Better Call Saul 1.01 and 1.02
Feb. 10th, 2015 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI wasn't burning with the desire to find out about Saul Goodman's origin story, but Vince Gilligan and friends have earned a lot of good will from me, and so I tuned in.
So far, so amusing. Also, so well directed, by Breaking Bad veterans, and hey, good to see that landscape again. Jimmy McGilll, the future Saul, doesn't get a death sentence in his pilot the way Walter White does, but he's far down there in the capitalist hierarchy, and Gilligan gets to employ his trademark black humor a lot, from Jimmy's public defendant cases to one ofthe mother show's first prominent psychos whom Jimmy has to talk down from executing himself as well as the two idiots he was trying to run a scam with. The later is the standout scene for Bod Odenkirk so far, with the big surprise being that Jimmy doesn't take off as soon as his own survival is assured but actually sticks around to save his two "clients" against all the odds. That this comes across as believable given all the participants involved is amazing, but it does.
The show also gives Jimmy an older brother who after an as yet unspecified misfortune went from partner in a law firm to phobia-plagued and self-imprisoned hermit, but also establishes Jimmy was already going for cons before this happened (and is in fact currently on the relatively straight and narrow), so it's not his brother's status as the reason for Jimmy's destination towards a future in lawyery crime, but it does give him another character to care about, which helps fleshing him out beyond the comic relief he was on BB.
Given the prequel premise, the fate of any BB character is already assured, so I'm not surprised the show also introduces some new ones in its opening two parter; one looked eerily familiar until it hit me - the actor also plays Sarah's ex Vic in Orphan Black, only his character here, Nacho, is far cooler headed and smarter. Also I'm assuming the tall blonde Jimmy shared a smoke with in the first episode has some kind of backstory with him which we'll later find out (beyond establishing Future Saul likes tall bossy blondes who secretly smoke).
All in all: a good start. We'll see how it continues.
So far, so amusing. Also, so well directed, by Breaking Bad veterans, and hey, good to see that landscape again. Jimmy McGilll, the future Saul, doesn't get a death sentence in his pilot the way Walter White does, but he's far down there in the capitalist hierarchy, and Gilligan gets to employ his trademark black humor a lot, from Jimmy's public defendant cases to one ofthe mother show's first prominent psychos whom Jimmy has to talk down from executing himself as well as the two idiots he was trying to run a scam with. The later is the standout scene for Bod Odenkirk so far, with the big surprise being that Jimmy doesn't take off as soon as his own survival is assured but actually sticks around to save his two "clients" against all the odds. That this comes across as believable given all the participants involved is amazing, but it does.
The show also gives Jimmy an older brother who after an as yet unspecified misfortune went from partner in a law firm to phobia-plagued and self-imprisoned hermit, but also establishes Jimmy was already going for cons before this happened (and is in fact currently on the relatively straight and narrow), so it's not his brother's status as the reason for Jimmy's destination towards a future in lawyery crime, but it does give him another character to care about, which helps fleshing him out beyond the comic relief he was on BB.
Given the prequel premise, the fate of any BB character is already assured, so I'm not surprised the show also introduces some new ones in its opening two parter; one looked eerily familiar until it hit me - the actor also plays Sarah's ex Vic in Orphan Black, only his character here, Nacho, is far cooler headed and smarter. Also I'm assuming the tall blonde Jimmy shared a smoke with in the first episode has some kind of backstory with him which we'll later find out (beyond establishing Future Saul likes tall bossy blondes who secretly smoke).
All in all: a good start. We'll see how it continues.
