What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

***Official "Space Blanket" for Better Call Saul*** (5 Viewers)

Major said:
Great episode.  Loved the Mike and Tuco encounter.   Makes me want Jimmy to quit the firm and go full Saul Goodman on us asap.   
Click to expand...




Once that transformation is complete, I assume the show will likely be done. This is kind of an origin story, so once he becomes the character we know, I doubt the show continues afterwards. 

 
bigmarc27 said:
Once that transformation is complete, I assume the show will likely be done. This is kind of an origin story, so once he becomes the character we know, I doubt the show continues afterwards. 
Click to expand...
I'm hoping it dives into more Breaking Bad story lines and shows them from Saul/Mike's perspective instead of Walts.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Zow said:
Was the gun guy part of the white supremacist group?
Click to expand...
 No.  He shows up in BB S4 and sells WW  a revolver which WW intends to kill Gus with.  Then he shows up in S5 and sells WW the M60 that he uses to take out your ex's nazi friends with.

 
Mike and Nacho need their own show. 

-Loved the flash forward scene with Mike to open the show in his kitchen/house and then figure out how exactly that would happen over the course of 60 minutes. 

-Saul's story arc is also interesting but more like a Greek tragedy. 

 
We are so lucky, as viewers to get this show, and of course, for it to be so good. Mike getting killed on BB was one of the most awful TV deaths. As much as I really wanted Mike to gut Walt like a fish, I just missed having Mike around saying and doing cool things. It's so nice to have him back.

On BB, there were so many great characters, but when it comes to Saul and Mike, they grabbed your attention with every single scene. Moreso than anybody except Walt. For spin-off characters, they'd be draft picks one and two without a doubt. To get a show with both of them executed this well is just a treat.

And that Vince Gilligan is a bad mother####er.

 
pollardsvision said:
We are so lucky, as viewers to get this show, and of course, for it to be so good. Mike getting killed on BB was one of the most awful TV deaths. As much as I really wanted Mike to gut Walt like a fish, I just missed having Mike around saying and doing cool things. It's so nice to have him back.

On BB, there were so many great characters, but when it comes to Saul and Mike, they grabbed your attention with every single scene. Moreso than anybody except Walt. For spin-off characters, they'd be draft picks one and two without a doubt. To get a show with both of them executed this well is just a treat.

And that Vince Gilligan is a bad mother####er.
Click to expand...
Has Mike ever laughed in any scene ?

 
BustedKnuckles said:
ya hes pretty intense...like a rabid Pit bull ...so unpredictable yet predictable at the same time ...you know hes gonna do something crazy just dont know what and to whom
Click to expand...
I mean....I KNEW crazy 8 wasn't gonna die in that scene....but I wasn't 100% sure Tuco wasn't gonna kill him on the spot. Lol

 
comfortably numb said:
BustedKnuckles said:
ya hes pretty intense...like a rabid Pit bull ...so unpredictable yet predictable at the same time ...you know hes gonna do something crazy just dont know what and to whom
Click to expand...
I mean....I KNEW crazy 8 wasn't gonna die in that scene....but I wasn't 100% sure Tuco wasn't gonna kill him on the spot. Lol
Click to expand...
That's the part I've struggled with on this show.  It's been fantastic, but you lose some of the edge with it being a prequel.  On the flipside, it's a credit to how well this show is put together.  They can still pull off some intense drama even though the audience knows the guy isn't going to die. :thumbup:  

 
Ghost Rider said:
I think he once sarcastically scoffed at Walt right before he told him about how they tag evidence in the evidence room.  
Click to expand...
Both BK and GR, that smile could and I stress could tip off Tuco in a later episode down the line whenever he gets out of prison. Beating up a Senior will only keep him in jail for so long, I would expect Tuco to pop up sooner than later and they can actually work that smile right into the script which was out of character for Mike. 

-I watch House of Cards and binge it in 2-3 days, it's pretty good but it pales in comparison, not even close to the thrill I get watching BB and BCS. It's hard to remember a show where I was running to watch it every week outside of the Gilligan series. 

 
Ministry of Pain said:
Both BK and GR, that smile could and I stress could tip off Tuco in a later episode down the line whenever he gets out of prison. Beating up a Senior will only keep him in jail for so long, I would expect Tuco to pop up sooner than later and they can actually work that smile right into the script which was out of character for Mike. 

-I watch House of Cards and binge it in 2-3 days, it's pretty good but it pales in comparison, not even close to the thrill I get watching BB and BCS. It's hard to remember a show where I was running to watch it every week outside of the Gilligan series. 
Click to expand...
He had a gun (assuming illegal) on him.
Didn't Mike allude to that being something that would keep him away for a decent amount of time (5-10)?

