Better Call Saul - Season Five Discussion

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Jerry Horne, Sep 10, 2019.

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  1. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Out of curiosity, I just checked Netflix on my phone and seasons 1-4 are there.
     
  2. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Been there for months--since summer I think. Hopefully season 5 comes soon.
     
  3. thgord

    thgord In Search of My Next Euphoric Groove

    Location:
    Moorpark, CA
    I whiffed. I mistook S4 as the most recently aired season. Sorry....
     
  4. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    I still have season 5 on my DVR. That would have never worked if the kids were still living here lol.
     
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  5. geetar_await

    geetar_await I heart Linux.

    Location:
    USA
    Just finished seasons 1-4, got 5 on DVD from the library coming in.
     
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  6. geetar_await

    geetar_await I heart Linux.

    Location:
    USA
    so, after viewing most of Saul, should I watch Breaking Bad? or should I have watched starting with Bad?
     
  7. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Either is fine.
     
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  8. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    I think so, too. I mean, I can't go back and re-experience them in a different order, but it seems like either way would work - just a different experience.
     
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  9. Jerry Horne

    Jerry Horne WYWH (1975-2025) Thread Starter

    Location:
    NW
    Bring it on.

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. GMfan87'

    GMfan87' Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT.
    In midst of a rematch now, starting season 5. I remember really liking this season, was glad to see no more Mesa Verde,(parts of it were good with the homeowner but didn't need to be as many scenes shown imo) didn't quite get why Kim still doesn't know what she wants, and worst of all starts plotting against Howard. He was a good character but think they long needed to stop the animosity towards him. She goes forward with this plan I have no (as she has tried my patience in last 2 seasons) affection left for her.
    I did like her Lalo scenes this season.
    It was good to see Hank, Gomez again and they made it fit in to story in an organic way.
    I imagine they will do the same when time comes for Walt, Jesse.
     
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  11. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Kim's plot against Howard doesn't make much sense to me and I see it as having really limited dramatic possibilities. Frankly, it seems like a mistake, but I guess I'll have to trust the show runners on this.
     
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  12. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    I think that the Kim/Howard dynamic is the Chekov’s Gun of BCS.
     
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  13. GMfan87'

    GMfan87' Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT.
    It's possible it won't happen or it's what lands her in prison or makes her leave town. Unless she makes the right choice and some opportunity comes up that makes her start over elsewhere while not leaving on a bad note w/ Jimmy. -?
     
  14. tmcdanel

    tmcdanel New Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Better Call Saul, S05.E06, Wexler V. Goodman

    As the episode opens we watch a girl with a cello waiting in front of Red Cloud Junior high in black and white. i know black and white usually signals post-Breaking Bad but the Wikipedia episode summary says it’s Kim as a girl. But i didn't get the scene At All.

    What is the relevance to the storyline?

    What does this tell us about who Kim is?
     
  15. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    In the vignette from Kim's childhood, Kim is placed in danger as a defenseless child because the person responsible for taking care of her is selfish and irresponsible. The relevance to the story line is obvious because Jimmy is supposed to care about Kim and he too is placing her in danger. If you subscribe to dime-store psychology, those who are treated badly by self-centered parents often go out in the world and find themselves in relationships with self-centered people who treat them badly. Why? Because it feels familiar to them, and feels "like family". Jimmy may love Kim and genuinely want to do the right thing for her, but he is a pretty self-centered guy and consistently pulls her into his ethical clusterf!*k of an existence, in spite of his best intentions.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
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  16. GMfan87'

    GMfan87' Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT.
    Maybe or she's attracted to his underdog status and a bit of a rebel. Either way she got irritating, less interesting to me in last season or so.
     
  17. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Kim has referred to her mom and her childhood briefly. Her mom was an alcoholic and totally irresponsible. This showed that. You can fill in the blanks from there.
     
  18. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Of course, it's not mutually exclusive with the dynamic I described. Freud and many others have observed a sort of "preconsciousness" where we tend to repeat the same dynamics with others that were familiar to us with our own parents.

