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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Mar 11, 2016 13:22:25 GMT -5
Also loved the very subtly reveal (during the gun salesman's scene) that Mike was in 'Nam. Is that sarcasm on the "very subtle"? I thought it was, in fact, very subtle. I'd always suspected he'd been in some kind of Special Forces outfit, but finding out that he was a Marine sniper - at least, that's what I inferred - made a whole bunch of sense to me, and it really gelled a lot of his personality in my view. I just realized that Mike is actually the really scary version of my father's late best friend. Which is probably why I find him so compelling and sympathetic; he just reminds me so much of my Uncle Bob that it hurts sometimes. Uncle Bob was in Vietnam too. Only his job was eliminating undesirables for the CIA.
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Post by kitchin on Mar 12, 2016 20:28:49 GMT -5
I started off subtle.
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Mar 12, 2016 21:40:21 GMT -5
My wife and I both figured Nacho wasn't going to be around much longer if he was making a move against Tuco, which made us oddly sad, since he is so good in the role. Chuck was wearing a watch. Doesn't everyone have to take off their watch when he's around? Is it just decorative and doesn't work? Yeah, Nacho is just great. I'm really pulling for him to be central to the show moving forward. Since they made a show of the watch, I expected him to start winding it in the morning, indicating that it was mechanical, not electronic. But maybe since they didn't point that out, perhaps it'll come back in a meaningful way. It would very likely be automatic—mechanical, but wound by movements on the wrist. Since Chuck’s a successful lawyer I’d expect him to have a nice, classic automatic wristwatch. Anyway I ended up watching the entire season so far last night. I thought I’d just watch one or two but that proved impossible.
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wrath of kong
TI Forumite
It was like that when I got here.
Posts: 188
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Post by wrath of kong on Mar 13, 2016 4:10:56 GMT -5
LOL
*PUNCH*
(I hope this becomes a gif soon)
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Post by Desert Dweller on Mar 13, 2016 19:38:29 GMT -5
Anyway I ended up watching the entire season so far last night. I thought I’d just watch one or two but that proved impossible. I'm trying to hold out until the end. I have about 6 weeks of work left of this semester. I plan on doing a major binge of this show when I'm done, as something of a reward. I'm glad that people here seem to be liking it. I was very concerned after the finale.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2016 20:10:20 GMT -5
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Post by saganaut on Mar 16, 2016 0:37:35 GMT -5
Oh my god this fucking show... That was devastating.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 16, 2016 12:21:54 GMT -5
If there's one thing I've learned from Season 2 of Better Call Saul, it's that being a lawyer at a prestigious firm looks fucking terrible. The mannerisms, the obsessions with presentation, perception and professionalism. I would, uh, not thrive in that environment.
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Post-Lupin
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Immanentizing the Eschaton
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Post by Post-Lupin on Mar 22, 2016 15:28:56 GMT -5
The editing in this week's opening montage was fucking incredible. Every cut follows the flowline of where the balls are going.
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Post by pairesta on Mar 23, 2016 13:38:38 GMT -5
That Moscow mule looked soooo good.
The engineer hitting on Kim looked like Peter Dinklage . . . um. . . stretched out.
Hasn't Mike kinda tipped his hand to Hector at this point? He's not some doddering fool Tuco beat up. he got the drop on two of his goons and played hardball in negotiations. Wouldn't that make him suspicious?
