Better Call Saul

Started to wonder, during the usually cautious-to-stern-sounding Kim's drunken-to-"drunken" laughter, maybe only partially enhanced (she's not as covertly sober as she thinks she is?), if she's not getting a tad reckless with this flair she's discovered that she has, for the new game Jimmy's turned her on to---of course, when he gets to the bar and has a chance to size up the situation, find out from the mark what "Giselle" has let slip about their $uper-$ecret etc,, he exhibits the usual Madoff/classic reluctance to cut the guy in----but seems like he might also be less than totally thrilled/getting just a bit more deliberate than before, re rookie Kim getting this one going on her own.
She's feeling the pressure of unexpected job offer---which seems like some kind of ruse to me, and maybe her too; that guy is so slimy, but also suddenly realizes she's still an underling, expected to work through lunch so Howard can (have his other girl) get a letter out, even though she's back in "her" office, *and* a guy hits on her---which can't be totally unprecedented, but all these encounters with power suits (incl. latest bit from Howrd, who now seems like he *wasn't* just fucking with her to please Chuck, considering this pissy lunch bit) are rapidly piling up, and initiating the bar scam is an impulsive release of pressure, push-back to/in world of suits, blow against empire.

that's how I read it too, a release valve

I'm starting to wonder if we're heading towards Kim as Saul's future ex-wife (did we ever confirm that he mentions an ex-wife in BB? I can't remember)

can see Kim becoming his partner-in-crime and getting badly burned

Well we know that they won't live happily ever after together, somehow

Maybe she falls on hard times gets a job as manager of a Cinnebon, hooks him up years later

Maybe she gets radical reconstructive surgery, becomes his secretary.

That's possible. Or becomes Walter, Jr. Or: gets too close to Mike via Jimmy, starts running blue meth to white shoe firms for Gustavo Fring, is gunned down in her basement hideout

The Cinnebon opportunity was part of the package he bought from new-identity specialist Robert Forster. Hey, I thought he was dead, but apparently not! Cool that he shares the name with surviving ex-Go-Between.
Kim's prob hauling double-stuffed briefcases around the Legal Aid circuit in rural NewMex right now.

Or doing something less glamorous.

I can't wait until we see the scene where Kim Being John Makovich-es into Holly's body.

it was always a slightly funny prospect to spin off prequel saul when we know how it ends but maybe cinnabon isn't the end and yeah why not he and kim end up together after not seeing each other for years and years or some crap

because that would be stupid/easy

I just can't see this show being quite *that* sentimental

I was thinking this week that it'll be interesting to see what happens once this show catches up with Breaking Bad. Will we see new scenes running contemporaneously with the old show, or old scenes reshot in a new context? I'm kinda fascinated with idea of, for example, seeing what Kim or Chuck were up to while Saul was neck deep in Walter White's shit. And will we get to see what happens when Jimmy outgrows Cinnabon?

I do kinda wonder if the flash forwards/Cinnabon scenes will build to some kind of resolution, or if they're just being included for extra context

This show is giving us much more context wrt what has fueled Jimmy in the past. Something tells me he can only keep his head down for so long before he'll need to scratch those old itches.

I would be happy if upon catching up w/ Cinnabon they made a left turn and the third show is a sitcom, just Odenkirk day-to-day at the mall

That...doesn't actually sound unawesome.

Another thing I was thinking this week is that, after years of stumbling and false starts, I'm so glad that Bob Odenkirk has found solid success. He's one of my favorite entertainment people and he has long deserved a project that really shows off his talent.

Yeah he strikes me as someone who caught a lucky break (w/ this role) but is also v v much deserving. Did I maybe read somewhere that they only decided to expand on this character after he was cast—like they started writing more for him?

yeah it's v gratifying

what if it's a really abrupt ending and someone recognizes him at cinnabon and guns him down

it's then followed by a flash back to the past, which has now told the story up until the point he meets the BB characters. shot at cinnabon, and as he's staring at the ceiling bleeding out, he remembers Jesse walking into his office

Over in the food court Jimmy's about to dig into some Panda Express with Chuck as a blurry figure lingers near Sbarro's in the background....we hear plaintive piano, the dulcet tones of Steve Perry, "Just a small-town girl...."

Cut to thirty years in the future: a lonely and wheelchair-bound Saul is visited at Sandpiper Crossing by a kind stranger bearing fruit salad. After helping Saul eat a hefty portion, the stranger gets up to leave and presses a lily of the valley plant stake into Saul's trembling hand.

Just a small town girly
Born and raised in Albuquerque

Lol cliff otm

This show is still better than anything else on the telly right now, but it does feel like it's started to tread water. IMO it has already developed the characters of Jimmy, Kim, and Mike so thoroughly that it doesn't need to devote so much time to character beats, I'd wish it had more actual plot developments like Jimmy's resignation and offer to Kim in yesterday's episode. (And Mike's subplot didn't really move at all in this ep.) It feels the first season was better paced in this regard?

Dude it just had plot developments. Do you want Jimmy to quit a job every twenty minutes?

Probably pretty hard to balance two (or three) storylines in every ep though.

I didn't mean just yesterday's episode, but the latest stretch of episodes. It was good that Jimmy finally quit Davis & Main, but did they really need to spend four episodes establishing that he didn't fit there, when the whole TV ad debacle already established that clearly and concisely?

