Better Call Saul

[signeddiamond]

It’s been pretty great in my opinion. I like that it really does not lean heavily on BB but supplements it. Shows like this are not really about an arc but a decent. Each choice bringing consequences that lead to poorer choices. There is no lowest point before redemption it’s just a dramatic crawl to the bottom.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Spoilers if you haven't watched any of it.

I've watched it all and I'm in the last season, but it's just got too many flaws. Jimmy is just a turd/used car salesman/gutter lawyer, that's okay, but there's no character arc, there doesn't always have to be one, but he's just the sleaze he is in BB.

There's no chemistry between him and Kim, it's like they're cousins or just acquaintances, it just doesn't work as a believable couple on any level. The whole 'my brother's a genesis lawyer, but a nut' seems so fake it doesn't add any real value. He is so disappointed in Jimmy and then kills himself.

The worst part is it's so unnecessary. (A lot like Book of Fett) He's just not a worthy character in BB to have a back story, I think Mike's back story would have been potentially more engaging.

I'll stay to the end to see how it plays out, mainly to see how they get rid of Kim, but I couldn't watch it again.

Just my 2 cents.

I feel exactly the same way as you do. I thought there was--at most--a limited series to do with Saul and that's it. I don't believe for a moment Jimmy/Saul's relationship with Kim, I find Kim to be unevenly written and shallow; and much of the big problems for Jimmy are contrived and melodramatic just to push him to be "Saul." It reminds me of the clunky writing of Joker, where the character has to hit milestones rather than evolve or change into what we're familiar with; a reactionary rather than a result or participant. Things happen to him and he reacts in ways that are "Saul" and not "Jimmy." Here's the same premise of same show minus all the fat: Jimmy McGill is a good but greedy public defender, and hustles on the side, loses his license, moves to New Mexico as Saul Goodman and hustles as a criminal lawyer. Done.

Saul is a dirt-bag, an irredeemable and unapologetic dirt-bag, and that's what made him fun in BB. The fact that there's now 6 seasons of what is ostensibly filler detailing how he becomes a dirt-bag is so utterly boring and contrived that I finally lost all interest when they brought up a plot point they resolved from season 2 (Jimmy v Hamlin) as a stinger for the final season.

Better Call Saul has its moments but is it just me or does this show feel like the worst of BB? The filler episodes in the latter end of the series, the dull and melodramatic first two seasons of BB, all combine into making something that makes the show feel like a relic from a bygone time. The show's structure makes it feel so old since Breaking Bad aired, and TV has taken some real changes to it. These kinds of long-running shows are really over due to all the streaming services available, it's shaped how TV is consumed (I hate using that word) and it's pushed American television more towards the European style with short, limited-episode stories where concision is the name of the game: get in and get out.

I did earnestly watch this series at first but that was when it first aired and I still had cable, but as more and more reasons came up to delay each season's production, I eventually forgot all about the series and got rid of cable all together. I only remembered it when it came to Netflix and caught up there. I likely won't be following up after.

 

[Paul Andrew]

I'm pretty much on the opposite spectrum. I find this show endlessly engaging.

Jimmy and Kim's relationship isn't supposed to be one that ignites sparks on the screen. They're both people who scam and use others to get what they want, but come at it from different places. The fact is they are two broken people who have made a semblance of a relationship work with each other, at least on a temporary time scale. On a base level, Kim scams to gain love and acceptance while Jimmy does it not just for material gain, but to boost his ego.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

I don't get that at all from Kim. She's written like she's been corrupted by Jimmy, or that he pulls out the uglier side of her character, and it's supposed to be a tragedy but what they've done is ultimately harmless beyond causing mild inconveniences. It just feels like their whole dynamic was supposed to be Jimmy was like an affable heroin addict that pulls Kim to down to his level, hanging out in flop houses and scraping together drug money, but all they've ever done together was drink beer.

I'm glad someone's getting something from this show but I feel like they missed a great opportunity with her and other things about 2 seasons ago.

