Better Call Saul: Full Series Retrospective

you've reached Kim Wexler please leave a message head sticking out from a low Flying Cloud seriously when the going gets tough you don't want to call him a lawyer right you want a criminal lawyer sunshine as can be foreign [Music] the following is an in-depth story analysis if you haven't seen Better Call Saul or just to be safe Breaking Bad you may want to before watching this video despite their shaky track record in modern pop culture there's no denying that the Allure of a prequel series is enthralling sci-fi worlds have the opportunity to depict Rich histories that previously existed as fascinating lore bits fantasy settings can detail the grand Legends the original Works referenced or maybe it's as simple as wanting to see additional Adventures of a character who met their demise in 2015 Breaking Bad Creator Vince Gilligan and writer Peter Gould joined forces to create Better Call Saul a follow-up prequel to the AMC crime Thriller which concluded in 2013. now Breaking Bad is widely considered one of the greatest television series of all time alongside All-Stars like the first eight seasons of The Simpsons the wire The Sopranos and arless so it's safe to say Better Call Saul had some mighty big shoes to fill it's also safe to say that the showroom Rose to the occasion I'll just come right out and say it at the time of this recording Better Call Saul is my favorite show I've ever seen will that opening and Mission prevent comments asking why did you make a super long video on the series if you hate it so much uh I doubt it so without further Ado let's jump in is it Christmas is it Kwanzaa better it's slip and fall season this is Better Call Saul you feel doomed have opponents of Freedom wrongly intimidated you maybe they told you that you're in serious trouble and there's nothing you can do about it I'm Saul Goodman and I'm here to tell you that they're wrong it's never too late for justice but Call Saul follows the career of struggling lawyer Jimmy McGill the man who will one day do business as Saul Goodman play a part in Walter White's drug Empire and eventually be forced to go on the lamb when their meth Empire is finally busted by the feds hey I warned you about breaking bad spoilers aside from a curmudgeonly parking lot attendant who I'm sure is just some nobody his interactions with Albuquerque's legal World puts him in frequent contact with our other three supporting characters at the law firm of Hamlin Hamlin McGill Kim wechsler an attorney whom Jimmy has a flirty relationship with who bootstrapped her way through the bar exam alongside Jimmy when they were co-workers in hhm's mail room Howard Hamlin the old money named partner at hhm who puts on a friendly face but who Jimmy suspects also secretly looks down on him and lastly Chuck McGill the other name partner at hhm and Jimmy's older brother while Jimmy spent his youth pulling cons and Cicero Chuck was the responsible sibling who built up a firm and made a name for himself in abq's legal community however with Chuck falling ill to an unusual malady over the past two years Jimmy now more than ever has been forced to step into the role of responsible sibling to care for his brother and I do mean unusual you hear they're making a Breaking Bad prequel Jimmy gradually letting go of his morals and building his criminal Network Mike going from retired cop to fixer and cameos from Breaking Bad characters running the gamut from minor to Major that's about what everybody expected I don't think anybody had electromagnetic hypersensitivity on their bingo cards in fact unless you're a student of rare and uncanny disorders odds are this series was your first introduction to these psychosomatic condition but this out of left field allergy to electricity bore tremendous fruit as the series went along enabling both striking visuals and unique character beats the series was a bit ahead of its time in tackling mental health subjects while also avoiding the common Pitfall of being a hollywoodized version of common ailments take off the space blanket I didn't do anything wrong it has nothing to do with that it was your phone take off the space blanket Better Call Saul has a solid roster of characters to work with but in the first season Howard Chuck and Kim are all written pretty one note the sitcom style arch nemesis the disapproving familial mentor and the girl our lead can both flirt with and bounce ideas off of and at the end of the day that's really Jimmy's Arc for the season coming to the sometimes comforting sometimes horrifying realization that none of his personal relationships are what he believed them to be while the development between the brothers McGill throughout the season appears to be Jimmy gently easing Chuck back into his legal career Jimmy is devastated to discover his brother has actually secretly been attempting to ease Jimmy out of his legal career not a real lawyer I'm what you're not a real lawyer University of American Samoa for Christ's sake it's such a gut punch because even on a re-watch seeing Chuck overcome his symptoms and make the first strides toward proclaiming his life as heartwarming and then you remember the green-eyed motivations that make him tick and feel just as sick at his betrayal as the characters oh look how happy he is returning to the office for the first time in two years I'm so proud of you Chuck hey wait a minute [ __ ] you Chuck the revelation of Chuck's behind the scenes scheming means Jimmy's been putting undue blame on Howard for some of the more obstructive actions attributed to hhm's Partners now that he knows which partner really had it out for him and Jimmy begins to realize Kim is more than just a fellow traveler she's a potential partner in crime fortunately the supporting casts don't just flip to one note characters in the opposite direction going forward Chuck isn't simply the cane to Jimmy's able as Jimmy's legal tactics become increasingly legally and morally questionable the writers very smartly leave it up to the audience to determine how much of it is Chuck accurately assessing his brother's character and how much of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that would have never come to pass had the two gotten along Hamlin may have been revealed as unduly hated by Jimmy but after the Chuck mode of twist he doesn't become defeat Ron Swanson overnight he's still capable of prickish vindictive Antics from time to time and Kim is more than just the dream law partner and wife material who wants to reign in Jimmy's Antics at times she enables them allowing the series to explore questions like is she bad for him is he bad for her or are they good for each other but bad for everyone else around them and the most unsettling question of all how unfortunate will her pre-breaking bad fate be however there's an issue with all these character developments and Revelations I say that they're the Arc of the season but they all happen in the second to last episode actually Kim's doesn't even really occur until the season 2 premiere it leads to a similar issue I had with the first season of Boardwalk Empire the first season of Better Call Saul feels less like a first season of television and more like a 10 hour long pilot setting us up for the real show starting next season the feud between the McGill Brothers Jimmy and Kim's relationship and Mike's foray into Albuquerque's criminal underworld since Kim and Mike who all get to in a moment are firmly Side characters and better call Saul's freshman year that means season 1 is the Jimmy McGill show and by extension the Bob Odenkirk show I would love to go there but uh spaces that's never going to happen none of us has ever leaving this guy forsaken Wasteland Bob steps up to the plate and turns in a great performance but occupying roughly 85 percent of the screen time of a 10 episode season with a single character is no mean feat and the writer's strain can show at points the writers go to The Well of Jimmy making pop culture references that nobody in the room follows a few too many times which made me a bit nervous starting to show out if this is a more lighthearted dramedy than its predecessor might have to work on Mr Goodman zingers a bit Lads stylish as they may be some of the show's atmosphere establishing montages can feel long-winded notably in episodes where there is already a lack of meat on the narrative bone breaking bad really did get the action both in the literal sense and the disturbing life and death ethical conundrum sense right off the bat but I know with hindsight Better Call Saul is going for its own thing and isn't trying to be Breaking Bad too which brings me to my last major issue with the first season of Better Call Saul there's less of an inherent draw to come back next week to see how the down on his luck lawyer will pay his bills compared to how the terminally ill school teacher will dispose of the two men he just murdered after crashing his mobile meth lab in the desert so in an effort to hook viewers at the end of the pilot the writers had Jimmy run a foul of Breaking Bad antagonist tuko salamanco basically trying to dupe everyone into thinking they were watching Breaking Bad too using the second episode as bade I cut their throats and then I pulled their life tongues best snatch or you you could give them black eyes black eyes for what it's worth Jimmy getting dragged into the lair of one of breaking bad's most dangerous foes is quite the Cliffhanger but the whole Endeavor has the typical TV pilot problem of raising the stakes way too high too early on which only serves to undercut future events that should feel like a whole new level of danger so when four years later Mr McGill finds himself held at gunpoint by the the cartel in the middle of the desert and bag man instead of thinking about the gravity of the situation in the back of my mind I'm thinking oh [ __ ] this isn't the first time or Hell forget life and death dragged out to the desert Stakes the second episode undercuts the tension of interacting with tuko that Mike's second season storyline will play with Mike spends the series contending with the salamancas a cartel family who come in three waves of escalating terror tuko frightening in his unpredictability Hector capable of making people offers they can't refuse and Lalo charismatic cat burglar criminal mastermind but two goes only frightening in his unpredictability on paper in practice the character is largely played for Laughs in the first season of Better Call Saul pair that with his lie detector tactic in season 2 that just makes me think of Curb Your Enthusiasm and he never really recaptures the sense of danger he commanded in the original series so while characters make desperate plans to get tuko off the streets for their own safety I'm like what him he's he's just like this silly little guy AI the task force is designated operation King breaker King breaker that makes me the king so our second episode introduction to the crime Thriller elements of Better Call Saul is not indicative of the tone these cartel Shenanigans will later have it's certainly not a bad episode but let's face it it's no grilled as much as I get the impression it would like to be and it's not indicative of the Jimmy McGill storylines that will follow for