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I hope that copier guy who was in that funny short movie a few years ago about 2 guys having an intense conversation in a parking garage is back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yYTY3BGr5A I was one of like 10 people who cheered when he showed up.
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Apr 3, 2017 14:24
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 16:52 |
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Oxyclean posted:The Cinnabon bits are supposed to be post Breaking Bad, right? As far as I recall, Chuck did have a hand in Kim being put in the doghouse. While I echo the whole "gently caress Chuck" sentiment. The truth is that his feelings toward his brother are understandable. He has this point of view towards Jimmy that he developed when they were kids and to be fair, Jimmy never did anything to disprove that he was a con artist and a smooth talking petty crook in his brother's eyes. He sees it as Jimmy getting everything easy and doing no work while others clean up the mess left behind. And I think he envies it. It's a pretty realistic dynamic for brothers. Sometimes the smallest memories really stick with you. The important thing about that particular flashback if I recall was that Chuck blamed Jimmy for the dad's business going under, but it was proved that the father was an easy mark for con men. It's easier to blame your brother for something like that than facing your father was a weak man. Jimmy lacked the self awareness to see that what he was doing was really "wrong" (if he even stole from his Dad, it was actually pretty vague if I recall) and it's what is both frustrating and likable about Jimmy. He is not a bad guy, he wants to do right and can be a very moral person sometimes. But on the other hand he is willing to "cut corners" to get what he wants. He rationalizes it all away and plans to be a better person tomorrow. If Jimmy from season two Better Call Saul met season 4 Saul from Breaking Bad he would probably be shocked by him. And after a half an hour, Saul would have talked Jimmy over to his side. What I really enjoy about Better Call Saul and it's something it can develop more subtly than Breaking Bad, is the dichotomy of people's behaviour. Mike for example, does heinous poo poo, but does it is for his Grand-daughter and will never cross certain lines. Yet, we see that Mike's uncompromising work ethic and moral centre is what gets him in trouble in the first place. It will be interesting to see him strip away those layers of morality and cross those lines. In a lot of ways he is more like Jessie than Walt. Mike can't rationalize morality the way Walt can/could. he is just jaded enough to know he can't change it. Really can't wait, It really takes it's time and lets you get to know these people. Edit: and yep, the Black and White Cinnabon bits are post BB. To quote the line from season 5 when he was going into Robert Forster's criminal witness protection: "If I'm lucky in a month from now, best-case scenario, I'm managing a Cinnabon in Omaha" Lonos Oboe fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Apr 3, 2017 |
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Apr 3, 2017 17:09
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Just to give my quick analysis of the Gus pipeline/ timeline and how I imagine it worked. -Him and his partner/partner start up their meth/chicken business and get the attention of Don Eladio. -Pool party where Hector meaningfully kills the guy into the pool. -Gus expands to America with the Don's permission. Uses his professionalism and brains to get ahead. -The shenanigans that we saw the last few seasons where Gus starts screwing with Hector. -Gus meets Gail, who is a lab genius. Gail probably works out of a situation similar to season 1 BB. -Gus hooks up with Lydia and the "meth Illuminati" (I like that name.) and starts distributing to Eastern Europe, sidestepping Eladio -Gus brings Eladio mad cash due to his outside selling. Eladio could give a gently caress where it comes from. Hector is humiliated and gets suspicious and something happens, maybe he is poisoned and has his stroke. Either way he is brought low. -Getting to season 1 BB Gus invests his money into his mega lab, finally has his eye on killing Eladio. -Walt/Jessie come in, 2nd pool party. Gus reigns supreme. Probably full of holes but makes kinda sense. Lydia is Gus' lynchpin and she is such a fun character I am sure she will return. I also have a few other thoughts about some other stuff that was maybe mentioned earlier in the thread. The most relevant being the fact that Mike was willing to wage a Punisher style war against Hector over a driver being killed and yet seemed at most very mildly pissed off at Todd killing the child. Again and again, Mike is moral to almost a fault. We know his justification is his Grandkid and daughter in law. (highlighted by them watching TV before he backflips on his decision to help Gus) How does Mike fall so far? Maybe