Better Call Saul - Season Three Discussion

@GregM , Thank you for sharing the above. Your post was by far the strangest I have read about both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

I'm not knocking you. The beauty of opinions are beautiful. I've just never heard the word "cheesy" used to describe the effects, editing, cinematography, etc. They've won awards for this stuff!

On the other hand, you know, I find no redeeming qualities in Syd Barrett"s music. That doesn't mean it's not good, though.

 

Haha. I'm with you on Syd Barrett but I do indeed think it's cheesy to watch an eyeball floating in a swimming pool in a total break from the regular timeline, plot, cinematography. It is really annoying and jarring, and calls attention to production at the expense of narrative. I understand they were taking artistic license, but it didn't work IMO, and was totally amateur hour--almost like watching a first-year film student with no experience attempt their first production.

I hope they don't do stuff like that in BCS. The retro postproduction effects in the title sequences, which have zero relevance to the actual show, are annoying enough. Anyway, thanks for understanding these are just my opinions and I don't expect anyone else to share them.

 

Anyone else curious why the theme song just cuts off like that?

 

I think the production values and cinematography are the best I've ever seen in a TV show. It's like a one-hour feature film every week.

 

That's what I thought of Boardwalk Empire, where the sets, costumes, script, camerawork, acting, direction, etc was immaculately produced and every detail thought out and storyboarded consummately. Sopranos too, Mad Men and The Wire, to a lesser extent.

It's part of the obnoxious production values/stylizing. Just silly choices that a home video crew would make. Heck, they even pay homage to low-budget production by having Jimmy do his own TV ads that everyone says look professional. If that doesn't provide insight into the type of production values the creators have, what does?

 

I need to find me some first-year film student stuff to watch then. Haha! I like it!

I always thought that first-year film student stuff was like The Evil Dead.

Oh, I loved Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men and the Sopranos. I only really dug the first three seasons on The Wire, though.

To me, Breaking Bad beats them all. Hands down. Even Syd Barrett agrees.

 

6 1/2 hours to go!

 

I've never heard anybody call "Better Call Saul" too stylized. In many ways it's the exact opposite. It often employs long, drawn-own static shots.

Yes, such long drawn-out shots can be a form of "stylization" too. But if you think "Better Call Saul" is too stylized and gimmicky, I would imagine your head would explode watching something like "Legion!"

I don't pick up anything cheap about the production values on "Better Call Saul." And I *have* seen shows where they come off as cheap relative to what they are trying to do. Frankly, what speaks strongly to the characters and writing on BCS is that I never think *a great deal* about the editing or camera work, etc. It services the stories and characters, nothing more but also *nothing less.* Nothing distracting about it in the slightest.

 

Do you think it's because you're from Texas, so the border elements and lifestyle of the New Mexico characters is more familiar? I am originally from the Bronx, so the shows set in east coast cities resonate more with me.

 

I agree that BCS matured a lot over BB, but there is still the odd camera angle and the scenes I mentioned trying to capture the psychosomatic condition of Jimmy's older brother in an amateurish way.

 

The effects in the title sequence (which I don't think anybody gives much weight to one way or the other; they are like five or ten seconds long) seem to be directly referencing what Saul becomes by the time of "Breaking Bad", both in terms of the quick scene depiction (it usually shows something from the "Saul" years) and the style (cheap TV commercial graphics, etc.).

But yeah, I'd say if the ten-second opening titles of "Better Call Saul" annoy you, you're probably going to be annoyed by the entire show for some reason or another.

 

I'd say, having seen both seasons a few times, the number of times they employ weird angles/effects/editing to portray Chuck's condition are few in number relative to the series. I also don't see anything amateurish about it. Kind of reminds me a scene or two from the "Love & Mercy" film; it's meant in part to portray something the viewer most likely has never experienced. If the writers feel that *is* what Chuck feels like, I'm not sure how we can doubt it too much.

 

Nah, because I'm well familiar with the east coast, especially NYC. I've written a nonfiction book where a good deal of it is set in South Ozone Park, Jamaica, out by the old Aqueduct racetrack, during the 1920s-1940s, not to mention the events that happened right on the corner of Sterling St. and Brooklyn Ave. My publisher is in the Flatiron building in the city.

Those New Mexicans are a different breed than Texans, though. I mean, not that different, but as different as let's say, Oklahoma. There are a lot of Native American people in New Mexico and Oklahoma. In Texas all you find are their graves up in the hills. The only thing that looks familiar to me, between New Mexico and Texas, is that if you go down into the Texas border towns, wow, that's the same. Houston has tiny spots like that, but it's a huge city, so pretty much everything is dwarfed by industry. You have to get out of the city to get a little peace, and out there it's pretty much suburbanites. Dime Store Cowboys. Go figure.

 

Yeah, it's few in number overall, but some episodes feature it very heavily. The episode where there is the courtroom hearing with the address mix-up, followed by the confrontation in the Kinkos and then the hospital stay -- it just got to be way too much and was totally unnecessary.

Yes, I get that the writers want to put the audience in Chuck's head. But we are not put in anyone else's head like that, and Chuck isn't even the main character. Compare this to Sopranos: the audience was shown exactly what it needed to see at all times.

When Uncle Junior was having his cancer pains or Alzheimer's or dementia moments, they didn't stylize the production to make the viewer feel that. Dominic Chianese used his acting skills and the excellent writing to convey exactly what he was going through. You didn't see Janet drive down Route 22 smoking a roach with a purple haze filter. It just would have been silly.

The dream sequences were the exception when Sopranos veered into odd effects, but you always had visual and audible cues to show that you were seeing a dream, and psychological landscape informed some important clues about the subconscious, which were then discussed and fleshed out in the therapy scenes. It all was done for reasons of character and plot development, and stylized to distinguish it from reality.

 

Interesting, I've been to Houston as well as New Mexico, but just as a tourist for a few days. Much slower lifestyle than New York, even in downtown Houston.

And yeah, when I was applying for jobs many decades ago, I was invited into the flat iron building to interview for a production assistant job that paid $17,500 salary. I forgot the name of the publisher, but may well have been yours.

 

Macmillan/St. Martin's Press. I would hope with a salary like that it was many decades ago!

 

....it's a different show, with different storytelling needs and a different style? To me it's like asking, "Why does Wes Anderson make his shots look so symmetrical? Martin Scorsese doesn't do that."

It's certainly true that the direction and cinematography are more expressionistic, if that's the right word, than the neutral style of The Sopranos or Mad Men. I guess if you don't like it, you don't like it.

I would also argue that dementia or cancer are not states the audience might have a hard time imagining or understanding, while Chuck's (supposed) electrical sensitivity is.

 

I noticed the description for next week says they make a hiring decision for their office. I hope it's either Huell, Francesca, or Kuby.

 

Do you mean the very last note? I'm curious if it's of significance to the show.

 

Yeah. It seems abrupt, off-putting.

 

So, what did everyone think?
I kept waiting to see Gus, I thought I read he was in the first episode.

Mike is one crafty dude, eh?

 

Not for a lack of anything to say, but for me, the greatest compliment I can give is that they picked up right where they left off. Literally and quality.

 

Yeah, I thought that was cool too, we didn't miss a thing.

 

I love this show. It's been too long a wait.

 

That was the worst, most boring episode ever of the show. It's just way too slow-paced.
Horrible.