the next four and a half Seasons either fortunately after that shaky Second Step Better Call Saul gets into a comfortable Groove exhibiting a natural flow from episode to episode not so much nail biting Cliffhangers but logical follow-ups that continue to expand and explore the legal and criminal world of New Mexico tuko's right-hand man nacho learns Jimmy wants to represent crooked County Treasurer Craig Kettleman and instead proposes they steal a stolen cache since it'll have no recourse Jimmy warns Craig of nachos impending Heist and the kettlements vanish nacho forces Jimmy to clear his name when he's charged with kidnapping and after finding the kettlemans he winds up with a rather handsome bribe to keep details of their disappearance a secret gotta admit Betsy Kettleman does it for me she's a bit of a atypical fictional Crush I'm not the kind of guy who's into crazy dominant women but I'm often pegged as one Jimmy uses the bribe of seed money seemingly in a Revenge plot to steal hhm's business but actually as part of a publicity stunt to become a local hero and even the way the season breaks the flow of Jimmy's burgeoning business has well a sort of flow to it with a growing specialization in Elder Law he hands his business card to none other than Mike ehrmintrout the parking lot attendant at the courthouse as Jimmy drives off we take a break from Jimmy land to enter 5-0 Mike's season 1 Focus episode you know what happened the question is can you live with it Better Call Saul took its time integrating Mike into the show's format which I think was a smart tactic to prevent this from just feeling like two different shows about two different characters that happened to share a time slot Some People level that complaint of the series as a whole but I only found it really noticeable in the fourth season regime and Mike only interact in a single scene of very little narrative or thematic consequence so Mike starts off as basically cameos then gets 5-0 and finally we wrap up with him doing bodyguard work for whoa full pill Peddler Daniel warmold the world's worst crook paired off with the world's best more or less just to get the ball rolling on Mike becoming one of the show's leads before we get to that let's go back to 5-0 and I mean it's a show stealer detailing Mike's history as a dirty cop and how his son met his demise when his innocent Soul got tied up in that same crooked way of life a suitable backstory for a beloved character that retains the man's criminal roots without being too Maudlin saccharin or on the nose all anchored by Jonathan exceptional performance he does a fantastic job but enjoy it while it lasts the man is playing Mike Ehrman trout after all so season after season he gets less and less opportunities to show off his impressive acting chops and flashy exchanges and monologues like these ones that's just the nature of the character is Gruff reserved and plays his cards close to the vest what are you gonna do look don't let Mr Airmen Trout's dancing eyes and bubbly bon vivant personality fool you he's actually believe it or not somewhat tacitor shall I fan you gently so you don't go into shock so five oza standout pimento's a standout every episode of the first season has that ends in o naming convention by the way except for Jello which isn't Jello it's Alpine Shepherd boy but you can see why they tried to call it Jello before Jello the jello company said hell no maybe the lady who owns Walter White's house in real life also runs jello's marketing department I don't know our last o is Marco in which Jimmy hands over a massive class action case against the Sandpiper chain of retirement homes to hhm after learning of Chuck's deception to return to his old con man ways back in Cicero after his pal Marco dies to I don't know consumption Jimmy returns to ABQ with a juicy job offer at the prestigious Law Firm Davis and Maine on the table offering him an opportunity to get back in on the Sandpiper class action action Jimmy's prospects are finally looking up but between Chuck's disapproval the fresh memories of fun times with Marco and a worry that a career with DNM will turn things with Miss Wexler strictly professional Jimmy Turns The Firm down on his way out of the lot he reflects on a scheme he and Mike ran earlier in the season stealing the kettleman's stolen bucks and sending it to the D.A to get them a favorable deal against their wishes when they could have gotten away with keeping it all for themselves I know what stopped me you know what it's never stopping me again [Music] hell yeah No More Mr Nice Guy this is the moment Jimmy McGill became Saul Goodman right well no not really despite his bold words Jimmy isn't nearly ready to jump off the slippery slope just yet Better Call Saul is going for a slower burn than that and in the long run is all the stronger for it but pair that powerful statement with the Smoke on the Water outro and that ending still gets audiences hyped for some exciting moral flexibility in The Following Season even if it's not quite as surface level thrilling as you're likely to picture it sort of like all the advertising for breaking bad's fourth season this season Walter White's not in danger he is the danger and then he spends 10 episodes acting like a bratty child and getting beat up we're speeding off to season two and with Jimmy deciding not to hoard all the screen time in the show's sophomore year I can promise you this much things are going to get colorful how long you studied for that bar how hard you were all that effort you're gonna toss it away that's the sunk cost fallacy the what the fallacy of sunk cost Better Call Saul kicks things off in season two by going listen we're not going to jerk you around anymore this ain't no new girl this ain't no How I Met Your Mother no more will they won't they Jimmy and Kim are getting together we're doing this after vouching for Jimmy to get in the Davis and main job Kim gets him to reconsider the offer and in the process he ropes her into a con to get Breaking Bad Alum and vanity played a douchebag Ken to pick up their bar tab in the Afterglow of a successful scam the two hook up but realizing he can't stay and Never Never Land forever Jimmy relents and takes the job and with that BCS branches out now with three leads instead of one Jimmy and Kim working at their respective firms and Mike running a bodyguarding side hustle to help his daughter-in-law move out of her terrible neighborhood with all three sharing more or less equal screen time but more than seeing Jimmy finally make the big leagues or mcwexler becoming official of course the main event the audience is waiting for at the start of season 2 is Chuck and Jimmy inevitably crossing paths again now that Chuck's animosity is on Full display the ominous build up to the reunion expertly inverts the way Chuck's EHS is presented to the audience in the first season when Jimmy was Chuck's caretaker his sensitivity to electricity was a weakness he had to be meticulously accommodated which was a tedious Hassle and made him frail in the eyes of both his associates and his opposition but now that he's Jimmy's adversary Chuck's ability to send hhm's drones scampering to ready the room for his arrival as more of a power move no pun intended it's almost like Chuck's grand entrance as being heralded by him sapping all the power out of the room personally like he's some sort of energy vampire Chuck is instantly disapproving and wary of Jimmy's inexplicable success with client Outreach rightly so as he's been using underhanded tactics and Kim Clifford Maine and the rest of the DNM offices are short to follow Jimmy's storyline in season 2 is somewhat rare for television there's plenty of examples of TV shows about nightmarish day jobs anyone would despise but the high paying dream gig that winds up being incompatible with you denying you real responsibility and gradually grinding you down that's generally less examined the multiple hints that Jimmy has a pathologic need to push boundaries and is doomed to not fit in this firm are cute if not exactly subtle and his eventual scheme to retain his signing bonus by getting himself fired without cause for being the most unfathomably annoying co-worker in the universe is the greatest Montage in a series of great montages the Davis and Main staff were just overbearing enough for audiences to understand why Jimmy would pull that dirty maneuver on them while still also being nice enough that we kind of feel as scummy as Jimmy for enjoying it so much hey Cliff for what it's worth I think you're a good guy for what it's worth I think you're an [ __ ] I've definitely worked one or two jobs in my life that were very shall we say post-commercial Davis and Maine and projecting your frustrations onto Jimmy's quest to leave them holding the bag is eminently relatable but there are certainly episodes throughout the first half of season two where even if you do know what's headed toward the bagpipe rainbow suit don't flush the John payoff Ploy Jimmy has a lot less going on than his co-stars Kim and Mike if it's not a life experience you've had I can understand how this storyline might drag a bit know how I know because watching the show when it first aired I hadn't had an experience like this yet and it did however Jimmy's scheme to convince the comps that Daniel wormhold has been selling fetish material rather than drugs as one of better call Saul's most hilarious scenes in his entire run and his explosive verbal sparring with Chuck and the aptly named gloves off finally breaking half a season of passive aggressive tension shoots enough adrenaline into a storyline to tide me over until his amusing termination if I were impeding the career of one of my employees for the purpose of compelling you to do something against your will that would be extortion yeah it would so you want me to commit a felony because that's what you do right it's not smooth sailing over at hhm either both Kim and Howard take hits to their reputation when the lawyer they vouched for turns out to be a Loose Cannon and Howard burdens Kim with an endless stream of menial paperwork as punishment rather than start scoping out the emergency exits Kim redoubles her efforts to win her boss's support eventually reeling in a whale of a client Mesa Verde Bank and Trust this does little to get her out of the doghouse so both the Swanky firm of schweikart and Coakley and the recently unemployed Jimmy attempt to poach her unwilling to be professionally affiliated with the Cavalier Mr Mcgill and realizing Schweikert and Coakley is ultimately going to be more of the same after a subtle moment where she accidentally calls her interviewer Howard really nice touch by the way that they didn't punctuate that moment with dramatic music and her staring off into space so we get it they trusted us to be smart enough like yeah the audience got it instead Kim proposes a third option she and Jimmy will start two separate practices but share office expenses to make the Venture feasible with Mesa Verde as her sole focus and Jimmy going through so many elderly clients he puts Max bialy stock to shame the couple's independent Venture quickly thrives these are the Halcyon Days of Wexler McGill much like the second season of Breaking Bad there's that infectious energy