Better Call Saul

[ChesterCopperpot]

Premiere is Monday April 10th

[Chaos]

I caught up on Season 2 via Netflix this past week. It is interesting that a lot of the non-Saul players in this prove to be the sympathetic ones and make Jimmy/Saul about as unlikable as possible. I'm curious how the promoted stuff for Season 3 plays into the coming year.

[OSJ]

While y'all were wasting time watching RAW, I was watching the premiere, some excellent stuff. Hector Salamanca with all his facilities intact is a terrifying motherfucker.  I'm sure things are leading to a showdown between he and Mike (possibly a head wound caused his condition and not a stroke? They never did say it was a stroke in BB, we just assumed that...) 

A super nice touch was a modern scene of Jimmy/Saul at the Cinnabon. Smart money right now says that he's not going to be able to stay away from being Saul Goodman and things get moved up to the present and end very badly.

[Curt McGirt]

Rhea Seehorn is not my type at all but is so goddamn adorable.

Meanwhile, Mike Ehrmantrout has suddenly taken on my inner personality when I talk to younger folks than me that need advise, whether asked for or not. I'm now reading things on Facebook in his voice when I respond to people. It's weird, but it feels right. 

[Craig H]

Got all caught up on season 2 and watched the season 3 premiere last night. I still hate Chuck. Casting McKean in that role was perfect because that piece of shit is NEVER likable (outside of SNL, and even then...). The only other casting that would have worked as well would have been putting Mr. Rooney in that role.

Kim is STILL the reigning, DEFENDING, MVP of the show. 

Mike is a close second.

And I'm starting to think that Jimmy will eventually be arrested in present day. Maybe the Cinnabon closes up shop and he's just out of options and turns himself in. Maybe the intense pressure of maintaining this facade catches up to him and he gives himself up that way. I also wonder if we'll get an episode that is fully in the present day.

Anyway, my head is still spinning trying to figure out how Jimmy goes from being Jimmy McGill to being Saul Goodman and still being able to practice law in the same area.

[Craig H]

I really hate Chuck.

[Curt McGirt]

I only caught the very end, but wasn't that secretary the one Jimmy eventually has at his practice? 

And yeah, fuck Chuck. Making that tape

Spoiler

the long con for Jimmy to break and enter and verbally assault him, you got destruction of property, all with witnesses...

that's cold.

[Technico Support]

I had to look it up...same secretary.  Awesome.

Also, the black SUV was driven by Victor, who eventually is killed with a box cutter by Gus.

Chuck is the worst.  I have  a certain respect for a scumbag who admits they're a scumbag.  But a sleazy person who wraps themself in a phony veneer of righteousness so hard that they probably believe it themself, too?  The god damn worst.

[BurningBeard]

I couldn't decide if it was Saul's secretary as she was too pleasant haha. The end of Episode 3 definitely made me bite my knuckles.

As far as useless speculation as to how it all ends I think it'll be similar to how it went for Walt - Jimmy will grin and bear his exile to a point where he'll just throw it all away and go back danger be damned. Maybe to make amends with Kim, maybe to make ammends with Chuck... who will then hand him in

[Craig H]

I would guess he'll try to practice law again or maybe give legal advice on the down low.

I'm on my third time viewing Breaking Bad and my girlfriend and I just finished season 4. I used to view Jimmy as a sleazy lawyer, but he's practically the heart and soul of the show. Maybe Better Call Saul reinforces that feeling, I'm not sure, but my girlfriend, who hasn't watched Better Call Saul, said she's going to be really upset if something happens to Saul.

[Technico Support]

10 minutes ago, Craig H said:

she's going to be really upset if something happens to Saul

Just ask her to keep in mind Saul's line,  "a month from now, best-case scenario, I'm managing a Cinnabon in Omaha!"  

Another BB reference from this past episode: Kim telling Jimmy to give her a dollar, which establishes her as his lawyer and affords them attorney/client privilege.  

 

 

[Craig H]

Yeah! I caught that too. This season has been full of references to Breaking Bad. The look of the Wacky Waving Inflatable Floating Arm Tube Men being the inspiration for Saul's suits is still my favorite.

[Technico Support]

One of the best, more obscure references has to be the flashback to Jimmy in Chicago waking up next to a girl who says, "YOU'RE NOT KEVIN COSTNER!"

[BurningBeard]

14 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Yeah! I caught that too. This season has been full of references to Breaking Bad. The look of the Wacky Waving Inflatable Floating Arm Tube Men being the inspiration for Saul's suits is still my favorite.

That whole montage was hands down my favourite thing they've done on the show, I was in tears.

25 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I'm on my third time viewing Breaking Bad and my girlfriend and I just finished season 4. I used to view Jimmy as a sleazy lawyer, but he's practically the heart and soul of the show. Maybe Better Call Saul reinforces that feeling, I'm not sure, but my girlfriend, who hasn't watched Better Call Saul, said she's going to be really upset if something happens to Saul.

It was only on my second viewing that I clicked Saul Goodman sounded like "it's all good, man" 

[John from Cincinnati]

For a guy who has it within himself to be a slick operator, Jimmy sure was giving it up in the restaurant. Wowzers. I mean obviously Jimmy can't meet or really know about [redacted], but I'm not sure I buy it. 

[Craig H]

8 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

For a guy who has it within himself to be a slick operator, Jimmy sure was giving it up in the restaurant. Wowzers. I mean obviously Jimmy can't meet or really know about [redacted], but I'm not sure I buy it. 

Don't forget, this is raw Jimmy when it comes to what you described. I think he winds up learning more about that stuff from Mike. Small time hustles he can handle, being asked to tail and spy on someone involved in criminal activity is a whole other thing.

[John from Cincinnati]

5 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Don't forget, this is raw Jimmy when it comes to what you described. I think he winds up learning more about that stuff from Mike. Small time hustles he can handle, being asked to tail and spy on someone involved in criminal activity is a whole other thing.

This is fair. And thinking about it more, as slick as Jimmy/Saul can be at times (and we've seen him be quite slick in the prequel to date), by the end of BB when he's neck-deep in Walt's criminality, he's a nervous wreck. So it does track. I just found myself stunned by the clumsiness of it all. 

[Technico Support]

Jimmy's a bullshit artist, not a smooth spy.  He was desperately out of his depth.

 

[RandomAct]

The first two episodes this season have had an almost uncomfortably slow pace. Leads me to believe something big/awful is coming pretty soon.

[Curt McGirt]

I love Kim so, so much but she is gonna die carrying Jimmy's cross and it is gonna break everyone's heart. 

[Technico Support]

I can't remember...did Kim give up her house/apartment?  In the latest episode, she's sleeping at the office and showering at the gym.

Breaking Bad minor characters alert:

In the Gus/Mike meeting, the henchman behind Mike is the one Gus eventually kills with a boxcutter.  The henchman behind Gus is the one who gets blown up with Gus and Hector.

The doctor Mike gets the drugs from is the same one who saves Gus, Jesse and Mike after they kill Don Eladio and his men.

 

[EVA]

That's Victor and Tyrus to you, bub.

[BurningBeard]

I hope when I'm an old man I'm as bad ass as Mike Ehrmantraut

[Craig H]

I was thinking the same thing. The last time I talked to my mom, who I have little patience for, I caught myself sounding like Mike or saying Mike-isms. 

[Technico Support]

I've got the world weary hangdog look and exasperated sigh down.