ketose

Jamie Bell was on MSNBC which gets basement ratings. Why isn't he on Fox News or something? You'd think TURN would be popular with the tri-corner hat protestor crowd.

I didn't know Abe was unmarried IRL. However, I think Anna had a few children by that time (and is only suspected of being in the Culper Ring)

I gather Chess wasn't a popular game in Colonial times. I read up on Benedict Arnold, especially since he apparently helped prevent the taking of a fort in my hometown. It seems among his brilliant military skills, he was also very much about getting paid. I can see why his father drinking his fortune away would make Arnold mindful of his own finances. What I don't get is if the Shippens were so concerned with money, how did she get married off to Benedict Arnold? Shockingly, Simcoe actually starts killing Patriot soldiers. Boo!

I can only assume Aiden is also alive and coming back to whisk Amanda away. This also presumes that David is going to die, because why else would his disease be so easily curable?

Nolan needs to go nuclear on Louise. That means get the marriage annulled, put her money back in mama's hands and frame her for manslaughter. Also, I have some other bad excuses for Tony to break it off with Nolan "You throw the worst parties and I can't stand it anymore." "This was all a ruse. I was working for Victoria." "I went to a retreat last week and they cured me of gay." "Our drink preferences are too far apart." "The adoption agency prefers single dads to married ones." "I was hoping for some three-way action with the bartender." "Now that baby Carl is safe, I have to frame another parent so I can get my baby."

Mason Treadwell is the last one to get revenge? Hell, no. As soon as I saw that tissue and the car handle, I thought he was trying to hide fingerprints. The magical self-deleting message was amusing, too. I can't wait until he dies. That's what Ems gets for showing an ounce of mercy. It kinds of seems like either Victoria is alive, or Amanda thinks Victoria is alive. Either option is pretty dumb. Plus, we get a bunch of Margaux and Louise. Time for some Charlotte to ruin the show for good. I am very worried that ABC is going to strive for Five seasons. It doesn't seem like it, but the set up has me questioning.

I think Madeline Stowe nailed it when she said that Victoria's story should have ended in that institution in the S3 finale. They could have squeezed another 6-8 episodes out of a shortened fourth season, but that's it. Who are we kidding? This show will never work in syndication. There are fractional jets where a company (her law firm) can lease access. You pay a rate and order a private jet like a private car. There are stories about houses exploding from natural gas all the time. You actually need some air to make the fire burn. It's a matter of the air/fuel stoichiometry being correct. I just have a hard time believing that natural gas runs down to the Hamptons. If there's a big ole propane tank it's well hidden.

I just binged the entire first season of TURN and some of the comments. One interesting part of the episode tonight is that they literally set up a spy shop, even though only a few items were seen in action.

Despite the producers being caught off-guard, I don't see much that isn't easy to explain. Chuck has mentioned a few times that he was seeking a treatment and exiled himself as a way to save face. I am sure that Howard knew that Chuck's illness was in his head, but as a legal matter, acknowledging it was a mental illness could get Jimmy the guardianship he threatened. While Howard may like Jimmy's hustle, he loves the firm most of all. What Jimmy was doing with the Kettlemans and the billboard made HHM look bad. Frankly, Howard didn't seem angry as much as annoyed.

Not to belabor the Breaking Bad thing, but the Whites were maintaining. They had a nice house and two cars, but they also had bills and a son who wanted a car. Walt was working as a teacher, but also working part time at the car wash, which was occasionally an embarrassing experience. Later on in the series, you see that Walt bought the house when he was more poised for success. The implication was that he had chances to do better and burned his bridges every time. At minimum, Walter should have been able to work at a college. To some extent, that's where Saul was. I wonder what the sequence of events was. Did Jimmy quit first or Chuck had his breakdown first? Either way, Jimmy was trying to just get by financially and didn't have time to think about what his career would be like if he made it big. That might be what happened in the finale. For the first time in years, Jimmy had options and he chose not to take one of them.

