got lost during s3 and didn't manage to work out where i was
― Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 10:30 (five years ago) link
I'm seven episodes into the first season. I've liked everything so far, except maybe the episode with the billboard. Loved how they used Tuco as a link in the first episode.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 12:20 (five years ago) link
got lost during s3 and didn't manage to work out where i wasAlbuquerqe iirc
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 16:42 (five years ago) link
i accidentally ran across this analysis of chuck and jimmy recently and think it's worth sharing. spoilers abound, even in the title, so here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ddHGpQm9oE
like a lot of you, i haven't watched in quite a while and kind of forgot what was going on, so it also serves as a decent refresher of where at least one of the storylines currently sits
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 16:45 (five years ago) link
NO!! i thought my formatting would just make it a link instead of embedding the video. welp, sorry about that. chuck goes through some shit in this show, spoilers
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 16:46 (five years ago) link
v excited about this
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 16:49 (five years ago) link
this show is really outstanding. I probably prefer it to Breaking Bad, probably because I find the characters more likable and somehow what we already know about the characters who carry over from BB doesn't cheapen their appearances but deepens them. And whether or not a prequel was the plan initially (I sincerely doubt it), the writers seem to have left enough room, left enough unsaid, and planted enough clues throughout BB to allow for that richness. I'm particularly fond of the single mention of Nacho in BB turning into a completely outstanding character here, and what I imagine will be a lot of filling in of the gaps around Mike's comment protesting Walter and Jesse sparing Lydia (something akin to "you don't know what she's capable of" or whatever.) And surprisingly the Gus backstory has a lot of room to grow as well.
― omar little, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:03 (five years ago) link
it is def better than Breaking Bad
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:05 (five years ago) link
also I've never seen Rhea Seehorn in anything before but she is *incredible*
― omar little, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:06 (five years ago) link
it's not as exciting or as intense as breaking bad but it's deeper and more fulfilling.
― InfoWarriors (Spottie), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:06 (five years ago) link
I see Rhea Seehorn's outstanding role and performance as a (most likely) intentional corrective to the shitty material the women in BB had to work with
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:09 (five years ago) link
Breaking Bad is great but i guess my primary criticism was that it felt like a narrative vise from which there was no escape for anyone, and towards the end its grimness felt a bit OTT in places. I understand that was probably the point, moving from darkly comic to totally bleak (cf Mr Chips to Scarface) and it's more of a "me" thing than a BB thing.
― omar little, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:10 (five years ago) link
I'm particularly fond of the single mention of Nacho in BB turning into a completely outstanding character here
Nacho was mentioned in Breaking Bad? Do you remember when/what episode?
― JRN, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 19:05 (five years ago) link
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8gM6_FCeiBA
― omar little, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 19:08 (five years ago) link
Daaaamn, that's a deep cut.
― JRN, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 19:10 (five years ago) link
a narrative vise from which there was no escape for anyone
yup, it's more like a contraption than a story.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 19:10 (five years ago) link
Just watched the second-last season 1 episode--almost tragedy, Chuck's betrayal.
What was the Wire courtroom reference alluded to above?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 19:12 (five years ago) link
anyone else momentarily confused by the Walter White type dude in this ep?
― kinder, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 21:06 (five years ago) link
Yeah, we thought that was WW for a second too. Seemed obvious enough that we wondered aloud if the show runners were deliberately messing with the viewers a little.
― Manitobiloba (Kim), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 21:33 (five years ago) link
It's down to one showrunner now! Gilligan didn't work day to day on this season.
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 21:48 (five years ago) link
didn’t recognise the name of the director of this episode but it is as brilliant as ever GENE AND THE TAXI DRIVER 😵
― jeremy cmbyn (wins), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 21:56 (five years ago) link
taxi driver freaked me OUThe looked like William Forsythe & I was so sure something bad was going to happen (mainly bcz I was so convinced it really WAS Forsythe)
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 01:36 (five years ago) link
The guy with the baseball cards (three episodes into Season--not sure if he'll be back): he seems to have based his performance on William Macy in Fargo, but he was great.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 August 2018 22:38 (five years ago) link
he looked like a nerdy Rob Cordry
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 11 August 2018 01:09 (five years ago) link
My most bingiest binge since Mad Men: Season 2 on Friday, Season 3 on Saturday. No repeat of the Season 4 debut today, before the second episode tomorrow--I probably missed a bunch of them all week--so I'll have to wait on the new season.
