"Better Call Saul" - pre season and Season One Discussion

I agree that BCS totally stands on its own feet. But I don't think we need to worry about BB characters being George Lucased in just for the sake of it. Vince doesn't work like that and he has been quoted many times saying that he will only introduce BB characters if it makes sense to do so by the story narrative. Judging by his history, I have total confidence that this will be the case.

And yes, another year is way too long to wait!

 

I'm still waiting to love this but I'm sticking with it!

 

If you've seen all the eps so far and aren't yet loving it, the show may not be for you.

 

Great episode last evening, very happy overall with this show.

 

I'm kind of curious what thread starter @Sean Murdock thinks about the series. After being vocal about Breaking Bad, you've been awfully quiet about this series since it actually started being broadcast.

Better Call ... Sean?

 

If you saw "Five-O", the episode that gives Mike's backstory and didn't like it, I'd say you're never going to like this show.

 

I did like the Mikey ep and he's my favorite part. I think I want him to be Saul and get in that groove. I don't hate it!

 

I want to comment about how much I like how the Kim character is written. An associate attorney in a law firm is in such a strange position, and those working on this show depict it so well. You get high grades in school and work your butt off to become an attorney, and then you land a plum job with a good law firm--only to find that a nightmare has begun. You endure several years of misery as an associate attorney. You are worked to death by the partners and treated with little respect. You are young, in the prime of life, but exhausted and mentally and psychologically beaten down by the partners. Also, you really do not know much about practicing law from law school, which is not practical at all. So you need the partners to teach you, to mentor you. There is great pressure to get over the hump and become competent in the real world. Until that happens, and you figure out how to really do things, you are inefficient, take too long to do everything, feel incompetent and at the mercy of the partners, who are the only ones who can help you.

As an associate, you have little or no social or personal life, and no work/life balance. You try to maintain a shred of self respect, and try to not submerge your strong personality all the time, but you are very worried about angering the partners, who hold your future in their hands. You are not paid very well as an associate in most firms, so you are striving desperately to become a partner, to have the respect of the legal community and to make it, professionally and financially. To fail, and not make partner, can mean the end of what you have worked for. You may be forced out of the firm and destined to a life of dull work and lower income than you ever expected.

Kim is living through all of this. I shudder as I see her living through it. The show's creators capture it so well.

For her to come into contact with real people, not part of the law firm culture, like Jimmy--that can be a culture shock during the associate years. Jimmy is a particular type of shock to someone living through what Kim is experiencing.

 

I wonder how long it will be before Huell shows up.

 

I can't believe its almost over for the season.

 

It will be interesting to see how much Mike is involved with setting up Saul's office and finding the members of his staff.

 

Well, I'm 100% in love with this show. It had little chance of being this good, IMO, following BB. What a great surprise.

 

HP, thanks for your insights in this thread. Both my brothers are lawyers, one with a medium sized firm, the other with the City. . . I know a little, but haven't heard the first-hand experience you're sharing.

 

Anyone else recognize the guest appearence of the voice of Trevor Philips, Steven Ogg... pretty funny that he resembled his GTA5 character in stature, appearance, and mannerisms. I had a good chuckle from that scene in the parking garage.

 

I agree with some of what you are saying, but Jimmy is slippin' Jimmy. Look at the stunt with "saving the life" of the billboard worker. What honest attorney would do that? Part of what makes the scene between the two brothers at the end of the last episode so powerful is how understandably difficult the relationship is between the two of them. Clearly Chuck is jealous of Jimmy's ability to charm people. But Chuck could be right, bringing an attorney of Jimmy's temperament into the firm could ultimately be a very bad idea. He does like shortcuts. Look how he resolves the Kettleman matter--he has Mike case and break into their house! Initially I felt a bit bad only for Jimmy at the end of this last episode, but on reflection I feel bad for them both.

At any rate, great friggin' writing. I agree with the poster who says this show is now at Breaking Bad level. The writing is anyway.

 

Any doubts about how sleazy Chuck really is, just watch his performance for no one when Hamlin tells Jimmy they want the case but not Jimmy.

Chuck wears this mask of shock the whole time, and nobody is even looking at him, as if when someone did look his way he'd be ready with the face of disgust.

After the talk between Jimmy and Hamlin, when they finally DO turn to Chuck, he gives this halfhearted little shocked spiel.

It makes me wonder what was going through Hamlin's mind when he saw the acting job Chuck was putting on.

Hamlin knew better.

 

Eh, I'm an attorney and I've seen what Chuck pulled in real life. Not by me of course, I don't go for that brand of passive-agressive bullsh*t. In the end, I still think he's basically protecting the firm he built from his not-honest-when-it's-expedient brother. Although I'm sure it's not that clear cut in Vince Gilligan land, maybe if Chuck let Jimmy join the firm Jimmy really would walk the straight and narrow, but then there wouldn't be a show anyone wanted to watch.

Chuck isn't evil, and, as an attorney, I find some truth in what you are saying, but some of how you are portraying the life is Scott Turow "1L" melodramatic, in my opinion.

 

That's an interesting take that had never occurred to me and there may be something in it even though I think Chuck's primary motivation is paradoxically, snobby elitism and jealousy.

 

Fantastic episode! This show is at least as good as Breaking Bad, it may even surpass it in time.

 

Chuck's motivations regarding Jimmy are multifaceted and elitism is a factor. @Hot Ptah is right about elitism in the profession. Going to a non-ABA approved law school as I assume Jiimmy's was is looked down upon by many employers. But personally I'd give Jimmy a hefty referral fee for that case and leave it at that. Jimmy is an antihero, and antiheroes are trouble. .

 

Like Breaking Bad, I have to say this is a show that takes the plot and pushes it in the most difficult possible direction. I gotta give the writers an "A" for effort and degree of difficulty: suddenly making Michael McKean a bad guy was a big surprise for me.

I'm crushed about that, too. I blame those cheap bastids at AMC. It's bad enough when they do 12-episode seasons; 8 is ridiculous!

 

BCS has 10 episode seasons.

 

Jimmy said that his law school was accredited when he first told Chuck about passing the bar. That is the crucial distinction as it would allow a graduate to go on and become a licensed attorney. That is not possible if the law school is non-accredited. However, a correspondence course from American Samoa is about as non-prestigious as an accredited program could get.

 

Actually I have understated the stuff I have witnessed happening between attorneys in real life. I have worked with, and against, some notably difficult people. Not all attorneys may be so "lucky" in their careers, I suppose.

 

Huell was hired during the latter stages of the Breaking Bad timeline, so if he shows up before then it would be revisionist history.