Better Call Saul -- Season 3 Fring-ing The Gang Back Together Again

[DaveSumm]

I can't imagine there's any way of confirming it as suicide though? That he had a lantern at all and the holes in the walls will probably point to a relapse but I'm not sure how it'll get chalked up to anything other than an accident?

[drawkcabi]

23 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

McKean deserves at the very least an Emmy nomination if not the win.  

While some parts of this season were wonderful and there were a lot of very cinematic segments, I have liked it the least, it felt somewhat meandering and disjointed at times, like the whole was less than the sum of its parts for some reason.  I can't imagine AMC will not renew for at least one more year.

I completely agree with all points here. I still immensely enjoyed S3 but the last episode was kind of a downer and I missed Mike. Felt not unsatisfied by the last episode, just not as satisfied as previous seasons.

I don't mind the parallel stories between Jimmy's world and Mike's world. I actually like it and I know I've seen TV shows before that were like this, I mean GOT has many characters doing their own things that at times seem only peripherally related until it all comes together in the end. It's also done in Sops a lot, Dallas, Dynasty, etc.

One of the many things I love about BCS is (I think) it's a prequel that's just as good for someone who's never seen BCS or BB if you watch it first or after BB. I don't think anyone would get lost plot wise by watching BCS first , just miss some references or significance of some things, but then maybe get it when watching BB. I can easily imagine all the BB cameos, characters, easter eggs, etc. can be just as fun connecting to BB as it is in reverse. Someone who didn't know about Don Hector could be surprised by the stroke maybe thinking Nacho's plan would end up killing him or Nacho's machinations would be found out and Nacho would be in trouble or whatever. Then I could imagine that person watching BB and the first episode where Tuco takes them to Zio's house and "Ding, Ding! Hector" shows up, it'd be awesome. First time Gus is seen, then Mike, Huell, (and hopefully Kuby) all fun in reverse, then when Saul is pulled out of the trunk..."Yayyy!!!" I don't think many prequels, be it for movies, television shows, books, etc. are like that.

Oh and after watching the last episode, I can't get this out of my head...

Blockbuster Video! Wow! What a Difference!

 

[SpaceChampion]

Rhea Seaborn interview / finale recap on What the Flick:

 

[Consigliere]

Just caught up on the finale. What an awful way for Chuck to go out. Sure, he was an asshole, rigid, petty, smug etc but losing everything he worked so hard for decades to achieve, slipping into depression and relapsing makes for a pretty sad ending. I think most/all of us expected Chuck to die at some point though but I didn't think it would happen so soon.

I'd be very surprised if the show isn't renewed for at least one more season. Perhaps they do a split of 7+7 episodes or something and call it 4A and 4B. Sure, viewership hasn't been good but the show has been warmly received by critics and I would think that BCS isn't all that expensive to make so AMC might be happy to give Gilligan and Gould the necessary time to complete their story. The show is well written, well acted and the cinematography is excellent and I think its rewatch value would be very good in years to come. Being able to binge watch the show in its entirety in the future would make the pacing issues more palatable as well.

Also think that it is nailed on that Kim is going to switch to elder law. Her admiration for Atticus Finch and helping the little guy plus picking up Jimmy's rolodex and saying "you never know" makes this fairly obvious. She is also clearly dissatisfied with what she is currently doing i.e. trying to turn a mid level local bank into a mid level regional bank.

[Caligula_K3]

18 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Also think that it is nailed on that Kim is going to switch to elder law. Her admiration for Atticus Finch and helping the little guy plus picking up Jimmy's rolodex and saying "you never know" makes this fairly obvious. She is also clearly dissatisfied with what she is currently doing i.e. trying to turn a mid level local bank into a mid level regional bank.

I'm rewatching season 1 right now and after Jimmy does his first elder wills, Kim even talks about how she's always thought about getting into elder law. I think this comment is spot on.

@drawkcabi I think one of the things that's frustrated me a little about the past two seasons is that in many ways Better Call Saul has become a prequel that requires watching Breaking Bad to fully enjoy. I think Jimmy's plotline has always been great in this respect; nearly all the characters he interacts with are not from Breaking Bad, and they work without any knowledge of Breaking Bad. Mike and Nacho, though... It feels like nearly every character they interact with is from Breaking Bad, and that the climaxes to their arcs rely too much on the viewer knowing what's going to happen in five years and feeling a jolt of excitement from seeing a Breaking Bad character. I think this was worse in season 2; Mike's plotline is only at all satisfying if you know who Hector and the cousins are, and if you can guess who left the note on his car. Otherwise it's just an anti-climax. But I think Nacho's this season faced the same problem. Ok, we spend 5 episodes building up to him poisoning Hector, and he does. But where's the payoff, really?

