First episode of Better Call Saul came on last night. What did you think?
[spoiler]I thought it was ok. Pilot episodes tend to be kinda dull because they tend to just introduce us to the characters and set basic storylines. This one was no different, we see a pre-Goodman Jimmy McGill struggling to make it as a lawyer. But for all his struggles, we can see the seediness of Saul just waiting to bubble up to the surface. Having him plan the insurance fraud case with the two stoner twins (who for some reason actually reminded me of Stoner) is something the Saul we know and love would do. Although it failed miserably and we were (re)introduced to Tuco Salamanca at the end.
The show has a long way to go from here. It's kinda depressing to see this character we've come to know and love struggle soooo hard with very few prospects on the horizon. I mean, we KNOW what happens in the end, but it still looks bleak right now. I think Gilligan is banking on former Breaking Bad viewers coming back en force and watching the show. But even he needs to remember that Breaking Bad didn't start getting great until Heisenberg started becoming more successful.
Also, it was good to see a couple callbacks from Breaking Bad (Tuco, Mike Ehrmantraut as a parking garage attendant), but not a full-on reliance on BB iconography. They should continue to strike a balance between new viewers and fans of BB.
All in all, I'll give it a hopeful 7/10.[/spoiler]
My impression of the show is that amc were trying to manipulate me into watching it by sticking it in between walking dead and talking dead. Guess they don't have much faith in the show making it on it's own merits.
From what I gathet they are releasing an episode a week?
I don't have Netflix, and only do the free trials (through a way of not having to pay)
But I will wait for it to finish before I start watching. Kudos for hidden spoilers!
Um... it's on AMC
Quote from: Fnord on February 09, 2015, 11:14:39 AM
Um... it's on AMC
Ummm... I live in England.
It's been advertised here as on Netflix.. Unless I get a pirate site
England don't have no AMC? Awww man! 8) Not sure what that means then for you guys.
Quote from: Fnord on February 09, 2015, 11:55:00 AM
England don't have no AMC? Awww man! 8) Not sure what that means then for you guys.
Well the channel's name did originally stand for American Movie Classics, so I can kind of see England not having it. As for the show, I recorded the first episode last night, have the second one set for tonight, and will just end up watching them back to back sometime later this week.
Quote from: Fnord on February 09, 2015, 11:55:00 AM
England don't have no AMC? Awww man! 8) Not sure what that means then for you guys.
Unfortunately no we don't. Channel 5 picked breaking bad up I think for a while but never finished it.
Like I said, it's a Netflix thing released weekly. So I will wait for the end of it to do the free trial. There is a way round paying for a month at a time, so might as well wait for it to finish so I can watch it in a monh
I really wish they'd do something with AMC and Hulu!~ lol
I hope that by the end, in addition to the rise of Saul, we also get to see current Saul living a bit of a better life.
Quote from: Mike Powers on February 09, 2015, 02:40:33 PM
I hope that by the end, in addition to the rise of Saul, we also get to see current Saul living a bit of a better life.
All it took was nine posts for someone to actually mention something about the watching of the show.
:)
I agree, Hondo. It was what a pilot usually is, and that is setting the groundwork for what is to come.
[spoiler]I like how they didn't rely a lot on Breaking Bad stuff to set it up, though I suspect we will get sprinklings of it throughout, since it would be tough not to have it happen that way. I did like how we saw Saul struggling as a lawyer which sets the tone for what we know happens.
Gillian is probably banking on BB viewers to watch, and I hope that AMC gives it the time it might need. If someone watched this without having seen Breaking Bad, I don't know if they would return for another episode. Not because it's bad, but because they might not see it as entertaining. Maybe I'm off on that one.
I just have this gut feeling it will last 1 season and then get canned.[/spoiler]
All in all, I enjoyed the episode.
It's already been picked up for Season 2.
Then scratch that! lol I didn't know that.
I really enjoyed it. I came in a couple minutes late, but I really enjoyed watching him struggle with the couple at the restaurant. Not the Saul we saw from BrBa
You need to see the first few minutes.
I'll catch up with this on Netflix over the next few months - which is the whole point of Netflix, love watching stuff at my own pace and when I want!
It does look promising though. Always liked the character in Breaking Bad and now we get his origin story. Which is pretty cool.
[spoiler]So the black and white intro scene, that was current day witness protection Saul, right?[/spoiler]
Quote from: Tritch on February 10, 2015, 11:05:48 AM
[spoiler]So the black and white intro scene, that was current day witness protection Saul, right?[/spoiler]
Indeed.
At first I was confused but then I started to think about it later. Thanks for clearing it up for me. I thought that was a pretty cool addition.
So....Netflix works different across the pond? The only new/current shows we get on Netflix in the states are their own shows (House of Cards, etc). You guys get current, in season US tv in your netflix?
They've done it here in the US before too, just not very often. I was able to watch the final season of Heroes on Netflix as it aired.
[spoiler]You know, I forgot just how...rational...Tuco was.[/spoiler]
Quote from: Mike Powers on February 10, 2015, 01:53:04 PM
So....Netflix works different across the pond? The only new/current shows we get on Netflix in the states are their own shows (House of Cards, etc). You guys get current, in season US tv in your netflix?
No we don't get current in season shows on Netflix (bar this one)
This is the first time to my knowledge they have done this with Netflix/new show.
Usually if we get a show that runs in sync with you guys, it's usually aired 1-3 days later. Unless it's mega behind and it can be weeks after.