I don't think they went through all this for a 4 month misdemeanor charge

 
comfortably numb said:
Ministry of Pain said:
Both BK and GR, that smile could and I stress could tip off Tuco in a later episode down the line whenever he gets out of prison. Beating up a Senior will only keep him in jail for so long, I would expect Tuco to pop up sooner than later and they can actually work that smile right into the script which was out of character for Mike. 

-I watch House of Cards and binge it in 2-3 days, it's pretty good but it pales in comparison, not even close to the thrill I get watching BB and BCS. It's hard to remember a show where I was running to watch it every week outside of the Gilligan series. 
Click to expand...
He had a gun (assuming illegal) on him.
Didn't Mike allude to that being something that would keep him away for a decent amount of time (5-10)?

I don't think they went through all this for a 4 month misdemeanor charge
Click to expand...
:goodposting: Mike said In the act of a Felony, with a gun Tuco was looking at 5 to 10.. Figure with good behavior ( Tuco good :eek: ) out in 2 to 4..

 
comfortably numb said:
He had a gun (assuming illegal) on him.
Didn't Mike allude to that being something that would keep him away for a decent amount of time (5-10)?

I don't think they went through all this for a 4 month misdemeanor charge
Click to expand...
Excellent points, just saying Tuco didn't kill anyone and I don't think that's the last of Tuco in BCS, perhaps for S2, I expect to see him in S3 or perhaps even some work he does behind bars to make things difficult on Nacho. 

-They likely need Tuco to go away for a while though so they can further Nacho's character along who I think is much more dangerous than Tuco in a lot of ways.

 
comfortably numb said:
He had a gun (assuming illegal) on him.
Didn't Mike allude to that being something that would keep him away for a decent amount of time (5-10)?

I don't think they went through all this for a 4 month misdemeanor charge
Click to expand...
Felon, with a gun, in possession of meth and under influence of meth, conducting a strong arm robbery and assault on the elderly.

 
I like the multiple times Nacho and Mike have been in conversations and Nacho has asked a question, the kind of question that say an idiot like the Hummer guy would answer, and Mike just stares at him and he stares back, neither budging, and both respecting and understanding that the other is a strategic thinker.  They have some mutual respect, so much so that Nacho allowed Mike to impose his plan over Nacho's own plan.  Great acting in those scenes. 

 
The necklace that Mike swiped from Tuco, the boxing glove charms.  Didn't Tuco have them in BB?  If so, it sure sounds like those two meet up again at some point. 

 
I thought it was interesting that Mike ended up with Tuco's necklace as a sort of trophy from his encounter.  Remember in BB, Hank got Tuco's grill in a paperweight as a trophy, but it came to symbolize his PTSD, and he threw it in a river.

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
I like the multiple times Nacho and Mike have been in conversations and Nacho has asked a question, the kind of question that say an idiot like the Hummer guy would answer, and Mike just stares at him and he stares back, neither budging, and both respecting and understanding that the other is a strategic thinker.  They have some mutual respect, so much so that Nacho allowed Mike to impose his plan over Nacho's own plan.  Great acting in those scenes. 
Click to expand...
I love Nacho. Sad knowing his time is likely up soon, as he wasn't in Breaking Bad at all.

 
bigmarc27 said:
Once that transformation is complete, I assume the show will likely be done. This is kind of an origin story, so once he becomes the character we know, I doubt the show continues afterwards. 
Click to expand...
You shut your mouth, mister.

 
Harry Manback said:
I love Nacho. Sad knowing his time is likely up soon, as he wasn't in Breaking Bad at all.
Click to expand...
He kind of was though, wasn't he?  I think I mentioned that last week or so, but I never followed up on it.  Saul called him out by name in the desert when the "two masked men" presented him with an already dug grave. 

 
Jaysus said:
He kind of was though, wasn't he?  I think I mentioned that last week or so, but I never followed up on it.  Saul called him out by name in the desert when the "two masked men" presented him with an already dug grave. 
Click to expand...
Wasn't that pre-breaking bad? I don't think Nacho was in BB at all...I could be wrong.

 
Harry Manback said:
Wasn't that pre-breaking bad? I don't think Nacho was in BB at all...I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
When Saul begs for his life to Jesse and Walt in BB, he says "who sent you, was it Nacho?"  Nacho never appears, but obviously Saul still thinks Nacho is alive at the moment Jesse and Walt are threatening to kill Saul.

 
Jaysus said:
The necklace that Mike swiped from Tuco, the boxing glove charms.  Didn't Tuco have them in BB?  If so, it sure sounds like those two meet up again at some point. 
Click to expand...
Saw that too and it seemed to ring a bell. Either he got it back or got another. BB scene:

bb-tuco-necklace.png


 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
I agree.  A great character in his own right. 
Click to expand...
Not so sure that would be a great show.  I think Gus is too reserved and unemotional.  He is better as a supporting character IMO.