Again, I don't want to sound too negative, because I really love this show, slow pace and all. I just wish I loved the Mike and Nacho stuff as much as I love the Jimmy stuff.

[PetyrPunkinhead]

On 6/24/2017 at 3:46 PM, Consigliere said:

Just caught up on the finale. What an awful way for Chuck to go out. Sure, he was an asshole, rigid, petty, smug etc but losing everything he worked so hard for decades to achieve, slipping into depression and relapsing makes for a pretty sad ending. I think most/all of us expected Chuck to die at some point though but I didn't think it would happen so soon.

I'd be very surprised if the show isn't renewed for at least one more season. Perhaps they do a split of 7+7 episodes or something and call it 4A and 4B. Sure, viewership hasn't been good but the show has been warmly received by critics and I would think that BCS isn't all that expensive to make so AMC might be happy to give Gilligan and Gould the necessary time to complete their story. The show is well written, well acted and the cinematography is excellent and I think its rewatch value would be very good in years to come. Being able to binge watch the show in its entirety in the future would make the pacing issues more palatable as well.

Also think that it is nailed on that Kim is going to switch to elder law. Her admiration for Atticus Finch and helping the little guy plus picking up Jimmy's rolodex and saying "you never know" makes this fairly obvious. She is also clearly dissatisfied with what she is currently doing i.e. trying to turn a mid level local bank into a mid level regional bank.

Show is definitely coming back for season four. Actors and showrunners have all said so in the interviews after the finale. My hunch is it'll be a regular 10 episode season. I think Vince Gilligan has some cache  left from the success of Breaking Bad, so that despite BCS lower ratings BCS wills till get a "full" fourth season. Now will there be a S5, and what will that look like is a different bag of donuts. Gilligan has said numerous times they don't know what a season is gonna be ahead of time, so who knows what they'll decide. Season one had a lot of momentum, then they really slowed things down for S2 & S3. Will they decide to rocket things up for S4 and we'll see Jimmy officially hang his shingle as Saul Goodman? I kinda doubt it.

Personally I'm more interested in how Mike "breaks bad-er" and goes from this retired crooked cop gramps to being Gus' hitman.

17 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

I'm rewatching season 1 right now and after Jimmy does his first elder wills, Kim even talks about how she's always thought about getting into elder law. I think this comment is spot on...

You and @Consigliere bring up a good point about Kim possibly ending up in elder law. That never crossed my mind, but she did save Jimmy's rolodex from the trash heap. My personal hope/fan-fiction for the ending of BCS is the final episode ends with Gene and Kim back together somehow.

On 6/23/2017 at 0:40 PM, SpaceChampion said:

Rhea Seaborn interview / finale recap on What the Flick:

 

Thanks for that link! That was a good little interview. I checked out the What The Flick channel and ended up subscribing. Good stuff.

 

[Kelli Fury]

Renewed for a regular 10 episode season

[generalzod]

This show is special.  It might be the slowest paced drama on TV, and there's limited tension because we know Fring, Saul, Mike the Hitman etc. can't die... BUT its one of the freshest shows on television and I'd argue top 2 in terms of directing, along with the Leftovers which has a pretty small fanbase.

The show is IMPECCABLY cast too.  Even the guest cast.

[DMC]

Just finished catching up last night.  While I really enjoyed the season overall, I thought it ended on a thud with the finale - outside the very end with Chuck of course.  Mike's story seemed to have run stagnant throughout the second half of the season, hopefully they're saving their bullets for next season.  And I thought the ending with Jimmy was rather contrived; see no reason why he couldn't just have told the elderly of his scheming (which, of course, was the obvious solution.  I didn't find much enjoyment watching Jimmy arrive at this self-evident point.)

On the positives, I did like Kim's arc in S3, and her relationship with Jimmy remains the heart of the show.  I also really liked what they did with Nacho throughout the season - and hope that look Gus gave him as Hector was being carted into the ambulance leads to something.  I'm really looking forward to Howard's reaction to Chuck, as others have mentioned.  They've done a great job making Howard actually "break good," or at least gradually reveal to the viewer that he's a pretty good guy when you thought he was an asshole at the beginning.

[red snow]

only just got around to watching this season. 2 episodes in and I'm yet again reminded of what a petty, proud piece of shit Chuck is. It's not that Jimmy hasn't done shitty things too but given Chuck's age he really should know better.

Having Gus turn up was fun but I find the connecting the dots with Breaking Bad the least appealing part of the show (not that it's bad) and much prefer Jimmy's legal world and life.

