I bet we see Walt in the final scene of the final episode when he walks into Saul’s office.
Great show so far. Yet another reason not to watch the other 99% crap on TV.
I love this show. If anything, episode 3 was better than 2. Gilligan is creating such a great mix of deliberate pacing and edge of your seat tension.
It’s like discovering BB all over again and I’m loving it.
Wendelius
Ep. 3 was solid and the best so far. I’m confident it will get even better as it develops and leaves the nest (of connections to BB) to stand on its own.
So is the tone different from BB? My wife and I kinda burned out on the relentless turpitude of it all after awhile and couldn’t finish it (I think we watched everything but the last season). I was hoping Saul would be a touch more comedic. Is it?
haha what
It’s still very early, but Saul is a more likable and genuine character than Walt. Based on that alone, I can’t imagine it getting as dark and depraved as BB.
I never watched Breaking Bad just because by the time I heard how great it was there were already a couple seasons behind it and it’s just hard for me to catch up at that point. But I’m getting in on Better Call Saul on the ground floor, at least partly because I love Bob Odenkirk so much, and I’m really enjoying it. No doubt I’m missing out on some details from the original show but nothing has gone over my head so far.
More likeable? Definitely. More genuine? … Well don’t forget, he was Slippin’ Jimmy from the very start.
Both he and Walt share one thing, though - they both see themselves as normal, decent guys forced to do what they do by circumstances. And arguably Saul’s delusion on this score is worse than Walt’s. Walt was indeed in dire straits at the beginning of Breaking Bad, dying and unable to pay his bills. Saul does what he does just because he doesn’t like being such a low-rent lawyer.
Maybe genuine is the wrong word to describe a slippery lawyer who will go on to make a career out of assisting dangerous criminals, but his arc is probably less sociopathic than Walt’s.
The show is top tier and I’ll continue watching it, but I am finding it somewhat difficult that there’s no characters who are truly likeable. I had the same problem with the Wire, and to a lesser extent Breaking Bad (at least for the first couple of seasons, Walt was easy to root for, and later Jesse was more sympathetic). Jimmy is a loser who makes lots of mistakes and is living a shifty existence, and characters like Chuck are just sad and pathetic. So I’m basically rooting for Mike, and for Jimmy to transform into Saul and at least kick ass for a little bit.
If you are enjoying Better Call Saul, you might want to consider catching up on Breaking Bad bit by bit. It’s not like it’s going to run ahead of you. And it truly is a great show. And you’ll get to see more of some of the characters you have been watching so far.
Wendelius
I can understand getting burned out on Breaking Bad. I binge watched the first two seasons, then waited 6 months or so to watch the 3rd. In my opinion, though, the last season of Breaking Bad was probably the best TV I have ever seen. I watched the intro to ‘Say My Name’ (Season 5, Episode 7) a dozen times or more because it was just so damn good. I hope you and your wife come back to Breaking Bad eventually and finish it…there is a high chance you will not be disappointed.
Fantastic show, such quality in every shot.
Seriously, do catch up on it. It’s not that long (each season is pretty short by American standards, and it’s easily the best TV drama since The Wire.
“Fantastic show, such quality in every shot.”
Totally. This show has exceeded my expectations.
The entire run of BB is on Netflix, so if you aren’t a subscriber already you could always get a free trial and binge watch all 60 or whatever episodes. Highly recommended.
Look, I don’t doubt you dudes for a minute, pretty much everyone has told me the same thing and I am certain I would enjoy it. It’s just the commitment to going through the 5 or 6 seasons that I’m balking at. I’ve got two little ones running around so I will be limited to watching after they’re asleep, plus I’m competing with my wife for the TV unless I can rope her into this. And she’s not that big on violence, though I did get her kind of watching Game of Thrones with me. So maybe. I just have to set my mind to it.
Yeah, that makes sense. The show (Breaking Bad) strikes me as being pretty timeless, so it’s still going to be good to watch even years from now when things calm down a bit. Do you have a smart phone? You could always watch Netflix on that with ear buds while you watch the kids. An option I would have loved while raising my own kids in the “dark time” where the only thing on my TV was Dragon Tales and Caillou…
“It’s all good, man.”
So far, this show has exceeded my expectations.