Jump to content

BETTER CALL SAUL


Jay

Recommended Posts

Are you up to date with it? I thought the arse nigh on fell out of it with Chuck's departure and the completion of that story arc. Mike's half of the series never really grabbed me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tend to switch off a bit when it goes over to Mike's storyline.

 

Nice that they're startiing to merge into BB-world more. I still wonder whether Cranston will appear, but I'd hope it wouldn't just be some 5-second, one-line appearance as populist fan service. I think either he needs to appear (however briefly) fully as a guest character, or not appear at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dunno, I suppose I didn't really care to see the character develop any more than what I already knew of him. There's a lot to be said for being enigmatic and sometimes the mystery is more fascinating than the truth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a fan of the Mike/Gus/laboratory storyline either. I dunno if that's because we've already seen Mike's and Gus' ultimate fates on Breaking Bad (as opposed to Jimmy's fate, which is still open), if I'm not that interested on complex backstories for these characters, or just because the Jimmy/Kim/legal storyline is much more interesting and complex.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yay, can't wait to watch that later!  Here it is on youtube

 

 

I've been listening to a recap podcast of BCS lately, just finished season 1, hoping to catch up by the season 5 premiere.  Getting pumped!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Positive review of the first four eps of season 5:

 

https://www.slashfilm.com/better-call-saul-season-5-review/

 

MASSIVE SEASON 4 ENDING SPOILERS WITHIN

 

Might reveal more about season 5 than you want to know as well

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I personally would consider that review spoiler free, but some people here (and elsewhere) don't want to know aaaaaanything so I played it safe. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Jay said:

Oh, I personally would consider that review spoiler free, but some people here (and elsewhere) don't want to know aaaaaanything so I played it safe. 

 

That's the thing, there shouldn't be different grades of spoiler. Some reviewers just can't help themselves though, excitable hacks that they are.

 

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another excellent review of the early episodes of season 5 

 

https://ew.com/tv-reviews/2020/02/17/better-call-saul-season-5-review/amp/

 

Comes from a reviewer who doesn't flat out love the show always, points of what does and doesn't work about the prior episodes as well as the new ones. A very good read, with no spoilers about the end of last season or reveals of anything at all specific about the new ones 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just finished season 4 on Netflix. This is probably in my top-5 shows of all time. Love it. 
 

So season 5 starts next week? Does anyone know if you can stream current episodes on the AMC app once they are released? I hated waiting FOREVER for S4 to make it to Netflix. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Outside the US each new episodes appears on Netflix the day after the US airing (we get the season on Monday nights, with the premiere this Sunday night) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As always, I'll wait until all the episodes are available on Netflix. I don't like this 'one episode per week' business. I want it all and I want it now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This article confirms Vince Gilligan let Peter Gould take over seasons 4 and 5 of BCS, but that he'll be back for season 6

 

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/better-call-saul-co-creator-vince-gilligan-still-doesnt-know-how-the-breaking-bad-prequel-ends.html/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I finished this week listening to a recap podcast for Better Call Saul, all 40 episodes plus various season previews and wrapups and their discussion of El Camino.  Phew!

 

It was very helpful to remember all the various plot threads I had forgotten, and where we left off all the characters.  Plus, it helped me cement my thoughts about the seasons so far, and that basically there is a pretty big difference between seasons 1-3, and season 4.

 

Seasons 1 - 3 were pretty unequivocally great, showing you what makes Jimmy tick and slowly revealing how Chuck has held him back from his potential, and building up a really nice relationship with Kim.  Plus we learn what make Mike go from good cop to trusted gun for hire, and learned a little more about how Gus planned out his takeover of the cartel starting with the Salamanca branch.


Season 4 is different is so many numerous ways, probably the biggest of all being the loss of Chuck.  Not only did it give Jimmy no villain in his story for season 4, but Michael McKean is such a good actor and all his scenes were so well done the show just lost that.  Adding Lalo in as a new character fills some of that void, even though his entire energy and plot purpose is completely different from Chuck, at least he brought some excitement to the proceedings, but even that was handled in a weird way (more on that in a bit).

 

Another way season 4 is really different is the pacing and storytelling.  Seasons 1-3 were expertly paced, with lots of exciting moments and the occasional montage (often MIke related) that slowed things down a bit but were always so interesting in their own ways.  Season 4 they got a littttttle too montage happy, not only in the amount of them, but how long each one was.  But really the storytelling changed.  In season 4 so much that happens is not explained, or rather, the character motivations arent explained, or at least arent spelled out.  Season 4 really dove into being a character study, but they didnt seem to realize that all the pieces weren't in place to do that kind of the thing the normal way.  For example, Kim doesn't really have a friend character to ever talk to where she can have some dialogue that explains what she is thinking about stuff or why she is doing things.  So instead we get her overwhelmed with work, brushing off her paralegal and going to sit in the courthouse, with no explanation until an episode later when after she talks to the judge and starts taking on pro bono cases you realize she is looking to get that spark that helping Mesa Verde open new branches is not giving her.  Or you have her reluctant to do anything bad with Jimmy, but then agreeing to do it to just to get Huell out of jail...then ending that episode telling Jimmy she wants to do it again, only to find out in the next episode it was to swap the plans for that Mesa Verde branch to get something through she wouldn't be able to otherwise, after the fact.  This isn't a bad way to tell stories, but its different to how they told stories in Breaking Bad and seasons 1-3 of Better Call Saul, so I think it just took some getting used to.