of watching characters strike out on their own and build up a small business though of course it's even more straightforward to root for them and less ethically concerning since they're cooking up wills and Bank expansions not meth there's a pervading sense of optimism for the season as the pair break the shackles that can find them when the series began Jimmy no longer has to make a half-hearted show with appeasing the authority figures who disapprove of his aggressive salesmanship finally able to act like himself without constant shaming and Kim is no longer turning in excellent work out of obligation to affirm that once believed in her and supported her during her schooling but has long since abandoned its interest in her professional development of course course there are haunting clouds hanging over this period of Hope and prosperity the black and white cold opens of each season remind us of the crimes Jimmy is destined to commit and Breaking Bad in time you're gonna pay and it's surprising how time slops away another cloud is just re-watching the show now that all six seasons have aired we all know Jimmy and Kim's legal careers and relationship are going to meet an ugly end but I was honestly unprepared for just how affecting the traumatic end game would be there's really no need and in the present a thunderless cloud is stirring Chuck McGill isn't gonna let his brother's latest Venture get off the ground without a fight Chuck revealed himself as a backstabber in the penultimate episode of season one and while we as an audience are inherently sympathetic to Jimmy because he's our eyes in character his sordid sunroof [ __ ] past at least let us know where Chuck's mistrust might be coming from season two Pepper's moments in both present day and flashback that established that even though Chuck may have accurately assessed his brother's impulsive desire to subvert the law for both Fun and Profit he's right about Jimmy for the wrong reasons in his first scene of the Season Howard breaks the news to him like Hey just thought it should be the one to tell you this Jimmy got a job Howard's letting him know his brother is on Partner track with the signing bonus and benefits with the tone you'd tell someone they found your brother dead in a crack house with Six Bullets in him Chuck can't even bring him himself to go back to playing the piano after Howard leaves the news just crushes him he relishes Jimmy's floundering at Davison Maine I don't want to say I told you so so I'll shout it through cupped hands and even attempts to take the opportunity to plant seeds of doubt in the mind of his brother's girlfriend sitting him down for an awkward heart to heart that's meant to portray Jimmy as a grifter unaware of how much pain he causes to the ones around him but all he really accomplishes is letting his mask flip and showing Kim wechsler how nuts he is he ended up having to sell six months later he was dead at the funeral no one cried harder than Jimmy Chuck is a fantastic love to hate villain Michael McKean really brings the character to life he's understandable nasty manipulative guys like the hater to end all haters the Apex hater as someone who wastes a lot of his free time trash talking television shows that have been off the air for a decade I can respect that so when Chuck sees an opportunity to torpedo his brother's dream life he swoops in snatching Mesa Verde away from Kim and putting their solo practices in financial Jeopardy his sales pitch to Mesa Verde leaves him incapacitated since he had to play pretend like he and electricity get along just fine through the whole meeting and Jimmy takes the opportunity to win Kim's client back for her swapping the address of Mesa verde's next Branch from 1261 to 1216 while Chuck is indisposed this seeming transpositional error works as intended but Chuck correctly deduces that there was chicane re-involved I can't stand the fact that my own Brothers stab me in the back I can't stand the fact that you've deceived and ruined this fine young woman ruined what does this the 1840s Chuck Schauer is the land of enchantment for proof of Jimmy's plot winding up hospitalized in the process rather than having Chuck committed and cruelly removing the thorn from his side forever Jimmy instead cares for Chuck and returns him home seeing Jimmy's compassion not as a reason to bury the hatchet but as an opportunity Chuck plays off of his brother's sympathy to wheedle out a confession you do realize you just confessed to a felony I guess but you feel better right besides it's your word against mine but it's not his word against yours Jimmy Chuck recorded the conversation has it all on tape but before we hop over to season three where the El dude Brothers really start to Duke it out let's catch up on what Mike was up to this season wisely cutting ties with The Walking midlife crisis that is Daniel wormald Mike soon finds himself employed by nacho Varga tuko's right-hand man who has little desire to wind up a punching bag of the maniacal gangster while nacho proposes simply whacking tuko Mike instead utters the first of many of his iconic now here's what you're gonna do and easily entraps the hothead sending him to prison to avoid incurring further Salamanca repercussions get on the ground the best laid plans and all that Salamanca repercussions are exactly what he gets when the villainous Hector Salamanca sets about threatening Mike into recanting his statement in order to reduce tuko's sentence after spending season 1 babysitting the worst of the worst of New Mexico's criminal players watching Mike match wits with Heavy Hitters like Hector and his nephews is an effective raising of the stakes and do I even need to say it watching Mike just carefully methodically do his mic stuff was enthralling and Breaking Bad and it's just as enthralling now he's a master in his criminal craft and whether he's spelling out the details to a fellow collaborator or wordlessly putting his plans into action while you watch the gears tick it's just so much fun to drink it all in you wanted to put the cops onto Hector why you are nothing to him he forgot all about you I haven't forgotten him after ripping off Hector and attempting to get him into hot water with the police to get back at him for his harassment campaign Mike ultimately decides to break his no kill rule since arriving in Albuquerque setting out to snipe the bastard after a Good Samaritan winds up a casualty of salamanca's drug smuggling Network Mike's latest addition to his quick scope compilation is interrupted by a mysterious stranger and a note don't who could have left such a message rearrange the first letter of each episode this season for your answer Rick F bangs who is this mysterious new Rick bangs character and could he possibly have ties to Gus fringe's drug Empire only season three can answer you care to elaborate after severely voiding his vehicle's extended warranty Mike finds the tracking device his stalker has been using to keep tabs on him with a little finessing he's able to get his gang stalkers to walk off with a Tracker of his own eventually deducing the identity of Hector's anti-violence activist Los Pollos Hermanos restaurateur Gustavo Frank it's not in my interest for Hector Salamanca to die at this time Gus recognizes Mike's value as an unaffiliated associate the cartel can't link to him and offers to launder the Money Mike ripped off Hector last season in exchange for Mike continuing to cause trouble for Hector's supply routes when Hector's drug distribution network is busted by the feds he shakes down Gus and forces him to carry his product for him though of course this winds up being a just as planned sort of thing and when Gus's methods prove so much more effective the cartel puts Gus in charge of Hector's former position as always it's neat to watch Mike do his thing though season 3 is more of a setup season for the character season 2 is the highest highs of Mike working independently and season 4 is the highest highs of Mike as a fixer for freeing but to keep things interesting he and Gus aren't the only ones in screwing with the salamancas land with Hector desperate to reclaim a drug shipping route of his own he intends to intimidate nacho varga's law-abiding father into using his upholstery business to smuggle Coke across the border knowing his father will go to the cops and meet a violent end at the hands of the cartel shortly thereafter nancho intends to engineer Hector's demise before the proposition can be made by switching out his heart meds with sugar pills and letting his Dickie ticker do him in poor Hector everybody is ganging up on him this season what did he ever do to deserve this kind of treatment you know besides everything there's no love lost between Mike and Hector so he goes for the whole I won't kill you but I don't have to save you angle that's just as phony as when Batman does it providing tips to nacho to make sure the pill swap goes off without a hitch you get caught it could get worse you don't think I know who I'm dealing with no I don't as a fan of Far Cry 3 I had anticipated Michael Mondo's performance and Better Call Saul as soon as the cast list was announced and well he mostly served as a quest Giver for our leads in the first two seasons the long-awaited expansion of his role in season 3 as a boon to the series he's incredibly Savvy but always behind the eight ball due to the constant stream of utterly ruthless players that happened to stroll through the door of the El Michoacan restaurant on a daily basis however his genuine hard-edged criminality does well to distinguish him as his own character and prevents him from slotting into the role of Jesse Pinkman 2.0 which would have been an easy trap to fall into given both have similar narrative roles I think the best way to describe the distinction between the two characters is this if Jesse were luckier he'd have gotten out of the drug game taken up Woodworking and raised a couple of kids if nacho were luckier he'd still be in the drug business he'd just be running it like Gus Fring instead of being a henchman Nacho's storyline this season also manages to have some nail biting moments looking at you pill swap sequence despite the outcome of his storyline being the most predestined of all the story lines given this is a prequel series on a first watch there is some ambiguity about all the Better Call Saul original characters Fates for all we know Chuck and Howard are still alive when Breaking Bad ends shaking their heads disapprovingly at the news that Jimmy McGill is wanted in connection with several dozen murders for all we know Jimmy and Kim are still together through the events of Breaking Bad and he mentioned frequenting prostitutes just as part of his whole Saul Goodman stick but it's pretty obvious Hector is going to wind up confined to a wheelchair and nacho is most likely going to wind up in several different places in the deserts of New Mexico it's a sign of how strong the execution is that there's still palpable tension to nachos increasingly high stakes Life Of Crime despite the outcome being all but a foregone conclusion Hector this isn't personal it is it is personal [ __ ] speaking of foregone conclusions that are nevertheless thrilling to watch play out with Jimmy's felony