Better Call Saul

The show is taking place 6 years prior to BB, around 2002.

Well, he did hear gun shots when he was staking out in the car. That's when he took out his gun. Actually, maybe he shot/broke the wall to convince her and his granddaughter to move somewhere better!

He didn't hear gun shots. He heard newspaper delivery.

Put away your phones and watch the show, guys. She's totally trying to scam Mike for more money. The second he suggests moving her out to a new neighborhood, she walks away, satisfied. The "gunshots" were totally just newspapers. Unclear if she actually heard anything, or was just making it up. I doubt you'd actually hear newspapers hitting the ground from inside your house at all, much less think that they sounded like gunshots.

look they TOLD me to start my two screen experience now, i started my two screen experience now
no half measures

Two screens seems like a half measure. I'm sure they could get it up to four if they really tried.

The second he suggests moving her out to a new neighborhood, she walks away, satisfied.

I'd be satisfied, too, if I was afraid for my life in the place where I lived, because I thought I heard gunshots. What was she supposed to do, argue she should stay?

Regardless, I like how this show is keeping so much vague. Still, who confuses gunshots with newspapers? You mean Super Pro Mike confused gunshots for newspapers? Enough that he actually took out his own gun and made sure there was a round in the chamber? Pretty touchy for a ninja, Mike.

He heard popping sounds. He readied his firearm. He determined what the popping sounds were. He put his firearm away.

Dude should be able to tell a gunshot from a newspaper. And by "dude" I mean anyone.

Unless those paperboys have major league arms.

Putting aside whether the scene was unrealistic/out of character/badly conceived and written or not, that's what happened.

But do we know how heavy these newspapers were and exactly what sort of bag they were in? I ask because, depending on the composition of the paving material used on the driveways in that neighborhood, a particular combination of factors could certainly contribute to a sound something like a gunshot. It would've been helpful for the viewer if Mike could've spoken to himself about what sort of gun he imagined he was hearing and what caliber of ammunition. He's probably aware of a gun/ammunition combination that sounds like the newspaper/bag/pavement sound he was hearing, but without knowing his specific thoughts on the matter there's no way of researching to see if this was in fact sound reasoning on his part or a massive and inexcusable continuity error on the part of the show.

halfway through the first sentence I knew that was going to be a classic OL post

Back in Philly his partner was killed by a paperboy.

Should've given him the two dollars

Man, I love Mike.

Also loved that he didn't answer Nacho's question.

I was half expecting it to be Gus in that warehouse.

They're gonna take at least another season before they get round to Gus, I suspect. There are a fair few levels in the way first and they're only just getting involved.

yeah I'm not hoping for a WW cameo at all, but it does seem at some point that Gus is going to have to enter the picture

I also thought we might see Gus. And I think a WW cameo would be kind of cool so long as they keep it sort of peripheral/oblique.

This show is better than its predecessor but I do like the idea of it catching up with BB at some point so you could watch it in a loop. Is there any precedent for that in a spin-off?

afaict the approach of this show is def uncharted territory

there's really no reason WW would cross paths with any of these characters pre-cancer diagnosis, throwing him in would be cheap fan service imo.

But Gus clearly had prior relationship w Mike pre-BB

I think people are jumping the gun a bit with the 'better than BB' thing. They are good in different ways, aiming for rather different things.

BCS thing is a better thing

i'm just now watching the first season on netflix and i genuinely agree it's better than breaking bad. mostly bc it doesn't make me want to die from anxiety all the time

Breaking Bad seems to have suffered a bit of a backlash since it ended

frontin' imo

BB was great. this is better.

BB was a show with well-crafted stories that were ultimately about a bad person who did horrible things only for himself, with a little too much hope that he was still the protagonist

BCS is a story about a lovable two-bit con man who lacks a moral compass but really aspires to become a three-bit con man. Partially to spite his brother who doesn't want him to succeed, but mostly because it's all he knows how to be.

In this most recent episode I really did expect Chuck to be faking his disorder and the reason he didn't respond to Jimmy initially was because he was using a cell phone and he hid it under the blanket

Everybody has to remove their watch along with phones and electronic keys and such, yet Chuck was wearing a watch throughout that scene last night.

Yeeeah, I was trying to figure out if he has one that he winds by hand, or if it was an indication he's bullshitting

maybe he has a self-winding or wind-up watch and everyone else has quartz which is battery operated.

jinx

BB was all about forward-motion, tension and stakes constantly being raised by virtue of a self-interested protagonist addicted to high-stakes behavior. And it was very good at that, but it also means (for me, anyway) that after its over I really have zero desire to watch it again. Knowing how various conflicts get resolved removes the tension. There's still good/great characters and a lot of well-executed setpieces but it is lacking in a certain depth, I don't feel like I would be rewarded by repeated viewings.

But BCS is v different, so much more character-driven, and that makes it feel much richer.

I loved the moment a couple of episodes ago when jimmy answered his phone (that he clearly hadn't bothered to hand in before the meeting) to no reaction whatsoever from chuck

if you think of Hank as the protagonist of BB it becomes a lot darker

So the scared dude meeting with Tuco in the restaurant was Crazy 8 right? And the gun dealer was the same one who sold Walt his guns in BB.

Loved that final shot of Mike disappearing in a cloud of dust.

OH MY GOD, THAT WAS TOTALLY CRAZY 8. I knew he looked familiar. He looked so young and innocent, I hardly recognized him!

And the gun dealer was the same one who sold Walt his guns in BB.

The great Jim Beaver.

Loved that final shot of Mike disappearing in a cloud of dust.

Yes! "Why?" (Turns around, disappears.) Some Man With No Name shit right there.

I appreciate that they've provided some context for the insanity of BB-era Tuco. Establishing both that he's a maniac when he's on speed and that, by the time Walt meets him, he's probably just finished his prison stretch.

And it just occurred to me that, chronologically-speaking, BCS could easily stretch a good way into the second season of BB without stepping on the former show's toes. I do hope we eventually see some sort of reckoning between Tuco and Mike since that's now a retconned dangling thread.

Funny how this show has turned out to actually be Better Call Saul (or Mike)

arguing with a friend of mine who says this show lacks a really solid premise to hold onto. we all know Saul/Jimmy's journey is going from an amoral shyster to an even more amoral shyster and that Mike is more a complex character.

I don't know that it needs a solid premise. It's a character study, and I'm cool with that. I think it reminds me most of Men Of A Certain Age inasmuch as it takes a slow and ambling path around the characters without any grand destination in mind (ignoring what we know about the sister series).

I think it has a solid premise. What it doesn't have (or need) is weekly cliffhangers. Our investment in the characters is what keeps us (me) coming back, not a contrived sense of plot-drive momentum. Sure, Mike is a more complex character, but it's kind of a dual journey of lapsed morality, to different extremes. Both have lines they are unwilling to cross; the show is about where those lines are and how/why they get moved.

In other words, not unlike lots of lawyer/cop shows/movies, but much, much slower.

Otm. The ethical conflicts are front and center here, and more nuanced than they were in BB.

Feel like whatever's holding mike back is more pragmatic than moral, in both shows he seems honestly ok with what he is

Funny how this show has turned out to actually be Better Call Saul (or Mike)

yeah i wonder if this is something that prevents it from completely unshackling itself from breaking bad - like, if we didn't know where these guys were heading, it could seem a bit odd (just now at least) to be following the really quite distinct threads of jimmy's adventures in law and mike's adventures in becoming a magic crime guy

xpost I don't know, there's more to it than that. Like why he would rather get punched to a pulp and risk death for half the payday than take the seemingly simpler sniper route to more money, as asked (but not answered) in this ep.