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Mar 24, 2016 1:16:13 GMT -5
Hasn't Mike kinda tipped his hand to Hector at this point? He's not some doddering fool Tuco beat up. he got the drop on two of his goons and played hardball in negotiations. Wouldn't that make him suspicious? Honestly, I've not been liking Season 2 as much as Season 1 because of the Mike subplot-which-is-more-like-a-co-plot-at-this-point. The entire situation with Mike just makes no sense at all. Mike was always reticent to take stupid, unnecessary risks in BrBa, but all of a sudden he comes up with this pretty flimsy, risky plan to put Tuco behind bars, and now he thinks he's going to be safe playing hardball with super-dangerous cartel guys. Like, how did he not immediately think "Oh, shit, Hector knows things about me, he's probably going to threaten my granddaughter," after the first conversation between the two of them? It's unbelievably Walter White-esque behavior on Mike's part. And it's also like suddenly taking over the plot, in order to pad out what's going on with the actual, titular, protagonist, and artificially create suspense by stretching out Jimmy's story. I was fine with the one Mike-centric episode last season, given that Mike is a pretty major character in the BrBa universe, and it was a great episode, but this whole arc with Mike is lazily plotted, frequently has him acting out of character, and has already dominated two or three episodes of the season. This show is ostensibly focused on the transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman, but the show has just been horribly unfocused for the past three or four episodes due to this incongruous plot arc with Mike. That scene between Hector and Mike in the closed restaurant was pretty great, though.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 24, 2016 8:59:48 GMT -5
Honestly, I've not been liking Season 2 as much as Season 1 because of the Mike subplot-which-is-more-like-a-co-plot-at-this-point. The entire situation with Mike just makes no sense at all. Mike was always reticent to take stupid, unnecessary risks in BrBa, but all of a sudden he comes up with this pretty flimsy, risky plan to put Tuco behind bars, and now he thinks he's going to be safe playing hardball with super-dangerous cartel guys. Like, how did he not immediately think "Oh, shit, Hector knows things about me, he's probably going to threaten my granddaughter," after the first conversation between the two of them? It's unbelievably Walter White-esque behavior on Mike's part. And it's also like suddenly taking over the plot, in order to pad out what's going on with the actual, titular, protagonist, and artificially create suspense by stretching out Jimmy's story. I was fine with the one Mike-centric episode last season, given that Mike is a pretty major character in the BrBa universe, and it was a great episode, but this whole arc with Mike is lazily plotted, frequently has him acting out of character, and has already dominated two or three episodes of the season. This show is ostensibly focused on the transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman, but the show has just been horribly unfocused for the past three or four episodes due to this incongruous plot arc with Mike. My justification there is that, just as Saul is to Jimmy, Mike of BrBa is an evolution of the Mike we see here. Mike of BCS takes half-measures (at one point literally), he makes mistakes, he takes unnecessary risks and gets in over his head, even if at core he is still a badass. By the time we get to BrBa, Mike has been on that side of the game for several years, and he has excised his flaws. That said, though, I do agree with you. Season 2 is frustrating me for being so utterly terrific in the moment, but dragging in the arc. I love Mike as a character, and I want to watch a show about Mike, but I feel like he is here because he is a popular character from Breaking Bad, not because he is vital to this story. We need more interaction between him and Jimmy to add some cohesion to this show. I felt it in this episode in particular, when we checked back in with Jimmy at maybe the 25 minute mark, and I thought, "Oh yeah, him." While I have my own problems with the Season 1 finale, it did end with what felt like a mission statement: no more trying to fit this square peg into a round hole. Despite the obvious metaphor of the cupholder, Season 2 is not delivering on that mission statement. It's biding its time. Maybe waiting for another finale to take its next big step, but that's too long to wait. Breaking Bad had its slow stretches as well, but I find the pacing here positively glacial, even if scene-to-scene I can't not love it. (#randomthought Hey, what if the show ends with Jimmy becoming Saul?)
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Post by kitchin on Mar 24, 2016 19:43:35 GMT -5
Honestly, I've not been liking Season 2 as much as Season 1 because of the Mike subplot-which-is-more-like-a-co-plot-at-this-point... I'm enjoying all the Mike stuff even if it's not realistic. I just don't care about stuff that goes on inside of law firms. Unless they are in nail salons.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2016 14:36:23 GMT -5
"Excuse me, can I have everyone's attention, please? Everyone can hear me? Good. Frankly, this is not a conversation I ever thought I would have in my professional career, but...it has been brought to my attention that we have an ongoing situation in the washroom. Someone is not flushing. Once is an accident, maybe even twice, but three times, that's a pattern."
"And we're not talking about a Number 1!"
"Yes, thank you, Erin. Now I'm not here to shame anyone, nor do I even want to know who did it, but..."
"Uh, Cliff? It was me."
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2016 14:53:56 GMT -5
Possible Spoiler (speculation):
The initials of each episode this season might be an anagram (note that this isn't a chronological list of titles):
Fifi
Rebecca
Inflatable
Nailed
Gloves Off
Switch
Bali Ha'i (R A V O)
Amarillo
Cobbler
Klick
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 13, 2016 9:25:14 GMT -5
Ahhhhhh, that's the stuff.
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Post by saganaut on Apr 14, 2016 14:38:32 GMT -5
John Teti just gave me a shoutout on twitter for noticing the rainbow in the dentist office last week. That's almost as good as getting a mention on Polite Fight (which has been a lot of fun to watch in addition to the usual reviews).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 22:06:59 GMT -5
This entire season has been wavering from "Haha, Chuck is getting embarrassed" to "Aww, I kinda sorta feel a little bad for him." but that ending...
