Better Call Saul

[R_R_X]

It's funny watching pretentious millennial TV critics bending over backwards to fellate themselves over how "devastated" a stupid TV show made them. It's like they're jealous that they weren't around for Twin Peaks or The Sopranos so they so desperately NEED some kind of high-art television show they claim as their own.

Better Call Saul sucks. It gives new meaning to the words "boring" and "meandering." After a decade of people telling him his **** don't stink, Vince Gilligan believes his own hype. There's nothing "artsy" or "groundbreaking" about this show. It's just student-film level self-congratulatory wankery.

I gave this show a fair shot cause I love Bob Odenkirk and I liked his character on Breaking Bad. After a few seasons, it became evident to me that this was the TV equivalent of watching paint dry and I stopped watching it.

I caught the last two weeks' episodes though cause my parents were watching it. (Well, it was on the TV...they weren't really "watching" it cause both of them were staring at tablets the whole time.) It's just as bad as I remembered it.

Does anyone truly, honestly ENJOY watching this show, or do people just say they like it to sound cultured?

Been watching it since it premiered in 2015 and love the show as much as I love Breaking Bad, Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood and a bunch of others.

Funnily enough I found Twink Peaks and Sopranos got way more pretentious and "artsy" than Better Call Saul ever has, a lot of people watch it and enjoy it for the deep character studies of the main characters much like Sopranos and the like and because it's a fantastic prequel that adds to the world of Breaking Bad.

You should also know Vince Gilligan had barely anything to do with most of the show, he only came back for the final season and it has been fantastic so far, the show is definitely a slow burn and you may find it boring but that doesn't mean everyone else shares your opinion and is simply pretending to be an uptight snob with a master's film studies degree to fit in with a crowd.

I'm a simple guy, my favorite form of entertainment media is video games, I like superhero movies like the Spider-Man flicks and No Way Home, I like mindless action like DOOM, I like sci-fi and some action movies with idiotic plots, I also like Better Call Saul, different folks, different strokes.

 

[Prime Clone]

it's a fantastic prequel that adds to the world of Breaking Bad.

As great as it is in its own right, yes it should be seen as a prequel and probably only viewed after BB. Otherwise it might seem weird watching Saul relegated to a background character.

 

[R_R_X]

As great as it is in its own right, yes it should be seen as a prequel and probably only viewed after BB. Otherwise it might seem weird watching Saul relegated to a background character.

I agree, I meant that it didn't retcon characters and stayed true to the world we know in Breaking Bad while adding more layers to it, the fact they built an entire storyline based on a throwaway line and completely changed the way I view certain things in Breaking Bad is out of this world.

 

[choombaz]

As great as it is in its own right, yes it should be seen as a prequel and probably only viewed after BB. Otherwise it might seem weird watching Saul relegated to a background character.

I know people who love Better Call Saul and haven’t even seen BB. It’s a great character study that stands on its own.

 

[Cocoboloboy]

Can’t believe there’s only one more episode left. I’m gonna have to track down another weekly show to watch. BCS was the only drama with new episodes that I actually looked forward to.

 

[Otomofan]

I liked Breaking Bad and thought it was a very entertaining television series, but I didn't think it was the second coming or anything.

One of my favorite things about the show was Odenkirk's character. I've been a fan of his since Ben Stiller Show/Mr. Show, so it's been crazy to see him become a household name after all those decades. (I liked "Nobody" too.)

I tried giving this a shot, and it just bored me to tears. I hung in there til

Spoiler

Chuck died

and then I just gave up. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

I've only checked back in cause my parents were watching the last few episodes and they represented everything that drove me away from watching the show.

I guess I was unfair in attributing this slow, slow, slow boring meandering nonsense to Gilligan. I guess his acolytes are responsible for the over-indulgence.

Well....hopefully the finale satisfies you guys that are fans of the show. I'm just looking forward to whatever Odenkirk does next. (God that was terrifying when he almost died last year. I don't think I've ever been so concerned for a complete stranger in my life!)

 

[pixletwin]

Sounds like you were more than bored. I sense a bit of resentment.

I personally have loved this show.

 

[Otomofan]

Resentment? I don't know about that.

