Better Call Saul

[wesfau2]

Why did you revive this? 

Because I still love this show.  Not everything is about you, Sally.

[Kaos]

On that we must disagree. It’s all for me.  

[AUTiger1]

Interested to see how much further Jimmy goes and how it's going to affect him and Pam.   I think this is the season they finally split. 

[Kaos]

Interested to see how much further Jimmy goes and how it's going to affect him and Pam.  I think this is the season they finally split.

Nah.  She flirts with one of the camera guys while he’s obsessed with that job in Philly, but they come back together. One of the great American love stories. 

[wesfau2]

First two eps get us right back in the thick of things.

Lalo remains creepily charming and terrifying.

I think Kai is going to be retained to finish the lab (he was the only solo German driver.)

Poor Nacho.  All he wants is out.

[Kaos]

First two eps get us right back in the thick of things.

Lalo remains creepily charming and terrifying.

I think Kai is going to be retained to finish the lab (he was the only solo German driver.)

Poor Nacho.  All he wants is out.

I went back to it because I’m starving for intelligently written television and Vince typically delivers that. 

Did the whole catch up grind. I like it better watching like that.  Otherwise it might be inexorably slow.  

Just can’t warm up to Kim though. 

[wesfau2]

First two eps get us right back in the thick of things.

Lalo remains creepily charming and terrifying.

I think Kai is going to be retained to finish the lab (he was the only solo German driver.)

Poor Nacho.  All he wants is out.

Forgot to mention: we get the origin of Crazy Eight's nickname.  

[WiregrassTiger]

Because I still love this show.  Not everything is about you, Sally.

When you first mentioned this show, I admit that I wrote it off as just another one of the many faggot topics or traits that you love to discuss. But I’m hooked. Love this show. One of the best, ever.

And one of the only things that I’ve ever know you to be right about, taste wise. It is quality stuff. Not gay or cheesy at all.

[wesfau2]

Fantastic episode last night...two more until the season finale (and attendant 3-year wait for the final season.)

I think we saw Saul lose his "innocence" in this episode.  Or at the very least, he lost the last shred of naivety he had about his clients and their world.  He and Kim outsmarted the square world with their marriage, but they didn't consider the effect on the other side of that coin.

Interesting bit of symmetry with Saul wandering sunburnt through the desert as his "trial by fire" with the cartel.  Remember that Walt once made a similar foot-trek in his skivvies after he and Jesse were ambushed at the Bounder cook in the desert.

Also, you knew he was going to drink the piss at some point.

[wesfau2]

Well...the bittersweet season finale came and went.  Jimmy and (the newly scheming and cold-hearted utilitarianist) Kim are going to destroy Howard for their seed money.

Does Lalo get Nacho in Chihuahua?  We hear both names in BB but see neither of them.

The wait will be interminable, but that last season should be a wild ride.

[Kaos]

Well...the bittersweet season finale came and went.  Jimmy and (the newly scheming and cold-hearted utilitarianist) Kim are going to destroy Howard for their seed money.

Does Lalo get Nacho in Chihuahua?  We hear both names in BB but see neither of them.

The wait will be interminable, but that last season should be a wild ride.

I forgot to watch it.   

I've warmed up to Kim, though.  

[WiregrassTiger]

I forgot to watch it. 

I've warmed up to Kim, though. 

I’ve been warmed up to Kim.

I’d like to teach her a thing or two. I’ll show her about how to lawyer. With my love muscle.

[Kaos]

I was wrong about everything.  This is a great show and it’s a real shame it never found an audience. 

Kim is languidly hot in a way I should have realized.

This is one of the better shows of all time.
It’s definitely the best prequel. It’s brilliant in the way it hooks all the tiny pieces together. I hate to see it end.

Comparing it to breaking bad was an injustice. 

It may actually hold up better than BB.

I don’t like odenkirk’s politics but he is fantastic in this role. 

I will be wearing my American Samoa Law School T-shirt when I watch the return.

[GH2001]

I was wrong about everything.  This is a great show and it’s a real shame it never found an audience. 

Kim is languidly hot in a way I should have realized.

This is one of the better shows of all time.
It’s definitely the best prequel. It’s brilliant in the way it hooks all the tiny pieces together. I hate to see it end.

Comparing it to breaking bad was an injustice. 

It may actually hold up better than BB.

I don’t like odenkirk’s politics but he is fantastic in this role. 

I will be wearing my American Samoa Law School T-shirt when I watch the return.

Put down the drugs and please erase that 5th bullet point.

[Kaos]

Put down the drugs and please erase that 5th bullet point.

I only say that because the level of depravity and the slow descent into the mud.

Walter broke bad quickly. Went from making meth to murder at an accelerated rate.  Like a single episode. 

Saul wants to be good.  He tries. But he’s a leopard. The spots always come out. 

I really like the fact that he drags Kim from the moral side over into his lunacy.  I also like the evil tinfoil under her professional veneer. Watching her wrestle with being a upstanding corporate drone and sliding into Giselle so effortlessly is effective.