Dear god
Also, I don't know if GHZ's prediction came true. It kinda looked like Gus was in that little group of far-off people.
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Post by songstarliner on Apr 18, 2016 22:10:55 GMT -5
I'm overwhelmed by Michael McKeon's performance in this. I always liked and admired his work, by my god ... Earlier I would have wagered the season would end with his death, but I'm so glad I'm wrong. I love to hate and love him. And his relationship with Jimmy is so well-written and complex - great, great stuff.
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Post by ganews on Apr 18, 2016 22:37:59 GMT -5
Such great reviews from Donna Bowman. What a treasure to have on the AVC staff.
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Post by pairesta on Apr 19, 2016 7:48:36 GMT -5
This entire season has been wavering from "Haha, Chuck is getting embarrassed" to "Aww, I kinda sorta feel a little bad for him." but that ending...
Dear god
Also, I don't know if GHZ's prediction came true. It kinda looked like Gus was in that little group of far-off people.
It was Nacho, Hector, the two brothers, and whoever was riding with Nacho, right? I don't think Fring was there. It makes sense, though, because he's probably about to make his move.
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Post by pairesta on Apr 19, 2016 7:49:24 GMT -5
Man that last scene was brutal. A slow motion tranwreck. Everything Jimmy said dug a deeper hole for him, and then Kim too and you knew it.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Apr 19, 2016 21:28:51 GMT -5
Man that last scene was brutal. A slow motion tranwreck. Everything Jimmy said dug a deeper hole for him, and then Kim too and you knew it. I actually screamed into my closed fists out of sheer frustration and rage at that final scene. I hate Chuck, I hate Chuck, I don't even know Chuck but I hate him, and from now on, I only want bad things in life to happen to Chuck, and nobody else but Chuck.
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oppy all along
TI Forumite
Who's been messing up everything? It was oppy all along
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Post by oppy all along on Apr 28, 2016 7:43:30 GMT -5
Thoughts after marathoning the show. Titled Chuck Was Right. Subtitled I Had Nothing Better To Do Today Than Think About Better Call Saul. Seriously, after finishing the show I was legitimately surprised that the general consensus was "fuck Chuck". Because he was right the whole time. Right from the start, when Jimmy proudly displayed his extremely legitimate and real law degree from correspondence at the University of American Samoa and asked when he'd be given a job at his brother's prestigious law firm. Chuck didn't give him the job because fundamentally he felt Jimmy didn't deserve it, and he wasn't going to nepotism someone into an unearned position. And Jimmy demonstrated time and time again that Chuck was correct not to give him that job.
From paying the skater doofuses to try and entrap a potential client (which backfired spectacularly), to taking a bribe from said potential clients (which backfired spectacularly), to hiring a criminal to break into the clients homes to return the bribe (that actually worked out better), to generating publicity with that billboard con, and that's just the massive screw ups before Jimmy got a new pinkie ring and declared Then Let Me Be Evil.
Then we see what Jimmy looks like with a real lawyer job, the kind he expected from Chuck. First up we see him openly soliciting potential clients after he bribed the bus driver to fake engine trouble. Funny, entertaining, for a good cause, and exactly the kind of legal loophole abuse Chuck is against. Then, of course, Chuck figures out what Jimmy did because referring to my above headline Chuck Was Right. Secondly, the ad. An effective ad in terms of the case, but one which potentially damages the firm's image as a whole. Because it's not a real lawyer ad, it's a Slippin' Jimmy ad. And he was so insecure and narcissistic that he had to go around his bosses to avoid the risk that they might reject his work. And finally, chafing at the rules and restrictions of being a real, straight up lawyer, Jimmy spectacularly washes out. Because Chuck Was Right.
On to the late-season Jimmy/Chuck disputes. HHM and Kim were competing for a client. Kim made her pitch, and Chuck made his. Chuck made a better pitch and won the client fair and square. But Jimmy, spiteful and irrational Jimmy, decides the fair recourse to a matter he was in no way involved is to manipulate Chuck's illness to publicly sabotage him in a tremendously humiliating spectacle which threatens his professional reputation and psychological stability. And yes, Jimmy was very concerned when Chuck suffered a potentially life-threatening injury as a result of his vengeance, but at no point was he planning to confess his wrongdoing. The universe had conspired to gaslight Chuck into doubting what he knew Jimmy had done (Chuck Was Right). Jimmy kept up his lie, Kim demonstrated she's not quite as dedicated to ethical legal conduct as she seems, Ernie didn't really know what was going on and lied to cover his friend, the Xerox guy proved to be a surprisingly unflappable liar himself, but Chuck knew. And he did the only thing he could to prove it.
