Posted on 02/08/2015 8:54:38 PM PST by PJ-Comix
"Better Call Saul" is finally here. I already published my initial review and interviews with creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, and with Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks, and now I have thoughts on the first episode coming up just as soon as I translate this review into Finnish...
"Have patience. There are no shortcuts." -Chuck
Those words by the older brother of Jimmy "The Man Who Will Be Saul" McGill are so important to Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould and all the other "Breaking Bad" alums who have continued onto the new show that I hope they all wear bracelets with that phrasing on them, like how the "Justified" staff has "WWED" (What Would Elmore Do) jewelry. Those words formed the fundamental rules of "Breaking Bad," and the reason for so much of its greatness. That show took its damn time in showing us the journey from Mr. Chips to Scarface, which made things so much more powerful than if Walt had become Albuquerque's meth kingpin by episode 4.
(Excerpt) Read more at hitfix.com ...
Watched it. Wasn’t blown away, but it may take a few episodes to get really involved. Acting was good though.
Yeah, I've used that excuse before.
Not.
I really enjoyed the extended b&w opening sequence where he worked at a Cinabon at a mall.
I haven’t had one of them in years-——and I love them.
.
Excuse me for asking a dumb question - but was that sequence supposed to be what he is doing today, ie post breaking bad? And then this series jumps into how he got started, or maybe this whole series is him remembering how he got started.
It unclear what disease he has, if he was insane (as he seems to be) he wouldn’t be saying “i’m going to beat this”, because he wouldn’t think he was insane. I’m confused about that part.
Haven’t watched it yet.
I wish Vince would have done a prequel to earlier Walter White times. My name for the series woulda been “Grey Matters”. Maybe get into the fallout of him from the company, los alamos, college, then the disappointing aftermath of him teaching high school while eliot/gretchen get richer.
There are no dumb questions except those that go unasked. It is today, after breaking bad. He's deathly afraid the cartel will still find him. . . and that someone will kill him. Hence his fear of the bruiser in the back of Cinnabon and then relief when the bruiser met the woman in the mall. Note he's at home and pulls out a video of his old commercials, reliving when life was good.
Reliving the times from a VHS rape seemed odd.
I meant tape of course. Dang ios
The series is starting out great. Gilligan might be a genius. My wife asked me if he wrote other series. I checked and found he was a writer for the X-Files which many people loved and I never watched.
Lost me 15 minutes in.
And in Omaha. Just as he predicted :) The opening and the last fifteen minutes were the best. The rest I thought was unnecessarily slow. Or maybe it just seemed that way after the fast pace of The Walking Dead lead in.
Did anyone else notice in the Cinnabon sequence Saul looked just like Walter White at the beginning of Breaking Bad? Cheap glasses and a cheesy mustache.
Not to mention the police.
Plus, the way Walt died .... surrounded by a bunch of dead Aryans, who themselves were linked to the murders of all those inmates and of two DEA agents.
No wonder Jimmy's keeping his blinds closed.
Thankfully he did NOT turn "Better Call Saul" into a situation comedy. This is more like a drama with comedic undertones. Also note he did NOT play for quick laughs which is great. I can't wait to see tonight's episode with Tuco.
It might have seemed that way because Gilligan wisely did not go for the quick laughs of a situation comedy. I liked how that courtroom case played out. Jimmy (as he was known then) goes into a rousing defense of the teenagers, writing off what they did as a mere youthful prank followed by the prosecutor WITHOUT A WORD playing the videotape the teens made of what they did with the dead body.
Another thing about BB was his, Gilligan's, habit of opening an episode with a scene that seemed totally incongruent. You'd think to yourself "how does that make sense?" All was revealed by the end of the episode...many times the last scene of an episode.
Totally brilliant script-writing. I was wondering how they were going to make a decent series out of BCS. I think Gilligan has it figured out.
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