Quote from: jazmunda on March 26, 2015, 02:28:14 PM
I don't think Chuck is going to bite the bullet so soon.

I hope he doesn't get killed, but I was just trying to think of some way it could all be tied together. I would much rather the pretty disposable Kim go, but I don't see how it would make sense in the story. Chuck's much too good to get killed off, but it is quite fashionable these days for important characters to get written out of shows.

Roswells, Art

Do you have to have watched Breaking Bad to enjoy this show?

SredniVashtar

Quote from: Roswells, Art on March 27, 2015, 09:17:51 AM
Do you have to have watched Breaking Bad to enjoy this show?

No, I don't think so. It seems to stand on its own pretty well. If you haven't seen it before then you don't get the pleasure of recognising certain characters pop up from the previous show, but it isn't essential you know who they are. The main character isn't really much like he was in Breaking Bad either, so we are all in the dark a bit. I can't think of anyone from BCS who doesn't stand on their own.

SredniVashtar

I think by the time we get to Saul in BB, Chuck is almost certainly dead. Jimmy is too in awe of his brother to let him down by going all shady, so by the time he's Saul his moral compass has gone and he is out for what he can get. He realises that he was always the loser when he was Mr Nice Guy and the only person he could measure himself against is gone. I think the class action suit and Chuck's part in it is a major factor in what might close the season in a shocking way. Also, BCS isn't just about Jimmy's journey; it is also about Mike's, who is much more sympathetic in this, when he was a hard-nosed bastard in BB. He is just a moderately dirty retired cop here, but when we get to BB he is a pitiless killer, so something must have changed him in that time. When he killed those cops you could justify it as revenge, but later on he would kill anyone he was told to.

I am probably completely wrong. One of the strengths of this show is that you can't take much for granted and you don't have a clear read on what is going to happen from what episode to the next.

jazmunda

Vince Gilligan Pledges To “Honor” Fans At ‘Better Call Saul’ Panel

The thing I like most about the interview is this:

QuoteThe prequel series, set six years prior to the first season of Breaking Bad, follows Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill as he gradually becomes the sleazy lawyer calling himself Saul Goodman. According to Gilligan and Gould, how he gets there is less a question of specific steps and more one of establishing motivation. “I worried all through Season 1 that we weren’t getting to Saul Goodman fast enough,” Gilligan said, but added “now I’ve come around 180 degrees and I’m thinking ‘God, I don’t want to get to Saul too quick’, I love Jimmy McGill so much.” The key question, so Gilligan and Gould said, isn’t “how long does it take to turn Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman,” but “what kind of problem does becoming Saul Goodman solve?”

I agree with this. I don't think there is any rush to get to Saul. I'm enjoying the ride and I hope it's a gradual turn and not just one particular event (ie: the killing of Chuck or his girlfriend). I think eventually one or both of them may die but I also think there may be some betrayal from one or both of them too.

One of the best things about these types of shows is the guessing. The better shows keep you guessing until the end and are never so predictable

basswood

I'm really appreciating the discussions going on here, compliment not just to you guys but to the show also. Top notch stuff all around.

lonevoice

Quote from: jazmunda on March 28, 2015, 05:17:59 PM
“I worried all through Season 1 that we weren’t getting to Saul Goodman fast enough,” Gilligan said, but added “now I’ve come around 180 degrees and I’m thinking ‘God, I don’t want to get to Saul too quick’, I love Jimmy McGill so much.”
This so much.  I've come to think that a multi-season series about Jimmy McGill would be much more satisfying than the same about Saul Goodman.  I'm glad Gilligan plans to keep Jimmy around longer than he originally intended. 

I keep thinking about Chuck's pass key for the printer:  1868.   Sure, it could simply be a random number, but with this show I doubt it. 

Some guesses:

The 14th Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868
Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder, on October 28, 1868
John T. Raulston, the judge from the Scopes Monkey Trial, was born on September 22, 1868

Juan

US-Navajo Treaty signed at Ft. Sumner, New Mexico on June 1, 1868.

1+8+6+8=23, 2+3=5 - a five. There we go.

SredniVashtar

I agree about not wanting everything to change too quickly, especially after the last few episodes. It would be interesting to know what the writing process is like for these long-running series, and how much they are able to change things halfway through if they see a more interesting potential storyline in the offing. I think having 'Saul' in the title automatically makes you think that the story is going to go only one way - into murk and sleaziness, but I don't think many people could have predicted it would turn out to be as refreshing or as entertaining as this. Perhaps they initially had the idea of killing off one or other of the main characters to begin with, and then changed their minds when they saw what they would lose in the process.

Breaking Bad was all about how a basically decent man loses his moral centre and turns into a monster, but the last couple of series felt a bit hurried to me, and by the time it got to the end they were so eager to avoid a Sopranos style non-ending that something seemed missing. I am sure the writers have learned from that, so that by the time we get to Saul (hopefully not for a few more seasons) it will seem like a genuine tragedy. Jimmy is already a much more sympathetic figure than Walter ever was. At the start I thought it would just ride the BB wave for a while before disappearing. How wrong I was!

SredniVashtar

I wonder at what point the writers decided that the show was more fun with Jimmy than Saul? At least for the time being. There have been a few occasions when he could have gone shady but managed to keep his integrity. The only time I remember that he weakened was when he took the Kettlemans' bribe. Possibly the writers decided they needed to keep his hands clean and altered the plot so that he gave the money back?

Anyway, I am glad that it looks like they are going to avoid 'Walking Dead' style shocks and it will remain as more of a character study. If I had to make a guess where it is going next, I'd say that Chuck decides that he's on the mend enough to return to work, and ends up being pressured to drop the big lawsuit by his firm, leaving Jimmy out in the cold. Perhaps Kim is involved in alienating him somehow too. It was interesting to read in that interview about 'motivation'. Perhaps he will eventually feel so screwed over by everyone, including the people he is closest to, that he ends up on the wrong side of the law out of desperation. That would make sense, in a way, because then we might retain our sympathy with the character if we feel he's been wronged.

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