I also think a show just on Mike wouldn't work.  It would be too slow and not enough energy.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
comfortably numb said:
He had a gun (assuming illegal) on him.
Didn't Mike allude to that being something that would keep him away for a decent amount of time (5-10)?

I don't think they went through all this for a 4 month misdemeanor charge
Click to expand...
I don't know the New Mexican criminal codes or sentencing schemes, but in my jurisdiction, assuming Tuco has some prior felony convictions, some creative charging (like armed robbery since he had a weapon, was hitting Mike and took his wallet) could easily get him over a decade. 

He could also be charged with a couple of counts of misconduct involving weapons and assault (especially if Mike's nose or orbital bone was broken) but those sentences would likely run concurrent. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ditkaless Wonders said:
I like the multiple times Nacho and Mike have been in conversations and Nacho has asked a question, the kind of question that say an idiot like the Hummer guy would answer, and Mike just stares at him and he stares back, neither budging, and both respecting and understanding that the other is a strategic thinker.  They have some mutual respect, so much so that Nacho allowed Mike to impose his plan over Nacho's own plan.  Great acting in those scenes. 
Click to expand...
The great acting and outstanding writing really make this a top-notch show.  The way they developed Nacho's position in the Mike-Tuco confrontation was fantastic.  Nacho was supporting Tuco throughout as he normally would and then he tells Tuco they have to leave when he hears the cops.  Thus getting Tuco's permission to leave the scene with cash in hand and giving Tuco no reason whatsoever to suspect Nacho had anything to do with the event.  

 
haven't been reading Sepinwall reviews, but since RaiderNation left us, here's this week's:

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-mike-takes-the-better-call-saul-spotlight-in-gloves-off

A review of tonight's Better Call Saul coming up just as soon as I'm here to get my brother's ink blotter...

"That all ya got?" -Mike

I occasionally hear from readers who wish Better Call Saul focused more on its other Breaking Bad alum, and on the higher-stake drug world of Albuquerque pre-Walt. As one put it in a recent email, "Why are the scenes with Mike so much punchier and emotionally involving than those with Jimmy?"

I strongly disagree with the premise of that question, and think Saul has only gotten better as the show has embraced the Jimmy McGill of it all and slowed down its journey towards Breaking Bad-dom. The tragedy of Mike is perhaps greater because of its permanence, and because the sins he commits along the way are worse than what Saul does, but becoming Gene from Cinabbon is presented as a fate almost worse than death, and Jimmy's descent feels just as unfortunate and unfair as what we know is coming for Mike.

Still, when Saul decides to put on its best Heisenberg hat  and go darker and more violent with a Mike spotlight like "Gloves Off" — from the same creative team (writer Gordon Smith and director Adam Bernstein) responsible for last year's Emmy-nominated "Five-O" — I can at least make out the outlines of those other arguments. I love the Jimmy-centric version of this series, but the hours revolving around Mike work pretty spectacularly, too.

Weirdly, the episode that "Gloves Off" evokes most isn't "Five-O," or some of the late-period BB stories with Mike, but the "Better Call Saul" episode of Breaking Bad itself. Given the opportunity to make a big and relatively easy score, while ridding the world of the very dangerous and unstable Tuco Salamanca, Mike instead contorts himself this way and that for a much shakier plan(*) that involves him taking a beating — and risking far worse, given what we know of Tuco — for a much smaller payoff, all because he'd rather not murder someone. We've seen that he's killed in the recent past, and his conversation with Lawson the gun dealer makes clear that his body count goes back decades, but there's killing for your country, or to avenge the death of your son, and there's killing just for money. That's a bridge Mike will eventually cross, but it's not one to be done crossed too quickly or easily — especially not when this creative team is involved — and the Mike at this point in the series is no more ready to be a drug kingpin's enforcer than Jimmy is to be another kingpin's consiglieri. Different show, same step-by-step approach. Mike intentionally taking a beating to avoid committing murder is the kind of penance he'll perform at this stage of the journey, which will only make it more powerful when he's prepared to kill without question.

(*) Not only is Mike in danger of simply getting killed by Tuco, but he couldn't have known for sure that Tuco would give Nacho permission to leave when the cops were approaching. Timed a little differently, and Nacho winds up in jail as an accessory, Mike gets no money for his trouble, and gains an added enemy.

Of course, we know Mike can't kill Tuco, given that the man is alive and well at the start of Breaking Bad, but this approach solves a problem for both Nacho and for Better Call Saul. Tuco is too violently erratic to be kept in play for years on this or any show. In hindsight, Breaking Bad got doubly lucky with Tuco: first with the writers strike ending season 1 abruptly, then with Raymond Cruz having to return to his day job on The Closer earlier than expected, when Tuco was meant to be season 2's big bad. Here, Saul gets to have its Tuco cake and eat it, too, by tying him to both Jimmy and Mike but not having to constantly work around such a volatile character who would only have to grow more prominent the closer each main character got to the drug world. Instead, the show gets to park Tuco in prison for a few years on assault charges, and let the calmer and more calculating Nacho fill that plot void. 

