Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

S01.E01: Uno


halgia
  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

I think this show is going to need a "Jesse" type, young, hot, the heart of it all, a sidekick.  I know they've hired

Jesse Plemons

and I'm sure he'll be great, but I don't think he can carry that kind of appeal. 

 

ETA I was wrong about this.  Brain Fart, he was hired for a different show.

Fargo.

 

I am so sorry, bet that got a few hearts started.

Edited by Umbelina
  • Love 1
Link to comment

Regarding Saul affording such a nice place in Omaha - he presumably made millions as Walt's attorney, when he received a cut of Walt's profits. I would expect him to bring whatever he had left with him to Nebraska.

 

As for Chuck's belief that he suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity - there are quite a few people insist they have that condition. And there are a whole lot of other people who insist it doesn't exist, and that its so-called sufferers are just crazy. The science surrounding it isn't exactly clear.

 

My guess is that Chuck is supposed to be mentally ill. It sees like he's the only one who believes that his sensitivity to electricity is a real thing. I think even Chuck knows, on some level, that he has a mental illness - but he just isn't able to rationalize his way out of his delusions.

  • Love 7
Link to comment

I wouldn't say horrible. But you make a good point that having a slow moving and less than spectacular pilot may have squandered the TWD lead in.

 

 

Oh I don't know.   If you're still a Walking Dead fan at this point, it's a fair indicator that an interesting, well-paced plot and good characters aren't essential to your enjoyment of a show.

I think this show is going to need a "Jesse" type, young, hot, the heart of it all, a sidekick.  I know they've hired

Jesse Plemons

and I'm sure he'll be great, but I don't think he can carry that kind of appeal. 

re: your spoiler

 

Oh no!  No!

Edited by millennium
  • Love 7
Link to comment

Based on some of the complaints in this thread, there was exactly 0% that Gilligan and Gould could have come up with something that would have satisfied some of you short of coming up with something in 50 minutes that was roughly equivalent in scope to the entire 62 episode output of Breaking Bad.  In other words before the show started it was already 100% set in stone that this forum would be flooded with griping regardless of the merits of the episode. It's a different show with a different lead character and I thought they did a great job establishing how Saul can be a lead that can carry a show.  Basically, there are maybe a handful of other shows in television history with as potent a lead character as Breaking Bad and most of that was developed well after the pilot.  That being said I didn't find any of this slow and didn't think there was anything that hit the wrong notes, save for perhaps the little to on point detail of having Saul literally end up managing a Cinnabon in Omaha... but I can get over that.  Particularly since I really loved seeing Saul's life after Breaking Bad, and I think that introduces some enticing possibilities about how this show can co-exist in the Breaking Bad universe.  I for one am really looking forward to seeing where it all goes. 

  • Love 21
Link to comment

We may need a spoiler thread.  ?

 

I'm really looking forward to tonight's show, and to rewatching last night's.  I think I'd follow Vince anywhere, not just because of Breaking Bad, but listening to the commentaries on the BB DVDs just made me fall in love with him more, as both a show creator, runner, and director. 

 

I am SO glad I wasn't spoiled about Tuco.  That was a great moment.  I also think it makes complete sense that a criminal lawyer will have interactions with some of the criminals that Walt dealt with fairly soon after.  There were some great actors, and great characters on that show, so I'm glad to see some of the back, especially Mike.  Anyone else think he's doing some kind of surveillance on the court or cops, and that's why he's in the ticket booth to the parking lot?

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I think this show is going to need a "Jesse" type, young, hot, the heart of it all, a sidekick.  I know they've hired

Jesse Plemons

and I'm sure he'll be great, but I don't think he can carry that kind of appeal. 

 

I didn't know this, although I was looking for spoilers.  I guess there should be a new Spoilers thread for BCS!

Link to comment

Oh man, I am so sorry!  I just mixed up my shows!  He will not be on this one. 

He'll be on Fargo. 

 

Yikes!  I'll go edit the first one!

 

We do need a spoiler thread though.

Edited by Umbelina
  • Love 1
Link to comment

What I expected from this show:

-The rise of Saul Goodman.

-Situations and a rogues gallery that could be seen as Vince Gilligan retrofitting the Rockford Files for the BB universe.

-Bob Odenkirk being awesome.

I got all three and that makes me happy.

  • Love 6
Link to comment

If what some people here say is true and those were two different cars and the skateboarder hit the wrong car, then all I got to say is really ? I mean that is just absurd . Things that happened in Breaking Bad were also crazy but at least plausible.

