Better Call Saul

No--the Rolling Stone piece thought so too.

Ha yes the casting of Kim's mother was so good I thought they may be related IRL

I disagree with posts above about weakness/unmotivated nature of plotting. I think it's pretty obvious that this is Kim doubling down in a desperate attempt to get Jimmy to reform. The Mesa Verde plot is there to illuminate their relationship, and to show how both of them respond to escalating stakes with more and more addictive behaviors. Not unlike Adam Sandler in UNCUT GEMS. She has just as bad a gambling problem as he does, in fact he brings it out of her and makes it worse. In this sense you need the Mesa Verde to move Kim inexorably down her trajectory. She's not running in circles at all.

The two posts this morning did give me pause about the latest episode--"Yeah, they sure did buckle to such a slapdash, borderline ridiculous threat." I think I just mostly check credulity at the door with not just this show but other TV shows I enjoy. (I like Ozark, which is preposterous.) There was the roadside lineup for cell phones and legal advice earlier...I just go with it.

i thought they dubbed Seehorn's voice as the mother.

I'm re-watching from the start so not keeping up with this thread. Just up to the s4 episode where they make all the provisions for the German lads to be isolated inside for 8-10 months. Such foresight!

i watched last week’s episode and man that ending threw me for a loop

but after some reflection i think drew is otm

this is not kim being a ditz and oh he’s terrible i love him

this her doing what they both do so well & pivoting on the spot with a new plan

ie he fucking played me in public to win fuck him we’re done ohhhhhh no even better lets up the ante & see who flinches when we put it all on the line & let it ride (my gambling knowledge is not great so forgive if i am mixing terms)

this is like two gambling addicts in love with each other as much as the game to the point now where the relationship is the game

this ending for them is gonna suuuuuck

good episode, was missing Saul's Nathan For You-type schemes this season. seemed a bit ~too~ obvious that this was where they'd break up (as hinted by the episode title obviously) so I liked that bait and switch, like all this show's cliffhanger endings who knows what that's all about. would love to see Kim pull one over on ol' Jimmy somehow

been digging this season but watching it with such a long layoff is kind of difficult, every character has some sort of dual loyalty and there were so many plots I forgot the details of (like Nacho poisoning Hector). doesn't help that every actor is a decade older than they were when Breaking Bad was going, screws with my head sometimes. Mike is clearly an "old man" in the BCS universe, so is he supposed to be like 80 when BB rolls around? or is this one of those things we aren't supposed to think about

Huell!

Lydia!

Another good episode. That justice at the beginning ought to get his own show. Mike reading The Little Prince with his granddaughter resting her head on him was a beautiful image.

Gus's grease fire setup was great

Don't read this if you're not up to date.

Two questions: 1) Was Nacho with Gus? I thought he was, but Gus got back in his car alone; 2) When Jimmy tells Huell the marriage is just for legal protection, he's just making that up right? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but you never know with Jimmy.

I assumed they came in separate cars (1)

re: Jimmy-Huell, that seemed to me like a partial truth Jimmy amplified in order to get him to back off re: ceremony trappings

Yeah, that's actually what I thought: that Jimmy was lying but voicing something partly true that he hadn't even consciously formulated himself yet.

Interrupting sex with "There's something I don't want to tell you, so that must mean I should" was great.

Giancarlo Esposito should have a spinoff Marie Kondo-style lifestyle show in character, all about the benefits of being ott deliberate and meticulous in even the most mundane tasks

lie, "how to set your pen down on a dresser"

like

I'm eating healthy these days--those curly fries looked really good.

That madrigal guy (Peter) is the one who zaps himself in bb yes? He had good snack-eating form in that too

ok, refresher...what happens to him?

all of the other madrigal group restaurants were pretty awesome

Yeah I loved Luftwaffle especially.

That was the saddest fucking wedding.

xp after gus dies and everything’s exposed, the cops come for that guy who’s shown mechanically trying disgusting-looking dips, but he goes into the toilet and kills himself with a defibrillator

right!

dunking first taste of new product in ketchup not good for evaluative purposes imo

someone deserves an award for this matter of fact wiki version

In Hannover, Germany, when the police arrive to question him about his relationship with Gus Fring, Peter commits suicide by sticking one end of an automated external defibrillator in his mouth and the other over his heart. The electric current flows, and Schuler slumps onto the floor of the bathroom, dead. His death then triggers the automatic flush function on the toilet.

assuming this list of known restaurant chains is correct:
Los Pollos Hermanos, Stingin' Rays, Luftwaffle, Whiskerstay's, Haau Chuen Wok, Burger Matic, Polmieri Pizza

I did a double take at Luftwaffle

seated nexy to Gus was a rep from another taco chain, too

another?

no—a Mexican chain, was thinking Hermanos was Mexican food

though I guess technically it is

Together, the "chicken brothers" made a name for themselves and their small-town eatery by using authentic flavors and spices to make the tastiest chicken south of the border.

hmm yeah if it's slow-roasted chicken they advertise and they just now added the fries, what was making the fryers dirty? call the plot hole police!

did anyone else laugh at Gus inspecting the fryer basket before setting it aside, despite the fact he was about to blow up the place?

Saul’s rant at the end is an even more delusional “I am the one who knocks” (but sadder to see because jimmy is more likeable and his petty megalomania doesn’t just come from wounded pride, failure and resentment)

xp that was excellent

Spice Curls, put some respect on their name

Gus's beaming pride when he said the name was funny.

yes, totally performing "normie" for the other owners

same tone he used when doing charitable things for the community in BB

Yeah - I like the implication that he is genuinely proud of his spice curls, and sincerely sees worth in his community-building, BUT also has absolute contempt for displays of pride, AND cares even more about how well they cover for his criminal enterprises.

So he's learnt a performance of pride which connects with other people who care mainly about such things, and that also helpfully projects him as a simp to people who don't.

The way gus is filmed and portrayed in this series is ridic, somewhere between a terminator and Satan

of course he insisted on being the one to blow up his own restaurant so that he'd know it was competently done

...and Mr C.

cleaning's good, cleaning's good
cleaning your grill tray's good

As my wife commented when Gus was kneeling in front of Peter to calm him, "he is terrifying and reassuring all in equal measures".

Odenkirk is great, I love the guy, but he’s a comedian, not an actor

kind of apt for someone playing a con man trying to be a lawyer

I have accepted that there's a lot of pantomiming and telegraphing in Odenkirk's acting. It's most glaring in one-on-one scenes with Kim, when he's going for earnest.

But most of the time he compensates for that with charisma—he's still compelling to watch!—and yeah the fact that he's playing someone whose whole m.o. is a false front helps too.

(xpost) Same applied to his agent Stevie Grant in Larry Sanders, the ultimate con man. Acting or not, I think he's great in both, maybe even more so in Larry Sanders.

Kim’s comedic turn imitating Kevin in S5 e5 is pure gold.

I loved that rant to Howard at the end; it’s why I have always loved Odenkirk, he’s so good at being inappropriately angry

plus: it’s ~that~ exact potion of boiling hubristic rage mixed w deep entitlement & bone-deep insecurity that will permanently turn Jimmy into Saul.