Better Call Saul

The Alexander Shunnarah billboard is the state tree of Alabama, but how famous is he really?

I could see him much more likely to be recognized by a retired snowbird who spends half the year around Omaha with grandkids and the other half living in Arizona when winter rolls around. That demographic would also love Cinnabon

True, but if I'm remembering right, Cinnabon didn't have much to do with it. Didn't he see him again when Gene was on his lunch break sitting elsewhere on a bench in the mall?

James Redd posted this on a Replacements thread:

http://myfavoritealbum.libsyn.com/303-bob-odenkirk-on-the-replacements-sorry-ma-forgot-to-take-out-the-trash-1981

My wife and I watched and loved the first three seasons of this, and then ... suddenly she was done. I don't get it. Anyway, finally began season 4 and while its Breaking Bad-isms (cast, mythology) gets a little much, it ... is a prequel to Breaking Bad, and the acting and writing remain top-notch. Rhea Seehorn is a treasure.

I also felt a little tapped out in the fourth season, but the fifth (!) is much more enjoyable

I agree, the fourth was a little meandering, trying to find a narrative path following the conclusion of the Chuck storyline. The fifth pulled it back.

still amused about the one certain character at the end of S5 that was clearly supposed to die but didn't

So one thing I don't understand (Spoiler for season 5) is why humiliating Howard will cause the Old-folks's home case to collapse?

I'd have to check upthread to see how I responded to S4--once enough time passes, a TV show's run mostly starts to blur together for me, especially the middle seasons.

I liked the early seasons of this a lot but I stopped watching eventually cause the Gus and Mike stuff was such a boring drag

That thread has been pretty enjoyable this most recent season, but there was definitely a sense of treading water earlier in the series.

I think Gus, like most charismatic villains, is best used more sparingly than he is.

All the stuff with him and Mike in season 4 so far, I don't mind it, but it's so hyper stylized that it borders on affectation. Like the Salamanca Twins, they're supposed to be kind of badass, and they are, but they are also particularly silly.

I finished the show a few weeks ago, and felt season 4 dragged a bit, but watching an episode a night alleviated some of that. Sometimes I wish this show weren't a prequel; I understand the cartel stuff is necessary, but I am much less interested in that than Jimmy and Kim. I dig the actors in the cartel segments but you could change the accents and it'd be any mob movie or Boardwalk Empire plot.

That said, season 5 was an uptick for me, even if that raid was pretty ridiculous. The best assassins in the biz? Felt like I was watching a bunch of incompetents play Rainbow Six.

lol, that is sadly accurate

lol

that's Gus's thing though, he always says he has the best people in the business and they wind up being....just okay. except for Walt I guess.

Gus is an interloper, like Walt: they both just showed up, made themselves useful, were will never be quite satisfied with their deals, their places in the cartel, which is also true of some others in the cartel, but these two aren't *of* the cartel. It's not where they came from, so they don't have the same kind of grounding, orientation, professionalism, that even the somewhat mercurial Lalo has (whatever their own personal standards and discipline may be).

OK, finished Season 4. This show is so well made and acted that it never loses control of the story - it's definitely still better than 99% of shows - but this season definitely seemed a little high on its own supply, focusing way too much telling Breaking Bad stories in reverse (look, it's the twins! it's Gabe! it's the Hector bell! it's the underground bunker!) and not enough moving the stories we still don't know as well forward. Jimmy was increasingly unsympathetic but also a little boring this season, because he and his destination are such known quantities. Kim's story, on the other hand, is really complex and compelling, but they didn't do the best job justifying her shifts in behavior and seemed far more interested in Mike and the German guy's doomed bromance. Still, can't wait to dive into S5.

yeah S5 is way better in that regard. still connecting the dots to BB but this time it really goes somewhere

the plot with the Germans was alright but I was kind of irritated with how long they took with it considering how much plot they have to go. the fakeout with Kai was weird, they signal so many times that this is the character who's going to do *something* only to just have it be...nothing

I'm not usually one to care a lot about awards, but it's absolutely shocking to me that Rhea Seehorn didn't get an Emmy nod.

yeah me too
she's outstanding!

^this

I don't know who's been nominated for an Emmy any year*, but just checked and she's never been nommed, so the actual winners are clearly wrong

* except for the similar fundamental incorrectness of Kyle MacLachlan neither winning nor being nominated for his four roles in Twin Peaks (2018)

Saw a good AVClub comment intimating that the Emmy folks clearly didn't even watch the show if they nominated Esposito (for doing ... what? glaring? stone-faced?) but no one else:

Oh it’s obvious they don’t watch anything. They recognize the name on the ballot, it’s why he got the nomination. The fact that he got one in a season where he didn’t have that much to do, especially in comparison to Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando and inhale TONY fucking DALTON exhale is telling. Same thing with snubbing Rhea Seehorn whose Kim practically graduated to deuteragonist over the course of the show and is probably its single best performance. Which is only bolstered by how many incredible ones we’ve got over the course of last season, let alone its entire run so far.