I find it plausible that the two skateboarders confused two similar cars, particularly since they think Saul's crapmobile was a worthy target.  Among others, more statistically likely than

 

 

  • the chain of events that led to the mid-air collision in the S2 finale
  • when Walt goes on a ride-along with Hank to bust a meth lab, one of the cooks just happens to be one of Walt's former students, and he just happens to be the cook that gets away
  • a city the size of Albuquerque has so many people who can pay 100K+ to disappear that a vaccuum repairman runs his own private witness relocation program
  • a German multinational with a rogue subsidiary fast food operation running its own meth operation

 

 

Spoiler tagged in the unlikely event there are BCS viewers who didn't watch BB.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I find it plausible that the two skateboarders confused two similar cars, particularly since they think Saul's crapmobile was a worthy target.  

Yeah, those two were neither of them a braintrust. It was a nice touch that the license plate on both cars started with a '4,' and that was the only number they seemed to remember.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I find it plausible that the two skateboarders confused two similar cars, particularly since they think Saul's crapmobile was a worthy target.  Among others, more statistically likely than

 

 

  • the chain of events that led to the mid-air collision in the S2 finale
  • when Walt goes on a ride-along with Hank to bust a meth lab, one of the cooks just happens to be one of Walt's former students, and he just happens to be the cook that gets away
  • a city the size of Albuquerque has so many people who can pay 100K+ to disappear that a vaccuum repairman runs his own private witness relocation program
  • a German multinational with a rogue subsidiary fast food operation running its own meth operation

 

 

Spoiler tagged in the unlikely event there are BCS viewers who didn't watch BB.

 

I liked the Skateboard scam scene.   The pacing, the music ... it was reminiscent -- on a much smaller scale, of course -- of the great train robbery on Breaking Bad.

Me, too!

 

As for the actor in the spoiler, am I the only one who finds that actor kinda repulsive?

 

See my "Oh no!" above. 

Link to comment

Ha, I had a Mercury Sable in the early 2000's and I swear I saw at least a dozen on the road every day, both Sables and Taurus's, that looked almost identical to my car. It was a pretty popular car at the time, at least where I live, so I'd say the twins making a mistake is plausible.

Edited by Auroraborealus
  • Love 2
Link to comment

Where was Betsy and her Sable after the accident?  Waaaay more then enough time expired from the moment Saul alerted his minions she was on the way, to the moment the lads decided to hitch a ride for Betsy to have turned that corner where they were.  Remember, she was already well on her way by the time Saul gathered himself enough to make that call.  There's suspension of disbelief, and then there is Twilight Zone dimensions of the time continuum.  

 

I also was super bored by the extended scene with the two brothers.  McKean's character can be really interesting.  One can do a lot with an insane, and very bright, character.  A problem will be his being anchored to his home in avoidance of EM rays.  I do hope we hear some Spinal Tap at some point.  At least one drummer is gonna meet a baaaaad end on this show.  ;)

Link to comment

I find it interesting that they gave Chuck the electomagnetic sensitivity as his illness. Since there are a lot of doctors out there that say it doesn't exist, and double-blind studies have shown that sufferers can't tell the difference between real EMF waves and fake ones, it's pretty fascinating. It's not a clinical diagnosis that any doctor will give somebody. It's up there with the multichemical sensitivity, and sometimes seems to happen in folie a deux situations. So yeah, that part really fascinated me. Of all the illnesses they could have given him, they give him one that technically doesn't exist and that doctors think inhabits the minds of crazy people.

 

I enjoyed the premiere. It is setting things in motion, as pilots do. It was pretty funny and well written, and it's always a joy to have Bob Odenkirk back on my screen. I just hope we get more Jonathon Banks.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I wasn't wowed by the pilot, but of course I'm sticking with the show.

 

I loved the cold open. All the shots were interesting and artistic. "Gene" going about his job was great. I admit it took me a while to get that it was a flash forward, or I guess post-BB. Someone here said that the guy staring at "Gene" looked like Tuco. I disagree. The thing that freaked Saul out was just that this tough looking guy seemed to be staring hard at him, and Saul was always on the lookout for someone to be coming after him.

 

What, exactly, the kids in the video were having sex with. I knew it was some sort of skull, but I didn't realize until I read it online that they went into a funeral home and sawed off a corpse's head.

I thought one of the kids said something about a teacher's biology class, so I assumed they had broken into the school and had sex with a cadaver's skull. Maybe I'm wrong. But didn't Jimmy in his remarks say that there was no trespassing because the owner said he kept the place open at night? I guess that would rule out a school.

 

I loved how people in the courtroom were moving over to see the video.