And where Jimmy barely appears at all in "Five-O," "Gloves Off" is a more even split between the two characters. And if the stakes aren't life and death for Jimmy, Kim, and Chuck, those scenes feel no less rich or engaging for it.

In particular, Jimmy's confrontation with Chuck is wonderful in the way it folds and refolds the dynamics between the two and our respective sympathies for them. A few weeks back, I noted how impressively the show had made us hate Chuck for his dismissive betrayal of Jimmy — and for the way that his refusal to believe in his brother would become prophecy. But the situation is more complicated than Jimmy breaking bad merely to spite the sibling who expects nothing more from him. On some level, he will always be Slippin' Jimmy, or Saul Goodman(**), and only some of his behavior with the ad can be blamed on being goaded by Chuck. He knew at the end of last week's episode, for instance, that Cliff was furious about the whole thing, but he declined to warn Kim about it until it was much too late, and we know that Jimmy was itching to do this thing his way no matter what, and declined to ask for permission once he got a look at what the partners had deemed an appropriate ad the last time. Jimmy's a showman. He can be a showman in service to a good cause, but he has a very hard time putting his hustler tendencies aside when they conflict with the rules, and it's a big problem. Chuck is making matters worse with his treatment of Jimmy, but it's like that old saw about hypnotism: he can't make Jimmy do something Jimmy wouldn't have otherwise done.

(**) Remember: in the season-opening flash-forward to Cinnabon Gene being locked in the trash room, the initials he leaves on the wall aren't JM for Jimmy McGill, but SG.

But Jimmy's complicated, and not completely rigid. However mad he is at Chuck, he still puts in an all-nighter to take care of him upon discovering that he's had another episode. Whatever betrayals there have been, and no matter how psychological Chuck's condition may be, they are still brothers. And if Jimmy can't see the damage he did to the firm, he's at least genuinely chastened by the harm he may have done to Kim's career. But as Chuck notes, Jimmy's attempt at self-sacrifice is just as legally questionable as a lot of his other stunts.

Even when he's trying to be good, he's doing bad. He and Mike have a lot more in common than either man would probably want to admit.

Some other thoughts:

* If I haven't woken up to a video of the Tuco lie detector scene re-scored to the Curb Your Enthusiasm music from whenever Larry does the same trick, then I do not know the Internet. At all.

UPDATE: And of course I know the Internet! Enjoy:

* Also, what exactly are Nacho's secrets? Just that he's conducting business (like his arrangement with the Squat Cobbler) on the side? Or is there more?

* Lawson! Jim Beaver reprises his Breaking Bad role as Walter White's favorite gun dealer, who seems to be operating out of the same motel where he'll later sell Walt a .38 snub at a moment when Walt is looking to defend himself against Mike and Gus. Where there were explicit references to Mike not knowing Saul's disappearance expert, I don't believe there were similar disclaimers about Mike and Lawson, so it doesn't feel like a continuity glitch to put the two together here. And it's a pleasure to watch the two characters interact and appreciate the obvious expertise and professionalism of the other. Mike doesn't buy from Lawson today, but since the man makes money on repeat business, I suspect we haven't seen the last of Mr. Beaver in Albuquerque.

* The Lawson scene also fills in a piece of Ehrmantraut backstory, as we learn he was a Marine in Vietnam. That fits Jonathan Banks' age (he was born in 1947), but I get a headache when I try to calculate how old Mike would be in the early '00s period of this show, and thus how old he would have been during the Vietnam War, but it suits the character temperamentally.

* Mike's unsurprisingly living in the same spartan house we see him occupying in the Breaking Bad years. He's not a man into creature comforts; the money is all for Kaylee.

* Kudos to the commenters last week who noted that the film students must have used Mrs. Strauss' chair lift to pull off the dolly shot in the ad. I didn't realize that at the time, but it's unmistakable on watching it again. Too funny.

* UPDATE: One more from the eagle-eyed commenters, but about this one: that's Krazy-8 in the restaurant with Tuco. Annoyed that I didn't recognize him, but it's also been several years since I watched the first three episodes of Breaking Bad.

What did everybody else think?
Click to expand...

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cosjobs
Any four theatrical releases per week for $25/mo (AMC only)
Replies
9
Views
408
skol asylum
skol asylum
Wingnut
Vince Gilligan's new series, Wycaro 339, coming this summer.
Replies
10
Views
4K
Zow
Zow
Joe Bryant
Joe Looking For Your Thoughts - The Challenges and Opportunities of AI
2
Replies
72
Views
3K
Uruk-Hai
Uruk-Hai

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top