Better Call Saul

Like, "Here's the story of how a guy named Jimmy McGill became a guy named Saul Goodman. Have at it." And that's just because the show isn't called Better Call Jimmy. xp to self

Wrt the present-day scenes, if you know that he's been a lawyer in the past and that he's now working at a Cinnabon under a fake name, you may be able to piece together the whys and wherefores on your own based on the character's progression on BCS.

The lily-of-the-valley reveal is literally the final shot of season 4! When is this apparently necessary ex post facto here’s-how-he-did-it scene meant to take place, at the beginning of the next season? Who cares at that point?

I don't know, man. I'm just saying it could have been explained without "spoiling the reveal" because it could have been explained after the reveal. I'm sure some other changes would have to have been made to accommodate this idea in an elegant way. But I would have preferred it, I think, because I like to know how all the schemes are done.

I think, if anything, the existence of BCS makes me more exasperated about the Brock handwaving. Saul was directly involved in the poisoning of a child. I need more than 'this happened...somehow!' I mean, I know I'll never get it, and that's okay, but still.

(To expand on that thought: after having spent half a decade focusing on Jimmy/Saul as a fully fleshed-out human being, the idea of Saul's casual involvement in something like that bothers me even more when we have basically no idea of how it actually went down/how aware he was of what he was doing/etc.)

going to SB anyone who says "Brock" in this thread now

It's basically like someone on Mork & Mindy casually mentioning that Fonzie gutted a shopkeeper.

basically exactly

lol ok sorry you guys had to use your imagination that once, I think the mechanism of how a child was tricked into eating some berries is the least important part of that plot point

Saul is a slimy coward in bb and his small part in the scheme was explained, a scene explaining how Walt delivered the poison wouldn’t change any questions about how to square jimmy with Saul what even is this goalpost shifting

Brock

BRB, I'm going to propose a Brock spin-off to Gilligan. I'll let y'all know the premiere date ASAP.

(In all seriousness, I have a heightened sensitivity to the plight of kids even in a fictional context, and I will admit to having fretted more than a few times about what became of Brock after what happened to his mother.)

With a bare minimum amount of intro, I'd say yeah.

I don't think you need any intro at all. You might even be better off without it.

Any extended Brock discussion needs to go to the Breaking Bad thread ASAP

why bcz this digression is now a) pretty off-topic and b) boring the fuck out of me

mainly bcz b) tho

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f7/4a/06/f74a06cf26ed5b5e5644ee2233ae1987.jpg

I don't think you need any intro at all. You might even be better off without it.

Absolutely. It's a better show than Breaking Bad, and probably less stressful / more exciting to watch not knowing anything about where some characters may or may not end up

The tensest scene in this one involved a standoff between two parties, one of which we know survives! I’d actually be really interested to see reactions from someone who hadn’t seen bb

The one thing that might be tough about watching BCS first is getting through the long stretches where Mike and Jimmy don't interact. But maybe just knowing that it's a prequel series would be enough to give you faith that it all pays off in the end.

It would be kind of perversely hilarious if BCS were to kill off a BB character.

Noah Hawley told Gould they should just abandon Breaking Bad and never have Jimmy turn into Saul Goodman

that would be cool but also pls don't take storytelling tips from noah hawley, mr gould

My inlaws have been watching this on Netflix over the past few weeks and love it; neither had see Breaking Bad and had no idea that BCS was related in any way.

Needs a spin-off called Brocking Bad imo

^ Gets it.

IDK if it's "misophonia," or if it's entirely rational that I can't stand hearing other people's mouth/eating noises (esp close-mic'd), but tonight's episode was particularly horrible in that regard.

The one thing that might be tough about watching BCS first is getting through the long stretches where Mike and Jimmy don't interact. But maybe just knowing that it's a prequel series would be enough to give you faith that it all pays off in the end.

It would feel extremely disjointed if you didn't have any idea where it was going, like two or three different shows where the main protagonists barely see each other. If it was a standalone show they'd have got Jimmy more heavily involved in the drugs stuff way earlier.

