Better Call Saul - the sixth (and final) season

[Blue Jam]

Patrick Fabian is a lover, not a fighter:

https://mobile.twitter.com/BetterCallSaul/status/1525558565628280832

Heh, nice Bob impersonation at 0:52

[Povidone]

Been catching up on this thread, loving the episode breakdowns and analysis. Going to have to duck out here around page 21 and come back once I get episodes 5 and 6 watched. Just wanted to point out, as it appears nobody has done so yet, that the waiter at the country club was James Urbaniak, voice of Rusty Venture on the Venture Bros! I always get a kick out of seeing him turn up in stuff.

Also:

Spoiler alert

my working theory prior to s6 coming ot was that rather than Kim getting killed or having to go on the run from the cartel it's actually Howard that's going to snuff it due to Kim and Jimmy's plan somewhow getting mixed up with Jimmy's cartel dealings. Bit vague I know but s5 left me with the feeling that was where they might go with Kim hatching the plan to fuck with him.

Could potentially still happen but I'm intrigued by some of the suggestions in here. Particularly the idea that Kim might just ditch Jimmy and that would be what sends him down the path to fully becoming Saul. It fits the character and I think it would be enough to drive him to become a truly loathesome person. I also suspect that the writers probably want to avoid doing a repeat of Hank in BB

[close]

[Blue Jam]

A clip from 606:

https://www.tvinsider.com/1044411/better-call-saul-season-6-episode-6-jimmy-francesca/

Pretty sure that's round the back of Saul's strip mall office.

[Blue Jam]

Any idea what the logo in the coffee says? T-1, as in Terminal 1?

[Blue Jam]

Also Talking Saul is back and will air live after the mid-season finale on the 23rd. Never actually seen Talking Saul and have no idea how to watch this in the UK- anyone know?

https://twitter.com/BetterCallSaul/status/1526248864239321090

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Bittorrent probably, unless you want to pay for it.

[JamesTC]

Isn't it put up on Netflix? I'm sure I've watch an episode of that before (or Talking Bad after the finale of that).

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I'm pretty sure that was Talking Bad (which I also watched). I don't think I've ever seen Talking Saul on Netflix anywhere. It must be an exclusive on whatever network it's on. I didn't even know it existed tbh.

[Blue Jam]

Yes, I don't do torrents these days, I'm a goody-goody. I will just hope the demand is there and this airs in the UK then, cheers all.

[Dex Sawash]

So where does the 'grind' part come from?



Edit- Howard sleeps in

Spoiler alert

a racing car

[close]

[lankyguy95]

Spoiler alert

I'm not sure even the most incredible of mid-season payoffs justifies how boring this is right now. It's just not fun to watch. DARK LIGHTING. Gus is still nervous about Lalo...no suspense though because Lalo's in Germany. Montage of Howard getting up and carefully making a drink because he's fastidious, don't you know? Kim and Jimmy still going ahead with their plan to destroy Howard because...reasons. MORE DARK LIGHTING.

Aside from episode three, this has been a season of stylishly shot setups. Such protracted storytelling.

[close]

[Petey Pate]

Spoiler alert

I'm not sure even the most incredible of mid-season payoffs justifies how boring this is right now. It's just not fun to watch. DARK LIGHTING. Gus is still nervous about Lalo...no suspense though because Lalo's in Germany. Montage of Howard getting up and carefully making a drink because he's fastidious, don't you know? Kim and Jimmy still going ahead with their plan to destroy Howard because...reasons. MORE DARK LIGHTING.

[close]

Spoiler alert

I don't get how someone who has watched the show up to this point would find that episode boring. Episodes like Bagman and Nacho's death are the exception to the rule, for the most part Better Call Saul has always been a slow paced character study. That said, a German got sliced with a hidden razor blade and had his foot chopped off with his own axe, so it wasn't exactly action-free. 

I loved the coffee scene because of how much it conveyed Howard's marriage. As previously noted, the show is a master of 'show don't tell'. Poor Howard goes through so much effort making his wife a well presented latte, gestures her to sit and talk to him for longer, only for her to pour the drink into a thermos and leave the room after a minute.

The cliffhanger of Kim doing a U-turn down a literal 'bad choice road' was predictable but still affective. Just like Walter White, she's rejecting any legitimate options and get-out-clauses so she can do everything on her own terms.

Also the awkward reunion between Francesca and Kim was hilarious.   

