Better Call Saul 1.04
Feb. 24th, 2015 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFelt slower than the previous ones but fleshed out one of the characters and her relationship with our hero, and Odenkirk continues to impress.
I don't know how young Jimmy is supposed to be in the opening flashback; there's no way you can make Bob Odenkirk look like he's in his 20s, of course, but the body language comes across that way, so go him. Young Jimmy and his partner (btw, it's worth free framing that fake ID, which says "Henry Gondorf" - oh, Jimmy, you movie buff!) run a small scam in Chicago, Jimmy uses the alias Saul Goodman for the first time (we presume) during said con, and it sure looks like meth he's inhaling from that glass tube towards the end of the flashback, which puts a new colour on his later relationship with Jesse Pinkman, who, if you think about it, has not a little in common with Slippin' Jimmy before brother Chuck rescued him and tried to get him on the straight and narrow.
In the present, Jimmy's capture of the Kettlemans produces one of those scenes where suburban entitlement makes the viewer loathe them far more than drug dealing criminals - Betsy Kettleman's comparison of her husband's working conditions to slavery, her insistence on keeping the stolen money and, devastatingly for Jimmy, her continued refusal to hire him because "you're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire". Because he's not actually the pride before everything type, he does take the bribe (not retainer!) she offers anyway. Freeing Nacho isn't exactly an hour of triumph for him, either, because Nacho (correctly) still thinks the whole reason for this fiasco was that Jimmy warned the Kettlemans. Since he doesn't have Tucco's psychotic temper, Jimmy's counterpoint - Nacho having made mistakes himself (too obvious scouting out the Kettlemans, so the neigbours saw him, and not cleaning up the van after the twins were taken out to the desert) does seem to sink in.
Of course, in terms of smug entitlement the Kettlemans have nothing on Jimmy's arch nemesis Howard Hamlin, whom the newly cash-embursed Jimmy proceeds to mess with by creating a billboard ad Hamlin is bound to pass by on his way to work with Jimmy looking like a copy of Hamlin, in retaliation for Hamlin telling him not to use the McGill name two episodes earlier. The character fleshed out in this episode isn't Howard Hamlin, though, but Kim Wexler who works for him, as we see more of her friendship with Jimmy (btw, Odenkirk and Kim's actress really sell the easy comraderie here - possibly friends with benefits but not lovers, though there's deep affection on both sides). Kim isn't an upstanding heroine (she denies still being friends with Jimmy when her boss brings it up) , but she tries to help him, and worries about him, and he clearly thinks highly of her (not just because of the tall blonde factor - he tells the Kettlemans that Kim will get them off the hook as their lawyer and his whole "you're too good for working for Hamlin" rant later sounds as he means it). She also obviously shares his passion for movies (and in addition to The Sting in the opening flashback, we get another movie reference by Kim bringing up the Carpenter version of The Thing), which suddenly makes me wonder just how far back these two go, because I could see them in high school together.
Jimmy naturally loses his legal square off against Hamlin, but subsequently is hit by an idea. Now the episode leaves it somewhat open to debate, but given that the opening flashback is about Jimmy and another man running a scam, given that Jimmy and the billboard worker slap each other's hands after Jimmy pulled him up, and given Jimmy's later reluctance to let Chuck see the headline praising him as a hero, I had the impression that Hamlin is right, he did plan the whole rescue as a publicity stunt, as opposed to improvising on the spot when the billboard worker fell. (Of course there's also the possibility that he didn't and doesn't want Chuck to read the news because he knows Chuck, who is familiar with his small time conman career, will assume he did. But I don't think so - Jimmy made damm sure the camera was at the right spot when the whole thing started. Not that the whole thing wasn't stil dangerous, but hey - he was desperate enough.) Either way, it worked, and Jimmy now finally has some clients - but Chuck discovers the headline anyway (with a scene illustrating that wether his current condition is medical or psychosomatic, to him it's very real), and anyway, the audience knows Jimmy won't make it big time in law as Jimmy McGill.
Jimmy's attempt at a friendly chat with Mike this week was hilarious. Mind you, Mike does seem to be warming up to him, because Jonathan Bank's delivery of the punchline didn't sound hostile but more gruffly amused. (I.e. Mike's reply to Jimmy's "you're not the loquacious type, are you?" - "We can't all be as blessed as you".) How Mike will get from the dead end job at the parking booth to becoming Gus Fringe's top hitman and cleaner is of course another mystery the show will unravel.
Breaking Bad tie ins: the use of the Saul Goodman alias in the flashback, of course, but also Jimmy while shopping for the mess-with-Hamlim-copy-suit longingly eyeing the type of orange shirt which will be his trademark look in the mother show. Also, Jimmy's voice mail announcement is such a clumsy contrast to Saul's slick jingles that it's a counterpoint allusion in itself.