I liked the first two seasons a lot, found the third wandered. The performances by the new actors are great (i.e., those not in Breaking Bad--I'll call them by their character's name): Kim, Chuck, Nacho, lesser roles like Ernesto and the baseball card guy. There were two things that lost me a bit in the third season. (Specifics ahead.) Mike's surveillance as he tried to figure out what was going on with Hector's crew--the gas caps and all that--seemed to go on and on. They could have scaled that back a lot. Also, as great as Michael McKean is, I thought his story should have more or less ended with his courtroom meltdown and the subsequent shot of him cowering behind his door. With everything that happened after that, I'd had enough of him. All I really learned that hadn't already been made clear was that the director and writers have seen The Conversation.
Loved "Sugar Town" to start Season 3.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 August 2018 16:06 (five years ago) link
Mike's surveillance as he tried to figure out what was going on with Hector's crew--the gas caps and all that--seemed to go on and on. They could have scaled that back a lot.get out
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Sunday, 12 August 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link
lol otm
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:02 (five years ago) link
Mike might be the most meticulous character on television
― mh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:09 (five years ago) link
almost to the extent I’m convinced that if every character he advised did exactly what he said, nothing would ever go wrongif that happened we wouldn’t get his glaring and exasperated looks, though. and those are truly rewarding
― mh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:11 (five years ago) link
I get that it was totally in character with Mike; I already knew that. As a viewer, for me, it just dragged on.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:11 (five years ago) link
Actually, the post before is part of why I was getting impatient: I love Mike's interactions with other characters so much--his words, those looks--having him out there in the desert on his own isn't as interesting.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:16 (five years ago) link
Mike Doing Stuff whether laying concrete or inspecting a warehouse is one of the joys of this series - not just him, tho, it’s full of long scenes of intelligent ppl meticulously doing shit (often but not always schemes). Very here for the ambient heist movie vibe in general, this was one of the few tv shows I thought of when watching the new twin peaks - particularly the pre-reveal dr jacoby scenes where he carefully painted shovels for several minutes
― jeremy cmbyn (wins), Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:17 (five years ago) link
I really liked him setting up the playground, especially the subtle flirtation with Anita. If they launch another spin-off, I would absolutely watch Mike Saying Stuff. Mike Doing Stuff, maybe.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 August 2018 17:36 (five years ago) link
I’m still laughing at “oh the soaker hosea you were making!”
― mh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 18:06 (five years ago) link
mike itemizes his tax deductions to absolute perfection, saving over $1400 compared to the standard deduction: season 4
― Karl Malone, Monday, 13 August 2018 05:31 (five years ago) link
mike is one of the best all time tv characters
SPOILERS for last night's episode to follow.
I don't understand how Gus knows about Nacho scheming to kill Hector with the fake pills. Or, for that matter, how he's so sure that Nacho had anything at all to do with Hector's stroke. All we're shown, as far as I remember, is Gus looking intently at Nacho handing off the pills to the EMT. How does Gus infer anything at all from that?
― JRN, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 20:09 (five years ago) link
Something to do with the report he was staring at in this episode confirmed his suspicion maybe?
― jeremy cmbyn (wins), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 20:11 (five years ago) link
Oh yeah, that could be it. But in that case the report would have to have clearly indicated that Hector hadn't been taking his medication. There's no reason to think Gus would be able to infer that on his own from the results of a brain scan--he's a chemist by training, not a doctor.
I'm worried that we're just supposed to accept that Gus figured it out because he's really really smart. Kind of like how we were meant to accept that Walt found a way to poison Brock near the end of Breaking Bad, even though it's never shown or explained and Vince Gilligan has admitted that he doesn't have a specific idea of how it was done.
I guess that's a pitfall of having shows based around brilliant, hyper-meticulous characters. "Whenever you notice something like that... a genius did it."
