Better Call Saul

Faint? It was clearly orange lol

That was a nice callback to the first time they met

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdl2AneHvgo

A+ backdoor pilot for the bill oakley spinoff

Loved both of Saul’s final displays of courtroom showmanship, heel and face: the first with the ice cold response to “you think a jury’s gonna buy that?” as he stares down Marie; the second makes total sense for the obvious reasons ppl have stated - Kim’s confession jolted his conscience - and his long long overdue moment of honesty (can’t call it redemption, really, and who actually benefits from this punk spending a more insanely long time in America’s stupid carceral system?) works for me as a happy ending of sorts, but fundamentally it’s still their old dynamic; these two spur each other to do reckless things

Finale posed too many questions.
Why did he dress up in a shiny suit in court if he was going to humble himself and turn back into jimmy?
Did his testimony absolve Kim?
What was the point of the scene with WW?

I enjoyed the thank yous More than the episode except for a Esposito more disingenuous than his character on the show

where were Walt and Saul in that flashback? i can't remember a damn thing about BB any more!

in the basement of the vacuum cleaner repair shop

I was confused by that too, till I read a review afterwards.

in the basement of the vacuum cleaner repair shop

― calzino, Tuesday, August 16, 2022 7:09 PM bookmarkflaglink

Best King Crimson album

Thought that actually flashed across my mind when B&W Saul took out the repair-shop business card: "They're not going to try some CGI thing with Robert Forster like they did with Nancy Marchand in The Sopranos, are they?"

The only thing that didnt work for me was how easily the feds took his BS and caved to his insane plea bargain demands. I find it very difficult to buy that happening in real life.

True. I guess we're supposed to think that Walt's demise was a humongous news story.

xpost Yeah, like I said this noon:

Would have liked it better if he went off to do his reduced time (but I think it would have been at least a decade: Feds seem less likely to cave quite so far, although I've read about it happening on State and lower levels pretty often), and we last see him as a jailhouse lawyer, cocky but keeping an eye about, always wondering if he's gonna get shanked or shived, since, as he mentions to prosecutors, some of those guys he was afraid of are still out there).

Yes, def. rooting for return of Jailhouse Saul, like yall.

I wondered if there were going to be further visits to Jim as a jailhouse lawyer. Or if that was going to be it for BB/BCS franchises.
So there are further stories to be told in this universe being written already then?

Right after finale proper, they announced a new series with Bob O., due in 2022: Straight Man.
xpost But what was the point of his having the co-counsel? Just somebody who might in some way prove useful? Saul's wheels still turning at this point, seems like, as his classick process goes into overdrive (and then some, when he finds out what Kim has done).

I dunno personally I'm done with this universe between the 2 shows and a movie... I dont feel like theres anything left to tell?

OK maaaaybe Gus's mysterious past in Cuba or Colmbia or wheerver it was that made everyone afraid of him. But Gilligan has always said that story isnt gonna be told afaik?

Esposito's show to be: Parish. Maybe he's a priest.
Yo, Seehorn?!

True. I guess we're supposed to think that Walt's demise was a humongous news story.

― maf you one two (maffew12), Tuesday, August 16, 2022 7:38 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, it absolutely would have been! Two DEA agents murdered in the desert, ten people killed in jail, an entire cartel family wiped out, an explosion at a nursing home, an underground lab, and a roving murderous Nazi gang, all brought about by a spurned chemistry teacher with cancer and a sleazy TV lawyer? Shit would be national news and likely wind up with a movie adaptation before the trial even started. Had it gone to trial there would probably be cameras covering every second of it and Saul Goodman would've become a household name. And we all know how TV circus trials like that can go. That said, that angle isn't really explored here, so who knows. Obviously such a negotiation would take more than two minutes but they only had one episode left to go :)

But what was the point of his having the co-counsel?