confession on tape Chuck sets in motion a plan that will end in Jimmy's desparment spoilers it didn't work although I was incredibly amused by fan theories when the show first aired that Chuck's plan would work Jimmy would get disbarred and then Jimmy would legally change his name to Saul Goodman to get around the disbarment because technically Jimmy McGill was disbarred and that's why his name is Saul I'm not a lawyer so correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure changing your name wouldn't fool the [ __ ] State Bar of New Mexico anyways knowing that the tape won't hold up in court Chuck instead uses it to go Jimmy into committing another felony breaking and entering in a paranoid effort to destroy the tape assuming it will hold up in court as always Chuck is only half right about his brother and instead of sneaking in under cover of Darkness while the private eye lies in weight Jimmy kicks the door down to curse out his brother to his face oh my pre used to work I'm sick I don't know what to do [ __ ] no wonder Rebecca left you took her so long regardless of the time of day he's fallen into Chuck's snare but manages to wriggle his way out of it in the signature episode of the series chicanery where he causes Chuck to have an emotional breakdown at the bar disciplinary hearing by planting a battery on him and proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that his EHS symptoms are entirely imagined he'll testify he planted this fully charged battery on you over an hour and a half ago hour and 43 minutes an hour and 43 minutes thank you Mr babineau and you felt nothing the episode really draws you in the 45 minute run time flying by so quick that I didn't even realize we'd spent almost the whole thing in the courtroom on a first viewing and well initially it seems like the battery plant is all they really need to do for everything to fall into place you realize on a re-watch just how many Minor Details needed to go right to engineer Chuck's meltdown from the deliberate grasping for straws failed Perry Mason Ploy by inviting his ex-wife to some reverse I psychology to get Chuck on the stand and the tape admitted as evidence the episode is a masterpiece and Chuck's motive Ranch that concludes the episode has gone on to copy pasta infamy for good reason it really is the show stealing moment of a show stealing episode paying off the simmering truth of his condition after two and a half years of build up and he gets to be to be painted as the villain to the bar Jimmy walks away with a one-year suspension and both McGill Brothers spend the rest of season three and during the consequences of their double-sided pyrrhic victory in court lying to themselves like they're just gonna walk that [ __ ] off when in reality their lives will never be the same despite not practicing law and Kim only having a single client Jimmy refuses to break the lease on their office since he finally got a taste of their dream life and can't bear the thought of being forced to Let It Go instead he Wheels and Deals to make ends meet first by producing commercials for local businesses that he can air during ad time he's already bought and second by attempting to force an early settlement of the Sandpiper Case by turning the entire retirement home against sweet old class representative Irene and convincing her it's because she's holding out on a deal they've all turned on me who has and Friends what no the latter scheme is one of Jimmy's best it's disgustingly ruthless but in a blackly hilarious way where you're both laughing and feel awful for laughing and in the end Jimmy is undone by his compassion yet again giving up his quick Million Dollar Payday and his reputation in Elder Law to set things right the former scheme with the ad time though I'm not crazy about it if I'm being honest it's probably my least favorite Jimmy Arc of the series mainly because it doesn't explore all that much his struggles and amateur commercial making aren't particularly hilarious or anything and really the only thematic punctuation to the three episode storyline is that all this struggling to do things above board culminates in him pathetically going right back to slip and fall schemes to seal an ad by deal go sorry sorry about that [Music] so part of my problem with The Arc is a plot structure plot momentum one Better Call Saul Seasons actually do have a bit of a repeated structure even if most people don't notice it essentially each season boils down to a 70 30 thing with the first 70 of the Season focusing on more light-hearted slow-paced Jimmy Antics and the final 30 shifting gears to a faster Pace higher Stakes plot that unfolds rapidly so season one front 70 is the kettleman's then the back 30 is Sandpiper and the truth of Chuck's betrayal season 2 front 70 is Jimmy's struggle to fit in at Davison Maine back 30 is the Mesa Verde number swap season 4 front 70 is Jimmy run and cons to make ends meet back 30 is his ploy to win reinstatement season 5 front 70 is the Heyday of Saul Goodman and his increasingly wacky clientele Mac 30 is Bag Man and the Fallout with Lalo you get the picture and you can also see how season 3 breaks the mold its front load loaded with the heightened drama climaxes with chicanery in episode 5 and then the second half of the season is the characters wallowing in the Wasteland of their own poor choices if it's not real then what have I done my other problem with this Arc is what the writers do with Kim or more accurately what they don't do I'm not asking for relationship turmoil to be pulled out of thin air for the sake of cheap drama but there are multiple sources of natural conflict between her and Jimmy that are completely left on the table until season four in fact Kim is written like a freaking Saint this season he swapped the Mesa Verde numbers that's okay Jimmy as long as we never talk about it to anyone oh you talk to Chuck about it to make him feel better and he caught you on tape that's okay Jimmy in addition to running my busy solo practice I took the time to research case files and as long as you don't do anything Chuck can't use the tape against you oh you broke down his door and got arrested despite my warnings that's okay Jimmy in addition to running my busy solo practice I will Aid you in your defense you got disbarred for a year you know what keep your money Sugar Mama's got you I'll continue to pay the rent on her apartment and pay for this office space neither of us are actually using because it would make you feel bad to move out Jimmy really has been a handful this season and Kim's ability to take it completely and stride is odd I assume this season is the source of some viewers confusion later down the line where they assume her character perpetually serves as the show's moral Bedrock even in Seasons where she is engaging in increasingly blatantly unethical acts in season three she's Miss Perfect even a potential source of moral dubiousness on Kim's part gets brushed aside where previous Seasons presented Chuck's condition as public knowledge in Albuquerque's legal community and Engineering a meltdown of a mentally unstable man could be seen as something of a dick move now Chuck's condition has been retconned to be hidden from the world instead of losing sleep over shafting her former colleagues she now has a perfectly rational argument for why hhm has any hit to their reputation completely coming to them while also still feeling just guilty enough that we know she's still a paragon of virtue all Jimmy and I did we show the situation for what it is and if you are hiding that from your clients well Howard that's on you now that Chuck's condition has become a secret to the world a strap for cash Jimmy takes the opportunity to stick it to his well-off sibling who has caused him so much trouble by tipping hhm's insurance company off to his mental health issues just as Chuck was making strides to return to normalcy with a publicly humiliating demonstration that his condition isn't real as a solid push to get the ball rolling now hhm faces a massive insurance premium hike if they keep the partner with questionable mental stability on board Chuck demands Howard sue the insurance company and when Howard gently suggests Chuck retire Chuck sues hhm instead Howard calls Chuck's Bluff to call hhm's Bluff dipping into his own personal funds and Loans to paycheck off without bankrupting the firm I don't blame the guy Jimmy stole our latest whale he's harassing our class representative and now Chuck is demanding our Sue our own insurance company I have had it with these McGill Brothers thank you for Gathering I have some bittersweet news to share I'm sorry to say but our fearless leader Charles McGill will be leaving hhm effective immediately just like in the first season there's a sick sort of deluded hope to Chuck's recovery for all of his conniving and nastiness it's easy to buy into the misty-eyed belief that overcoming his ailment might make him into the role model and Mentor The Better Call Saul cast once falsely believed him to be but the sad truth is Chuck's supposed illness was the last thing destroying his personal relationships and career everyone in his life was incredibly accommodating and the only person seeking to take advantage of the situation was often himself so even with complete recovery on the table Chuck finds his rampant chuckness has left him with no post-recovery life to go back to no friends no family and your decades-long partner just handed you nine million dollars of his own money to [ __ ] off so with no future in sight Chuck has a heartbreaking relapse ripping his home apart looking for the slightest source of electricity before collapsing defeated and ending his life by setting fire to the detritus with himself inside again despite all his villainy over the years it's a heartbreaking scene and also a tough character to say goodbye to at the time it was hard to imagine the show without Chuck's presence and while it is sad to say goodbye to Michael mckean's compelling performance which was snubbed by the Emmys just like the series always is I think we can all admit Chuck at this point was worth more to the rest of the world's character development dead than alive Chuck may be gone but his presence lingers posthumously throughout season four I've rarely felt a dead character's Shadow Loom larger he always seems so strong but he wasn't I think he did what he did because of me given the dismantled status of Chuck's torched home and the forced retirement that proceeded his death it doesn't take long for Howard to jump to the correct conclusion that the fire was no accident much like the follow-up to the plane crash and Breaking Bad which several characters felt entirely responsible for without knowing others secretly had a hand in it Howard is none the wiser that Jimmy sicked the insurance company on hhm out of spite Jimmy had every intention of cutting ties with his brother forever and Chuck's final insincere confirmation that he never cared all that much about Jimmy only served to seal the deal but learning he set in motion to chain of events that led his brother to take his own life surely he's at least feeling a sting of remorse actually no if anything the shocking Theory Howard posited seems to shake Jimmy out of his Funk if he's feeling