Better Call Saul

Started by Kal, September 11, 2013, 04:29:39 PM

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WorldForgot

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To me it was the editing of his outburst that was odd, not the performance or writing so much. The composition became this almost Kaylee-POV that was odd, and idk how to describe it, but the edit just felt more subjective than BB/BCS usually plays out for a moment like that, from Mike's profile to that head-on shot. The performance felt honest to me, though. Hungover, guilty, pestered.


Jeremy Blackman

Alright so this week's episode was one of the best of the whole series. I highly recommend this season.

Drenk

I loved the last two episodes! Especially the last one, yes. I found the beginning of the season very rough and I had lost faith with the show, but they managed to find another way to make the fall of Jimmy intense and poignant again.
Ascension.

WorldForgot

They shifted from Lalo to Kim so you dug in :P

I kid, but also I think Rhea iz a powerhouse.
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The "proposal," Jimmy's bedroom confession. So sweet/tragic.

Sleepless

I absolutely adore this show. Some of the best TV.

Bob and Rhea are seriously underrated and deserve a lot more recognition come award times.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Sleepless

It feels like every week we're saying that was the best episode yet, but wow, it may very really be true this time around. And I called that it was a Schnauz special before his name came up in the opening credits. Had his finger prints all over it.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

WorldForgot


Drenk

Lovely stuff.

Ultimately, I loved this season! The last half was spectacular. I even dig Lalo; at first, he seemed too similar to regular sociopaths, but he grew on me.
Ascension.


ono

I love that they took the time to do this:


April 18th can't get here fast enough.

WorldForgot

This show totally inspires me. It fulfillz an aesthetic and thematic promise - existing within the "world" and mood that Breaking Bad set-up so that we have the same angles on crime and bureacratic hypocrisy, of personal ambition and desire corroding our integrity, and yet it never feels like it leans on spin-off-self-referentialness or as if it's a product of a franchise. It's its own totality of serialized drama. Instead of a drug empire, we watch the romantic tragedy of a couple that can scheme and riff their way toward justice, within a world where justice matterz 'least.'


ono

Also, I love watching these.  Really well thought out, thorough, and insightful analyses:


There's videos for seasons 4 and 5.  I don't quite agree with the latest one, so I figured I'd just link to the first.

WorldForgot

Man, the suspense in Nacho Varga's storyline is working so well. Feelz as tragic as Jesse's plight except the way Nacho tugs against Gus' leash iz very different than its Breaking Bad parallel. Walt didn't have as much power over Jesse, and that feeling of independence gave Jesse the notion that Walt might care. Meanwhile, the heel on top of Nacho's so removed as to be near bureacratic, a crime foil to the stacking strata of impersonal 'law' and court. Emotionally granular unlike those of other Cartel narrative series.

In this latest episode, s6e3
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I loved the haunting touch of a stranger helping Nacho out, y la Virgin up on the wall as he calls his father who wants only for his son to turn himself in, a 'confession' that serves a point but to no good end. He'll die for his father and to unbind himself.




Jeremy Blackman

Just caught up with episode 4. Such a good "moment" in the story where everything feels right on the edge, and a number of simple decisions are deciding everyone's fate all at once. Especially appreciated the nuance of Kim's ambivalence.

I still find myself a little tested by the pace of the show. Its slowness is fine in a vacuum, because it's just so good at everything it does with its time. But I can't shake this feeling that every scene is a tease. Every episode flies by and feels way too short, while the bigger picture story feels languid.

Maybe I'm sensing the process too much. I think there's something about how evenly-spaced important events are in this story. In real life, things are status quo for a while and a series of changes can happen suddenly or randomly. But in BCS, crucial story beats happen at regular intervals in a way that feels a bit artificial and writerly. I'm probably being unfair, but that's how it's currently hitting me.

I don't expect BCS to be Breaking Bad, but I do miss the way a number of things would happen all at once and compound intricately in a way that felt random and realistic. BCS is more like a slow cycle of dread and release, with things getting very slowly worse.

Ep 4 spoilers:

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That scene with Gus going into the tunnel. I got so excited because I thought they were revealing that he was an informant all along. But this was just... kinda silly.