Earlier in the season, Chuck assessed that Jimmy was a good-hearted man who compulsively let people down and screwed them over. All the way back to when he was a little kid stealing from his father's store. Jimmy is a charming, likeable, decent, caring, determined man will try and do the right thing 70%-80% of the time, but it's the when he just can't help himself that he'll burn you. Because he has to be right and he has to make everything right, because in addition to those good things earlier he's also an insecure, irrational narcissist who is relentless in getting what he wants.
That is not to say that Chuck has been perfect. There is an argument that he should have given Jimmy a chance at HHM anyway, that his commitment to principle (and subtle resentment of Jimmy, lets be fair) caused him to be less supportive than he should have. But in his opinion Jimmy didn't deserve that job, and to give him the job regardless would have been, in Chuck's mind, nepotism. And it's clear all the way through there's a little more than an objective assessment of Jimmy's legal credentials going on in Chuck's assessment of his brother. But it's our family who know us best, and Jimmy is a sham lawyer who washed out of the one big real lawyer job he ever had and constantly cuts corners and breaks the rules to get ahead. In the past, in the present and definitely in the future. So there's really nobody else in the BCS fandom who likes Chuck, huh? Upcoming follow up rant, Why Wesley Crusher was the Unsung Hero of Star Trek.
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Post by ganews on Apr 28, 2016 9:24:23 GMT -5
oppy all along there's no question that Chuck Was Right. Your points about Jimmy are also quite accurate. The Fuck Chuck comes from his dishonesty with Jimmy. He could have explained the facts of lawyer life to Jimmy at any time. Instead he selfishly allowed Howard to be the bad guy for years, from the moment Hamlin broke the news in the mailroom flashback up until the big reveal at the end of season 1. He allowed Jimmy to take painstaking care of him while not having the decency to explain why Jimmy was being kept out of HHM. That's why up until the reveal, the chorus cried, "Fuck Hamlin!" Telling Jimmy the real reason, taking the hard path of hurt feelings, and by doing so helping Jimmy to be better, was the brotherly thing to do. But the season 2 flashbacks made it painfully clear that Chuck has always resented his brother. Those scenes are necessary to make the audience view Chuck as something more complex than a monster and give him a human motivation for the stunning betrayal. Corollary to Fuck Chuck is the one other action that can't be justified by being in the right: when he pulls himself out of the house to watch Jimmy meet with HHM, "to bear witness." He's there for a car crash. There's all sorts of speculative points. (Why did Jimmy go to American Samoa? It took him years, and he still had to pass the bar. What/who kept him from taking Kim's path out of the mailroom?) But the two above points are, I think, the clearest distillation of why Fuck Chuck. It helps that while the McGill brothers are awfully alike, the smarter one is a condescending stiff and the other one is friendly and outgoing.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Jan 11, 2017 14:57:51 GMT -5
FUCK YES
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Post by Powerthirteen on Jan 11, 2017 15:52:31 GMT -5
The curly fries are downright addictive! Why? It's our secret cooking method!
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 11, 2017 22:09:50 GMT -5
This is so great. Oh Gus, your chicken and curly fries look so delicious!
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Rainbow Rosa
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not gay, just colorful
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 10, 2022 18:38:38 GMT -5
This is a fun thread to read in hindsight.
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Rainbow Rosa
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not gay, just colorful
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 18, 2022 23:08:17 GMT -5
Guys. Guys. Guys. That was really good. Did anyone expect to see--
LOOK AWAY, YE SPOILER-AVERSE! THIS IS A SPOILER FOR THE FIRST TWO EPISODES OF BETTER CALL SAUL SEASON 6 WHICH JUST AIRED ON THE TV!! DON'T READ ONWARDS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THESE TWO EPISODES AND DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!
--the Kettlemans again?? I know there's lots of stuff that just went down in that episode but it's the Kettlemans that really got to me. I am also inordinately worried about Nacho's papa now, because he is exactly the kind of guy that Mike would go out of his way to protect, and exactly the kind of guy that would get killed in brutal fashion on Breaking Bad.
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