One of the cases to be made for Better Call Saul being better than Breaking Bad is consistency of tone. Breaking Bad frequently strayed from family soap opera, to hard-hitting crime drama, to wacky character comedy, to drug cartel intrigue. You could argue that was one of its strengths, because it allowed for episodes like the one with the fly and the magnet heist. Breaking Bad went wherever it felt like going. From Mr. Chips to Scarface, as Vince Gilligan is on record as saying. But with multiple layovers.
I’m torn on Adams’ work. While some of the scenes worked great in terms of Chuck’s POV (the neon lights and that battery that looked radioactive), just as many were too damn dark.
Maybe it’s a function of creeping alter kockerism, but lately I’m finding that to be true of a lot of movies and TV. Sometimes the screen is so dark I can’t follow the action.
After last week’s episode, this week’s could only be a come down in terms of tension and high drama. You can see the further develop of Jimmy’s character by his choice of inaction. It’s interesting how I am more excited about Jimmy’s storyline progression than Mike’s, even though it was probably the other way round in previous seasons.
If someone has never seen more than one episode of breaking bad, is this a good series? And is there a lot of comedy? I can’t handle drama, life is too stressful as it is right now.
He’s terrific, but not “funny” per se. Just has some great zingers at the expense at others that do NOT appreciate his zingers. :)
Breaking Bad is great, gripping TV (I’m rewatching it on Netflix right now) but one or two episodes every few days is all I am doing and then I switch over to some stand up. It’s pretty dark stuff.
So did Chuck telegraph Howard’s DUI/death when he asked if he was ok to drive? Without Howard Chuck has nobody close to him in his court other than his ex but she has a life to live too.
I don’t think that was meant to telegraph more than they had several scotches. BTW, if anyone is curious as to what a bottle of 35 year old Macallan (just typing that is making me drool again) actually costs, here it is (although now it would be 40 years old).
There’s much less comedy in this than there was in Breaking Bad (especially the early seasons, which were very much dark comedy). but there are still moments.
That was my immediate assumption. Specifically, that they were both going to die, which obviously didn’t happen. But maybe I’m just extrapolating lazy TV telegraphing on to a much better show.