I guess if I resented anything, it's that right from the start it wasn't the show that they pitched. It was supposed to be a "crazy lawyer takes a goofy case of the week" lawyer show, like a mix of "Night Court" and "LA Law." Even the title sequences seemed to be referencing the 80s, especially with the VHS effects.

Clearly that's not what we got. They wanted to go all in on the character drama. It didn't work for me. I was never that interested in Jimmy McGill. I wanted "it's Saul Goodman!" And there was precious little Saul over the course of the show that I watched.

Mostly I was just bored.

 

[R_R_X]

I liked Breaking Bad and thought it was a very entertaining television series, but I didn't think it was the second coming or anything.

One of my favorite things about the show was Odenkirk's character. I've been a fan of his since Ben Stiller Show/Mr. Show, so it's been crazy to see him become a household name after all those decades. (I liked "Nobody" too.)

I tried giving this a shot, and it just bored me to tears. I hung in there til

Spoiler

Chuck died

and then I just gave up. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

You missed a lot, season 4 picks up the pace and after Lalo's introduction season 5 and 6 quickly became the best of the show.

I've only checked back in cause my parents were watching the last few episodes and they represented everything that drove me away from watching the show.

I guess I was unfair in attributing this slow, slow, slow boring meandering nonsense to Gilligan. I guess his acolytes are responsible for the over-indulgence.

Well....hopefully the finale satisfies you guys that are fans of the show. I'm just looking forward to whatever Odenkirk does next. (God that was terrifying when he almost died last year. I don't think I've ever been so concerned for a complete stranger in my life!)

Your parents are watching the last 2 episodes correct? These episodes are acting as a kind of epilogue to show, in these episodes were basically following the boring life of Jimmy/Saul undercover and seeing him get progressively worse as a person due to several factors.

Me too, I'm worried about the finale because they said it's "something different" and I don't want something similar to the Sopranos or equally unsatisfying. (Yeah that was really horrifying you never realize how short life is until something so sudden like that happens, we're lucky Bob pulled through not many are so lucky.)

 

[Prime Clone]

I know people who love Better Call Saul and haven’t even seen BB.

In that case it *would* be interesting to see what they think of BB, with Saul relegated to the background.

 

[Rotfish]

 

[R_R_X]

It was bittersweet but I thought it was a very fitting ending.

Spoiler

Saul did end up using the "time machine" by confessing to all his crimes and finally coming to terms with the fact he was never meant to be that person, he was always Jimmy McGill, the person we and Kim loved, he choose to live the rest of his life in prison over the actual prison he was living in, which was Saul/Gene and in doing so he's finally at peace knowing Kim forgives him and that he made things right for the families that were destroyed by himself and Walt, he also began healing from Chuck's death which he refused to and it was another thing that destroyed him inside, it was good to see that ******** Walt, Chuck and Marie one last time as well.
Walt died, Jesse escaped and Saul/Jimmy is in prison, perfect.

 

[Rotfish]

I mean I get it, but... eh.

Spoiler

I feel like halfway through season 6 (when they pivoted from pre-BB to post), the writers went out of their way to avoid an unimaginative ending. Yet they still came up with an unimaginative ending. It satisfies the needs of the characters, it has some poetic symmetry to it, but it doesn't compel me.

It would be like ending BB after Walt admits to Skylar that he did it all for himself. I don't know what the shootout equivalent would've or could've been for this show, but this finale felt more like an epilogue than a true finale. The meat and potatoes all came before, in BB and much earlier in BCS.

I say "much earlier" because season 6 felt clumsy really clumsy compared to the others. Meandered in some spots, breezed through others.

I really liked "Nippy," though.

 

[R_R_X]

I mean I get it, but... eh.

Spoiler

I feel like halfway through season 6 (when they pivoted from pre-BB to post), the writers went out of their way to avoid an unimaginative ending. Yet they still came up with an unimaginative ending. It satisfies the needs of the characters, it has some poetic symmetry to it, but it doesn't compel me.

It would be like ending BB after Walt admits to Skylar that he did it all for himself. I don't know what the shootout equivalent would've or could've been for this show, but this finale felt more like an epilogue than a true finale. The meat and potatoes all came before, in BB and much earlier in BCS.

