Best thing you'll see all week: Better Call Saul (season 3, episode 3)

Yup, you are right drama isn’t the best word. I did say that Tom was a better writer :D

@wumpus Check out Rectify. You’ll love it.

Ha ha, you’re trolling him, right?

My favorite thing about Rectify is how it got me to watch the Lethal Weapon series on Fox because of Clayne Crawford. Lethal Weapon is great. No joke! Now there’s a show I bet @wumpus would appreciate.

-Tom

I used the phrase “dramatically arid” in the write-up, and I think that gets at why the show doesn’t work for some people. A lot of it is quiet and observational. Drama can mean many things, but I think most people associate it with “dramatic”. In other words, extreme, life changing, impactful, what have you. That’s just not what Better Call Saul is doing from moment to moment.

Remember last season when Chuck fainted in the Kinko’s? In any other series, he would have gone into a coma because “drama!” But in Better Call Saul, it was just a catalyst for Jimmy to make a decision that outed himself. Which he didn’t have to do. But that moment wasn’t about Chuck’s fall, it was about Jimmy’s decision. Dramatic in a way, but far less dramatic than what people have come to expect.

-Tom

Me? Heavens to Betsy,never.

Actually, the phrase you used was.

It can afford to exist — even languish — in the negative space between plot developments, as dramatically arid as its New Mexican vistas.

Which is wonderfully evocative. Tell me did this phrase just pop into your brain, or is it the product of a few drafts of wordsmithing?

Rectify is on my list. As long as it isn’t full of the soul crushing boredom of legal procedural horsecrap, it’ll have a leg up on Saul.

Also, wake me up when Saul cracks the top 100 on http://www.metacritic.com/browse/tv/score/metascore/all/filtered?sort=desc

Very kind of you to ask, Strollen. It’s the sort of thing that burbles up in my head as I’m watching. Normally, I forget things like that, but if I write them down quickly enough after watching, they might make it into the text. Then just bang on it a bit and see if it finds a place to fit. So basically a little from column A, a little from column B.

-Tom

This may be the most Wumpus thing ever written. I guess we should be thankful he didn’t say “You’re watching TV wrong”.

Great write up Tom.

I don’t understand why some people have tagged this show as boring. It’s got a big spectrum of emotional and dramatic tingles going on all the time. Shit isn’t blowing up all the time and people aren’t in gun fights constantly, but you can find plenty of that in other shows. If you want an intense over the top experience I recommend trying Banshee. And it has Lili Simmons getting down a lot, that’s worth the subscription price alone.

For the last 90 days it is #8. Great show…even better than Breaking Bad.

BCS is like The Americans and the movie Francis Ha. I got a friend I recommend that type of media to. She’s someone who pays attention to facial expressions and how people react to each other’s small actions. I call these shows ‘character studies’ for lack of a better word.

Some people just don’t like that stuff at all and find it boring. I don’t recommend them those shows.

Calling this a show about lawyers is like saying Citizen Kane was a show about winter sports.

I’d say Citizen Kane was a movie about newspaper moguls, for sure, in the same way that Saul (too often) is a show about lawyering.

I’ll personally write everyone in this topic who has already posted a check for $1000 if Better Caul Saul, any season, ever cracks the top 5 on

(by that I mean it will be higher ranked than Breaking Bad)

… because it won’t. Sorry. Right now it’s not even in the top 100, which is about right for what this show is, and does.

Why does a universal Top X list even matter? Validation of if it’s ok for you to think something is good or not?

Okay, I’m totally on board now with this being better than Breaking Bad.

We also know that Avatar, Titanic, and Jurassic World are in the top 5 greatest movies ever made.

It’s also interesting how BCS has changed my view of the Walter White character in BB. Like most everyone else, I shared a vicarious “Scarface” admiration of Walter while the show was going on. Nebbish turned into criminal bad-ass – so cool! Now that I’m seeing the stories of the characters that surrounded Walter … man, did he destroy some people who were far, far better than him. Fuck you, Mr. White.

I’m not ready to say Walter destroyed any of the characters we’re dealing with on BCS (though obviously, yes, he’s a monster who destroyed his family and more). Walter may have ended some of their lives, but the choices that eventually put them in those situations are unfolding here, setting them down a path where if it wasn’t Walter, it just would’ve been someone else.

I think Better Call Saul is clearly the better written show, and far better in general than the first couple of seasons of Breaking Bad, but I also agree that the crime/cartel subject matter of Breaking Bad was generally more interesting. I think that’s particularly evident in Saul, as the show has really kicked into high gear by advancing Mike’s storyline and reintroducing the cartel characters (even though I’m not sure if they’re done now?). A show on Gus Fring’s ascension would likely have been more interesting than Saul’s legal career mishaps, but who cares when Better Call Saul is one of the best TV shows ever produced – this show is truly a masterpiece.

The non-crime stuff in Breaking Bad (Walter Jr., Skyler and family life) was even less interesting than Saul’s courtroom stuff. One thing I’m also really impressed with is how accurately Saul depicts legal life – soooooooo much better than any of David Kelley’s shows (which I never watched much until Goliath, but the legal aspects are ludicrous on those shows - it’s amazing he’s made such a successful career off of them).

I’m glad they found a way to keep Howard in the show in some capacity, and that they seem to be heading towards wrapping up the Chuck/Jimmy storyline this year. I do think, despite the amazing writing, the show has a considerable challenge to leave off the characters of Mike and Saul to their starting positions on Breaking Bad - they are so sympathetic right now, but Saul was clearly a selfish, calculating criminal, actively seeking to help with drug dealers, money launderers and to thwart justice. The obvious catalyst for that change of heart could be the death of Kim, but I really hope to instead see her walk into Cinnabon at the end of the show.

Similarly, Mike killed a lot of people for Gus, disposed of bodies, helped create a criminal empire, etc. It’s more difficult to see how he could get to point B, given the fact that we already know his primary motivation is to help his granddaughter and he is clearly capable of doing so without going down such a dark road.

But if anyone can pull it off convincingly, it’s this writing team.