The show in general still feels over-reliant on the audience knowing where it's going but the new season feels a lot less padded out and less dependant on 'OMG it's him!' moments. Killing Chuck probably a wise move at this stage but I wonder whether that was the plan all along.

The problem that won't go away is that other than Odenkirk/Banks (who barely share screen time) there still isn't much in the way of onscreen chemistry between any of the actors - and BB had this in spades. Rhea Seehorn is brilliant in this but I still don't believe in Kim and Jimmy as a couple. Nacho/Gus has potential.

It's looking likely that things will not work out well for Kim

:(

Nice to see Gale again but very fanservicey. This season feels a little directionless with Chuck gone.

Hands up who thought the rent-a-burglar would turn out to be Badger or Skinny Pete.

*Raises hand*

I thought for sure it would be someone we'd seen from BB, yeah. Huell maybe.

Nice to see Gale again but very fanservicey. This season feels a little directionless with Chuck gone.

I thought for sure it would be someone we'd seen from BB, yeah.

it was

(looks it up) Ah well. I wouldn't have recognized/remembered that dude even if he hadn't spent his entire appearance in this episode traipsing around in the dark.

Yeah totally didn’t catch that! That’s the first breaking bad recurrence that’s passed me by, but tbf all the characters from that set are kinda anonymous except for Todd & uncle jack

who was it

Some guy called ira who set up the pest control front

This week's too uninteresting to post about?

Would like to think a twin Salamanca gunfight could've been written to be as exciting as the their tangle with Hank in BB but knowing they'd survive quells that and maybe it just doesn't suit BCS which seems to excel at pre-conflict tension so much more than the conflict itself.

In the courtroom scene, the cut to commercial in the middle of the judge's droning on was so good. My wife had her eyes on her crocheting, heard the abrupt cut and was like WTF?! But with Kim staring a hole in the judge it was perfect.

realizing that I basically don't give a shit about the meth dealing plotline

I mean it's not bad but it isn't really interesting either

I managed to forget the whole Nacho/Gus entanglement and also the Mike/Gus entanglement will someone pls summarize kthx

haha yeah me too maybe that's part of it

the Jimmy plotline is so much more vivid/engaging

my memory is Gus bought Mike off with the stipend/fake corporate job, and that Nacho tried to kill Salamanca against Gus's wishes (cuz Gus wants to kill him himself, or something?)

meh

Some excellent 'Mike rolling his eyes at someone being an arsehole' in this one

can anyone explain to me, bc i am dense, the deal with Kim & the judge?
why was she going there & hanging out in the first place?

in other news i love it when mike curls his lower lip over his teeth in disgust, i could watch him do it all day. the group therapy takedown was p great.

I think this was the very beginning of the Kim & judge stuff, no explanation yet.

the kim-judge stuff is kind of intriguing because that's where we found jimmy at the beginning of the series. maybe kim backslides and starts going down a slippin' jimmy kind of path? i hope not cause I adore kim, but who knows.

hmm ok good

also can i just say i really dont gaf about the salamanca twins at all

I was appreciating how they were being played more for laughs in the previous couple of eps because unlike say mike or gus their taciturnity comes off as a goofy pose the more exposure we get to it - the doctors reacting to these two idiots refusing to speak for as long as possible was great

Now they’re back to “badass” I’m less interested but I really liked how the shootout was staged

their pointy boots with the jewellery on the tips remind me of elf shoes

why was she going there & hanging out in the first place?

Looking over the model buildings for Mesa Verde's rapid planned expansion last week, she was deeply disheartened at the prospect of all this reliable ongoing employment in corporate lawyering. She's also at a crossroads in her relationship, with not knowing where Jimmy is headed and whether she wants to go there.

So this week she goes to the court to just sit and listen to cases, to see if she will be inspired and see a more fulfilling path for herself returning to defending lots and lots of single-client small cases; actually having an immediate positive effect on people's lives & getting the adrenaline rush of learning the situation quickly and defending on the fly.