    Jimmy being off, traipsing through the desert and endangering Kim as an adult is sort of analogous to her mother being irresponsible and endangering her as a kid. At least that's along the lines of the vignette's significance, I thought.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
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  19. Nightfly68

    Nightfly68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC
    Bob Odenkirk has returned to to the set to work on BCS.
     
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  20. Nightfly68

    Nightfly68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC
    I did find out yesterday that Season 6 will most likely air in the Fall of 2022.
     
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  21. tdcrjeff

    tdcrjeff Senior Member

    Location:
    Hermosa Beach, CA
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  22. Nacho wanted the assurance that the hit would go as quickly and cleanly as possible, no other household members involved. A plan that didn't survive the first encounter with the target.
    That part wasn't as plausible for me. I can grant that most of the welcoming party had left the grounds, but there were obviously some family members and bodyguards in the household. Logically, they all would have been up and around, lights switched on, and hollering after the first burst of automatic rifle fire. I get how Lalo's little bro or cousin didn't cry out when shot- he was the guy mistaken for Lalo at the outset, and the rifle burst was awfully authoritative, and loud. But after that, everything is still getting played stealthily, even though that doesn't make sense for the home team- the household and bodyguards need to call out to account for their presence, and where they are. In the last scene, Lalo is standing over a woman (guess: his mother) who was apparently fatally shot in the attack, but if there was a background scene showing when that happened, I missed it. There were several scenes showing members of Lalo's bodyguard team getting taken out- along with, of course, most of the attack squad. As for Nacho, he's taken off for parts unknown. Although he's likely still in the immediate vicinity, at the point where the episode ends.

    My free Netflix subscription ends with that episode, and if I want to watch the rest, I need to pay for the episodes, or the season. Having watched all of the previous episodes in order, Season Five is the best yet. The long, straggling, detour-strewn, deus ex machina laden, intricately interwoven story lines developed in seasons 1-4 continue to fall into place. The already complex character development of the main characters continues to deepen. And these are well-written, complex characters. Some of the intimate dialogues are as absorbing as watching a well-performed classic theater play, and I never got that from a TV show before.

    I appreciate the realism of the action scenes, too- sleight of hand skullduggery, confidence games, burglaries, arson, fistfights, gang stompings, assassinations, shootouts. The gun battles sometimes use too much long burst fire, but they play out plausibly enough. Mike the Cop, superhero, is of course unkillable, but he's been winged pretty bad more than once. For me, the biggest breakdown of realism was the baggage-laden trek by Mike and Jimmy through the desert with only a quart canteen. I don't care if it's wintertime, a baggage-laden overnight hike across the Sonoran desert requires at least two gallons per person, not one quart canteen split between two people. Especially if one is dehydrated from the outset, like panting and pouring sweat after a big shootout. Rationing down to the thimblefull doesn't cut it. Neither does drinking concentrated urine, after the fresh supply is gone; it's possible to drink one's pee as a last-ditch desperation move, but only while there's still an ample supply of water that it can be added to. Without something close to a Gatorade level of dilution, there's way too much dissolved salt in urine, along with waste products like lactic acid- especially from a dehydrated person. So much that drinking it will only end up dehydrating the drinker even more; they won't merely be very thirsty, they'll be parched dry thirsty, cramping in the gut and the muscles, exhausted, with the onset of a headache to the point of vertigo. A liver and kidneys working overtime...out of water. Hiking for miles? Not buyable.

    The scripters could have had Mike carrying a 2-gallon jug of water when he meets up with Saul, or even have a scene showing some gallon jugs getting hauled out of the vehicles after the battle was over. (Everybody with any sense knows to carry at least a gallon of drinking water in their vehicle. Especially in remote desert.)
    But, whatever...I've been solicited by directors to indulge in worse suspensions of disbelief than that...come to think of it, I don't recall how Mike managed to get himself to the exact location to save the day in the nick of time after Jimmy Saul got ambushed...
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2022
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