any pain toward the loss of his relationship with his brother or the death of his brother or just guilt from his culpability and what happened he's certainly not showing it he intended to prevent his brother's disapproval from harming his self-image forever and he's is not going to let a little thing like Chuck's self-immolation interfere with the relationship conclusion that was planned as absolute I don't think okay I don't that finito life goes on so sue me Kim is raring and ready to go to provide whatever emotional support Jimmy needs Taking Howard's a task for his innocently inappropriate efforts to undo the damage he imagines he's solely responsible for by making nice with Jimmy but she's more distraught by Jimmy's utter lack of distress over his brother's sad fate then she would be to see the man she cares for in painful if understandable emotional turmoil in contrast to Walter's desperate attempts to deflect his obvious guilt after the Wayfarer 515 Collision which were played for blackly comedic laughs to take some of the second season's traumatizing edge off Jimmy's flippant attitude is not intended to imbue the series with levity his propensity to go all done with fish towards someone he was once close to even after such a shocking development doesn't take the edge off it twists The Edge deeper and it's not the last time he'll demonstrate a callous ability to drop people like they're hot and never look back besides it's just Chuck wow what you want man could write a letter sorry hey have a nice life Kim my's Carefree affirmations that everything's going just peachy make Kim uneasy and the gulf between the two only grows as their career paths diverge further and further throughout Jimmy's one-year suspension taking a job at a cell phone store Jimmy finds himself unable to resist a good hustle and soon starts buying prepaid burners in bulk then reselling them as drop phones on the Mean Streets of ABQ all under his former Cicero Alias Saul Goodman meanwhile Kim finds herself bored and disillusioned with the endless grind of Bank expansions although I think your bank models are cool Kevin and don't let anybody tell you different wanting to reinvigorate her passion in her line of work Kim begins taking on pro bono public defender work helping those who can't help themselves you might think this is headed in a cliche Direction Kim's Karma meter is going up well Jimmy's is going down and soon they'll be incompatible but the real conflict is a lot smarter than that in order to make more free time to continue her pro bono work Kim joins The Firm of schweikart and Coakley and brings Mesa Verde along with her crushing Jimmy spear it he had this whole girlfriend hypothetical question thing of how long would you wait for me to wake up if I was in a coma but with how long would you wait to reopen the law office with me instead and Kim didn't even hold out a year and then he robes came into a scheme to get his bodyguard he will out of some hot water with the cops by fabricating a story that he's a HomeTown hero creating the illusion that his trial will become a PR Nightmare and a circus more trouble than it's worth to host I can question for you miss Erickson are you Prosecuting Santa Claus dear honor because it looks like Miracle on 34th Street in here instead of the two drifting further apart the Absurd and infectiously fun plot puts a spark back in the relationship as they ReDiscover their shared passion for running cons however that this is what puts a spark back in the relationship doesn't sit well with Jimmy he may have sworn off letting Chuck's disapproving voice worm its way into his head but he can't help but suspect the next person he's closest to is harboring similar uncharitable ideas about the kind of person he is you're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire you're slipping Jimmy when he fails to mention his brother at his reinstatement hearing he's denied and all the subtle doubts and frustrations from both sides of the relationship that have been seated throughout the season come messily spilling out it's one of the most true to life couple fights I've ever seen on screen it's not an overwrought end of Act 2 instigation to a temporary breakup but an understandable confrontation that's been years in the the making it also has that Perfect Touch where some of Jimmy's frustrations and doubts are perfectly Justified but also In the Heat of the Moment he's directing unwarranted anger with his current Misfortune at Kim without any real justification just blind lashing out it is a gripping shouting match there you go kick him in when he's down Jimmy you are always down despite the momentary hostility it's clear the two have feelings for each other that transcend the tribulations of Jimmy's no-good very bad year and the two make one final push to get Jimmy reinstated via appeal in the season 4 finale my personal favorite episode of the Series winner the episode opens with a flashback to a karaoke bar where the hhm staff celebrate Jimmy passing the bar noticing Chuck is about to make a goodbye so Irish its name all to start with an o Jimmy invites him on stage to sing The Winner Takes it all with him well initially reluctant Chuck eventually steals the mic and finally indulges in the fun the Chuck haters read the scene as just you know look at Chuck always have to steal Jimmy's Thunder but really it's more of a successful con Jimmy's most kind-hearted and innocent con to date tricking his reclusive uptight brother into finally Cutting Loose and having some fun with the people he works with Picard at the poker table Style just like how he made strides to Goat his brother back into the legal World in season one four years of learning to hate Chuck's guts then they dropped this Blissful moment of Brotherly Love on us that's just great [Music] [Applause] present day Jimmy sits on an hhm scholarship board selecting candidates championing a student who was once busted for shoplifting but has since turned her life around for obvious reasons unable to sway the board he gives his preferred candidate what is intended to be a motivational pep talk to let her down easy but the undercurrents of vindictiveness are all too apparent he's despairing at the prospect of not having his law license reinstated but if he does miraculously pull it off it's clear that gimme Jimmy the lawyer you could trust is now fueled by as much Envy in spite as his late brother just without the legal inhibitions and the higher you rise the more they're going to hate you good good you rub their noses in it you make them suffer remember The Winner Takes It All and at the end of the day he wins the day by insincerely appearing to be as sincere as the hearing panel wanted hey hard to feel like he's the bad guy there he was sincere the first time around and they didn't accept it if you wanted a show say less give them the old Razzle Dazzle the unexpected sucker for this little performance is Kim Wexler relieved and touched at what she believes is Jimmy's true feelings only to learn she fell for the flim-flam flummox despite his touching words about bringing Pride to the name McGill Jimmy's first order of business after being reinstated is to pick up a doing business as form all his drop phone buddies know him as Saul Goodman so Presto Chango wait Jimmy Jimmy what it's all good man of course the man who would be Saul's storyline is only half of what makes winner such a winner but I've got a lot of underground ground to cover on Mike and Gus's storyline before I gush about the crushing and magnificent ending as we know from Breaking Bad Gus isn't in the meth business or the money business he's in the Revenge business and he's none too pleased with nacho when he learns the young upstart nearly denied him his opportunity to play with his food with the truth of Hector's stroke as blackmail Gus can now use nacho as a mole within the Salamanca operation from now on you you are mine but secret agent nacho won't have any serious assignments until next year in season 4 it's more about Mike and the project he's overseeing the construction of Gus's underground meth lab it's a common problem with prequels that they assume backstories are inherently interesting just because they're backstories the assumption that Laura's interesting regardless of context so it's a Triumph that Mike overseeing a clandestine German construction crew building an underground meth lab is fascinating as all get out I enjoy every aspect of it the peculiar and amusing concept of building a Tiny Town to house a construction crew that they cannot leave under threat of death a whole Tiny Town there's the obvious continuation of Mike's meticulous nature the sally port the guards on top of guards and security cameras but also the accommodations to keep the Rowdy crowds appeased there's the needlessly tense scene executed like a detonation is inevitably going to go off wrong when it never actually does real anti-hitchcock stuff I dreaded a bang that eventually went according to plan and in the end the one to fly the coop isn't the hot-headed kai but the affable Werner some people thought the character was a fool for breaking out and expecting to live but he fires back that he knew Mike would begrudgingly forgive him and Mike would if it were up to him and I believe even train wood through gritted teeth if very specific circumstances hadn't Arisen with the arrival of another Salamanca in town the final goodbye where Mike realizes the most Humane thing he can do is capitulate and finally be the one to pull the trigger is heartbreaking there are so many stars visible in New Mexico I will walk out there the whole construction side plot is such an odd unique fascinating storyline building this pseudo prison to both contain and entertain the inhabitants while they do your dirty work it tickles that little part of your brain that fantasizes about living off grid in a van late at night until you realize how much you like a hot shower and snap out of it [Applause] if I didn't make it clear season 4 is Art and with Jimmy adopting The Saul Goodman Persona and Mike Killing In The Name of the Fring Empire against his own wishes both men have made major decisions they can't come back from so in conclusion I have one stupid nitpick Gus goes to all this trouble to find an underground lab engineer without revealing the details of his grander operation flies them to Denver they drive a drop car to the middle of nowhere put a bag on their head then get loaded into a truck travel six hours and then as soon as they get out of the truck he immediately and introduces himself by his full name if I were Mike I would have slapped my head so hard my hair would have come back you're going to all this trouble to conceal your employer's location only for him to immediately open with his incredibly distinctive name which would also reveal the location of the construction site with a quick Ask Jeeves since he's a well-known public figure tied to a specific geographic region so yeah All In All Season 4 has some of the strongest character work I've ever seen gorgeous cinematography and one of the most emotionally impactful finales of all time but Gus should have introduced himself as Mr X or Mr Pink or something so overall probably three out of ten wall pouring concrete [Music] what's he up to man what's he doing we got a little tease of better call Saul's big bad guy Lalo Salamanca in the final two episodes of season four but season five is when he officially joins the main cast it's clear the character is intended to make a big splash and thanks especially to Tony Dalton's performance the character eventually will leave quite an impression but I'll admit I found that first impressions made me nervous the writers go about establishing Lalo's importance by tying him to minor lore bits from Breaking Bad Star Wars prequel style which feels a tad hokey remember Hector's Bell wallows the one who gave it to him remember Domingo's nickname crazy8 Lalo's the one who nicknamed him that I was half expecting a scene where Lalo runs into Walter White in a Target menswear section boxer briefs no no Amigo you gotta get the tighty whities for the support so will his arrival kinda loses import by the import the writers try to force once the season gets into a prove the character is a solid Edition there's a lot of talk this season about characters getting in the game when it comes to getting tangled up in cartel business but the amusing and terrifying thing about Lala was that the game seems like an actual game to him whether he's putting on the charm or committing wanton murder he's having the time of his life and even when he's on the back foot and losing he's oddly tickled by his enemies tactics the prospect of having 7 million dollars stolen from him and facing Life Behind Bars doesn't seem to bother him just another entertaining development that he's confident he can contend with whileo's arrival also gives nacho plenty of material for the season as nacho now has a dangerous player he needs to win the trust of and keep tabs on in order to prevent Gus from going to his knee-jerk family murder tactic oh look at that he's a fool right so the much anticipated Lalo has come to town to screw with Gus's operation and the much anticipated Saul Goodman moniker has been slapped onto Jimmy McGill's freshly reinstated legal practice now specializing in criminal defense so he can represent his drop phone customer base because frankly Target Rich environment and now in its fifth year Better Call Saul has finally become what I think most people expected when the series was announced week after week tune in to watch Saul Goodman give some sleazy client the best shadiest criminal defense money can buy legal services for the other hand so my brother's little problem his record will be cleaner than Doris Day's Greatest Hits catch you on the flip-flop a lot of fun watching Mr Goodman churn through his enormous backlog of scumbags much to the perplexed horror of his former colleagues who once knew him as Jimmy McGill with the culmination of the silliness being his Montage of obstructive actions to save a crotchety old man's house from being bulldozed by none other than Mesa Verde he's actually put up to this by Kim wechsler failing to find a satisfactory settlement for the man they're evicting and unable to convince Mesa Verde to relocate their call center to another vacant plot they own the upstanding legal genius Kim is finally faced with her first no-win scenario her solution to the kimbayashi Maru is if you can't beat the grumpy old man secretly join him unleashing her legally unethical Terrier to latch on and never let go keeping with that metaphor she's unable to call off the dogs at the end of the day and Jimmy proceeds with their plan to soft blackmail Kevin with a copyright infringement claim on Mesa verde's logo along with a whole host of slander risk class action adds to boot [Music] second time she was out of the loop that Jimmy was running a scam and wound up on the receiving end Kim feels like the sucker once more but rather than cut things off the two get married shielding her from being compelled to testify against him in the very likely event he'll at some point wind up on the wrong side of the law do you have the Rings we um we didn't do that no rings okie dokie it's a nice enough beat to wrap up the storyline on though certainly ground the show is covered before albeit less dramatically but all the Saul Goodman Showmanship to win himself clients and win those clients shorter prison stints I mean those early episodes making up the first half of the season are a lot of fun don't get me wrong but they're a bit inessential and not quite as deep or thematically rich as the season that preceded Them In fairness it's a tough act to follow season 4 was like 10 straight hours of mainlining Kino the unlikely exception to this is Howard Hamlin whose road towards self-improvement runs in the opposite direction of the show's leads the handful of scenes that put him in contact with either Kim or Jimmy are enthralling as he thinks he's dealing with the season 2 versions of these characters and doesn't realize how far they've come mostly in bad ways since then with Jimmy reinstated Howard's out to recruit him to hhm in a too little too late gesture to make amends for having neither the heart nor the gumption to stand up to Chuck when he barred Jimmy's entry to the firm Howard recognizes that this job offer isn't going to fix anything but still aims to do right by Jimmy or right as he can all these years after the dust has settled and I could have given it to you when you got barred or when you brought a Sandpiper both times I should have shown some backbone it would have been the right thing to do wow I am glad you had this cleansing Moment of clarity Howard good for you Jimmy becoming not only insulted but downright agitated by Howard's offer is a perfect insight into the way the circumstances of his life have shaped how he sees the world Jimmy lives in a world where nobody ever forgives nobody ever forgets and no matter how hard you try they are never letting you in so it's no surprise Howard's Earnest effort to apologize boils his blood why should Howard get to learn his lesson say he's sorry and be forgiven whether it's real or imagined that everyone everywhere will never see him as anything more than slip and Jimmy forever how is it fair that someone else should expect to get a second chance so instead he politely takes time to think on the offer then secretly torments Howard while stringing him along throwing bowling balls through his windshield under cover of darkness and paying prostitutes to embarrass Howie at a business meeting Jimmy finally expressing his resentment toward Howard at the courthouse when he's confronted over all his pranks is essentially the sequel to his Winner Takes It All speech from the season 4 finale exploding into a tirade that betrays how this Saul Goodman Crusade is a vindictive effort to Stick it to the Man to bolster his own self-esteem the funny thing about that is that the man in the Better Call Saul universe is Clifford Maine Howard Hamlin Kevin Lochte all people with flaws but certainly not villains you can't conceive of what I'm capable of I'm so far behind I'm like a god in human clothing lightning gold shoot from my fingertips exploring another character's flaws we have Mike who has turned to the bottle to cope with killing Werner a man who he respected and whose company he enjoyed the whole alcoholic Mike Arc in the first half of season five was better call Saul's biggest Miss for me and it comes across as a stalling tactic more than anything with Mike shooting Werner at Gus's command Mike's character Journey effectively ended he crushed that one line he wouldn't cross acting in defiance of both his morals and his tactical judgment and sealed the deal with a bullet he's Gus's right hand man now he's breaking bad Mike now with all the dirty business that entails Journey complete but staring down the barrel of two more seasons the writers wanted to milk some reluctance out of Mike before having him go all in choosing to do so by having the character perpetually liquored up out of grief the adage goes write what you know so a lot of writers unsurprisingly explore alcoholism which means I've seen a lot of shows tackle the subject with nuance humanity and creativity the drunk mic Arc by contrast is very on the nose very cliche and very not Mike Mike is and always has been a power fantasy wish fulfillment character take my gun from me make it easy for you you can make it not so easy like Batman his competence to defeat the opponents he's pitted against is rarely in question and the best material surrounding the character instead explores his ethics boundaries and justifications for his actions his plot in 5-0 to build up the Persona of a drunk after his son was murdered all to catch's son's Killers off guard and kill them with his own hands well still being racked with guilt as he pinpoints past decisions that he justified at the time but which eventually made him culpable in his son's death was also perfectly in tune with the character of Mike but now he's out getting wasted bullying his granddaughter making a scene at bars picking fights with Street Tufts what's the point of this what am I supposed to be getting out of this I understand that he's gutted by the sad fate of the kind Mr Ziegler but Mike is not Jesse Pinkman I don't want a half-hearted demonstration of how pained he's supposed to be over what happened last season with excessive boozing to sell us on his distress I want to know how he feels about Gus disregarding his advice ice I want to know how he feels about Werner a sad casualty but still someone who was quote unquote in the game and aware of the risks how much blame does he put on those two men and how much blame does he put in himself does he put any on himself or is he just wallowing in self-pity and feeling like a victim of circumstance more or less forced to pull the trigger failing all that I at least want to see him building up a rapport with nacho Gus's informant Better Call Saul will eventually showcase Mike's efforts to rescue nacho from his high-stake mole roll and beautifully subtly tackles his reaction when he is ultimately unable to do so but since the fifth season devoted an excessive amount of time to Mike throwing back shots so the audience really really gets that he's sad about killing Werner his relationship with nacho winds up a bit of a rush job as a consequence informed more by Mike's backstory with his son than any sort of interaction between the two the cops won't solve this you got away while I'm on the complaint train might as well rip off the Band-Aid and get what is sure to be my most controversial opinion out of the way you might want to sit down for this ready here goes I don't really like Gus and Better Call Saul which isn't to say I hate him or anything just that from a narrative and character development perspective he's the weakest link in the roster of main cast members it goes without saying over the course of Breaking Bad the character became one of the most iconic and beloved villains in television history and it's fun to have Giancarlo Esposito reprise the role but so much of what made the character exciting and Breaking Bad was what he was up to his evolving role in the story where he was this mysterious benefactor in the second season then this shoulder Devil with his own agenda in the third season and finally this arch nemesis Mastermind with unfathomably vast criminal