 

[Paul Andrew]

I don't get that at all from Kim. She's written like she's been corrupted by Jimmy, or that he pulls out the uglier side of her character, and it's supposed to be a tragedy but what they've done is ultimately harmless beyond causing mild inconveniences. It just feels like their whole dynamic was supposed to be Jimmy was like an affable heroin addict that pulls Kim to down to his level, hanging out in flop houses and scraping together drug money, but all they've ever done together was drink beer.

I'm glad someone's getting something from this show but I feel like they missed a great opportunity with her and other things about 2 seasons ago.

The flashback at the start of the most recent episode is what spelled it out for me tbh.

 

[Paul Andrew]

This final season is uh, bringing it. Holy crap.

 

[Cameron]

Well that was a surprise.

 

[Probe Droid]

I'm still enjoying it, but the episodes are very hit/miss. I'm far more interested in the drug cartel thread than Saul's ridiculously complicated revenge scheme against Howard. Still, it's a fun hour of weekly escapism.

 

[Bloop]

I think the series is well done, as was Breaking Bad. The exploration of the characters is what these shows are about, moreso than any plotlines or stories.

Spoiler: Spoilers up through mid-season finale (season 6 episode 7):

I will say that I was feeling that the revenge plan by Jimmy and Kim was just petty and started out seeming pretty basic (planting drugs, etc). It got more and more complicated, though, which was in keeping with the analytical, devious nature of the couple. But I still felt like whatever Howard did, however he wronged them, wasn't worth all this petty revenge scheme.
The mid-season finale confrontation by Howard addressed all that. Howard said exactly what I was feeling. I do get that Jimmy felt angry that Howard was stretching out the Sandpiper suit just so he wouldn't get his cut, which is pettiness on Howard's part, too. And Howard was aware of what he's done to both of them that would cause them to want to get back at Howard. But to go to all the effort to frame and discredit Howard, to risk their own careers and reputations (Kim more than Jimmy at this point) by engaging in illegal activity to try to ruin Howard's life seems like disproportionate response. Howard humanizing himself be revealing his own problems was great, making him more relatable and maybe causing Kim and Jimmy to feel a little guilt about what they did to him (Kim probably more than Jimmy). After all, this wasn't just about getting Jimmy his fair share, this could potentially destroy Howard's career and his personal standing.
Then Howard calling them out for their "kink," that they "get off on" engaging in revenge schemes and illegality crystallized why they do what they do. They ultimately don't care about anything but the rush they get from having power over other people, don't care about who gets hurt or the consequences to them or themselves. Howard being murdered by Lalo as he's confronting them in their own home is certainly a shocking and defining moment for the two. I can imagine that this is the moment for Kim that causes her to turn away from Jimmy and the person she's become with him, though there's always the possibility that she loses her life too.

 

[Prop Collector]

Nailed the ending. Now what'll I watch??

 

[Liberance]

Absolutely fantastic show with one of the best finales ever written for TV, honestly.

Not sure if safe to say in a genre/franchise-leaning forum like this, but in a time when big studios are hellbent on producing series of never-ending sequels, reboots and spin-offs full of empty callbacks and dead-end references that serve no dramatic purpose whatsoever, what this show achieved is nothing short of extraordinary. It takes two throwaway lines from one scene and a mostly one-note character from another show and develops an entire story around it with an ever bigger heart than anything that came before it. Not one scene wasted, shots and dialogue constructed in a way that builds on not just previous sequences or episodes, but even stuff that happened years before the fact in a different story. What a way to work the material and what a filmmaking lesson. Satisfying from beginning to end.

 

[Paul Andrew]

BCS functions almost like a companion piece to BB instead of a spin off, complimenting the original in some ways, while doing different (but similar) things tonally and thematically.

It's just some of the best tv ever made.

 

[CB2001]

So, I wonder what the next spin-off will be. My money is that it's about Walt Jr. and his search for the perfect breakfast. XD

 

[dascoyne]

I just got around to binge watching the last season.

For 6 seasons Jimmy accumulated a list of increasingly despicable actions. Yet he managed to remain just sympathetic enough for me to stay on his side.
But he crossed the line when he laid his hands on Carol Burnett.



The show did not disappoint.