Don't get me wrong, like I said BCS is still high quality television, I just hope it doesn't fall for the same thing that many other series with a finite plot (including Breaking Bad) do: stretching the story more and more as they get renewed for new seasons.

The three main characters (or four, if you count Chuck) clearly have well-defined character arcs to go through, and when they are done, the show should end. So I'm hoping the writers don't start needlessly extending those arcs to push the ending further. Compared to the first season, it already feels like this is happening, particularly with Mike, who's arc is moving at a snail's pace now. This is particularly frustrating because with Jimmy and Mike, we already know what their arcs will look like (a slippery slope from trying to be decent into crime and corruption).

And yeah, I know it's not really about the destination but how they got there, but the writers still need to keep thing interesting to make us watch a story whose ending we already know... Maybe that's the reason their focusing more on Kim in this season, because we don't know she'll end up?

The way they've fleshed out Kim, compared to the more stereotypical depiction of her in season 1, has been the best part of this season. I just wish they'd do the same for Stacey, though. We still know very little about her, like whether she's genuinely worried about her and Kaylee's safety or only milking grandpa Mike for money, even though that subplot has been going on since last season.

I do think s2 is not QUITE as good as s1 so far. Still great though.

the juxtaposition of Jimmy's suits and the waving arms guy was great

Yeah, fave bit was split screen of Jimmy parading new wardrobe, with air dancer in other frame, all to the tune of Dennis Coffey's staccato "Scorpio"--sassy soul!
And a 70s polyester nightmare for what used to be called a "white shoe" law firm, already so very far from old-school Manhattan, scared of native redneck Sunbelt incursions (drug cases? Don't even think it!) But they must know that Jimmy's flair for ambulance-chasing will be competitive, hell it's what got him into the firm, but they wanted to control it, to tame him enough that he could be hitched to the team. So Cliff's gotta know this isn't the end of Jimmy Problems, prob just the beginning. But he can't help himself; Jimmy's just unbearable. So I started feeling sorry for Begley's character during the firing scene, like I sometimes feel sorry for Chuck. Their points of view re Jimmy and what he stands for aren't totally unreasonable, but they're prisoners of their own propriety (Chuck moreso, considering his phobic rules), while J's a dirty freebird (but also orbiting his own compulsions). And not looking thrilled at Kim's counter-offer. He wanted a partner, a Bonnie to his whitecollar/orangecollar Clyde.

The way that music is used in this series is great

Did Kim maybe decide to work with Jimmy because she thinks that she messed up in a big way when she called Rich Howard by mistake?

actually preferring season 2. the character development, especially Kim's, is considerably subtler than I'm used to seeing on television. satisfied with each episode, always a little surprised that it keeps satisfying - this "how did he become the person we know he became?" overarching theme, and the constant suggestion that the person you become is the person you already were....it's something I disagree with personally, but it's so Greek drama, you know...and with that always-lurking "this has to end badly" thing that Breaking Bad did well and that this also does well, but differently.

No, I don't think that was it... She could've just continued working for Hamlin & McGill. I think the point of the whole job offer subplot was that it made Kimmy realize that even with a better position and pay than in her current firm, she'd still be subordinate to someone else. Clearly she's been a bit jealous of Jimmy's freedom, and him casually quitting his safe and steady job made her think, why shouldn't I do the same?

(xpost)

Yeah, really enjoy the character studies, though it's gotten to be more character studies than action, while BB always had one coming out of the other, with the momentum of Gilligan's original high concept, which he described as "Goodbye Mr. Chips turns into Scarface." While the action side of this is just Jimmy-to-Saul's brushes with the BB drug pros, and misc. local weirdos, apparently, like Mr. and Mrs. Kettleman. Yeah, can seem a bit slow, esp. with all the commercials.

I think her little Freudian slip was there to suggest that she has taken jimmy's remarks about a lateral move/Howard mk II to heart

I don't need violence or action to enjoy a show, but I think it's the lack of the local weirdos that's made season 2 somewhat less entertaining than season 1. I like that they're delving into the more mundane drama with Kim's arc, but IMO they could spice things up by having a few of those Coen Bros. style characters pop up every once in a while, like the talking toilet guy or the white secessionist in season 1.

I didn't think that Kim would join up with Jimmy. It was looking like she'd continue on the straight and narrow and that they'd drift apart as Jimmy becomes Saul

I really hope he doesn't do anything reckless and/or illegal and end up fucking her over

I had to step away for a moment but wins wrote my post pretty much verbatim so (DELETE).

I can't tell you how glad I am that they're not spicing things up with Coen Brothers style characters. Let this show be its own unique thing!

I really hope he doesn't do anything reckless and/or illegal and end up fucking her over

― paolo, Wednesday, March 30, 2016 11:07 AM (7 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I figure this is pretty much a foregone conclusion, seeing as how she's completely out of the picture by Breaking Bad times.

I really hope he doesn't do anything reckless and/or illegal and end up fucking her over

Sadly, this seems like the most obvious course the show will take + explanation why she isn't around in BB.

(xpost)

he's going to keep being Jimmy, and whether they're partners or just sharing an office, she's going to get muck on her

This season has been all about Kim, definitely. The previous episode, starting with the answering machine and continuing with the headhunting lunch and the PUA guy, was basically "Kim gets courted by schmucks"; if she ends up having a tragic arc, it'll be because of jimmy, so I'm more rooting for her than for them - I hope she gets away

*"them" - Kim/jimmy as a couple, I mean