in that scene where he beats Walt for suggesting they off Gus, he does it because he sees himself in Walt? As for Saul Goodman becoming this morally corrupted character who thinks that people "should vacation in Belize." It's pretty much been the object of the show to show the similarities between Jimmy and Walt to Saul/Heisenberg. I think the reality is actually kinda reversed. Heisenberg is who Walt allows himself to be. We always see the change as like an Incredible Hulk thing where Walt can just say "gently caress it" and go for it. His motivations for 'letting go' change as time goes on. From the cancer, to losing his life to losing his family. But we always get the sense that Heisenberg is who Walt wants to be. Even at the end. I get the sense that Jimmy has to stop himself being Saul. He is a good guy at heart who is unfortunately at his best when he is conning, scamming and manipulating. It's like an art form. Constantly, again and again we see that he can't really get ahead unless he bends the rules or gets Mike to take pictures or Huell to use his ex-C.I.A./Delta skills. I think the core of what holds Jimmy together is a mixture of Kim and Chuck. They are ironically what holds him up. The same was that Jessie was the one that held Walt together even though they spend a huge amount of the show at odds with each other.. I think they both fill that role in different ways. Saul is Jimmy at his best. For better or worse. I also can't help but feel that when I see Jimmy charming the old people that the "Happy ending massage" and "Holiday in Belize" Jimmy who interacts with the criminals are both part of that same act. The black and white hellscape sections are interesting because he is still playing a character of "Gene" the symbolically castrated manager. Except for that few seconds where he breaks down and becomes Jimmy/Saul. Holy poo poo that was a long post and I could have gone on. Great show, great thread.
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May 11, 2017 15:16
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Rexides posted:I think he felt indirectly responsible for that driver's death. His morals have definitely deteriorated between now and BB, but that case was too personal for him to ignore. He should have felt the same way over the kid's death at the hands of Todd. He basically was in the same position Hector was in. It's a pretty direct comparison. It's interesting because Mike is often outwardly hard to read. We know now that he at least once had a lot of moral compunctions. One of the things I always liked about Mike (and I imagine a lot of people feel the same) is his methodical way of doing things coupled with his imagination and his set of personal rules. We can see that the Mike of Saul is at surface the same Mike of BB. But underneath there are huge changes. S1 Saul's Mike would probably never consider touching the drug trade. But here he is on the slippery slope. Something I wondered about on my BB rewatch before getting into Saul is that I feel like we have learned is that when Mike is hanging with Jessie, you get the sense he kinda likes him or sees something in him. You might feel that it's all an act for Gus at the start and then later dealing with Walt that made him work with Jessie. I get the feeling now that Mike (And Gus to an extent) at the very least admires Jessie's morality and Eddie Dean style junkie guts. After the 2nd pool party, I think they would toss him away in a second if they needed to. But they do like Jessie and understand what Walt sees in him.
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May 11, 2017 16:54
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I would totally watch a story about Badger's adventures in the sci-fi writing game. Culminating in him getting a gig on The Expanse. Maybe he shows up in some behind the scenes video in hipster glasses and a check shirt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd5j0AMpsuU I certainly don't think Gale is in the picture just yet and Gus is getting by purely on better business and screwing over Hector. I can't imagine Gale working in a lab in Mexico.. Maybe he comes in with Lydia. It's a funny thought that Gus picked him up at the Pollos Hermanos QC lab. It's important to remember 2 things about Gale. 1. He has no history or interest in either crime or drugs. 2. He is a self confessed libertarian. It's hard (and fun) to imagine where Gus ran into him. My initial guess is either a cooking class or on a Star Citizen forum. Either way, I do hope he comes back into it. He was a great character and the fact that he was basically proto-Walt if Walt was not compulsively competitive will make an interesting dynamic considering that Gus pretty much planned to murder Walt from day 1 after their business was done.. Did Mike know Lydia personally when he went to whack her at her home? I can't really remember at the moment. I know there was the Asian dude involved, was he a middle man? I mean, all these characters have to come into it before the end.
