Better Call Saul 2.03.
Mar. 1st, 2016 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which your faithful reviewer is unhappy twice over, once in a "good storytelling" and once in a "storytelling I don't like" kind of way.
To wit: I'm bothered by the show seemingly giving Mike the kind of apologistic story Breaking Bad so firmly rejected for Walt - i.e. "He does it all for the sake of his family, only for them and the need to give them oney does he slide further and further into criminality". Furthermore, I also dislike that it makes his daughter-in-law the culprit who guilts him into it. I suppose you could say that Mike already IS a criminal and became one for totally family unrelated reasons, because he was a dirty cop (i.e criminal) before ever entering Albuquerque, but still. If the show keeps this up and doesn't provide Mike with the equivalent of Walt's "Elliot and Gretchen offer to finance the entire cancer treatment" scene soon, and keeps up the adorable granddaughter scenes, making Mike the martyr to his grandfatherly love, I'm going to resent that, big time.
Otoh: the show's doing great with Jimmy's development. I mean, it also tears my heart out (don't lie to Kim, Jimmy, don't do it! Do show your boss the commercial! Etc.), but it's entirely in character and means Jimmy's road to Saul-dom is in the end more due to internal than to external factors. We see Chuck continuing the passiv-aggressive digs (unerringly spotting an opening to point out a flaw in the ointment) during the conference, but it's Jimmy who skips over letting his boss okay the commercial before broadcasting it. There are mitigating factors - Cliff has declared approval of the general idea, he's been encouraging and full of praise for Jimmy's efforts so far - , but it still was the king of thing that could have been easily avoided. Whether it was impatience with bureaucracy or insecurity that made Jimmy not wait for approval but send the tape to the tv stations right away, when he could have easily waited and run it by Cliff first, he did it, leading not only to a furious boss but to his first direct lie to Kim. And when there's one thing that always backfires in this 'verse, it's lying to your partner.
Meanwhile, Kim and Jimmy having a movie night continues the theme of both of them being movie buffs who get each other's tastes, and the Alpine Shepherd Boy lady from s1 makes a return for Jimmy's anti Sandpiper commercial. Note he's saving the Alpine Shephard Boy from molestation by film students. There's a reason why old people adore him.
Jimmy's idea with the commercials also of course foreshadows the ones he'll use as Saul.
To wit: I'm bothered by the show seemingly giving Mike the kind of apologistic story Breaking Bad so firmly rejected for Walt - i.e. "He does it all for the sake of his family, only for them and the need to give them oney does he slide further and further into criminality". Furthermore, I also dislike that it makes his daughter-in-law the culprit who guilts him into it. I suppose you could say that Mike already IS a criminal and became one for totally family unrelated reasons, because he was a dirty cop (i.e criminal) before ever entering Albuquerque, but still. If the show keeps this up and doesn't provide Mike with the equivalent of Walt's "Elliot and Gretchen offer to finance the entire cancer treatment" scene soon, and keeps up the adorable granddaughter scenes, making Mike the martyr to his grandfatherly love, I'm going to resent that, big time.
Otoh: the show's doing great with Jimmy's development. I mean, it also tears my heart out (don't lie to Kim, Jimmy, don't do it! Do show your boss the commercial! Etc.), but it's entirely in character and means Jimmy's road to Saul-dom is in the end more due to internal than to external factors. We see Chuck continuing the passiv-aggressive digs (unerringly spotting an opening to point out a flaw in the ointment) during the conference, but it's Jimmy who skips over letting his boss okay the commercial before broadcasting it. There are mitigating factors - Cliff has declared approval of the general idea, he's been encouraging and full of praise for Jimmy's efforts so far - , but it still was the king of thing that could have been easily avoided. Whether it was impatience with bureaucracy or insecurity that made Jimmy not wait for approval but send the tape to the tv stations right away, when he could have easily waited and run it by Cliff first, he did it, leading not only to a furious boss but to his first direct lie to Kim. And when there's one thing that always backfires in this 'verse, it's lying to your partner.
Meanwhile, Kim and Jimmy having a movie night continues the theme of both of them being movie buffs who get each other's tastes, and the Alpine Shepherd Boy lady from s1 makes a return for Jimmy's anti Sandpiper commercial. Note he's saving the Alpine Shephard Boy from molestation by film students. There's a reason why old people adore him.
Jimmy's idea with the commercials also of course foreshadows the ones he'll use as Saul.