 

I too was confused by the wrong car business. I thought the woman was the maid, that Jimmy mistook that for the couple's car. I understand that this type of car (esp being one of two different makes) is/was common, but I still don't like that a similar car came to the intersection when the other woman was supposed to be driving past.

 

It was a nice touch that the license plate on both cars started with a '4,' and that was the only number they seemed to remember.

Another annoying coincidence.

 

When Tuco's face was revealed, I smiled. The pleasures of being unspoiled.

 

Oh, and when Jimmy hit the skateboarder, I jumped and gasped and scared my dog.

Edited by peeayebee
Link to comment

I thought one of the kids said something about a teacher's biology class, so I assumed they had broken into the school and had sex with a cadaver's skull. Maybe I'm wrong. But didn't Jimmy in his remarks say that there was no trespassing because the owner said he kept the place open at night? I guess that would rule out a school.

 

...

 

Oh, and when Jimmy hit the skateboarder, I jumped and gasped and scared my dog.

They were in some kind of mortuary (he mentioned Mr. Spinalzo which I thought was a nice shout-out to the old "Arsenic and Old Lace" movie from the 40s), but they said something about their biology teacher being "impressed" by them.

 

...

 

I could tell Jimmy was on to the scam before he kicked him. You could see the little change in his demeanor that showed he knew they were pulling a con.

  • Love 3
Link to comment

If what some people here say is true and those were two different cars and the skateboarder hit the wrong car , then all I got to say is really ? I mean that is just absurd . Things that happened in Breaking Bad were also crazy but at least plausible . Also , you hit a car hard enough to break the windshield and you are not in the hospital ? Seems to me the writers are going into a whole new direction , much more comedy element than in Breaking Bad .

I don't know why this is so hard to believe.  Maybe it's because I drive a pretty common SUV but there is not a day that goes by when I don't find myself next to, behind or in front of an SUV of the same make, model, color and body style at one point during the day.  So I can easily buy this very common coincidence.  In fact, I am not positive I'm correct but I even thought that the brown was a different brown than the one parked in the driveway.  Similar, but not the same.  These kids aren't details people yet.

 

And I have the rare ability to have broken a windshield and lived to tell about it.  I was crossing a street and got hit by a car going the speed limit.  I was thrown to the ground.  I did go to the hospital but only because the other people on the sidewalk insisted on it.  I didn't break any teeth, or bones or get a concussion. I could have gotten right up and the only protection I had was a shopping bag on the impact side.  These kids are used to taking falls, they chose an area where the car would have to slow down and he had appropriate padding/helmet. 

 

Where was Betsy and her Sable after the accident?  Waaaay more then enough time expired from the moment Saul alerted his minions she was on the way, to the moment the lads decided to hitch a ride for Betsy to have turned that corner where they were.  Remember, she was already well on her way by the time Saul gathered himself enough to make that call.  There's suspension of disbelief, and then there is Twilight Zone dimensions of the time continuum.  

They weren't looking for Betsy any longer.  They thought they knew where she was. She may have passed unnoticed.

 

I thought one of the kids said something about a teacher's biology class, so I assumed they had broken into the school and had sex with a cadaver's skull. Maybe I'm wrong.

Where they were has already been explained but I don't know of any high school that has a human cadaver in their biology lab.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Screw that cut-in to Talking Dead.  Fooled me, made me think the episode was over, I stopped watching, and of course I came here and got spoiled about Tuco.  Aargh.

 

I agree about the challenge of Odenkirk carrying a show on his own.  Maybe this will be his breakout role, but there's something missing, charisma-wise, I think.  I realize that's perfect for this character, yet Walter White was just a high school biology teacher and BC was f*cking operatic when called for.  

 

But I'll give it at least a few more episodes.  Loved the directing, cinematography.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Screw that cut-in to Talking Dead.  Fooled me, made me think the episode was over, I stopped watching, and of course I came here and got spoiled about Tuco.  Aargh.

 

I agree about the challenge of Odenkirk carrying a show on his own.  Maybe this will be his breakout role, but there's something missing, charisma-wise, I think.  I realize that's perfect for this character, yet Walter White was just a high school biology teacher and BC was f*cking operatic when called for.  

 

But I'll give it at least a few more episodes.  Loved the directing, cinematography.

 

Bryan Cranston is just an outstanding actor in every way (speaking of operatic, I'm watching the brilliant "Ozymandias" episode of BrBa right now).  He can be dramatic.  He can be funny.  He can be charismatic and enigmatic.  He can be nerdy or menacing.  He was fully believable as a brainy teacher turned drug kingpin.   He hit all the right notes.  There's a reason why he can successfully go back and forth between TV and movies and the stage (winning awards for his TV and stage work), and it's because he is just that talented.  You can tell he is a very smart person in real life, and he can play into/interpret all of the nuances of the characters he takes on.  I'm positive that BC could win an Oscar if he landed the right role.