[close]

[selectivememory]

It was fine. Another good episode. I enjoy all the slow character beats, and certainly nothing bored me in that at all. It's all nicely building, and I do get the sense that Jimmy and Kim's scheme is going to go spectacularly wrong next week, either exposing them or by causing unintended consequences for Howard.

I wondered for a second if

Spoiler alert

they were actually going to kill Lalo off as anti-climactically as that. Should have known better, but it would have been funny if he just died pathetically in Germany, and then Gus and Mike are still on the look out for him years later.

[close]

[Dex Sawash]

Spoiler alert

the coffee scene 

[close]

Oh, there's the grind.


The T-1 was on a post-it on the vision board, guess we still don't know what that's about? Skynet?

[Blue Jam]

Spoiler alert

Oh gawd the T-1 is made of ricin. Howarde gonna be chopps

[close]

[jake thunder]

Can't believe I'm still watching this. Boring as fuck.

[Dex Sawash]

More questions than answers

[selectivememory]

It's a countdown, right? T minus one, the evening before "D-Day," as they put it.

[buttgammon]

The puns on D-Day all lead to Omaha (Beach).

Something that unsettled me was that we almost immediately went from that guy's arm in a cast to a shot of Kim driving, harking back to the last time she nearly fucked up her career.

[Old Nehamkin]

This is a peculiarly frustrating show for me. When I'm watching it I often find myself feeling like I'm having some sort of stress dream where I have to go back to school and re-sit my exams or something. Just a general sense of inertia and lethargy and the constant rising back to the surface of things that seemed like they had already been resolved. Six seasons in, I really don't understand why we're still spending half a dozen episodes watching Jimmy scrambling to pull off some incredibly convoluted but ultimately petty confidence trick against the same guy he was trying to screw over via similar means back in season 1. Maybe I've missed or misremembered some crucial plot details here, but Jimmy and Kim's nebulous vendetta against Howard is incredibly uncompelling to me and for it to be such a major driver this late in the game seems very weak.

As for the Mike half of the show, I don't think there was ever any need to delve this deeply into the world of Gus Fring and seeing the nuts and bolts of his operation elaborated on and lingered upon to this extent has been a serious case of diminishing returns for me. I don't think this show has offered anything particularly new to say about Fring's character or his vendetta against the Salamancas that wasn't already conveyed effectively in Breaking Bad, and whenever we spend more time with him or Hector or Don Eladio or the scary cousins doing their "slowly walking together in the same direction" routine, I get a heavy dose of that back-to-school-dream sensation I mentioned above.

I feel bad being so negative about the show because it is so objectively well-made, artfully shot and full of excellent performances. I loved the development of Jimmy and Chuck's relationship in the earlier seasons, there has been some nice stuff between Jimmy and Kim and I think Lalo has been a terrific late addition to the show. Every week there's at least one fantastically well-executed scene or sequence that puts most contemporary TV drama to shame. But overall the show just has a listlessness that I find difficult to get past. Like it's missing some vital animating spark. I dunno.

[lankyguy95]

I don't get how someone who has watched the show up to this point would find that episode boring. Episodes like Bagman and Nacho's death are the exception to the rule, for the most part Better Call Saul has always been a slow paced character study.

It's not the style, it's the execution. I like methodical, slow-build. There was plenty of it in Breaking Bad that I enjoyed for the most part. There's been plenty of it in BCS that I've also enjoyed. I just don't think this has been good. You can have a slow build that is still poorly paced.

I'd be more forgiving of it too but I think the Jimmy/Kim - Howard storyline has largely been silly, unrealistic and unjustified. For a show that has previously been methodical in laying out character motivations and development, Kim going as far as she has to destroy someone's livelihood this season still seems broadly out of sync with her character. It's way beyond the small-time pranking with Jimmy in the early seasons. Copying Howard's car key in order to steal his car to impersonate him throwing a prostitute into the road in front of a business associate because... Howard implied she should leave Jimmy? Or something about her deciding to champion the little guy? It doesn't make sense. And consequently, other than a vague sympathy for Howard, I don't find that storyline appealing or particularly interesting.

Other than that, massive overuse of the darkly lit aesthetic, non-suspense built up as suspense, lots of unhappy Gus shots (about 90% of his contribution to this show). Even

Spoiler alert

Lalo's scene

[close]

this week seemed a bit clunky. Other than most of Nacho's death episode, I think this has been quite a poor season so far. An elegantly bloated 5+ hours of storytelling.

