Better Call Saul

toothbrush argument scene was so perfect

Finally watched this last night. Kinda feel like I need to rewatch s1 because, yeah, I forgot all about Nacho and the pharmaceuticals guy.

Can't believe no one mentioned this callback!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1H2jROgp-5k/UVz45AQrpWI/AAAAAAAAC4A/x5GmyJmw4WA/s1600/Screen+Captures1.jpg

Wow!

! Is that the same guy?

Yeah! I recognized him right away. So good at playing a turbodouche.

Oh wow, I didn't realize it was the same guy! So he got fucked by both Jimmy and Walt.

same actor plays a very similar character in the high school reunion episode in party down

The tequila that Ken buys is the same stuff that Gus used to poison Don Eladio

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0peM58AdgBM/UgZdy9ykyZI/AAAAAAAAzvw/sItpCBYE-YI/s640/breaking-bad-zafiro-an%CC%83ejo.jpg

~holy shit~

A+ spotting.

A+ episode. It's the artisanal slow food of TV.

Totally didn't realize that Ken actor also played the turbodouche agent on season 1 of Agent Carter.

Pretty sure Marvel's Turbodouche spin-off is in the works for Phase III.

The callbacks/easter eggs are cute and all but they're not at all what I love about this show

They're also massively subtle, so not distracting.

Wow I had no idea that was the same character! Cool.

Yeah i didnt catch any of that. Totally didnt impact how great the episode was.

I'd be perfectly fine with no easter eggs but as long as they continue to be subtle, as noted, I'll eat 'em up.

Bringing back a one-note bit player to do exactly the same thing isn't massively subtle but it's a level I'm happy with. I remembered the bb scene but never would have caught the tequila, that's nice. Considering they could have had jimmy going for an unsliced pizza with gale and everyone would be all These Breaking Bad Easter Eggs Will Blow Your Mind, I appreciate the light touch.

Also I keep saying this but I'm all for v minimal use of b&w gene stuff, I don't want whole episodes post-bb or scenes where he calls kim only to hang up without saying a word or any of that shit. Scenes with odenkirk playing a 5-year-old jimmy or whatever are fine obv

Idk if i'm down w odenkirk playing a 5yo tbh

Wet Hot American Saul

Also I keep saying this but I'm all for v minimal use of b&w gene stuff, I don't want whole episodes post-bb or scenes where he calls kim only to hang up without saying a word or any of that shit.

I think they could actually leave out the b&w scenes altogether! So far they've been the biggest Breaking Bad fanservice in the show, but they don't tie thematically to the rest of the show, and obviously anyone who hasn't watched BB will have no idea what they're supposed to be about. I too feel BCS has so far been even better than BB, so it'd be nice if it would stand on its own without any overt references to the parent show. Okay, Tuco's appearance was obviously a big nod to BB fans as well, but at least he made sense within this show too. I kinda doubt they're going to include a summary of all the events of BB in here, so the b&w scenes will probably remain fairly irrelevant, unless they'll come up some really clever way of tying them to the scenes set in the past.

Also, the nitpicker in me was super irritated by the whole "locked in the trash room" opening in the latest episode, because that door didn't make sense! Any doors that you can lock are always designed so that you can open them from the inside without a key, exactly so that people wouldn't get accidentally locked inside like Saul did. I get it that it was all supposed to symbolize the mundane dreariness of Saul's new life, but they could've come up with some other scenario that was less contrived.

It is a poorly designed system for sure but somehow not implausibly so

I think it's the combination of dreariness & paranoia that make its inclusion worthwhile, his reluctance to use the emergency exit was a neat way of showing that. Also think it's worth retaining some connection to bb and its endgame because it reinforces the sense that this is a story we've seen play out already - jimmy's pride & self-sabotage echoes walt's & can only end one way (and this makes the differences in their stories stand out also).

Would be cool if they pulled a fire walk with me & found some way to subvert the "known" ending

Would be audacious if they did a season or two which ran alongside the events of BB. I'm sure Saul had a lot of other unrelated shit to deal with along with those two clowns.

I think it's the combination of dreariness & paranoia that make its inclusion worthwhile, his reluctance to use the emergency exit was a neat way of showing that.

Sure, but again this enforces the idea of BCS as a mere BB spinoff: if you haven't watched BB, you won't know the true signifigance of that scene, why Saul is so paranoid. And IMO it would be better if this series would stand on its own, so they could've written some other scene that wouldn't require you to know anyting that's not in the series itself.

so they could've written some other scene that wouldn't require you to know anyting that's not in the series itself.

