Little Barrie, that’s a name I haven’t heard for awhile. I remember my friend had their debut which I really liked: Little Barrie - We Are Little Barrie
Citizen Kane was brilliant in its use of what the audience sees and doesn't see and its use of nonlinear narrative. BCS, not so much. Kane’s story is revealed non-linearly, but unlike BCS, it's framed in the linear narrative of the journalist investigating Kane’s last word: “Rosebud”. That is revealed at the beginning of the film at Kane’s death. Also, this was among the very first nonlinear films and was original in its execution. Nowadays every Tom, Dick and Quentin thinks they need to tell a story nonlinearly, often to cover for the fact that the story is not worth telling from beginning to end. By those of us participating in BCS threads for the past few years. Just my impression. You're welcome to disagree but the early seasons seemed uniformly praised whereas the later seasons are more mixed.
I don't recall being UTTERLY FLUMMOXED about why Kane was doing anything he did, or thinking it's SHOCKINGLY IMPLAUSIBLE anyone in his situation would do what he did, or get away with what he did. Not once. It's been a few years, so if you have a specific analogy to the way incident was presented in Kane and SAUL happy to consider it (I HOPE you don't think "not knowing what rosebud was" as in any way analogous.)
To be fair, the whole Gilliverse is full of people doing shockingly implausible things, and getting away with them... until they don't.
Agree with above. it's also a way to flummox a normal viewer into thinking too hard about plausibility when it is being signaled up front: you don't get this, but maybe you will later. It's harder to judge whether what you "get" later makes sense divorced from the incident in real time. I think LOST suffered from this----by witholding explanations forever it becomes impossible for typical non obsessive viewer to have any idea if explanation actually holds together the things it meant to explain. the "voices" iirc a big example of this.
I mean, they can't delay the "what did Gene hear on that call?" too much longer. Tho I guess if they want they can NEVER reveal it, allowing us to guess what could have inspired him to do what he subsequently did. Some may call that brilliant, were they to do it. (I think this show has Stans who CANNOT see anything that happens in it as less than brilliant.) I'll be annoyed.
More "fun" symbolism ... Something fishy is going on... All the fishbowl references.. The lab flask, the fishingline to the money, the reference Gene made about "the road that sounds like a fish". Dirty water with the stopped up sink. And of course "fish" have been seen many times in the tanks of BCS. We went from many beautiful colorful fish in the nail salon to a tiny goldfish looking for treasure. Now an empty round bottom flask and filthy sink water that leads to a burried dusty fishing line which leads to blood money.
BCS is flawed. I just re-watched literally all of BB, and it too is flawed. I would still count BB as the greatest TV-watching experience I’ve ever had. BCS is up there too. Realistic / straight narrative can be boring or dry. Sometimes we just watch things to be entertained—all the better if there are some deeper underpinnings, which I believe there are a plenty on the Gilligan/Gould shows. I would also say that nothing else I’ve seen on TV matches these shows for their Tarantino-esque, fun-to-watch style and told in their own self-contained story world.
I'm not suggesting you're wrong. It's just interesting to me. All my circles as well as many of the critical reviews I've read are in broad agreement that the series has gradually built as it's gone along.
Another little clue.. Francesca calling from a gas station called "RS" (Rhea Seahorn). The phone call.. Remember Kim and Jimmy are still most likely legally married also. How does that play into the phone call? Ive been thinking about the conversation with Kim and Gene... Why was Gene so angry? Could it be that the authorities are questioning Kim about Saul and she wouldnt say anything because of spousal priviledge? Perhaps this one last grift is Gene getting ready to possibly exchange his freedom for hers. One other thing is that the phone call convo being hid reminds me of when Howard closed the door to tell Jimmy that he wont be hired at HHM. We couldnt hear that convo, but it had an grave emotional impact on Jimmy.
Apparently one of the reasons for the phone conversation being obscured is that they felt that having two momentous phone conversations in one episode was one too many such conversations. 'Better Call Saul': Walt and Jesse Scene Explained by Director - Variety
I'm inclined to give them a break - we've been waiting on the payoff of the call with Francesca for YEARS.
I liked it. But I viewed the last part of the call as the stinger - she didn't mention about Kim calling in order to help Jimmy, but rather to hurt him.
Even the large spherical evaporation flask got the gold fish comment from Saul in the scene in the RV. Exactly right, @George P -- Jimmy knew how to contact Kim this entire time, had all the motivation to contact her, we learned nothing useful in the entire call with Francesca, and the stashed money was really weird. It was all just a rouse to make us feel like it made sense for Gene to find out something about Kim now instead of earlier in the show when it would have fit better narratively.
