[Slow Ben]

Finally caught up.

This season is gooood.

Jimmy's storyline is intriguing and Mike is fucking awesome.

[Malankazooie]

The Easter egg call backs to Breaking Bad, particularly key locations and people, should really make the devout Breaking Bad fan happy.

[Malankazooie]

Ok, caught up now before tonight's episode. Man, that Jimmy vs. Chuck in court was some battle of the wits, let me tell you. Jimmy bringing in one of our favs from BB was classic "Saul". But yeah, Jimmy totally exposed Chuck's true motives. Man, Chuck needs to let go of what happened when they were kids (and the Chicago Sunroof too. )

[Malankazooie]

Damn, I'm surprised this thread is so dead because this season has been firing on all cylinders and should make the Breaking Bad fan very happy. I'm caught up current to tonight's episode. The most recent of which had all parts moving towards an obvious collusion with Breaking Bad. In fact, one could surmise that the events of Breaking Bad are now occurring in the same timeline, sorta like Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I'm digging it. I don't think the actress playing Kim gets enough credit for how good the show is. She nails it.

[Slow Ben]

Yeah, she's very, very good.
id say the same for the guy who plays Nacho, o really enjoy his character.


And this season is awesome.

[worry]

Caught up. Still blows BB out of the water. Great season. Don Hector is for real.

[Malankazooie]

Really excellent show. Not sure if I would be so bold as to say it blows Breaking Bad out of the water though.

I thought this season could have been the best so far. Great momentum built towards transition from Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman. I liked the reason he chose Saul Goodman too (it's all good). And Nacho, Gus Fring and Hector Salamanca interactions could very well be the best thing about this season.

Really excellent finale to the season too. So much subtle nuance that the casual, disinterested viewer never picks up on.

[worry]

I'm being a little hyperbolic cuz the "BB is the best show ever" crowd are pretty goofy. It's obviously a very good show, among the best of popcorn TV. I just think BCS is a lot better, and rises above popcorn more often. Jimmy's slide into Saul, the corrosion of his soul from outside forces coupled with his own compulsions and hangups, is way more compelling than Walt's self-destruction. BB is very focused on addiction and has plenty to say about it, but to the detriment (imo) of other interesting issues it brings up but under-serves (like health care, the drug war, etc.), and Walt is kind of a black hole from the start (his Mr. Chips to Scarface journey isn't actually that far). So yah, both good shows, but BCS has a lot more to say about things that interest me than BB did.

[worry]

I kinda feel the opposite of that. I don't hate Mike but he's pretty predictable. It's just a matter of coming up with 'neat' things for him to do. In contrast, everything Jimmy does is super interesting, and the question of how much of Saul is already in Jimmy, and the war between them over Jimmy's soul, is the most gripping part of the show. I guess Mike actually has a similar kind of fall though, so in that light it's cool to parallel them, to compare and contrast.

Anyway, pretty great premiere. That cold open was tense!

[Malankazooie]

^^^^ This
Jimmy turning into Saul is the premise of the show (like that needs to be pointed out). And the events that seem to be turning Jimmy towards Saul are what makes a lot of the episodes compelling. Michael McKean as Jimmy's brother, Chuck, was excellent in this development and did such an excellent job. I found the dynamic between Jimmy and Chuck fascinating and it worked so well in watching how it inter-played in Jimmy's struggle to stay a legit lawyer.

I do love me some Mike though. BB fans gotta be happy because Mike and those working in his circle keep the BB hits coming.

[Malankazooie]

Wow, another character from BB makes first appearance in tonight's episode of Better Call Saul. I checked the actor's IMDB page and this credit is not listed, so they must have kept this one under wraps.

[Malankazooie]

Just read some Easter eggs in the latest episode that I was unaware of or missed (that I find interesting).
-
The dude who Jimmy hires to steal the hummel appeared on BB.

Quote

Ira (Franc Ross) also made a return appearance, helping Saul boost that hummel. We know Ira from Season 5 of Breaking Bad. He was the guy behind Vamonos Pest tents, which set up fumigation tents around houses and burglarized them (or stole their alarm codes and sold them to other burglars). Recall that in that Breaking Bad episode, Saul noted that he's been saving Ira's bacon for years.

#
Unsliced pizza.

Quote

Remember way back in Breaking Bad when Walt threw a pizza on the roof? That pizza was not sliced, which was by design. Gilligan reasoned that a sliced pizza would not work in that scene because it would fly apart, so they came up with the idea of a place that sold unsliced pizza. (The place, Venezia's, is real, and a place in Albuquerque from which the crew often orders pizza (they do not actually sell it unsliced)).

So, that unsliced pizza became something of a joke. In another episode of Breaking Bad, Badger jokes about the unsliced pizza. "They pass the saving onto you."

Anyway, to bring that to this week's episode of Better Call Saul, it explains why Mr. Neff — when he orders pizza — asks for "a large cheese, sliced please." (Neff also asked for "dipping sticks," just as Walt White had at one point).

It's a little throwaway joke, but for those who remember the unsliced pizza from Breaking Bad, it lands solidly!

It's little touches like these that make the show brilliant. Cool stuff.

#

Also, on another note, when Gus Fring (in episode 1 I think) said something along the lines that "chaos brings the D.E.A."; you guys know what that means right? A certain someone may be popping up this season. *teehee

[EDIT] Checked the IMDB for actor who plays Gale. They added this credit for him. Those cheeky monkeys. Waiting until the episode airs before he gets credit. Pretty sneaky.

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 23 August 2018 - 03:08 PM

[Malankazooie]

Ah. The back story of the infamous hotel desk bell that Hector Salamanca is so well know for ringing in BB.

One episode left this season. I gotta say this season has been disappointing, imo. Hopefully things will end with a riot in the season finale and pick up in season 5. If not, this may be one of those shows that receives strong evaluation by me on whether I stay with it. Don't get me wrong, I've loved the seasons so far and think the show is brilliant, but just feel it took a little bit of a dive in this latest season, and usually when this happens to shows, they continue to dive instead of coming back up.

[Malankazooie]

YES! The birth of Saul Goodman at the end of the episode! Methinks next season is going to be a doozy.

Oh and guys, that scene with Mike and Werner Ziegler is one for the ages. So brilliantly shot. Brutal, but beautiful. The summer nights of the arid/high desert locale of the U.S. southwest can be breath taking, and that scene captured it. The night sky, the silhouettes of Mike and Werner, and the flash of gun fire. Genius, brilliant, and award worthy.

[Mezla PigDog]

I'm not sure what season we are on of this but I love Kim. I honestly think she's the best written woman I've seen in a series. She's just spot on to me. A proper person. Not a mother or a wife or a sister of some dude doing interesting stuff. She's a person going about her business who happens to be female. I think she's going to break Jimmy's heart before the end. He doesn't deserve her.

[Traveller]

Just finished these; we're now into a rewatch of BB.

I love the relationship between Kim and Jimmy. All the unspoke stuff, mainly - they can both convey so much in a scene without any dialogue at all.

The whole series has been amazing. Have to wait a year now to find out what happens; I really hope Kim is ok, and Jimmy seriously needs an break at the end of all this.

He's not like Walt - who I've realised on our rewatch, is a selfish ass from the very start.

[Slow Ben]

Hell yeah.