Actually yeah that was another thing I was confused by.
- were we meant to know who that guy was? He was instroduced as knowing Saul but I didnt recall him
- he didnt seem v impressed by Saul and wasnt interested
- nekminnit there he is having clearly caught a plane he was baldly told he had to pay for himself to get to ABX? Cmon.

"petty with a prior"

I guess Saul was implying it would be a big publicity deal, so good for Bill's career however it turned out? There are lawyers who take cases like that, it seems, at least where I live, and you know, R. Kelly's still got counsel, Trump always will.
(I don't really think they'll do any more than a one-off, made for cable/streaming movie, at most. Gilligan said many years ago that one of his favorite shows growing up was M*A*S*H*, "but the Korean War was three years. The series went on for eleven.")

neither esposito or odenkirk's new shows are set in the BB/BCS universe for anyone confused by that, also neither involves gilligan or, afaik, any of the major bb/bcs creative team

and gilligan fwiw has said he's done with this universe for the foreseeable future

frogbs summarizing what could/should have been a brief scene of the news coverage hysteria around Walt that would've driven things home to more casual fans of the series (like me... i mean how many of us have seen any of the material more than once?)

so yeah i guess i buy it

I'll be watching this episode again. it was a lot!

Bringing in Oakley makes sense, he’s kind of the last guy Saul actually knows and in earlier seasons it’s implied they’ve worked together a lot

The impression I got was he was willing to sell out Kim but changed the plan upon finding out she confessed already

The part I didn’t buy was Kim being unaware that Saul was caught. One would think she’d be monitoring that situation after the phone call.

I saw that odenkirk is doing a campus set drama about an English professor.
Which had Anthony Sher as the History Man running through my head. Different Dept of course and country.

& Esposito is supposed to be a US version of a BBC drama the Driver. Don't remember that show. Is it recent?

It occurred to me that the small subset of people who've seen BCS but haven't yet seen BB were unlikely to be swayed by WW's appearances in this series. Who wants to watch that miserable SOB snipe at people for six seasons?

"Run"

xxxpost Oh yeah, he maybe was gonna sell her out, since he indicated that he thought he still had Howard up his sleeve ("Hamlin?" Prosecutor so derisive: look who else missed the evening news). But you know, we all miss it sometimes: busy busy busy. Hey, what was she doing with that file, creeping around like that??

They did that fake episode 'American Greed' but really you got to go to the dude and make one with Keith Morrison interviewing Saul or at least get Odenkirk to host SNL and have Bill Hader as Morrison interviewing Saul.

I dunno personally I'm done with this universe between the 2 shows and a movie

Ditto times 10. With all the circling narratives and COVID interruptions, it's just too much at this point.

thinking about it more I think the final twist really was great, when I watched it I was thinking "fuck Saul what are you doing??" but ultimately I think Saul realized that even with a reduced sentence he'd be left with nothing when he got out and would likely pull a bunch of scams until he got caught again. in fact that's basically what happened in Omaha, when despite everything he was nearly home free. so he does the "it's showtime" thing once more, this time performing not for the court but for Kim, realizing that the person she loves is Jimmy, not Saul, and the only way he can have some semblance of something real in his life (kim's admiration, if nothing else) is to give himself up

I just read Esposito was born in Denmark.
Not sure exactly where I was expecting but wouldn't be there.

Looks like driver may be based on a crime series set in Manchester about a taxi driver getting pulled into involvement with gang crime. If so British one was 2014 I think. I don't remember it.

You know, after so much drama, I kind of appreciate that the show ultimately went for a relatively gentle landing.

I thought that was a beautiful finale, definitely no need for any other spin-offs. testament to how well they built up Jimmy/Saul as a character and his relationship with Kim that that final twist made sense - she was the only person worth giving up Saul for. And of course he'd actually be great in jail! I loved that.