I always like saul and I really want to see how he became saul we loved in Breaking Bad ... I love that there was this hint of a noble side underneath all that layers and layers of slime . How did he become that way ... going to tune in and see
Liked it. Looks very promising going forward. Although I'm generally someone who doesn't watch things week to week, Breaking Bad was probably the last one I committed to. (Which, I believe, was the last show Netflix did in this format of following the American broadcast week to week for it's last season.)
[spoiler]Perhaps most interesting to me is the fact he's not become "Saul" yet. I'm expecting it to be a much quicker transition then Whyte to Hisenberg, but still it'll be interesting to watch it progress over the coming episodes and series.[/spoiler]
I'm watching cause I find it intriging to see how everything comes together leading up to BB.
So... we're almost to the end of the first season.
Thoughts so far?
Quote from: Hondo on March 24, 2015, 05:56:27 PM
So... we're almost to the end of the first season.
Thoughts so far?
Could use a little more action for me, but a solid show none the less. Picked up when it started to get into Mikes backstory.
I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, I am a little unsure as to where they will take it and how long the novelty of Saul became Saul will last. But I have found this season entertaining.
I've enjoyed the show so far. Haven't watched this weeks episode yet, but I will later today. I really enjoyed the stuff with Mike, and the one 2 episodes back that was pretty much all about Mike, is my favorite episode of the season so far. It was nice to see a different side of Mike with that speech at the end.
Hmmm, that was disappointing.
What disappointed you? Just curious.
Yeah I thought the whole season was fantastic.
I thought the finale was just kinda meh. I guess I kinda expected it to be the beginning of Saul, or even touch on Walter (just a finale appearance).
We got hints and tastes of Saul. It'd be pretty silly of them to already dive fully into Saul in the 6th episode of the series in my opinion.
And I'm pretty sure this is still several years before Walter got cancer so that's not going to happen.
Quote from: Cory on April 09, 2015, 10:29:33 AM
I thought the finale was just kinda meh. I guess I kinda expected it to be the beginning of Saul, or even touch on Walter (just a finale appearance).
I can see where you are coming from, it is certainly a lot different from Breaking Bad in terms of pacing and I can see why the finale might come across quite anti-climatic to some. I'm much easier to please though haha
In regards to him 'becoming' Saul, the last couple of episodes, at least in my eyes, have shown us that he doesn't become Saul, he already was Saul. The interaction with Mike at the end was great, I'm assuming off of that that we'll be seeing a lot more of him next season. I can't see a Walter cameo for a while, possibly Gus or Jesse. But, I find that it works so well in it's own show, that cameos from BB should be minor at best.
Aaron Paul said he won't do cameos or anything because he's too old now, it wouldn't look right. So unless it's another flash forward to post-BB-finale times, I doubt we'll see a cameo from him. Cranston said he would be open to doing cameos as long as it made sense.
Smoke and Mirrors, Rexy, smoke and mirrors!
Yeah, I don't know, I guess Saul and Jesse probably had the least interaction so it would make sense, to an extent. I assume we will eventually get to a 'current' day point with Saul, at least I hope.
This whole season was buildup. The show was ALRIGHT (6.5/10) as we already know the middle (BB) so I get that it would show the beginnings....but for a finale to still be so far away from the character and settings were familiar with was a bit of a letdown.
I feel like their stretching the "before Walter White" too much, because now we're going to presumably have to wait another season until Saul Goodman.
I don't th no you understand what the series is Cory. The whole series is supposed to be prequel, so i don't understand what you're sayijg.
TyTy did you hack Tritch?
I was drunk lol.
Quote from: Tritch on April 09, 2015, 10:01:09 PM
I don't th no you understand what the series is Cory. The whole series is supposed to be prequel, so i don't understand what you're sayijg.
I get its the prequel and honestly dont expect WW or breaking bad stuff till the end of the series (had no idea it was picked up for season 2, so thought this finale was it).....but 2 whole seasons you can assume before he's even Saul Goodman and doing all those greasy things and stuff that made his character appealing from Breaking Bad is disappointing to me.
Yeah I guess I can see that. I don't think it'll take two whole seasons though. We've already seen good bits and pieces of it with Slippin' Jimmy. I've thoroughly enjoyed the show so far even without Saul, I like seeing the build up and seeing where he came from, and I love getting a deeper look into the Mike Hermantrout(sp) character as well. But yeah, I can see why it would be disappointing to you.
This season wasn't build up, it was back story. If you enjoyed Breaking Bad, you will know that they like to develop their characters. Expecting him to just be Saul Goodman or for us to get to where we saw him in BB quickly doesn't really fit the ethos of their shows. Like if Walter went from a teacher with cancer cooking meth to a drug kingpin in a couple of seasons. With that being said, we should see more of that side of his character next season, he already has a dodgy history and the final episode all but basically told us where it is going come season 2.
I enjoyed this season, it felt like a good set up for seasons to come and I expect we start to see more of Saul next season, and maybe him actually becoming Saul at the end of the 2nd season. I would expect that the end of the whole story is his first meeting with Walter White. I think they could get 3 - 5 seasons out of this story.
Season 1 - Building to Saul
Season 2 - Becoming Saul
Season 3 - Building up Saul
Season 4 - Saul in full swing
Season 5 - The beginning of the end (series finale is when he becomes fully involved with Heisenberg)
There's some good stuff they did with this first season, we hopefully see much more of Mike next season, and maybe it starts his kind of sort of partnership with Tuco.