― JRN, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 20:34 (five years ago) link
Come to think of it, I feel similarly about this business with the doctor from Johns Hopkins. Gus "got a grant to come through", got everything cleared with both hospitals, and got a specialist to come from Baltimore to Albuquerque all in what, a few days? I don't know about that.
― JRN, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 20:46 (five years ago) link
$$$$
― mh, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 20:52 (five years ago) link
Sure, but you'd still have to make all the bribery and threats look legit on paper. It can't just be "hello, I'm a wealthy businessman from New Mexico. I want one of your doctors immediately. Here's a zillion bucks. We'll tell everyone it's a grant" and it's a done deal inside of a weekend.
― JRN, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 21:04 (five years ago) link
We are supposed to accept it cause in this world everyone who isn’t an idiot is a genius. Gus was portrayed as virtually omnipotent in bb! I never got the complaint about the brock thing either. We’ve seen Walter pull off so many outlandish stunts by that point that it’s not exactly difficult to swallow that he managed to put some berries in a dumb kid’s food or something. I’m sure that writers’ room would have come up with something if they intended to show it to us, but that would have ruined the reveal. At its heart breaking bad is genre fiction and it thrives on unlikely convolutions, but it takes way fewer short cuts than most shows of this type
― jeremy cmbyn (wins), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 21:19 (five years ago) link
I mean a guy who left work as a professional scientist and was working as a high school teacher was able to jump into meth cooking and within a short period somehow come up with product that was better than what an established cartel was working on
― mh, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 21:25 (five years ago) link
I'm perfectly fine with unlikely convolutions--in fact, I demand them--as long as they're depicted in an exciting and understandable way. Nacho's scheme with the pills was unlikely, but it was riveting to see how he pulled it off.
On the other hand, it's no fun at all for the show to say, in effect, "we've shown you that this character can do all kinds of devious things, just give us this one". The whole reason it's fun is because we get to see how they do it. It's better to be shown than told.
(And it wouldn't have ruined the reveal for Brock's poisoning to be explained after the fact.)
Well sure, but that's just the conceit of the show. Some people are extremely brilliant in a way that their station in life doesn't reflect. I don't need a scientific explanation of Walt's chemistry genius any more than I need a neurological explanation of how Jimmy is such a good con artist. But once the conceit is established, I want the plot to make sense, or so help me god, I'll post mildly-worded complaints online.
― JRN, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 21:41 (five years ago) link
Don't forget: one of Gus's guys was watching Nacho when he chucked the pills into the river. I don't know what he saw exactly, but he was presumably keeping an eye on him for a reason.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 23:41 (five years ago) link
(Sorry, though: Brock thing still bugs me to this day. It's like marveling at the intricacy of a Goldberg machine and noticing a box haphazardly stuck in the middle with 'JUST TRUST ME ON THIS PART' scrawled on its side.)
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 23:44 (five years ago) link
I barely remember who Brock is
― mh, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 23:51 (five years ago) link
Can we talk about Jimmy’s job interview... I nearly stood up and clapped I was so in love with how that played out. Also characterwise an awesome illustration of the push & pull within him
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 15 August 2018 01:57 (five years ago) link
yeah, it was a fantastic demonstration of the crossroads he's at now. use his skills for good? or bad, or neutral? use them at all without the chance for personal aggrandisement? support and be in service to Kim, or tear her down through jealousy / incidentally via his own hubris? he WANTS to do the "right" thing for her, and freed from the burden of his care for / anger at Chuck, there's the chance to dedicate himself to somebody who actually returns his love, but he has never learnt how to do that, and always always always wants recognition for his cleverness. when he was doing the elder law, getting the genuine positive feedback from his clients was neeearly enough to fill that need... but selling a machine to businesses isn't going to cut it.
also, of course, it was a parallel to Mike: going into a business and telling them how they're fucking up. but Mike can cast that as a + for both parties, and for Jimmy it brings contempt for both. I'm in no hurry to see Saul come into being*, but it was nice to have that little setup for their narratives coming back together next week. *bcz there's no way that can bode well for Kim
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Wednesday, 15 August 2018 03:00 (five years ago) link