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Better Call Saul!

Captain Kelsten

By Captain Kelsten,
in Film, TV & Radio

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Illyria

Illyria

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Camel said:

I didn’t really like 

 

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the Jesse and Walt segment. It felt totally unnecessary.


:(

 

I think I might agree? I don't know, I haven't really made up my mind yet. I didn't actively dislike it, but...

 

Spoiler

It did feel very forced and for me didn't naturally fit into the episode. It seemed like they really wanted to do the cameo, but didn't really know what to do with it or where to fit it in.

 

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dumpster

dumpster

Posted
Posted

I thought the first episode of Better Call Saul was poor because it tries to be all things to all people. The courtroom scene where the guys broke into a mortuary is played for laughs but isn't funny enough and Tuco shows up and it gets violent. The tone of the episode is all over the place. But I think they wanted Tuco in episode 1 so the Breaking Bad fans would feel at home with it.  Episode 2 is pure BB as they go into the desert and torture Saul.  But episode 3 focusses on Kim, Howard, Mike, Kettlemans, and the tone changes.  Better Call Saul quickly becomes its own thing, out of the shadow of Breaking Bad in series one.  It's gone from strength to strength since then. This is why, to me, there was no need to bring Walt and Jesse back.  Whoever said earlier that it felt like an SNL skit was spot on.  Having Tuco in episode one reassures the viewer, "you'll like this because look! It's Tuco from Breaking Bad and you like him!"   But 6 series in we're all in agreement that this show is awesome on its own terms and it doesn't need Walt and Jesse to pop in.  

 

I still think we're in safe hands with these writers and I'm intrigued by what the last 2 episodes could be about.  But if there's no more Walt and Jesse then the previous scene feels even more like the actors came in for one afternoon of filming and seeing as their involvement didn't serve the story much, it just seems to be fan service.  

 

We'll only know after it's all over.  I hope something amazing is coming because BCS hasn't had a bad episode but the last two have come close. They feel like Star Wars Prequels or El Camino, telling a story we don't need to see, to keep it going. Breaking Bad ended perfectly and didn't run for 20 seasons until everyone got bored.  I really hope these episodes are the set up for some amazing pay off, but we won't know until 2 weeks from now.  

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jonamok

jonamok

Posted
Posted

Add me to the comparatively short list of people who think Schnauz over-reached himself with the BB scenes in this latest Ep (and relieved it’s not just me).

 

The cross-cutting timelines wasn’t thematically necessary and felt very on the nose. Aaron Paul looking 40 and sounding 60 broke any kind of suspension of disbelief, and its overt fan service nods (like the Lalo discussion) might as well have directly broken the 4th wall.

 

The b&w stuff was fantastic of course, and showed Gene properly breaking bad. And that would have been enough. Shame Schnauz felt the need to try to gild the lily.

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Popo

Popo

Posted
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9 hours ago, scottcr said:

That was ace

 

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He’s going to jail isn’t he

 


Best case, I’d say. 
 

The confidence of this show has been one of its key strengths. It hasn’t been shy about taking its own stylistic and storytelling path. That’s why the BB cameos didn’t bother me in the slightest - it was a moment of fun in a show that has eclipsed its predecessor many times over. 

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Darwock

Darwock

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People had been expecting/speculating on that particular cameo since the very beginning of series 1 - if they had gone to the end without doing it I’m sure there would have been just as much complaining. It’s not like it broke the series GoT style, just let it be.

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HarMGM

HarMGM

Posted
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It's interesting to hear some folks complain about certain points of the plot feeling unnecessary. I recall people complaining not too long ago that telling the story of how the super meth lab was built was just as unnecessary. At the time, after the first few episodes featuring that plot point, you could have made that argument.

 

But after the fate of Werner? After what it does to Mike? How big of an issue Lalo becomes because of it? After everything that goes down in season 6? No, I'm sorry. That piece of storytelling was anything but unnecessary. It becomes a pretty integral part of the story for many characters their journey. Even characters you would have never expected to wind up there. (:()

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Benny

Benny

Posted
Posted

Nearly everything in this show is put there for a reason and has had a lot of thought behind it.

 

You don't get Ed Sheeran randomly turning up for a start.

 

Spoiler

The Breaking Bad scenes served multiple purposes: it was to give you a whistle stop tour of the events that bridged BCS and BB, but to show those events, specifically, from Jimmy's perspective.

 

It comes across like "a bit of fun" because the colour returns to the screen and it's like remembering a nostalgic past. It's why when it then transitions back to the harsh black and white of reality, Jimmy's efforts to get another scam going but acting like a sort of "boss" are so sad and pathetic. Showing his minions having fun in the strip club as he looks on etc. It's like he wanted a bit of that Heisenberg action, even has the mustache.

 

But in the cold light of day it's nothing fun at all.

 

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ZOK

ZOK

Posted
Posted
On 03/08/2022 at 15:54, ckny said:

Really strange how the German dub apparently clears up the phone call.


Not so strange: Madrigal Electromotive GmbH own Los Pollos Hermanos, who in turn own an industrial laundry, which is of course a front location to ensure the cleanest possible production of crystal meth. Then you get Mike Ehrmantraut, a German American, who as we know is kept around to clear up messes.

 

Just another sign that in the BB/BCSiverse, Germans clean things up. 

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JohnC

JohnC

Posted
Posted

New ep

 

Spoiler

The Kim's perspective episode people expected. Probably the end for her then. And getting rumbled in the B&W present. Johnny Law is catching up with him in the finale, right?

 

Little splash of BCS ad colour in the B&W time.

 

And we got to see Mike's replacement at his old car park job.

 

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Gambit

Gambit

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Posted
Spoiler

As someone who is currently rewatching Breaking Bad, they could've at least tried to make Aaron Paul look the same age as he was then. It reminded me of the lad from Tokyo Drift who appeared in fast and furious 7 lookin 30 years older.

 

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