OT: "Better Call Saul" Season 1

HarthorneWingo · Post #1 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:20 am

Oh boy. I can't f*cking wait. Check out the trailer. Series premier is February 8.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/be ... aul-review

BETTER CALL SAUL REVIEW: THE LAST HURRAH OF DIFFICULT MEN
The Saul Goodman series starts out already better than Breaking Bad.
By Stephen Marche on January 21, 2015

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I'll just say it: The first few episodes that I saw are better than Breaking Bad. They are smarter. They are sharper. I have never seen a prequel handled so cleverly. What we know from the previous series about Saul Goodman, or James McGill as he is known in Better Call Saul, provides a kind of counterintuitive suspense mechanism.
Spoiler:
In the very first shot, in silent black and white, we see the ruins of Saul Goodman after the action of Breaking Bad, just as he said he would be. He's working at a Cinnabon in a mall, terrified of anyone slightly threatening who walks into the store. The question for the plot is: How did he become this way? How did he fail so catastrophically?

Other familiar characters from Breaking Bad make quiet appearances, no doubt to blow up later, but Saul is absolutely the focus of the show—an antihero in the established antiheroic mode but maybe even a better lens than his predecessors for examining the breakdown of contemporary masculinity. The other shows from the difficult-men period of television were extreme examples of the state of decline: the gangster who has seen the gangster code erode, the ad executive watching the shuddering transformation of the 1960s, the chemistry teacher who takes up meth. They were symbols. But Saul Goodman (sorry, James McGill) is much more representative of the real decline than those icons. He's a lawyer who can't make a living honestly, a fate that is known to many real people. A job that once guaranteed a middle-class existence has left him hanging onto his **** car and sleeping in a foldout bed in his office. Plenty of Americans can relate to that.

The opening courtroom scene of Better Call Saul could not be more perfect. McGill's first words are
Spoiler:
"Oh, to be nineteen again," which serve as a kind of a bracket to Tony Soprano's line from the first episode of The Sopranos: "Lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over." What was tragedy for Tony, McGill plays out as farce. It turns out that Saul's description of "youthful exuberance" is in defense of a group of teenagers who have gone into a morgue, cut off the head of a corpse, and **** it.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1xIGfVFb-U[/youtube]

So Saul does not begin as a good man who falls. He begins as a man doing whatever he has to do to survive, and we are called to watch the last shreds of his dignity and sense of self-worth dissolve, along with any residual morality.

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXNML_KSE8[/youtube]

blumatic · Post #2 » by **blumatic** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:28 am

That looks great already. I cant wait.

Boarder Patrol · Post #3 » by **Boarder Patrol** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:33 am

Super excited for this. Anything made by that crew has my attention.

ibraheim718 · Post #4 » by **ibraheim718** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:34 am

HarthorneWingo wrote:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1xIGfVFb-U[/youtube]

So Saul does not begin as a good man who falls. He begins as a man doing whatever he has to do to survive, and we are called to watch the last shreds of his dignity and sense of self-worth dissolve, along with any residual morality.

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Haha.. that alley he's running down is right across the street from my friends barber shop. Looks great.

DaGawd · Post #5 » by **DaGawd** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:52 am

I gotta see it to believe it's better than breaking bad...

HarthorneWingo · Post #6 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 5:33 am

DaGawd wrote:I gotta see it to believe it's better than breaking bad...

Yeah, I thought the same thing until I saw the trailer. Then when you consider that they're starting "Saul" after they perfected BB and developed all that chemistry amongst the cast, crew and writers on that show. So "Saul" really just picks up where BB left off from that perspective (obviously not the story timeline). But yeah, hard to think that they could beat Walt, Jesse, Hank, Gus, et al.

Post #7 » by **j4remi** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:51 pm

I'm still skeptical, but the excitement is building.

J9Starks3 · Post #8 » by **J9Starks3** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:03 pm

Im super excited - but saying its already better than BB is a bit much right now... and nothing in the trailer really makes me think differently. What made BB so amazing was the character development (due to amazing writing/acting/directing/etc). Looking at a trailer cannot give me any real insight into the development of the characters or (sub)plot lines.

This is a bit like calling Frye the next KG after 10 rookie games...

Ignitowsky · Post #9 » by **Ignitowsky** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:17 pm

I'm very much looking forward to this show and I have great expectations for it, but PLEASE, to already call it better than BB is just crazy. They're going to need to be co0nsistently great over the next 5 years to be able to even BE in that debate.

kane · Post #10 » by **kane** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:32 pm

im going in with low expectations just so im not disappointed but im sure it will be a decent show, i love BB and saul was one of my favorite characters... only problem i can see he was his was the comic relief and so was most of his crew and thats what made him so good but in small doses

what made breaking bad so good was bryan cranston and the story of walter white so whos going to bring the drama? i just get the vibe this is more of a cash grab and is trying to ride the coat tails of breaking bad but im really hopping for the best

whoever called it "already better then breaking bad" is trying to get hits and id never trust that site or reviewer again its just a stupid thing to say

Post #11 » by **dakomish23** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:40 pm

This guy is a good actor. Artillery Arthur on HIMYM

newyorker4ever · Post #12 » by **newyorker4ever** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:41 pm

How can anyone make any comments about it being better than BBC which is one of the greatest shows ever before it even starts? RIDICULOUS!!!!!

newyorker4ever · Post #13 » by **newyorker4ever** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:41 pm

How can anyone make any comments about it being better than BB which is one of the greatest shows ever before it even starts? RIDICULOUS!!!!!

TheBigBoss · Post #14 » by **TheBigBoss** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:49 pm

Yes I'm not going to take that "it's already better than bb" line seriously so I can keep my expectations low. However, I will say that after that after that last Gus season, I didn't think it was possible exceed that season, but then the final season actually did. So who knows? I learned not to doubt the writers of the show.

TheBigBoss · Post #15 » by **TheBigBoss** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:57 pm

Yes I'm not going to take that "it's already better than bb" line seriously so I can keep my expectations low. However, I will say that after that after that last Gus season, I didn't think it was possible exceed that season, but then the final season actually did. So who knows? I learned not to doubt the writers of the show.

fresko024 · Post #16 » by **fresko024** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 7:01 pm

I'm gonna take the wait and see approach. They're just saying the first few episodes are better than BB first few which isn't hard to believe. It did start pretty slow. I personally liked how it began but I know I had to talk a lot of people into sticking out the first couple of seasons.

vallen · Post #17 » by **vallen** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 7:23 pm

we'll see. tough to get into a show that you already know how it ends.

Sonny Carson · Post #18 » by **Sonny Carson** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 8:22 pm

J9Starks3 · Post #19 » by **J9Starks3** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 9:17 pm

vallen wrote:we'll see. tough to get into a show that you already know how it ends.

I wouldnt say that...its a prequel, you know how BB starts, not necessarily how BCS ends.

Another one of my favorite shows, Game of Thrones...would be awesome to have a Robert's Rebellion prequel, I think that could be epic.

HarthorneWingo · Post #20 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:01 am

J9Starks3 wrote:
vallen wrote:we'll see. tough to get into a show that you already know how it ends.

I wouldnt say that...its a prequel, you know how BB starts, not necessarily how BCS ends.

Another one of my favorite shows, Game of Thrones...would be awesome to have a Robert's Rebellion prequel, I think that could be epic.

My guess is that BCS will end at a point in time AFTER the BB ending. So, we really don't know right now how things end up for Saul.