resources in season 4 it gave audiences fleeting yet captivating glimpses into the many different faces of the Dual life-leading businessman his Feud with the Juarez card tell which managed to pump out half a dozen of the show's most iconic scenes while actually occupying relatively little screen time in the grand scheme of things was just the cherry on top on the other hand in Better Call Saul were watching Jimmy Kim nacho Mike Chuck and hell even Howard navigate this compelling character development week after week and then Gus is just kind of there from square one he's every bit the Gus we've come to know from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul doesn't explore much more than gur I sure do hate that Hector Salamanca one day I'm gonna get him a plan that ultimately blows up in his face specifically the right side of it everyone else is growing and changing all the time and that's not really my jam I'm more of a stoic removed uncomfortably self-aware type if he was playing a similar shoulder devil role to Mike in the series that would at least be something and warrant that almost inhuman mythical Persona that the character has built up but without all the family drama tugging him toward the light side Mike's not half as conflicted as Walter and then once he does get fully on board Gus spends most of their time together ignoring Mike's pragmatic advice because it's not ruthless enough like he's secretly a Targaryen ironically the one time I was like okay now we're getting somewhere was the last scene we'll ever see of Gus it's a quiet moment where he's chatting up a guy at a bar after defeating Lolo and you get to see him Cut Loose a bit for once but then an ominous scowl creeps across his face and he leaves before the two can continue talking an interesting Glimpse at the toll dedicating his life toward revenge is taking on him he's denying himself personal connections and the inherent liability in them because despite winning the battle with Lalo he's still got a war to win so my first complaint is that he's a bit too static over the series run and my second complaint Loops back to that unfathomably vast criminal Empire I referenced earlier keeping Gus's Empire deliberately shrouded in mystery was a smart move in Breaking Bad Walt and Jesse were just cogs in the machine and when that machine turned against them it was impossible to know just how capable and Powerful the conspiracy they were up against was and while the logistics of building the underground lab made for a real winner of a plot line in season 4 the increasing exploration of the ins and outs of Gus's Empire in the final two seasons starts to get a bit implausible and Goofy wiretaps and body doubles and underground tunnels and surveilling his own house and surveilling Mike so that he can save him when he gets stabbed by Street Tufts and then take him across the border to Mexico to treat him in yet another Tiny Town he's constructed how many tiny towns is this guy gonna build to see what a big heart you have is that the idea you throw money at these people they Bow Low Tiny Town running a much more Lo-Fi operation is Lalo Salamanca who winds up rather hilariously subverting the Trope of gangster villains tearing across town killing anyone in their path getting himself arrested after doing one little old murder for information planning to post the seven million dollar bail and then skip town he sends his lawyer Saul Goodman to retrieve the money from the desert unbeknownst to Jimmy Mike Ehrman trout is making sure the money makes it home safe solo can be killed once he's back over the border and when Mike saves Jimmy from getting ripped off and executed the two wind up stranded in the desert and have to make the two-day Trek back to civilization together bagman is a beloved episode for good reason plenty of pulpy action for the I skipped all the boring lawyer Parts crowd Kim gets in the game by introducing herself to Lalo in an effort to track down her missing husband and best of all Mike and Jimmy finally share a storyline together not just a quick scene where one gives the other a job to run on their behalf a whole episode with with the two stuck dealing with each other under extremely dangerous circumstances it's rare to find a series where the two main characters sharing a storyline together is considered a novel treat but that's Better Call Saul for you Mike's short but sweet I have people speech baby that's what I'm waiting for compelling is a reflection on how he wound up where he is and heartbreaking with the knowledge that all he does will eventually come to light and be for nothing happy to have you back Mike so it is my time to go I will go knowing I did everything I could for them this whole thing could have been avoided shut the [ __ ] up let me die in peace the final three episodes of season five are really when the series end game comes to life I guess the first of Two end games the in color end game it's tense exciting and it gets nacho Mike Jimmy Kim and Lalo all tangled up together in the same Dangerous Game nacho was tasked with helping hired assassins infiltrate Lalo's Chihuahua home but before skipping Town Lalo takes a detour to question Jimmy about the suspicious circumstances surrounding his desert Crossing that scene will get your heart racing did you push it in a ditch I don't think so you don't think so well I mean you either did or you didn't so um which one is it satisfied when Kim wechsler harshly chastises him whom amongst us wouldn't be Lalo accepts Jimmy's bogus story and crosses the border the attempted hit on him winds up bloodier than nacho had hoped killing Lalo's innocent relatives and henchmen alike surviving the shootout wallow walks off with a cold and terrifying determination it's clear the giggling psychopath we've been watching all season has just been rocked to his core the game's not fun anymore he's headed north and this time he's planned to win foreign seems to be the order of business when season 6 kicks off given that was the big Cliffhanger of the season 5 finale and the big Cliffhanger of the season premiere but after interpreting a Monumental amount of direction from Hector's dinging Lalo drops off the face of the Earth for almost half the season after leaving the audience wondering what's he up to man what's he doing for a month secret agent Lalo suddenly pops up in Germany tracking down the Widow of Werner Ziegler so he can start pulling the single loose thread of Gus's operation he found for all it's worth didn't talk much about his work it was very secretive yeah sure they must have told you something a seduction a sneak in amputation and interrogation later Lalo makes surprisingly short yet will give the writers credit pretty plausible work of locating Gus's dig site hiding in the storm drain Lalo waits for the SS Gussy to float down here so he can snatch the chicken man to his death spotting a cockroach on a pipe he gets an even better plan I'll get to that later in the Fallout of the shootout at his home there is another character on the Run nacho Varga anybody see you no keep it that way you're in Salamanca territory everybody's gonna be on the lookout for you and I mean everybody with the salamancas and the federales scouring the country for him nachos on the Move following the directions of fringe's henchmen he soon realizes he's outlived his usefulness and Fringe is more interested in getting him killed in an engineered Salamanca shootout to tie up Loose Ends than he is getting him back across the border so he can hand nacho his trophy for mole of the year it's tense and thrilling to watch nachos still keep his wits about him and manage to survive with the deck so thoroughly stacked against him but he quickly realizes it's a losing game and instead decides to go out on his own terms if Mike can guarantee his father's safety he'll turn himself over to Gus give whatever story Gus needs to cover his ass to the cartel higher ups then die a quick death by gunshot during an escape attempt to spare him further Salamanca torture for a character who's been a dead man walking for several years now Nacho's finals screw you to the car towel is a pulse pounding triumphant scene partly because in the back of my mind I found myself hoping against hope he'd miraculously find a way out of it somehow but mainly because somebody finally got the last laugh on Hector Salamanca for all the awful sadistic Antics he's been up to throughout the series it's always a shame to remember that Hector gets the last laugh on Gus Fring in Breaking Bad so watching nacho torment the treacherous Tio then cash out before he can do anything about it it's a fitting comeuppance to better call Saul's longest running foe you are sitting in your shitty nursing home and you're sucking down on your Jello night after night for the rest of your life you think of [ __ ] still Nacho's death is a tough watch especially after his final call just to hear his father's voice one last time even if the conversation is short and uneasy if you're still sore about what goes down in the desert feel free to re-watch Breaking Bad everyone present is destined to meet extremely violent ends Mike informs Nacho's father of his death promising the salamancas will face justice but his father is uninterested in getting caught up in the cycle of Revenge that consumes gangsters instead choosing to accept the fact that his son is gone there's neat parallels between Mike and Nacho's father sure but the former consumed by avenging his son but there's also a lot of similarities between Mike and Nacho the urban trouts and the Vargas are both pairs of Father and Son one corrupt and one virtuous just switch which is which at first I read Mike's admiration for nacho as a foreshadowing of his mentorship of Jesse Pinkman sort of like he's a son to him but in season 6 the dynamic came into focus and I realized he admired nacho because he did what Mike wishes he could have done instead of sacrificing the innocent loved one trying to convince them to go along to get along he sacrificed himself to save them in hindsight I'm surprised it took me this long to see it Nacho's father and Mike's son shared incredibly similar take this bribe convincingly or die circumstances even looking like you're doing the right thing to those two meant that he wasn't solid that he couldn't be trusted I'll talk to him he'll come around I don't trust him pretty heavy stuff but on the lighter side of things we have Jimmy and Kim Kim resigns from Schweikert and Coakley at the end of season five much to Jimmy's concern but it turns out it's so she can join him in his escalating prank war against Howard much to Jimmy's nervous excitement the log line of the season is Jimmy and Kim are going to ruin Howard's reputation so he'll be forced to settle the Sandpiper case and the exact details and end game of the scheme are deliberately kept from the audience Ocean's 11 style at the end of the day the plot boils down to Howard hiring a private eye who is secretly working for Jimmy who will show Howard photos of Jimmy bribing a look-alike of the judge in the Sandpiper case when Howard accuses the judge of being compromised the photos will be switched for innocuous ones it's not a bad scheme though I will admit some of the tension is deflated