EDIT: "Poor" is maybe not the right word – that implies a level of incompetence that isn't quite reflective. But I've found it frustrating and dull.

[JamesTC]

It is so heartfelt seeing Kim fighting the good fight in court. When Saul/Jimmy does the same, there are selfish motives and you don't necessarily feel his client deserves it. But with Kim you know she is doing it for altruistic reasons and for a defendant who deserves it.

Can't we just have a House style show with Kim leading a team defending worthy clients in unusual cases?

[buttgammon]

It is so heartfelt seeing Kim fighting the good fight in court. When Saul/Jimmy does the same, there are selfish motives and you don't necessarily feel his client deserves it. But with Kim you know she is doing it for altruistic reasons and for a defendant who deserves it.

Can't we just have a House style show with Kim leading a team defending worthy clients in unusual cases?

Something my partner pointed out is that the lad pulled over for his air freshener is a reflection of the Daunte Wright case, in which a young black man was pulled over and then murdered by the police after they saw him with an air freshener supposedly obstructing his view.

Seeing her doing the right things for the right reasons is going to make whatever might come next even more horrible.

[selectivememory]

Copying Howard's car key in order to steal his car to impersonate him throwing a prostitute into the road in front of a business associate because... Howard implied she should leave Jimmy? Or something about her deciding to champion the little guy? It doesn't make sense. And consequently, other than a vague sympathy for Howard, I don't find that storyline appealing or particularly interesting.

Well, I think her resentment of Howard goes back quite a bit further than that conversation they had at the end of the last season. But also, the Sandpiper payout (potentially seven figures IIRC) is ostensibly the reason they're going to such lengths. Although I do think to an extent it's just an excuse for them to fuck with Howard.

[Mr. Ssmsslth]

I found this one the weakest of the season so far.

[Povidone]

And the address of the boxing gym- 1512? In the mirror that's 1215, the Magna Carta, or something.

I forget that they like to do stuff like this until you get the occasional smack-you-over-the-head-with-it stuff like the start of 605 where the time 3:17 is reflected in the glass as LIE and then it cuts to Kim looking concerned and unable to sleep.

Caught up now - enjoyed the boxing, there was immediately more to Howard's plan but it seemed like his style to at least attempt something like that, he's smarmy but genuinely sincere in a naff way that has become more sympathetic as the series goes on. His scene at the start of 606 depciting the utter desolation of his married life really made me feel for the rich, embarassing yuppie. The only thing about it that didnt seem quite right was Jimmy taking the bait, it helps that Jimmy seems to have been a bit off his game since all the cartel stuff so it wasn't so jarring for me.

I like how the reveal of Howard's plan which was obvious has been completedly overshadowed by whatever Jimmy and Kim are up to, which I'm still not exactly clear on

WAHEY another Mr Show cameo! As far as I know John Ennis was never spotted at the capitol riots though. Has he been in this before? As I mentioned above I've thought Jimmy to be a bit off his game recently and that scene with them preparing was the first time this season it's felt like the old dynamic.

Spoiler alert

Pretty concerned about how 'D-Day' is going to pan out though, was genuinely shocked at Kim's look of anger at the end there, I don't understand what the plan is ultimately but it's clearly something she invested herself heavily into, more than I had realised up until that point, definitely tied to her flashback at the start of the episode, we'll see more of her past fleshed out before this is over.

aaaand there's that bottle stopper again...

[close]

[selectivememory]

Also, I guess it was implied that Jimmy is going to buy the vet's "little black book," and that's how he has a guy for everything by the time he's working with Walt and Jesse. It's easy to forget just how immersed he is in the criminal underworld of Albuquerque in Breaking Bad. 

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

More questions than answers

Cum sanitizer. Definitely need some of that.

[Povidone]

Most sanitizers smell like cum anyway, so it's probably a lateral move.

[Blue Jam]

WAHEY another Mr Show cameo! As far as I know John Ennis was never spotted at the capitol riots though. Has he been in this before?

No but his daughter, Jessie Ennis (no, not that one) plays Erin Brill, and I believe she also appeared in Mr. Show as a nipper. I was wondering when her dad would show up, as mentioned upthread there was a casting call for a stand-in with a picture of someone who appeared to be John Ennis.

I really hope there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it David Cross cameo, that would make me very happy.