Instead of gushing over BrBa, I will point out a similarity between it and BCS. Either Vince or one of the other writers said that the original story line for BB was that Walt was thrown into bad circumstances even when he tried to get out of them. You can see that in S1. Then, they decided that Walt was going to be the captain of his destiny. I think there's a similar correction going on with BCS. S1 was supposed to be "Jimmy tried to be a real lawyer and got shot down, so he became Saul." Now it looks like James McGill still has some time left in this world.

I think Chuck is making some of his requests up as he goes along. Like he probably just asked for "apples" and waiting for them to be wrong so he could make a big show about how Ernesto needs to learn to take directions.

I don't know that Jimmy's "transformation" this episode is any different than his decisions in the season so far. Jimmy scrapes by, then tries to do something shady to eventually become legitimate. He tries to get the Kettlemans as clients with his sales pitch. Then he tries to scam them. Then he does everything he can to not get his cohorts killed. He finally gets the Ketlemans and he delivers them back to Kim anyway. Every episode has been ups and downs in Jimmy's career. Most of his victories have been due to his schemes (the rigged sign and the elderly clients) and his failures have been due to going straight (losing control of the Sandpiper case, losing the Kettlemans as clients). In order to do the right thing for the Kettlemans, he had to do two shady things, track them down and steal their money. Besides being shady, he's had to hide his talents in front of his clients. One thing about Saul on Breaking Bad, he always told Walt and Jesse how much shady stuff he had to do to make their arrangement work. He was proud of it, and he could tell them because they were in on it. I very much doubt we're there quite yet.

The montage was actually only 2 and a half minutes. I thought Jimmy was serious most of the time, but not unhappy. He was working. That's what he's good at. I think the truth is that Jimmy is not a real lawyer. The kind of law he excels at is shady backroom deals and theatrics in the courtroom. I think Howard had a point when he called Jimmy Charlie Hustle. He saw Jimmy as a guy who was determined and willing to do the work. That's true, but he also seems to be looking for the next hustle. How long does he last as a partner in a law firm where there are rules and expectations? I think this admiration for Chuck thing only goes so far. They didn't really see each other for a while. Their mom was the one who called Chuck to get Jimmy out of trouble. I think Jimmy liked working at the law firm and people liked him. They just didn't respect him. They respected Chuck, but didn't exactly like him. The whole lawyer thing was something of a hustle. It was a way for people like Kim to think better of him.

As one of the people last week who blasted Chuck, I wrote that Chuck's suspicions weren't the problem, it was his underhanded actions. In this episode, Jimmy was essentially vindicated. He had the respect of Kim and Howard. People at the firm finally understood what an old crank Chuck was. Even a big law firm was interested in hiring Jimmy. I think the similarity between Standpipe and Sandpiper was no accident. Jimmy would have a career, but he would have no more victories. He already proved he was the bigger man. I doubt he would ever have a case as big as this again. So Chuck was right about Jimmy all along, but he was such an asshole about it that it was a completely evil response. I think the only reason Jimmy became a lawyer was to show Chuck. In a way, becoming Saul meant that he was no longer looking for Chuck's approval. Becoming Chuck by being a partner at an identical law firm would have been copying Chuck and denying his own self.

I think there's a point to that. Jimmy is a professional grifter. That was how he made his living. When he was back in Chicago, he was a lawyer and had the opportunity for enough money. He didn't need to pick $100 here and there off the odd tourist. The part Saul probably enjoyed most was knowing Marco was watching him work. The art of the con is not how smart you are, but how greedy the mark is. None of those people had to give him their money. They all thought they were scamming someone when they handed over the cash. I think Jimmy was pulling the long con on Chuck. He wanted to fool Chuck into thinking he went straight and Chuck was having none of it. One thing I liked about the last two episodes is that first we had Chuck looking like the worst human being for his disrespect for Jimmy. Then we get Jimmy showing us why Chuck doesn't trust him. It goes back to what Mike said in the last episode. Jimmy is a good guy who does bad things. Chuck is a bad guy who does respectable things.

