^Agreed. I love it but when it goes into slow motion, stalling for time mode I just want to yank myself bald-headed. Oh, wait. ;-)
I agree the story moved a little slow last season but I find Jummy an equally interesting character study. And I think that BCS makes BB better. The knowledge gained about Mike and Saul puts their actions in BB in a different context. In BB Mike seems like a very calm, rational hardened criminal who loves his granddaughter. In BCS you see him as a guy who just wants to take care of his family and made compromises.
I wonder how many people would watch BCS if BB never existed? If it were just a show in it's own right about JImmy McGill and we knew nothing about where he'd end up. Not gonna lie I'd have given up on it for sure.
I don't get the 'Actionless' criticism. Over half the great TV shows in history are 'Actionless'. The question of how many people would watch it if BB never existed is irrelevant. Change the audience's body of knowledge, change the entire show. Write a show about original character James McGill, it comes off as a comedy and you assume Jimmy will win just because he's the protagonist. If you can't enjoy a show without shootouts and explosions it's on you, not the show.
Same with 2001 and ST:TMP, and to some extent Samurai Jack Sometimes, you have to let the quiet wash over you.
I can understand the actionless criticism a bit. It is a very slow pace for sure. To me it's like Hitchcock. It's building suspense. We who have watched BB know how it turns out, we know what's going to happen, but watching these characters go through the episodes building up with no knowledge of what's to come... That's what I enjoy.
There's something about this series I find very addictive. It gives us just enough to make us come back for more and nothing seems to overstay it's welcome. The only weakness is that there isn't a stronger arc for the series as a whole. I would love to see more of present day Saul with the past catching up on him.
For me it means them not including a ten minute scene of somebody watching nothing happen. The recent example, Mike watching for the goons at the club, ten minutes of watching him watch and snack. It was worse than a commercial break. There are cinematic ways of implying long periods of time has passed without making long periods of actual screen time pass.
I found I could fast forward through the five minute opening scene of each episode without missing anything.
Nobody shooting each other or yelling each other doesn't mean nothing is happening. If a show is well written and directed it can make ten minutes of characters quietly reflecting more gripping than a poorly written directed gun battle. I admire a show that respects the audience's attention span and practices 'Show me, don't tell me'. Just because it's the third millennium doesn't necessarily mean *all* gratification needs to be instant. The way season 2 ended it would be a shock if Fring weren't involved.
Certainly, but it's good to see it confirmed finally. I love the enthusiasm Giancarlo Esposito expressed in his tweet about returning to the role.
Who's pumped up for season three next week? I'm super-excited, after a new TV void for the last few months we'll have Better Call Saul, Fargo, and Silicon Valley running at the same time with Twin Peaks not too far behind. I'm ready for some Fring. It'll be exciting to see Fring make his calm psychological sales pitch to get Mike on his team, which we know will be successful. Though with all the promos they've been airing across multiple channels it has become annoyingly hard for the spoiler-sensitive to avoid seeing things they don't want to know until it appears on screen.
First episode of the season seemed a little slow but also very focused on emotional complexities. Like Kim's mixed feelings of guilt and accomplishment running Mesa Verde, torturing herself to the point she's agonizing over punctuation. Jimmy's anger toward Chuck dulled enough for a second that he misses having a good relationship with him and still longs for his approval. Then Mike puts a tracker on Fring's tracker after taking apart his entire car trying to find it. Can't wait to see what that leads to.
Loved the bit of waxing of nostalgia between Chuck and Jimmy ("Wax on, wax off!"), but Chuck shut it down fast. And Chuck continues to show how much of a bastard he really is. I wonder what he intends to do with the tape of he's not going to use it in a court of law considering it wouldn't hold up. Jimmy will know that so Chuck won't be able to blackmail him. Oh, shit. It just hit me. He's going to use it to poison Kim against Jimmy. That entire sequence was fantastic. A lesser show would've reduced that entire storyline to a mere five minutes. Instead, we got a beautifully choreographed sequence that shows just how methodical and extremely cautious Mike is. But the bastards are making us wait another episode (at least) before we get to see Fring again.
I still don't understand how people are forgiving Jimmy's illegal and harmful actions and not Chuck's legal actions. Jimmy's heart may be a little more 'In the right place' but it doesn't change that his uncompromising need for entertainment and color harms a lot more people. Jimmy's motives are more sympathetic than Chuck's, but his actions are much worse, and actions are what matter. I think Chuck knows Kim knows what Jimmy did. I think he intends to leak it. He 'accidentally' let his assistant hear it. He's going to make sure as many people as possible 'accidentally' find out.
I just watched the first Breaking Bad episode where Saul is introduced. Noticed something I didn't notice before. When Walt and Jesse take Saul out to the hole and pretend they will kill him he says "It wasn't me, it was Nacho, he's the one!" It is so neat that they based a major recurring character's name who we know not to be around in Breaking Bad on somebody who in one random throwaway line was given a vague outline of a fate. Nacho and Saul may have done something together that pisses off the cartel.
Ha, that's awesome! I haven't watched any Breaking Bad since Better Call Saul started. I think I'm going to wait until the show is over and then see how well it flows into the other.