I say "much earlier" because season 6 felt clumsy really clumsy compared to the others. Meandered in some spots, breezed through others.

I really liked "Nippy," though.

Spoiler

Because that's what it was, an epilogue, the actual Better Call Saul ended with Fun and Games right after Saul sat down at his office, then the tape stopped and we've been seeing the epilogue with Gene, the show was over but wasn't if it makes sense.

I wasn't expecting any type of shootout or something similar to it, this was always a show mainly about the law until the cartel business came into play and the show ended after those two worlds collided, for this epilogue I was expecting a big "showdown" at the courtroom and that's exactly what I got, Saul is gone but Jimmy lives.

But hey if you didn't like it then to each his own, I thought it fit the show like a glove, it was never explosive like Breaking Bad, it was it's own thing and sticked to what made it different.

 

[Cocoboloboy]

It was a satisfying enough ending. The series as a whole was excellent. I think it wrapped up Saul’s character quite well and Kim’s even better. Nacho remains the best character arch and ending in the series for me though.

 

[Rotfish]

Spoiler

Because that's what it was, an epilogue, the actual Better Call Saul ended with Fun and Games right after Saul sat down at his office, then the tape stopped and we've been seeing the epilogue with Gene, the show was over but wasn't if it makes sense.

I wasn't expecting any type of shootout or something similar to it, this was always a show mainly about the law until the cartle business came into play and the show ended after those two worlds collided, for this epilogue I was expecting a big "showdown" at the courtroom and that's exactly what I got, Saul is gone but Jimmy lives.

But hey if you didn't like it then to each his own, I thought it fit the show like a glove, it was never explosive like Breaking Bad, it was it's own thing and sticked to what made it different.

Spoiler

Yeah, I didn't think we'd get a shootout either, but some kind of twist that wouldn't have been thematically telegraphed through the whole show (Jimmy refusing to admit Saul is in his nature, Walt refusing to admit his ego drives him more than his family, these are all crucial character moments but we saw them coming). Again, no idea what else they could've done, this is definitely a "me" problem. I guess I just wanted BCS to have its Baby Blue moment and for it to feel more emotional, more like a release. Maybe the bus ride at the end was supposed to be it?

 

[R_R_X]

Spoiler

Yeah, I didn't think we'd get a shootout either, but some kind of twist that wouldn't have been thematically telegraphed through the whole show (Jimmy refusing to admit Saul is in his nature, Walt refusing to admit his ego drives him more than his family, these are all crucial character moments but we saw them coming). Again, no idea what else they could've done, this is definitely a "me" problem. I guess I just wanted BCS to have its Baby Blue moment and for it to feel more emotional, more like a release. Maybe the bus ride at the end was supposed to be it?

Spoiler

For me Breaking Bad's finale is still unmatched and I definitely get that Breaking Bad fans wanted something like it but I'm glad they didn't do that kind of thing just for the sake it, both endings having very distinct styles and tones makes both shows feel completely different and I appreciate it, Walt solved his story the way he knew, with violence and blood, and Jimmy solved it his way, in the courtroom making sure his client got the best outcome possible which was peace of mind, closure and Kim's love.

 

[Rotfish]

Spoiler

For me Breaking Bad's finale is still unmatched and I definitely get that Breaking Bad fans wanted something like it but I'm glad they didn't do that kind of thing just for the sake it, both endings having very distinct styles and tones makes both shows feel completely different and I appreciate it, Walt solved his story the way he knew, with violence and blood, and Jimmy solved it his way, in the courtroom making sure his client got the best outcome possible which was peace of mind, closure and Kim's love.

Spoiler

What about Oakley, though? Is he going to be ok?

 

[R_R_X]

Spoiler

What about Oakley, though? Is he going to be ok?

Spoiler

Saul was his own client if you didn't get what I was saying but man poor Oakley, when he said he wanted to withdraw from the case I burst out laughing, he thought he was sitting on the chance of a life time and then Jimmy started doing the right thing.

 

[Prime Clone]

Not the explosive ending I was expecting but oddly satisfying. Saul is gone and Jimmy reborn.

I was expecting him to pull some killer legal manoeuvre right till the end.