The odd thing for me is an inverse of the "who's going to show up from Breaking Bad" in that I kind of wish characters exclusive to this show had retroactively appeared in Beaking Bad - Hamlin in particular. Although I guess with a show where we know where several characters end up, due to their presence in Breaking Bad, it's good to have some mystery about the fates of some characters.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

The odd thing for me is an inverse of the "who's going to show up from Breaking Bad" in that I kind of wish characters exclusive to this show had retroactively appeared in Beaking Bad - Hamlin in particular. Although I guess with a show where we know where several characters end up, due to their presence in Breaking Bad, it's good to have some mystery about the fates of some characters.

I'm really hoping we get at least one episode that takes place during the events of Breaking Bad. A whole season might be a bit much and hard to do. But one or two episodes showing Saul's side of things during that time could be really interesting. For example it would be funny if he finally got his Sandpiper money after already becoming rich through Walt's evil fuckery. 

[red snow]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

I'm really hoping we get at least one episode that takes place during the events of Breaking Bad. A whole season might be a bit much and hard to do. But one or two episodes showing Saul's side of things during that time could be really interesting. For example it would be funny if he finally got his Sandpiper money after already becoming rich through Walt's evil fuckery. 

I hadn't thought about it in that way but if the show crosses over into the Breaking Bad timeline we could actually get to see BCS characters turn up in breaking bad in that sense.

I have always thought it would be fun if Saul had more pressing shit going on when he was involved in some of the things Walt brought to him. Like all those times Walt turns up demanding Saul helps him and we eventually find out Saul had other shit going on that'd work well for both shows as it highlights what an egomaniac Walt was.

[Cas Stark]

I think Walt showing up on BCS would be over the line.  Maybe Jesse or Combo, but I generally think they would do better to stick to the two existing timelines, before and after BB, not during.  

[desire]

How does the series hold up to bad i know its like comparing a match to a light switch but is it worth watching??

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Cas Stark said:

I think Walt showing up on BCS would be over the line.  Maybe Jesse or Combo, but I generally think they would do better to stick to the two existing timelines, before and after BB, not during.  

Agreed on both counts - I don't want Walt on BCS, that should be the separation in timelines.  However, Jesse, Combo, Badger, Skinny Pete, they're all fair game - and I hope at least some do show up (obviously with Jesse at the top of the list).  After all, Jesse mentions Saul got Emilio off (twice!) when explaining to Walt the virtues of a criminal lawyer:

 

1 hour ago, desire said:

How does the series hold up to bad i know its like comparing a match to a light switch but is it worth watching??

If you're a BB devotee, I find it hard to believe you wouldn't find it worthwhile.

[RumHam]

Gilligan desperately wants Walt and Jessie to show up on Better Call Saul

New season starts August 6th. 

 

[Cas Stark]

52 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Gilligan desperately wants Walt and Jessie to show up on Better Call Saul

New season starts August 6th. 

 

I saw that and was kind of surprised....because during BCS timeframe Walt is a mild mannered, beaten down nobody, I'm not sure beyond the visceral thrill of seeing Walt again, what the point would be, he doesn't 'wake up' until he gets cancer.  What would he add to anything?  And BB canon is that he had never met either Saul or Gus.

Pinkman, sure, bring it on and same with the rest of his crew.

[Consigliere]

Depends on how the showrunners plan to handle the overlap. For BCS to stand on its own, they will need to show how Saul ended up as Gene. Including the star power of Bryan Cranston only helps the show as well. 

[RumHam]

13 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

I saw that and was kind of surprised....because during BCS timeframe Walt is a mild mannered, beaten down nobody, I'm not sure beyond the visceral thrill of seeing Walt again, what the point would be, he doesn't 'wake up' until he gets cancer.  What would he add to anything?  And BB canon is that he had never met either Saul or Gus.

Pinkman, sure, bring it on and same with the rest of his crew.

Yeah, Walt would pretty much have to appear in an episode set during-Breaking Bad. Unless it's just a stupid "he's in line behind someone at the supermarket" cameo. I like the idea mentioned in the article of Jessie tracking Gene down after but I dunno how he would do that. Was Jessie in the room when Saul made his oddly accurate comment about managing a cinnabon in Omaha? But even if he was why would he ever think that was Saul's actual plan. 

[Cas Stark]

3 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Yeah, Walt would pretty much have to appear in an episode set during-Breaking Bad. Unless it's just a stupid "he's in line behind someone at the supermarket" cameo. I like the idea mentioned in the article of Jessie tracking Gene down after but I dunno how he would do that. Was Jessie in the room when Saul made his oddly accurate comment about managing a cinnabon in Omaha? But even if he was why would he ever think that was Saul's actual plan. 

He theoretically could get it out of the 'cleaner' guy who set them all up w/fake identities...but that would be unlikely, and as much as I love jesse, it's better we never see him again and can all have our own ideas of what happened to him.