Better Call Saul

No one said Chuck will be "fine", but IMO they could still have him live as brain-damaged or paraplegic, for example. If the next ep begins with him already dead, then that cliffhanger was completely pointless and they should've made it clear in this ep that he died.

I predict that he survived but that he'll be impaired in some way.

The next biggest element of tension for me (after whatever ramifications this will have on Chuck and Jimmy) is the potential fallout from this happening at the copy place specifically. Why was Chuck there (asked from the perspective of people who don't know)? How much does Ernie know? Is the copy guy going to say anything? How is Kim going to react once she finds out, given that she knows about the forgeries and was somewhat implicit in Chuck feeling the need to go there in the first place?

Chuck going to the hospital means he's going to be thrown on antianxiety meds, at the very least, and probably going to thrash around enough to be put on psychiatric observation

xopst Tuomas the "point" of a cliffhanger is to get the viewer geared up for the next episode, not to justify itself in retrospect

Chuck's swoon looked like typical syncope (fainting), not a stroke or a seizure. He hit his head hard enough to get a concussion but that's unlikely to be fatal. The forces involved weren't enough to produce a skull fracture and epidural hematoma, or even a contusion / subdural hematoma.

Harder to sort out the neurological status in Chuck's case because even without a specific brain injury, he can be very drowsy / encephalopathic just from his usual (psychological) hypersensitivity to EMR. Would be no surprise if he doesn't wake up for awhile even if the scans and other testing are OK. But he should recover.

Whatever the lasting results re Chuck, seems like Jimmy and prob Kim (maybe depending on what Jimmy tells her about what happened) will see this as a line being crossed. Ditto Chuck, if he can still think, and ditto the poor little graveyard shift guy.

And even if Jimmy tries to minimize his own partial responsibility, think she can figure it out, though she's getting pulled further into the same gray area wandered by all these male maniacs.

the poor little graveyard shift guy.

This role was terrifically played, by the way.

he's going to go far in life

Tuomas you're way off. Chuck isn't go to die but he'll be in hospital getting tests and freaking out with all of that electricity. Should be a delight (for me anyway) to watch. Pretty sure Chuck in hospital clears a way for Jimmy to get up to Jimmy stuff somewhat uninhibitedly too.

I wouldn't be surprised if Chuck is dead. If Tuomas hates a cliffhanger well okay wouldn't be the first time he's hated on a standard narrative device.

also I have to say, it is really wonderful seeing two underrated comedy greats play such fully realized characters

I'm not much of a fan of Michael McKean generally and was kinda 'ugh' when it was announced that he'd be on the show but he's been really terrific.

from Lenny to this is a p stratospheric leap

It's Rhea I can't get enough of. In these last two episodes...I keep yelling out SOMEBODY GET HER AN EMMY.

she's been great. The absolute derisiveness to the look she gives jimmy in the car...

Totally

I can't help wondering if McKean was cast alongside Odenkirk with memories of their appearance in the old "Mr. Show" law school sketch

Is he really that underrated? He was a star of This Is A Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, and prob Waiting For Guffman (right title? Haven't seen that one, have faith in McK.)

He was also in the 60s comedy group The Credibility Gap, which incl. David Lander/Squiggy and Harry Shearer, who was with McKean in Spinal Tap and a bunch of other stuff. Credibility Gap was prob a little subtle for thee tymes: one of 'em told Rolling Stone they'd done this on-stage panel of concerned citizens and experts, incl. Superman, who cane out against pot. Audience: "Whatta you know about it, YOU EVER TRIED IT MAN?!"

*came* out against pot.

He's a great comedic actor, which I think is a subtle distinction that sets him apart from more overtly crowd-pleasing good teller of jokes/funnymen. Akin to, I dunno, Dan Ackroyd, say.

I only found out yesterday that this show is in 4K WTF? I need a 4KTV stat.

It looks fucking amazing in 4K by the way. All those desert shots.

I thought some of the tension in the copyshop scene was about whether Jimmy would instinctively rush to his brother's aid. Thus meaning that he blew his claim to innocence. Also wondered if he could fully anonymously phone police/ambulance without it coming out that somebody, probably him, had witnessed things and not identified themself. Am now intrigued as to how anonymous an emergency caller actually could be. Without number paper trail or dismissal as hoax.

He did it earlier, last season, calling "anonymously" from a pay phone to warn his sorta clients that they're about to be robbed/attacked/killed.

Matt Dc im so jelly

Also....rumors abound that one Gustavo Fring may make an appearance this eve

oh shiiiiii

To be real honest witchoo, I've been thinking that that very thing might happen. All the pieces have been falling into place leading up to Mike meeting Gus, and it seemed like a pretty dece OMG note to end the season on.

i can see Gus giving Mike the ol' the enemy of my enemy is my friend treatment. still, im not holding my breath.

is this doing well? Everyone I know who watches it loves it, but I can't tell if it's getting buzz or is at all successful really

AMC ordered seasons 3 and 4 a whilke back so i guess its doing well enough

I feel like Breaking Bad took a while to accumulate an audience? Maybe it's the same here.

it's definitely better this season than last. And it was really good last season!

I love that it's not really a "oh my god, did you see what happened last night?!" sort of show, a la Breaking Bad or Got or other water cooler fodder. It's so well crafted and subtly acted/written and not portentous even when it gets fancy that it's like it's just buzzing along on a quiet wave of admiration.

It's only going to get crazier from here on in and cancelling it would provoke a massive backlash given it effectively leaves the story unfinished. Not that Netflix wouldn't just pick it up immediately anyway.

Hey, Josh (or anyone) - I never watched Mad Men at all, but was that a water cooler kind of show? Have we had any TV stuff recently that compares to where BCS is coming from?

I didn't watch it, but Mad Men was for sure omg water cooler fodder. Sopranos, too.

Most ppl at my water cooler complained about not enough happening on mad men fwiw

Cool that you all still got water coolers.

Yeah, I honestly don't know much about Mad Men, but it did seem to be compulsive viewing for its fans. A show like Empire is often kind of overlooked, because it's largely got an African-American viewership (65% or something), but its ability to capture and hold numbers is pretty remarkable. I think at one point was, or maybe still is, getting watched in something like 30% of all black homes, which is a huge number. I assume a show like that gets talked about a lot the day after, given what a massively dedicated fan base it clearly has.

And actually, per xpost, I don't think there is a lot of TV that compares to BCS. It's so much slower, more patient, beautifully composed and acted. It's really like chapters of a book, I guess, and so far doesn't feel at all like it's being padded out or primed for an infinite run. It feels like it has a very specific story in mind, told a very specific way - not a season long "arc," per se - and that makes it kind of special, at least to my tastes. Its dynamics are so in balance, especially/surprisingly for a show that is so otherwise stylized. There are elements of comedy, thriller, law, romance, drama in it, but it's not really any of those things.

twitter is the national water cooler
/#obvious #trenchantsocialobservations

oh god, watching this scene with Chuck in his faraday cage in progress.... I know what he grabbed from the garage

so painful waiting for this to drop

so, that was that. I had a feeling he was doing that from the beginning of the scene.

I expect he'll just hold it over him; clearly Jimmy never gets disbarred or he wouldn't be able to practice as Saul later on?

Chuck is respectable as a good lawyer but imo he's just such a bad human being. I mean, every single move he's made could be excused as him being a stickler for the rules and "moral"

That is, until his mom's dying words were asking for Jimmy and he never said a damn thing

"I'm doing everything the right way in life, why does no one like me?"

Great series. Anyone want to speculate about how left the note for Mike? Because I have no idea

who left the note rather

My money's on Gus.