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

It will be interesting to see where they go with the brother, because so far he doesn't add much to the plot.

 

Yeah, Lenny (is that his name on the show, or are you referencing Lenny and Squiggy? ) is just a back-story at this point. He's not all that interesting other than his mental illness.

 

I don't remember what his name is in the show, but I still think of him as Lenny. I suppose if he had more hair I could refer to him as David St. Hubbins.

 

I do get it, but the problem is that people routinely throw around the phrase that someone is 'delusional' if they don't agree with them and therefore the fact that this is now classed as a real mental disorder would likely be lost on many, which is why calling it a form of mental illness makes it more clear.

 

Perhaps he's hiding from some mysterious past as a teen pin-up?

 

I know. My point was that I "diagnosed" him this morning and that seemed to have been lost. I'm a psychologist and I thought enough people would understand what a delusion was. A delusional disorder is an ongoing pervasive personality disorder (in this case), and I work with people just like him almost daily.

 

Knowing the caliber of the writing team, I'd say they have something more interesting for him to do. But so far, other than his illness, he has provided a good backstory for Jimmy and his motivations, especially given the events in the most recent episode.

 

I may be speaking out of turn, but I think you give too much credit to laypeople to understand and differentiate between the meanings of precise clinical terms and terms used colloquially (which are often misapplied). This isn't meant as a criticism to anyone, it's just the way things are.

 

I suppose the good thing about his alleged condition is that real-life sufferers are unlikely to be watching the show.

 

I'm not a psychologist, but I diagnosed Charles (Chuck) last night, before you did, but it seems to have been lost. So...THERE!

J/k

 

I beat you both and diagnosed him right after his first scene. "Wow, that dude is hosed!"

 

I wonder how McKean's character is going to cause trouble? He can't call out, doesn't have a computer, and can barely leave home. Is he going to pay a tinfoil-covered visit to his old boss?

 

Well, his boss (his partner, really, I think) already came to visit him to drop off the papers and a check that "Saul" already declined to deliver. Another in a possible series of visits is not unlikely.

Here's a question that might come up later; is there any chance that "Saul" might leave a hidden microphone to record their conversations and, once said recording device is inevitably discovered, how will McKean handle it? Especially if his sensitivity didn't detect it? Or will they be saving that kind of stuff for season two?

 

It's possible that somebody could come to McKean and he might start asking or influencing or something. Right now I'm not sure what they are doing, especially with the focus on his mental issues (which I don't find very compelling), but there wouldn't be an name actor like Michael McKean in the role unless they had major plans.

 

It's not like his dance card has been full .... (from IMDB):

• 2015 Better Call Saul (TV Series)
• 2014 The 7D (TV Series)
• 2013 10 Rules for Sleeping Around

 

There are rumors of a Spinal Tap reunion tour.

 

And there's nobody like that on an internet audiophile discussion forum...

But it does make you wonder what happened to all the supporting characters -- Saul's ex-girlfriend (the attorney), Saul's brother, and so on. Saul will survive, and he'll eventually hire Mike the hitman and the other people who worked with him, so it's kind of interesting to see the chess pieces arrange themselves over time. And they've said for sure that Walter White will be in future episodes as we get into the Breaking Bad era.

 

Considering that Saul seems to have established his legal career -- and even been front page news -- under his real name, it seems kind of surprising to me that the show is taking place in Albuquerque rather than in some other city. And it isn't even decades ago, it's only seven years before the events of Breaking Bad.

I think "for sure" is too strong. At most they've said seeing characters like Walt or Jesse might be a possibility.

 

I'm with Squealy - plus, we're years/seasons away from that in Show time.

 

I'd expect to see Jesse again before Walt -- he had some kind of history with Saul, didn't he? Or did he just know about him?

I can imagine a sort of "Back to the Future II"-style scenario down the road where we see various Breaking Bad things happening again but from Saul's point of view, and there's a whole other story happening between the lines that we never knew about. But they have the problem that by the time they get to that point everyone's going to be years older than they were shooting those scenes the first time. Then again, Odenkirk's already in the position of playing a dozen years younger than he is.

 

A dozen? They put him in a bad wig and it looks like they're trying to convince us he's 25 again in the opening flashback this week..

 

Well yeah, but I meant in the main body of the show.

 

I laughed out loud at that -- all they could do was put Odenkirk (who's 52) in shadow whenever possible and avoid showing his face. The rug is a hoot!

Bryan Cranston said on his 90-minute interview with Howard Stern last year that he definitely, positively intended to make at least one appearance on Better Call Saul.

 

Did anyone notice that 'Listen' from the Chicago Transit Authority album was playing in the background when Saul and the other guy were in the basement smoking pot after they pulled the Rolex scam in the most recent episode?

Aside from being one of my favourite albums of all time, I thought it was a clever song to pick as the lyrics concern the singer urging the listener to ditch their preconceptions about money being a motivating factor for the creation of the music. I can definitely see a parallel there with Saul, as the Saul you know from Breaking Bad is a fast-talking shyster with primarily financial motivations, but as we're discovering in this series there's a lot more to the story (and the character) than that, including taking care of his brother, etc.

 

The way the show has been setting things up, my instinct was that Jimmy will eventually be legally prevented from using his real name. But I did have the same thought - a lot of people in Albuquerque who knew Jimmy McGill would obviously know he's the same person as Saul Goodman.

Nice. Reminds me of how I picked up on Squeeze's "Up The Junction" subtly playing in the background of the mid-season finale of "Breaking Bad"'s final year, and kind of foreshadowing the trouble that Walter was about to get into. And talk about attention to details - when the show returned a year later, they set the next scene with Squeeze's "If I Didn't Love You" playing, as if "Singles: 45's and Under" was in the CD player (either on shuffle or playing through while Hank sat dumbfounded for something like twelve minutes). And the lyrics of that song were semi-appropriate to the scene as well: "If I didn't love you, I'd hate you."