The scene as it is doesn't really though! It wouldn't take huge powers of deduction for a newcomer to figure out that Jimmy will one day have to flee to a much shittier life presumably because of his dodgy dealings. The exact circumstances aren't really relevant to the story we're watching now.

it... is a bb spinoff

it can stand on its own merits without having to appeal to some imagined viewer who has forgotten all the events of the hit series breaking bad

argh, wish i could recall what happened with turbodouche in BB now. love the very subtle easter eggs. what would be the point in setting them in the same universe if they didn't collide from time to time?

like wins says, it is a bb spinoff. if someone's that bothered by the odd reference here and there, they only need to do themselves the favour of watching it.

I think they could actually leave out the b&w scenes altogether!

They do one at the beginning of each season, any Gene-haters have to wait an entire year before you get to be irritated by one for 3-4 minutes again.

also, chap otm.

Also, the nitpicker in me was super irritated by the whole "locked in the trash room" opening in the latest episode, because that door didn't make sense! Any doors that you can lock are always designed so that you can open them from the inside without a key, exactly so that people wouldn't get accidentally locked inside like Saul did.

he's outside the door. that's the point. he's locked out. the inside is the mall.

I'm not really in any position to say so authoritatively, but I would assume that viewers who are coming to this show fresh wouldn't have any real problem rolling with the Gene scenes. They wouldn't need to know what went down on BB specifically to discern that something eventually goes south in Jimmy's life. It may prove ultimately frustrating to those viewers, though, that the chain of events that lead to him working in a Cinnabon will likely never be explained within the confines of this show.

But the garbage bins aren't outside, they're in a room within the mall. Otherwise he could just walk away.

(xpost)

(I kinda can't believe we're having this conversation but) dumpsters are sometimes kept in a room that's locked off from the rest of the business. So that, for instance, garbage collectors can collect the garbage without gaining access to the back of the store. It's entirely possible that Jimmy had a key but didn't think he'd need it for the two seconds he'd be in the room.

This is not a stretch on the level of 'how did Brock wind up eating the lily of the valley berries'?

This is just dumb/irrelevant. Maybe the door sticks, and he knows that, and that's why he's stuck? There, problem solved.

Yeah, but...how does he know that? Has he been stuck in there before? Or did he just hear about it happening to someone else? And what happened to the door to make it start sticking? I'm sorry, but I find these unanswered questions really narratively unsatisfying.

haha

i think i must have looked away momentarily during this bit cos i was confused about it too. why didn't he just open the emergency exit? did he not want to draw attention to himself?

i can imagine if it locks from the outside only, it's for security purposes, i.e. so burglars can't hide in the bins and sneak out after hours or something.

emergency exit -> alarms -> cops

If you really stop to think about it (which, why would you, but here we are) it is daft that the doors are set up so that it is incredibly easy to get yourself into a situation where the only way out involves contacting the police, but like I said it's daft in a way you would plausibly encounter irl

Also it is a good scene

that's how 90% of buildings in the us are designed, iirc

in the least convenient way, I mean

how does he know that? Has he been stuck in there before?

He's the manager! The way he races to the door indicates that, yes, he knows what will happen. Thousands of businesses no doubt operate with similar flaws and short-sighted shortcuts, from lights that "just never work" to chained exit doors to mysterious keys that fit no locks to sticky doors. I mean, this is an episode with a light switch in a top law firm that nonetheless has a hand-written sign taped on that says "never turn off!" or whatever. Why not fix whatever the problem is? Because we are people, and we are lazy/cheap.

So was the door stopper defective or just improperly wedged under the door? And if it was defective, a) who would have been responsible for replacing it and b) why had they shirked their duty? Was this an intentional act of malice on this individual's part? Did Jimmy know that the stopper was defective? Why didn't he have it replaced himself? Door stoppers can't possibly cost that much. It's almost as if he wanted to be trapped, using a door stopper which is clearly of such an inferior grade that it can't hold a door open for more than a few seconds. Did anyone catch the brand name of the door stopper? I think that's an important clue.

OL has this routine locked down

xpost Save it for the second spin-off.

The door stopper wasn't defective, because we see the janitor use it when he lets Jimmy out, and it works then. I guess Jimmy might've just put it under the door too carelessly.

...which I guess is symbolic of his character arc: no matter how high he aims, he always eventually fails because he doesn't consider all the contributing factors.