I relate to Saul on a personal level.  We all have those demons pulling us into the dark.  I wish I had his vengeful creativity. Never understanding that he was his mother’s favorite, constantly comparing himself to chuck and never measuring up. All of that is handled so well. 

It’s got the same amazingly detailed writing. The same peculiar (and much appreciated) sense of style.  Simple things like an ice cream cone dropped on the sidewalk that gets consumed by ants - which is a metaphor for what’s happening to Saul in that moment are so beautifully crafted. 

The little “blink and you missed it” callbacks to Breaking Bad like Domingo being so scared of Lalo in a poker game that he folded with three eights…. And Lalo offhand calls him loco Ocho as he rakes in the pot… thus Krazy 8 who is Walt’s basement buddy in season one?  That’s just superb.

It’s the same show but at the same time a different show.  And long-term - maybe mainly because Kim isn’t the joker-faced BITCH from hell that Skyler was - it has its own place inside and outside Breaking Bad.  And it holds up well. 

It’s better the second time through.  Much better.  Not sure I can say that about breaking bad. 

[GH2001]

I only say that because the level of depravity and the slow descent into the mud.

Walter broke bad quickly. Went from making meth to murder at an accelerated rate.  Like a single episode. 

Saul wants to be good.  He tries. But he’s a leopard. The spots always come out. 

I really like the fact that he drags Kim from the moral side over into his lunacy.  I also like the evil tinfoil under her professional veneer. Watching her wrestle with being a upstanding corporate drone and sliding into Giselle so effortlessly is effective.

I relate to Saul on a personal level.  We all have those demons pulling us into the dark.  I wish I had his vengeful creativity. Never understanding that he was his mother’s favorite, constantly comparing himself to chuck and never measuring up. All of that is handled so well. 

It’s got the same amazingly detailed writing. The same peculiar (and much appreciated) sense of style.  Simple things like an ice cream cone dropped on the sidewalk that gets consumed by ants - which is a metaphor for what’s happening to Saul in that moment are so beautifully crafted. 

The little “blink and you missed it” callbacks to Breaking Bad like Domingo being so scared of Lalo in a poker game that he folded with three eights…. And Lalo offhand calls him loco Ocho as he rakes in the pot… thus Krazy 8 who is Walt’s basement buddy in season one?  That’s just superb.

It’s the same show but at the same time a different show.  And long-term - maybe mainly because Kim isn’t the joker-faced BITCH from hell that Skyler was - it has its own place inside and outside Breaking Bad.  And it holds up well. 

It’s better the second time through.  Much better.  Not sure I can say that about breaking bad.

Im semi kidding. I honestly don't know. I have never watched a min of Saul but maybe I will give it a go. But I may need to get back caught up to the Breaking Bad arc before I do. Its been several years since Ive seen any BB. Much like Sopranos when the movie came out end of last year on HBO, I had to re-remember a lot of things prior to watching it.

[wesfau2]

But I may need to get back caught up to the Breaking Bad arc before I do.

It's...a prequel.

[GH2001]

It's...a prequel.

A prequel that came out after the original. As with any like that, the already existing arc is important because of some of the very things K mentioned and because the prequel was done afterwards with that in mind. I’m talking basics here. 101. Characters.

[Kaos]

It's...a prequel.

I agree that it wouldn't hurt to do Breaking Bad first.  Otherwise you might not get things like Krazy-8 or even the "working in a Cinnabon in Oklahoma" reference that kicks it all off. 

It IS a prequel, yes. But it has so many callbacks --- call forwards? --- to Breaking Bad that it would be a shame to miss all of that context. 

It also begins before Breaking Bad, but allegedly ends in a world after Bad was over.  So in that way, it's almost as much a bookend as a prequel or sequel.  If it does, that is. 

One thought.... if Breaking Bad hadn't existed or if you watched Saul first and then decided to follow with Breaking Bad would it have the same impact?  If Bad hadn't existed, I don't know that Saul gets six seasons.  I kind of think the audience for it might have been bigger had it been first, though.  It's a really well-written show, solid acting, solid story.  The way it's shot is really fantastic.  The camera angles, the visuals.  Even simple, throwaway shots like looking up at a pissed off Hector from beneath the pool water.  It carries that same sense of framing and style from Breaking Bad that was so fantastic but it's (in my opinion) even better. 

Another thought.  It's 'Better Call Saul' but it's really much more than that. 

It's Gus Fring's story.
It's Mike's story.
It's Krazy-8's story.
It's Hector Salamanca's story.
It's Tuco's story.
It's Saul's story.
All of them were contributors to Breaking Bad

But it's also
Chuck's story.
Kim's story.
Howard's story.
Lalo's story.
Nacho's story.

In the time it has, in each episode, it weaves components of all those vastly different but intertwined stories into a single cohesive narrative. 

I don't mind admitting when I was wrong and I was.  It's a fucking great show.

[Kaos]

I've got my University of American Samoa Law School sweatshirt ready to go for tonight.