 

Bob Odenkirk -- while being able to play the amusing lawyer-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-law very well -- hasn't hit a lot of those notes and nuances yet.  He is a good actor for what he has to do, but I would like to see more range from him.  I am hoping that Better Call Saul will be a way to showcase more of what he can do.  So far, it's Saul being Saul...or Jimmy being Saul...or Jimmy being Jimmy...or whoever the hell he is.

Edited by Sherry67
Link to comment

Similar to others: started a little slow, timeline confusion, etc., but as soon as Saul started explaining the scam to the skaters I knew I was back in the hands of a talented show runner.

Amused by the "no cars ever look alike" complaint, though. In my zip code (hell, in my apartment parking lot) it's a battalion of black Nissan Altimas.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I could tell Jimmy was on to the scam before he kicked him. You could see the little change in his demeanor that showed he knew they were pulling a con.

When I said I jumped and gasped when Jimmy hit the skateboarder, I meant when he hit him with his car. Funny that as he drove while talking on the phone, I kept expecting him to hit or nearly hit someone, but the scene just went on and on and then BOOM! Well done, show.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

When I said I jumped and gasped when Jimmy hit the skateboarder, I meant when he hit him with his car. Funny that as he drove while talking on the phone, I kept expecting him to hit or nearly hit someone, but the scene just went on and on and then BOOM! Well done, show.

And because it was the Breaking Bad-verse, you had no idea how bad it was going to get. I was expecting it to be a dead kid and that's why he has to leave town and change his name to Saul and so on and so forth, and so I was still cringing when I realized it was a scam (around the time the one brother was threatening to call the cops). They played that all just right.

Edited by kieyra
Link to comment

Surprised at the many negative responses. I loved it, could watch Odenkirk all night - he's such a compelling loser and I like the brothers' relationship.

One caveat. Should we assume, given Tuco, that the two hapless skateboarders are now dead, because I'd have trouble with that kind of mini-massacre so early in the series.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I seriously doubt Saul was hiding because of fear of legal repercussions. They made it pretty clear in the Cinnabon scene that what he fears is being *killed*. Post-BB, lots of people are dead, lots of people got burned, and in a way he was at the center of it all. It was time to get out of Dodge.

Edited by kieyra
  • Love 2
Link to comment

When I said I jumped and gasped when Jimmy hit the skateboarder, I meant when he hit him with his car. Funny that as he drove while talking on the phone, I kept expecting him to hit or nearly hit someone, but the scene just went on and on and then BOOM! Well done, show.

Ah. Yes, I see and agree.

 

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned the one thing that I immediately thought about posting about when I saw it in the show -- is there really a model of car called the Esteem??? I googled it and only found one made in India. But fake or not, nice touch, show.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Ah. Yes, I see and agree.

 

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned the one thing that I immediately thought about posting about when I saw it in the show -- is there really a model of car called the Esteem??? I googled it and only found one made in India. But fake or not, nice touch, show.

What's funny is that in my head I assumed it was real, and also decided it was probably made by Ford.

Link to comment

Ah. Yes, I see and agree.

 

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned the one thing that I immediately thought about posting about when I saw it in the show -- is there really a model of car called the Esteem??? I googled it and only found one made in India. But fake or not, nice touch, show.

 

 

What's funny is that in my head I assumed it was real, and also decided it was probably made by Ford.

 

Suzuki, actually.

Link to comment

He helped launder money. He helped a criminal, several criminals.

 

And Huel, his right hand man,  had already vanished without explanation.  We knew where he was but I don't think Saul did.  Furthermore, Saul had no idea what kind of records or notes Walter kept.   If the cops were on to Walter -- and they were -- Saul had to believe there was a very real chance he'd be implicated. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I seriously doubt Saul was hiding because of fear of legal repercussions. They made it pretty clear in the Cinnabon scene that what he fears is being *killed*. Post-BB, lots of people are dead, lots of people got burned, and in a way he was at the center of it all. It was time to get out of Dodge.

That's what I thought, too. Legally, yes, he helped Walt and Jesse launder money, but how do the authorities know that? But as for his fear of getting killed, if the neo-Nazis are all dead, who is he in fear of?

Link to comment

So, they cut out the whole brother in the law firm scene for tonight, and frankly, the show is playing better without it.  I know we need it as some kind of background and he will be a character, but it really was a much tighter episode without it.

 

Tight!  Tight!  Tight!