Seehorn is the best and I look forward to whatever she does next.

I don't follow the Emmys at all, but I'm guessing that she'll win this year to make up for that. I'm a big Friday Night Lights fan, and I noticed just yesterday that the two leads--after having never been nominated--both deservedly won in the show's final season.

Yeah, Esposito getting a nom and nothing for Michael Mando is crazy

Seehorn really is a standout on a show filled with great performances

Lalo is definitely my favorite villain in the whole series, they absolutely found the right actor there

Oh yeah, Mando is stellar. I already liked him from BB and Orphan Black, but he's been next level on Saul.

The casting has been spectacular for Saul through and through. McKean was incredible, as is Tony Dalton. I never saw Sense8, so he's completely new to me here, he's been so great as well. And I think Odenkirk has gotten even better as this series has progressed.

yeah McKean was perfect, knew the guy could act but man he just nailed it

i dont' even remember Nacho being on BB but these shows have become a miasma in my brain

McKean gives one of the best non-comic performances by a comedian I think I've ever seen--totally unique creation.

i dont' even remember Nacho being on BB

― akm, Wednesday, July 29, 2020 11:56 AM

He wasn't

he is mentioned though which I still find very amusing

it's been obvious to me Emmy voters are lazy and don't watch things they nominate since Margo Martindale took home TWO Emmys for The Americans and Keri Russell got zilch

Oh man, I could have sworn Nacho was in an episode or two, very briefly. Maybe I'm just implanting memories of him there since I like him so much. I haven't rewatched any BB since the finale.

Maybe thinking of Krazy 8 who is in the first few eps and now a couple of BCS...not that I ever would have recognized him

Rhea Seehorn's performance is such a fantastic course correction from the underwritten/poorly acted female roles in BB, they should give her all the Emmys. that bar scene oof.

― Οὖτις, Saturday, May 27, 2017 2:37 AM (three years ago)

it's been obvious to me Emmy voters are lazy

they fucking officiated a wedding and it was one of the realest and sweetest moment of post-COVID tv, period
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cJThKBscGs

AND mero fucked up his foot stomping the glass!

Wow, I've got one more episode left to go in S5, and it's been so great that I already can't remember much about S4 (not that it was terrible or anything). And seriously, Esposito might be the least compelling actor in this ensemble. Seehorn is sooooo good, and Tony Dalton is great, too. Great job finding that guy, show makers.

OK, S5 is in the books. Great cliffhanger. I guess in some ways the show has always been about Kim breaking bad, but I'm a little unclear ... why. The only hint of any sort of primal drive comes from the flashback to her as a kid, right? Which is to underscore her ... stubbornness as well as her abilities and accomplishments? But unless I missed something, I'm still not sure why she's willing to throw everything away for Jimmy, or, barring that, why she has such a chip on her shoulder about her chosen career path and/or peers. Like, Jimmy gets there through hustling and short cuts, and Kim works just as hard, legally, but it's not like her way fails to get results but Jimmy's does. It's almost as if she *prefers* Jimmy's way of doing things, but she keeps sacrificing her own hard work and gains to get there.

The kid flashbacks also show how she dealt with a family member that was negligent in caring for her, with addiction issues

Is there more than one flashback, or just her mom forgetting to pick her up?

This Vulture piece delves into Kim breaking bad: https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/better-call-saul-showed-us-who-kim-wexler-has-been-all-along.html

But I still don't really see it. Yeah, you can make the case that she is the ultimate con artist, because I/we *didn't* see it, but her motives remain nebulous short of mental illness. Jimmy essentially cons his way into a successful legal career, but Kim seems to be conning her way ... out?

I didn't read the article, but what's been given in the show makes enough sense for me. She's not that happy being a lawyer, especially for Mesa Verde, but even for her own clients sometimes. The Slippin' Jimmy stuff gives her a thrill and a way to rebel against that world. Also her relationship with Jimmy keeps becoming more of a sunk cost, e.g. getting married. By this point she sees his business as inextricable from hers. Maybe the one thing that feels unexplained is how she seems to want to impress Jimmy sometimes, outdo him. But all this stuff is what makes her the most fascinating character on BCS to me

Oh, absolutely! She's a great character! All time, afaic. And I get that she gets a thrill from Jimmy. What I don't understand is why she feels the need to throw everything away for the sake of him. I don't know if it's in the article I posted but it's somewhere else, where the show creators said they actually weren't sure where her story was going so left a lot of things open early on. Maybe that's why her turn from modest accomplice to instigator seems so strange, it's not exactly foreshadowed. And it still doesn't explain why she would want to work so hard, successfully, and still prefer to throw it away for the sake of Jimmy's bullshit. Vs Jimmy, whose own pathology and journey has been pretty clear from the start and backed up and emphasized by what the show has showed us.