by Better Call Saul tipping its hand prematurely that the plan will succeed without a hedge this being the last season there's an innate ominous Aura to all the proceedings that a horror fine left turn could happen at any minute but I was soon confident nothing shocking would go down until after the Howard scheme was finished it was really nothing more than the awfully convenient word choice Howard uses when confronted about strange goings-on that tipped me off he could blow up the whole operation by spelling out exactly what Jimmy and Kim have been doing to mess with him but instead when he talks to Clifford Maine or his wife it's just vagaries okay I got it he phrased it like that so whenever they do whatever their plan is and he goes I'm not crazy nobody will believe him I do have a problem just not the problem you think I have a Jimmy McGill problem Jimmy McGill Excuse Me Howard again playing itself is fine as far as it goes and the episode where everything comes to fruition is an absolute Joy my problem is with how spread thin the first half of season sixes season six was extended to 13 episodes and when all is said and done I don't think the writers needed the time the first four episodes all revolve around Jimmy and Kim engineering events to make Howard look like he uses cocaine in front of Cliff Mane so that once the plan goes down they'll have sown the seeds of doubt and Cliff won't back Howard up plant drugs in his locker trick the kettlemans into believing his peppy attitude was a byproduct of Florida snow then steal his car while he's at therapy and toss a prostitute out of it in front of Cliff sounds like the makings of another classic Better Call Saul Montage but it isn't a montage each of those bits is an entire episode's plot line I'm all for exploring the meticulous details of a criminal Caper but we're in the final season here and I started to itch for some real plot and character development it's like if there was a 20-minute scene in Ocean's 11 showing how they got their hands on one of the Bellagio's chip cards like yeah it's part of their plan that they need a chip cart but did we need to see it in that much detail they they've been switched somehow he switched them Howard no Jimmy he snuck in somehow and these are not the pictures I saw fortunately following up on all that set up chicanery is the strongest hot streak in the show's entire run the hat-trick of plan and execution point and shoot and fun and games over the course of those three episodes Better Call Saul shows off every facet that has made it such an excellent series playing the hits back to back and better than ever plan and execution showcases the last of the fun goofy Capers Jimmy and Kim indulgen together as they walk Howard into their trap and win the Sandpiper money that's been six years in the making Howard chews them out afterwards pinpointing their true motives scamming people is fun before he can make good on his promise to uncover the truth to the world the presumed dead Lalo steps through the doorway casually shooting Mr Hamlin in the head the Cliffhanger is masterfully executed so expertly uneasy that it actually turned my stomach on a first viewing point and shoot is wall-to-wall crime Thriller attention as Lalo tasks Kim Wexler with assassinating Gus Fring while he holds Jimmy hostage then sets off to uncover the underground lab while she makes that distraction Kim's fate hangs precariously in the balance like never before and the episode concludes with a gunfight in the underground lab between Mr Frank and Mr Salamanca nice plan Lalo unfortunately I'm in Breaking Bad fun and games comes along to cap it all off another illustration of better call Saul's well-established examinations of evolving relationships growth change and regret Jimmy attempts to convince Kim that one day they'll forget everything awful that happened but nobody is walking away from that the same Howard's death is staged as him taking his own life due to cocaine abuse Kim quits the law hhm downsizes and is renamed and Mick wechsler splits up Kim lamenting that she could have prevented everything with her knowledge that Lala was secretly still alive and instead chose to hide the knowledge from Jimmy so they could keep running their scam on good old how are you having two with Kim out of his life the show jumps to one final Flash Forward now embracing the sleazeball Persona full time Jimmy McGill is living life as Saul Goodman marking time until Heisenberg walks through those doors under the Alias of Mr Mayhew those string of episodes are nothing short of spectacular really the only nitpick I can think of is that the plant to the payoff that allows Gus to defeat Lalo could be more organic a couple episodes earlier he's walking around the lab and he looks around and thinks to himself this seems like a kind of place where an awesome Showdown would happen I should stash a gun here how did you know that Gus what's that on your computer is that the script done no not yet so that's it for Better Call Saul in the past caught up for the Breaking Bad timeline the final four episodes take place years after Walter White's death and Jesse pinkman's escape to Alaska with a fake identity as a Cinnabon manager Jimmy now lives as Gene and after being id'd by cab driver Jeff and his pal buddy he ropes the pair into a heist to rip off a department store at the mall he works at with this first full-fledged Gene episode nippy certainly lowers the show's Tempo although there is a segment of edge of your seat tension as the robbery unfolds since we're in the end game now and Anything Could Happen you okay it's an endearing little Caper after years of miserable black and white cold opens kicking off each season we see Jimmy finally get his mojo back and spare himself from being turned in by Jeff and buddy with some mutually assured destruction to boot it's safe to say dropping all the trappings of the series especially after the hot streak that preceded it left some audiences cold no Kim no mic no cartel and no real indication where things are headed next and if this was just a one-off and the conclusion of the gene storyline already nippy has its haters but I'm firmly in the love at Camp if you hate nippy you know what more for me well I guess bandwidth permitting they're sort of just unlimited nippy for everyone after all that a happy ending well nippy had the vibe of Jimmy McGill doing one last job to save the day bolstering his confidence and happily remembering the Glory Days in the process the following episodes are a cynical follow-up where reality comes crashing down one fun little Caper going to plan doesn't make for a happy ending where suddenly all your problems are solved after calling Miss Wexler for the first time in years and getting an icy reception where she suggests he turn himself in Jimmy impulsively kick-starts a new Criminal Enterprise he tracks down Rich marks at bars and gets them drunk Jeff the cab driver hands them drugged water on the ride home and Buddy steals their personal details and Bank info while they're knocked out along the way there are flashbacks to Jimmy's ill-fated decision to get tied up in Walter White's burgeoning criminal Empire and his final curse farewell to Kim as well as a parallel story of Kim confessing to Howard's Widow the truth of Howard's death with these haunting Reflections on past decisions that spiraled into utter Calamity there's this Dreadful sense that everything is hurtling toward an ugly end and on top of all that Jimmy's going about this identity theft scam incredibly recklessly practically begging to get caught when he foregoes the scam to rip off a cancer patient and just doesn't outright B and E Jeff winds up behind bars and Jeff's mother Marion puts two and two together and deduces Gene as Saul Goodman betrayed by his soft spot for the old folks One Last Time Jimmy is unable to cross the line of harming Marion into silence instead allowing her to contact Authorities on her Life Alert and taking us into the finale there's a criminal standing in my kitchen threatening me he's a wanted man and his name is Saul Goodman Jimmy's attempts to elude the cops are incredibly short-lived sitting and holding he has a breakdown over finally being caught especially under such undignified circumstances before tapping into his inherent Showmanship and hatching one final plan to get himself out of hot water where do I see it ending um with me on top presenting his cooperation with Walter White as coerced via threats Jimmy is able to talk his 30-year plea deal down to seven and a half years to be served at the same cushy prison that housed Bernie Madoff however he is stunned to learn that Kim actually did confess to her involvement in Howard Hamlin's disappearance after he challenged her to do so over the phone surprised that she would prioritize the truth and closure over saving her own skin planning to follow her lead he feigns that he plans to testify against Kim to get her in the courtroom then nukes his own plea deal by confessing to his crimes how he enabled Walter White and facilitated the Empire that would claim and ruin so many lives how he indirectly caused the death of Howard Hamlin and how a vindictive act on his part in the Heat of the Moment LED his brother to end his own life no more talk of one day you'll wake up and realize you can forget the phrase Jimmy has been clutching to like a Lifeline All Season you know what happened and it's finally time to love with that I'm not left with that now sentenced to 86 years Jimmy is more or less going to face the rest of his life in prison but moved by his confession his relationship with Kim is finally on the mend his fellow prisoners are enthused to be in the presence of local celebrity Saul Goodman and Jimmy and Kim share a cigarette together like the good old days and with good behavior who knows it's admittedly a bit of a corny finale though to paraphrase Jimmy after his first bar hearing a little corny but they mean every word this is not just the end of Better Call Saul it's the end of the entire Breaking Bad universe so a little extra sentimentality is warranted even the most black-hearted among us will find it easy to swallow because for all his schemes plots and criminal conspiracies Jimmy was never the most black-hearted among us yes sir that's it quite right huh so that's Better Call Saul there's so many characters and Dynamics and shifting relationships that it's entirely possible someone could adore aspects I complained about and complain about aspects I adored but still love the package as a whole just as much as I did it's the end of the world of Breaking Bad and also when emotionally evocative exploration of the canonical start to it all but was it the start to it all for that we'll need to take a look at the real early days of James Morgan McGill the animated Masterpiece slip and Jimmy no I'm just messing with you I'm not watching that [ __ ] [Music] at night when the bars close down Brandy walks through a silent town and loves a man who's not around she can still hear him say yeah she hears them say Brandy you're a fine girl

Channel: Slip Maker

Views: 330,762

Keywords: con man albuquerque, ask jeeves

Id: nOaDVTvf6hY

Length: 91min 5sec (5465 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 14 2022