Walt + Saul flashback milessss better than the Kim + Jesse one, it's been a long time since I watched BB but I enjoyed Walt being annoying science guy again lol

i very much liked the final moments at the gate when i finally realized "oh this was a love story" and teared up some. not what i expected from this show but wow did they earn it

Is Seehorn at an age where it has become difficult for female actors to get roles for way too long. Unless she is relegated to a backing role like someone's mother or otherwise not fully detailed. I hope that is a thing of the past but it is something I think has caused a lot of pain in the past. She is a very good performer so should be allowed to continue being one.
JUst thinking about a comment somebody had said about Odenkirk and Esposito being able to get new projects visibly going already.

Or has she just started in the leading role of a comedy I hadn't heard of.
Is Cooper's Bar any good?

a series of 11 minute shorts about a bunch of losers hanging around a fake bar thinking of fame, with Rhea Seehorn as an a-hole executive . This is the first episode and is directed by her
https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=paerfPvqkRQ

might explain why I haven't heard of it or is it the talk of the town?
Hope she does get into a new series that more fully shows her talent

You know, I doubt the writers gave much thought to this at first, but I wouldn't be shocked if it came to mind toward the end ... "call" of course has been used literally for most of this show and the one before it, but a "call" is also a decision. So a "better call" would be a better decision, which is what Saul - "better call" Saul - finally makes at the end of the series.

🤯

lol i like it

Loved both of Saul’s final displays of courtroom showmanship, heel and face: the first with the ice cold response to “you think a jury’s gonna buy that?” as he stares down Marie; the second makes total sense for the obvious reasons ppl have stated - Kim’s confession jolted his conscience - and his long long overdue moment of honesty (can’t call it redemption, really, and who actually benefits from this punk spending a more insanely long time in America’s stupid carceral system?) works for me as a happy ending of sorts, but fundamentally it’s still their old dynamic; these two spur each other to do reckless things

― Wiggum Dorma (wins), Tuesday, 16 August 2022 20:33 (yesterday) link

Hadn't thought about it this way but this seems very otm

Yeah, now it does! The olde folie a deux, with a last spree and contest, to see who can do the most shocking confession and spin into the sun---will they both be doing interviews, books, as the culmination of this whole true crime/news media gold rush? Also, yes, a way to live with themselves, but there's gotta be danger in there too, as always: Kim might get sued for everything she has and all future earnings (at least, I believe some lawyer in there, probably Jimmy, put it that way, getting all turned on at the extremity of her amends), and he, though maybe the Saul of jailhouse lawyers, with 2 cartons of cigs as fee, could still get shanked by somebody hired from outside, a survivor of old, or just struck down by a rando: there's all kinds of ways for a prisoner to die, and sometimes it's even a celebrity, like Jeffrey Daumer.

Speaking of Saul's fees, he never was a true ambulance-chaser, with the big personal injury jackpots, right? Sandpiper was a long, long time in coming, and meanwhile, he's getting, what maybe an average of 200 bucks from how many hundreds of clients, while into conspicuous consumption---and nobody bothered to look at his above-ground practice as money-laundering, until the connection with the cartel was emerging---? I believe it, but all the more reason, along with headline fever, for the prosecution not to agree to seven years; oh well.

ambulance-chasers are lawyers who sue people, Saul was pretty much a defense attorney, defending lowlife criminals and such.

the irony of course is his biggest success as a lawyer was a major class-action lawsuit that two different law firms had to oversee, and it was completely legit and benefitted a bunch of elderly folks who had been fucked out of their money.

granted, he didn't do it for the right reasons, but still funny.

God that last episode was some of the most dire fan service and inability to figure out how to end a series since GOT.

Their legal consultant must have had the day off. They don't allow the victim's wife in for plea deal negotiations. Marie's entire scene was bad.

Lol, at Kim getting her law license back. Sure, sure.

Loved the series other than the finale and that Jesse-Kim scene.

ambulance-chasers are lawyers who sue people, Saul was pretty much a defense attorney, defending lowlife criminals and such.

There is a lot of overlap between these two kinds of lawyers.