Link to comment

 

They weren't looking for Betsy any longer.  They thought they knew where she was. She may have passed unnoticed.

I can totally accept that the characters would have been oblivious.  The problem is that I watched closely and there were no other cars which passed.

 

For me, the genius of BrBa was how it relied on the smallest of hints and allusions.  So many have taken pleasure in noting those things.  BCS has continued this tradition, as several have noted in this thread.  The problem is, if they want us to drill down and be fine with our focus, they can't then blow massively important happenings, like the gargantuan coinkydink for which we are to suspend disbelief.  That is not good storytelling.  

 

YMMV.

Link to comment

I can totally accept that the characters would have been oblivious.  The problem is that I watched closely and there were no other cars which passed.

 

For me, the genius of BrBa was how it relied on the smallest of hints and allusions.  So many have taken pleasure in noting those things.  BCS has continued this tradition, as several have noted in this thread.  The problem is, if they want us to drill down and be fine with our focus, they can't then blow massively important happenings, like the gargantuan coinkydink for which we are to suspend disbelief.  That is not good storytelling.  

 

YMMV.

I don't think this requires too much thought.  Saul thinks Betsy will be going to the school.  You saw no other cars like hers pass.  Ergo, she didn't head in the direction of the school.  Or she went a different way that Saul didn't think about.  She turned left instead of right at the end of her cul-de-sac.  She had to stop at the pharmacy before going to the school.  Any number of explanations that make perfect sense.  

  • Love 11
Link to comment

That's what I thought, too. Legally, yes, he helped Walt and Jesse launder money, but how do the authorities know that? But as for his fear of getting killed, if the neo-Nazis are all dead, who is he in fear of?

Couldn't Jesse have revealed it in the tape he made for Hank and Gomez? Another thing to consider is that Saul doesn't know what the authorities know about him and what he did. He also doesn't know if any bad guy is out to get him or not. So it's not really a question of who knows about Saul, but that Saul doesn't know who knows.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Given that they've established the precedence of flash-forwards, it seems possible we'll find out exactly what drove Saul to Cinnabon. Unless that flash-forward was a one-off joke.

 

What I found amusing -- when peeking over on IMDB to see who was arguing about what earlier today -- is that one snippet of a conversation actually seemed centered around the unfairness of the portrayal of working life at Cinnabon as being bleak and depressing.  Lol.  If anything, I think this will draw more attention to Cinnabon's ooey gooey goodness, and make them a part of a critically acclaimed piece of pop culture.  I don't think they have to worry about people thinking Cinnabon is a bad place to work.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Couldn't Jesse have revealed it in the tape he made for Hank and Gomez? Another thing to consider is that Saul doesn't know what the authorities know about him and what he did. He also doesn't know if any bad guy is out to get him or not. So it's not really a question of who knows about Saul, but that Saul doesn't know who knows.

I'm not sure how he he could have not learned about the final shoot-out (with the whole clan killed). A story like that gets huge publicity. Plus, he knew people. I don't know what other bad guys are after him. As for the tape with Jesse, I thought of that too, but first off, Jesse would have had to implicate Saul in some way criminally, which I can't imagine he did except for money laundering. And secondly, where's the proof? Jesse's MIA, and the money disappeared, too.

I don't think the DEA or the cops care about finding Saul. I think it's the so-called bad guys he's scared of. I just don't know who they are.

Link to comment

Given that they've established the precedence of flash-forwards, it seems possible we'll find out exactly what drove Saul to Cinnabon. Unless that flash-forward was a one-off joke.

I think it was a one-off. Frankly, I had this same question at the end of BB, so it feels like a BB question as opposed to the new show, because in Saul's last appearance on BB, he and Walt were in hiding together in the fixer's basement and talking about both going on the lam. That's when Saul said his best case scenerio would be working at a Cinnabon in Omaha.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Among the many things that I love about Vince Gilligan & his team is the brilliance of casting actors with tremendous comedy chops in what are (essentially) dramatic roles.

"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Leavening subtle comedy into these stories helps us hang in there with the dark stuff. While Better Call Saul is so far much lighter in tone than BrBa, it has the potential for great gnarliness.

  • Love 4
Link to comment
As for Chuck's belief that he suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity - there are quite a few people insist they have that condition. And there are a whole lot of other people who insist it doesn't exist, and that its so-called sufferers are just crazy. The science surrounding it isn't exactly clear.

 

The science surrounding it is abundantly clear. It's a crackpot malady. Those who claim to suffer from it have been shown in studies to be unable to tell the difference between exposure to real vs fake electromagnetic fields. It is not recognized by any competent medical organization as a real affliction.

  • Love 4
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...