There are a lot of defense lawyers out there who say that even drug dealers need defending. Jimmy's not a bad guy and he wants to do what's right, but he also identifies with the criminal element more than the squares out there. Of course, he broke bad by becoming a fixer. I think before Walter White he had little to do with actually killing anyone. He really only ever suggested it anyway. That may be the evolution. Jimmy knows his real talent is scamming legal deals and getting money off the top. Next season he may be a perfectly legitimate defense attorney who inadvertently gets drawn into shady acts. Even if he tries to keep a murder from being discovered, it is arguably his duty as a lawyer to not put his client into a situation where he would be convicted. I think there's more rabbit hole to go in the creation of Saul Goodman.

I'm happy / sad for Saul. Marco was basically an example of what Jimmy would become if he took the job. He'd be the standpipe guy with more money. That $4 million or more cut won't be seen for years given the complexity of the case. If Jimmy becomes a partner, he has to put his money toward the partnership and still be expected to drum up business. He might be an adequate lawyer, but he'd be putting up a front. He'd be the rube he plays in his scams 24/7. Chuck really forced the issue when he said Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree was like a chimp with a machine gun. Jimmy seems to embrace that now. Why accidentally fall into a big case when you can make all kinds of money working your magic for the criminal element? I'm guessing that not only was Marco having the week of his life, Jimmy was having the best week in a long time because he could show off his skills with Marco. Saul is a lawyer, but he's also a showman. The Kevin Costner bit was hilarious. I also thought it was funny those two waitresses looked like they were wearing the uniforms from 2 Broke Girls.

ABC has a habit of shelving low-rated shows and airing them in the summer. That's a definite sign a show is cancelled. Most networks don't like to announce the cancellation of an underperforming show because what few viewers it has might decide it's not worth watching anymore. Something like Lost can get away with it because it was structured long before it was done airing. Even when a show is cancelled, you only know it because it's not on the schedule. No network likes to highlight failure. The least satisfying and most likely scenario is that ABC is still on the fence over Season 5, so the producers have to manufacture a cliffhanger. At the same time, the low ratings will prevent it from coming back, therefore leading to a set up that will never be resolved.

If she's a zombie with a brain who eats brains, do the brains reinforce her brain or start to replace it? Is she going to keep being Liv or is she going to start losing her personality the longer she's a zombie? If she did, it would definitely put an element of urgency to the series.

It's a new television world. Without those spoilers, many viewers would skip it and wait for the comments after. Then they'd watch it on demand later. At that point, the ratings have already come in. It may not be the wisest strategy, but TPTB have decided that creating early buzz is better to get people to watch it "live."

It wasn't really the same degree program, (science vs. engineering) but the core courses were the same. I very much suspect that any advisor would suggest not getting the same degree twice, even if a school were more prestigious. But, like I wrote, if you're not looking for financial aid, I don't know that it is a major factor if you have a degree or not. If Jimmy were accepted and was 1-2 classes short of graduating. there'd be no issue. At the same time, many schools require you take 25-50% of courses locally so that you are truly a graduate of the college that grants the degree.

If you're made of money, you can get the same degree over again. In fact, you may only have to take half the classes, since credits from certain courses will transfer over. I had one college take D's as transfer credits as long as I had enough corresponding B's.

Reading this, I started hearing "it's just a TV show" in my head. I think we can establish that someone like a Jimmy McGill can take classes at a state school for undergrad and maybe a night school for law. Although, New Mexico may not have enough law schools to actually have "good" and "bad" schools. And if you listen to Chuck's speech, it starts out being about American Samoa, but it quickly escalates into Jimmy having a JD at all. Slippin' Jimmy with a Harvard degree would be a chimp with a Tomahawk missile. What's interesting is that even though Chuck is like the Godfather, there are some weird aspects. Remember when Hamlin made that deal to pay Chuck $850 a week? I'm beginning to wonder if Chuck chose the amount to keep Jimmy from having access to more than bacon money.

It's kind of funny that Ryan the ball buster is with Jessica instead of Jaclyn. Right now, he's kind of torturing Jessica while Jaclyn is torturing her Ryan. And yes, I lost track of their last names again. Sean and Davina seem to be the Jason and Cortney of the season. Davina definitely has the potential to be a hot mess.