I think now knowing what they going for in season 4, I'm more prepared for season 5, especially since we know this is another Gould-run season while Vince was busy with El Camino.  It will be interesting to see what from Season 4 they keep doing and what they change up.  I do think that that towards the end of season 4 they kinda lost the plot a bit, with a couple episodes from the end releasing as much longer than usual episode lengths, and the insider podcasts revealing there was even more stuff they cut and that it took a ton of work just to get it down to the lengths they released.  Its almost like in the early part of the season they were biding time, and then towards the end they tried to cram too much in, not realizing in time they could have fixed it all by rebalancing the entire season, making it come in at normal lengths with more traditional pacing.  Maybe that's what well get in Season 5.

 

I'm actually pretty excited about Lalo.  Him, Nacho, and Kim represent the only 3 characters we really can't infer anything via Breaking Bad (IE we know where Jimmy, Mike, and Gus will end up), and Lalo brings the extra excitement of finally bridging back all the cartel stuff into Jimmy's world (since he mentions Lao and Nacho in Breaking Bad in his introductory episode).  I think Lalo is a cool character, but they really kind of screwed him over by only bringing him into the final 3 episodes last season, when there was soooo much other stuff going on we cared about more at the time.  He should have either been introduced early and been a running thread through the whole season, or kept back until next season.

 

 

Anyway, cant wait for the season premiere tonight.... and episode 2 tomorrow night!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, crocodile said:

Didn't expect to get two episodes two days in a row. 

 

 

53 minutes ago, Fargo said:

Yeah, I didn't realize Episode 2 was tonight until I saw ATXHusker's comment. That's a nice surprise.

 

 

On 11/25/2019 at 7:48 AM, Jay said:

Only the premiere of BCS is on a Sunday ; it's followed by episode two the very next day, and then episodes 3-10 all air on subsequent Mondays 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Better Call Saul 5x01 Magic Man

 

I am glad that, while waiting for the season premiere, I re-watched all the Gene openers from the previous 4 seasons.  I doubt I would have recognized that it was the cab driver that finds him in the mall otherwise (nor that he had originally asked for a cab to take him from the hospital back to the mall last season, which is how the cab driver knew to go there to look for him).  The entire Gene sequence this year was easily the best one yet, with much more tension and suspense than usual and a true interesting development with the cliffhanger ending.  I honestly thought when he first called Ed they were setting it up so the final episodes of the show don't have to start in Cinnabon or even Omaha, but his decision to cancel the pickup and handle the cab driver himself was awesome.  i have no idea what he has in mind, but it seems like he already has a plan!

 

The speed and thoroughness at which Gus & Mike cobbled together a coverup for Werner's death was amazing!  In the short amount of time between then and now, they would have had to have got a bunch of coke from somewhere else, bagged it up, snuck it into that dealer's collection, found a place to start building the giant freezer, had the German crew do random stuff in there every day until Lalo came a calling, and Gus had to  be confident that Bolsa would be OK with his "mistake".  And it all worked!  I mean, I don't think Lalo was actually fooled in the strictest sense, I think he realizes there was a coverup, but I don't think there is any path for him to follow to really get to the bottom of things.  I love not knowing what he'll do next!

 

Mike's scenes this week were amazing.  I kept waiting for him to appear and after the pretty funny appearance as the construction manager, the desert scene was just amazing for him.  You really had no idea how he was going to process him murdering Werner; Was he going to be fine, character development complete?  Push it down (What Jimmy does with tough emotions)?  Want to talk about it (What Stacy would want him to do)?  For now, him punching Kai for calling Werner soft then the look on his face after the other German said Werner was worth 50 of Mike tells you EVERYTHING he's going through.  He NOT comfortable with what he had to do, and the scene at the end with him and Gus where he rejects to retainer payments was very powerful too.  I am curious how Mike will work through things next, and what he'll get up to between now and when Gus needs him again.

 

All the Jimmy and Kim stuff was handled perfectly this week too.  I am glad we continued on immediately from the big moment that ended last season and got to see Kim continue to try to process it.  The interactions between Jimmy and Kim the whole episode had a different energy to them than last season which is a big plus.  These two had such great chemistry in the early seasons and when they first got together, and then slowly grew more and more distant last season, and their scenes together became uncomfortable to watch.  Their relationship is still far, far from ideal, but I feel like there is at least less deception between them now.  Last season Jimmy was going out in the middle of the night and doing all kinds of things without telling her, and now they at least seem to be on the same page about what he's getting up do, and the issues are more about how much of what he wants to do Kim is comfortable with.  I get the definite sense we are going to build to some kind of blowout later in the season, but not sure yet of what angle things will take to get there.

 

The final sequence of the episode was certainly the best part.  The whole time Kim is trying to explain the great 5 months jail time deal she got for the dumbass kid, and him wanting to roll the dice on the trial instead was so frustrating, like you want to slap the kid in the face and tell him to take the deal!  then Jimmy shows up and his whole instant plan to "trick" the kid into taking the deal is just so beautifully equal parts right and equal parts wrong, and while I didn't know if Kim would go along or not, when she shut him down and he took off I wasn't surprised.  But then when she did it anyway I could practically see on screen a piece of her dying inside, it was brilliant.  Rhea Seehorn is the shining star on this show.  The final breakdown she has in the stairwell is so telling that much worse things are to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Episode 3 was pretty good, wonder if Kim's childhood story she told to the squatter old man was true or made up? 

 

Nacho is definitely feeling the heat, trying to get his father to sell his business for a higher than valued offer, but he was too keen on what he was up to.  

 

Great to see Hank and Gomez back in the saddle!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.