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May 11, 2017 20:33
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Incidentally, what makes this show great instead of good is that Chuck is absolutely correct about Jimmy. He stole from the till at their dad's store, he staged the billboard incident, he doctored the papers. Chuck is an rear end in a top hat but he knows his brother. True, but an important point to remember is that the Dad was a total push over and regularly gave money away. Maybe Jimmy stole from the till, but the business would still have gone under. It's one of the reasons the show is so great. Chuck is a total poo poo by blaming the Dad's failure on Jimmy, but at the same time Jimmy was also a poo poo. But if we remember the fact Jimmy was heart-broken when his Dad died, it's hard to imagine Jimmy would have wanted to ever hurt his Dad. But at the same time he DID steal from the till. As for the doctoring incident. It's worth remembering that if Chuck said, "Aw poo poo, I must have made a mistake. I can't understand how it happened. But we'll fix it" He more than likely would not have lost the account. Only by his over reacting and arrogance, did Jimmy manage to screw him both times. It's amazing that the show can have you feel so conflicted about characters. Chuck is right about Jimmy, but he is also a judgmental poo poo, but he is still loving RIGHT. I think Chuck will start losing his credibility. Howard will shut him out. Not just because the electrical thing makes him unstable, but more because he was unreliable in the court room. Which is why Howard tolerated him in the first place. I imagine there will be a scene at HHM. Where Chuck shows up and no one will turn off the lights or phones or do any of the things people do because he is important. The way the court and everyone cow-towed to Chuck's "illness" is a great way to show how important he is. It's like celebrity.
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May 11, 2017 20:45
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maskenfreiheit posted:wait, is it canon that huell is ex-spook? Just joking, but he had to pick up that wheeze somewhere. All those years blowing doors off of planes during training sessions must have a bad effect on your lungs.
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May 11, 2017 21:13
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vermin posted:And in the light that the Emperor's clothes are off Jimmy shamed Chuck, Hamlin, the court, and even himself a little for enabling Chuck's delusion to such a degree for so long. Instead of forcing him to come to terms with his delusional thinking, everyone played along with him and let him waste away as a recluse. When he first thought he had EM sensitivity I wonder if everyone was too polite to tell him he was making it up or whether they didn't want to put up with a guy who has to be right 100% of the time. The guy probably made the company millions of dollars. He was basically retiring and having his name above the door gave good name brand recognition. Howard was always weighing the "Is this guy too crazy to be bankable" Chuck was basically the Steve Jobs of HHM.
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May 11, 2017 21:20
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vermin posted:These sort of questions lead me to thinking about the logistics of mid-to-street level organized crime. How do you know who to sell drugs to? Do you just sell to people you know? Where do you hide the drugs? At what point do you need to launder money? How do you become a fence? How do fences find buyers for their stolen stuff? Is there one guy everybody knows who forges documents? Do hitmen hire themselves out or are they just one guy in a crime organization who does the lion's share of the killing? Do back-alley doctors become vets first or do they wait for retired corrupt policemen to show up on their doorstep and offer them cash for service? I imagine it's a lot more haphazard than the show and movies like John Wick makes out. I would say that a huge amount of folks who do that thing are into the mob for money or people have something over on them. The doc movie Cocaine Cowboys and the Wire seem to give a pretty good insight into some of this stuff. It probably varies from place to place. But I would say there are few old, free hitmen and back alley docs.
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May 11, 2017 22:56
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It's pretty ironic that Scam expert Slippin' Jimmy is advising his brother against doing a huge convoluted "steamed hams" style plan. He pretty much says "be honest, she is a caring woman." Jimmy was right. In the court room, she showed nothing but understanding to Chuck. Who's not to say that she might not have been at least open minded to it. You look at Chuck nowadays and he has no problem exerting his "condition" I can't remember where, but I heard or read recently that germophobia, is considered by some to be a sign of extreme narcissism. Chuck's condition is kind of similar. Although I always think about Tobias' nevernude disorder. "There are literally dozens of us out there! Dozens!"
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May 15, 2017 23:47
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 16:52 |
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SeANMcBAY posted:Chuck kinda reminds me of Forest Whitaker's character on The Shield. They're in the right but going to pay hard for obsessively going after someone that's much craftier and that knows how to hurt them. "Hey Chuck, Mesa Verde's pussy tastes like sweet buttah!"
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May 16, 2017 02:22
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