I don't know how young Jimmy is supposed to be in the opening flashback; there's no way you can make Bob Odenkirk look like he's in his 20s, of course, but the body language comes across that way, so go him. Young Jimmy and his partner (btw, it's worth free framing that fake ID, which says "Henry Gondorf" - oh, Jimmy, you movie buff!) run a small scam in Chicago, Jimmy uses the alias Saul Goodman for the first time (we presume) during said con, and it sure looks like meth he's inhaling from that glass tube towards the end of the flashback, which puts a new colour on his later relationship with Jesse Pinkman, who, if you think about it, has not a little in common with Slippin' Jimmy before brother Chuck rescued him and tried to get him on the straight and narrow.
In the present, Jimmy's capture of the Kettlemans produces one of those scenes where suburban entitlement makes the viewer loathe them far more than drug dealing criminals - Betsy Kettleman's comparison of her husband's working conditions to slavery, her insistence on keeping the stolen money and, devastatingly for Jimmy, her continued refusal to hire him because "you're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire". Because he's not actually the pride before everything type, he does take the bribe (not retainer!) she offers anyway. Freeing Nacho isn't exactly an hour of triumph for him, either, because Nacho (correctly) still thinks the whole reason for this fiasco was that Jimmy warned the Kettlemans. Since he doesn't have Tucco's psychotic temper, Jimmy's counterpoint - Nacho having made mistakes himself (too obvious scouting out the Kettlemans, so the neigbours saw him, and not cleaning up the van after the twins were taken out to the desert) does seem to sink in.
Of course, in terms of smug entitlement the Kettlemans have nothing on Jimmy's arch nemesis Howard Hamlin, whom the newly cash-embursed Jimmy proceeds to mess with by creating a billboard ad Hamlin is bound to pass by on his way to work with Jimmy looking like a copy of Hamlin, in retaliation for Hamlin telling him not to use the McGill name two episodes earlier. The character fleshed out in this episode isn't Howard Hamlin, though, but Kim Wexler who works for him, as we see more of her friendship with Jimmy (btw, Odenkirk and Kim's actress really sell the easy comraderie here - possibly friends with benefits but not lovers, though there's deep affection on both sides). Kim isn't an upstanding heroine (she denies still being friends with Jimmy when her boss brings it up) , but she tries to help him, and worries about him, and he clearly thinks highly of her (not just because of the tall blonde factor - he tells the Kettlemans that Kim will get them off the hook as their lawyer and his whole "you're too good for working for Hamlin" rant later sounds as he means it). She also obviously shares his passion for movies (and in addition to The Sting in the opening flashback, we get another movie reference by Kim bringing up the Carpenter version of The Thing), which suddenly makes me wonder just how far back these two go, because I could see them in high school together.
Jimmy naturally loses his legal square off against Hamlin, but subsequently is hit by an idea. Now the episode leaves it somewhat open to debate, but given that the opening flashback is about Jimmy and another man running a scam, given that Jimmy and the billboard worker slap each other's hands after Jimmy pulled him up, and given Jimmy's later reluctance to let Chuck see the headline praising him as a hero, I had the impression that Hamlin is right, he did plan the whole rescue as a publicity stunt, as opposed to improvising on the spot when the billboard worker fell. (Of course there's also the possibility that he didn't and doesn't want Chuck to read the news because he knows Chuck, who is familiar with his small time conman career, will assume he did. But I don't think so - Jimmy made damm sure the camera was at the right spot when the whole thing started. Not that the whole thing wasn't stil dangerous, but hey - he was desperate enough.) Either way, it worked, and Jimmy now finally has some clients - but Chuck discovers the headline anyway (with a scene illustrating that wether his current condition is medical or psychosomatic, to him it's very real), and anyway, the audience knows Jimmy won't make it big time in law as Jimmy McGill.
Jimmy's attempt at a friendly chat with Mike this week was hilarious. Mind you, Mike does seem to be warming up to him, because Jonathan Bank's delivery of the punchline didn't sound hostile but more gruffly amused. (I.e. Mike's reply to Jimmy's "you're not the loquacious type, are you?" - "We can't all be as blessed as you".) How Mike will get from the dead end job at the parking booth to becoming Gus Fringe's top hitman and cleaner is of course another mystery the show will unravel.
Breaking Bad tie ins: the use of the Saul Goodman alias in the flashback, of course, but also Jimmy while shopping for the mess-with-Hamlim-copy-suit longingly eyeing the type of orange shirt which will be his trademark look in the mother show. Also, Jimmy's voice mail announcement is such a clumsy contrast to Saul's slick jingles that it's a counterpoint allusion in itself.
