MovieChat Forums > Better Call Saul (2015) Discussion > There seems to be a fundamental misunder...

There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about this series

posted 6 years ago by Jehosaphet (1063)
26 replies | jump to latest

This is kind of a trip...I was reading another thread where someone was harping on these boring Chuck-based episodes, and someone else was bummed out about having to wait all the way until Season 5 to get more of Saul's present-day story revealed.
You guys know that this series is literally about the journey, right? This is the show...this is what its about.

You people squirming in your seats to get past all this boring stuff are missing what makes his show great, IMO. Its in the little things, the small moments, the intricacies of any given exchange, the interpersonal dynamics...this is the show lol And its awesome IMO!

If it seems boring to you, maybe you have a flawed understanding, a fundamental misconception of what this show is about...and if you can redefine it for yourself, you'd find it that much more enjoyable.

It'll have some intensity here and there, sure, but I wouldn't count on it building up to any kind of crashing crescendo of amazing badassery...nothing worth wishing you could hurry past this 'boring' stuff in order to see how the show is going to blow its load. The show is blowing its load right now...its great...and if its too slow for you, then it might not be as much 'boring' as it is 'not your kind of show'.
Just my $.02.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

You are right. I thought this spinoff show was meant to be about Saul Goodman's wacky adventures as a sleazy lawyer. Honestly the first season seemed to be aiming toward that. The highlights of the show remain the scene where Jimmy saved the 2 skaters from Tuco and the court battle against Chuck. This is what the show should have been about.

Over the seasons it has turned into an extremely slow paced, dramatic series that is as much about geriatric McGiver as is it about Jimmy, and it's rarely ever funny.

It's one season short of being as long as Breaking Bad and when you look at the overall story, barely anything happened.

[–] Jehosaphet (1063) 6 years ago

Yeah I hear ya.
Fwiw, there was an article just yesterday that I ended up skipping over, but titled, "Gilligan announces viewers should get ready for bumpy ride during season 4", so maybe it'll get going a little bit for ya here.

[–] dt123 (704) 6 years ago

I agree, Atreides. Show us more of how clever Jimmy is, how being a con man works in the courtroom and in dealing w nefarious characters. I think that’s coming, if the teaser for next week is any indication.

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2684) 6 years ago

Yeah, all these people complaining lol. They just don't get it. It's fascinating to watch the characters develop.

[–] illnagas (457) 6 years ago

I see some of the “slow burn/it’s the journey bruh/you don’t get it” trolls have migrated over from IMDb

[–] TapDancingTeddy (228) 6 years ago

No disrespect, but I don't see any trolling in this thread.

[–] TapDancingTeddy (228) 6 years ago

I'm totally with you. This show is a character study and has little adventure to each season's story arc. That's not a problem for people who want to watch a character study. For those looking for more excitement, well, maybe this isn't for them.

Personally, I love the show. I think it helps that I haven't seen any of "Breaking Bad" and came in fresh. I'm on board purely because this show hooked me and for no other reason. So, while I'm not comparing the show to another beloved icon, others clearly are. They will understandably see it differently.

[–] Jehosaphet (1063) 6 years ago

Well said. Yeah, you're the perfect audience for this show lol
That being said...WTF, you should absolutely check out Breaking Bad, it just...it really doesn't get any better than that, IMO. The best television every made.

[–] Threadkiller (3086) 6 years ago

You're the guy they're talking about in this clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pdoN0eAGEE

[–] Jehosaphet (1063) 6 years ago

LOL
Okay, alright. Check this out then. Hear this. My crazy christian Aunt came to visit a couple weeks ago and was piddling with the Netflix, asked me if I recommended anything. With no swearing of course. I still recommended Breaking Bad...fast forward to 3am and my 9pm bedtime Aunt has asked to stay the night, is STILL on the couch binging Breaking Bad and ended up buying the service just to stream the rest of it.
This is the christian lady who didn't let her kids listen to rock and roll, made them say things like, "Angelled eggs" rather than "devilled eggs".

The show is just that good, damnit. Nothing like it had ever been done before, in terms of realism? Except of course maybe The Wire lol
Which, my Father is a cop...now, he hasn't seen the wire, but I'll be damned if that guy has ever been able to bring himself to watch a cop show, due to all the ridiculousness. So...The Wire was kind of a big deal that way, you know?

You've seen The Wire, yeah??

[–] Threadkiller (3086) 6 years ago

I watched the entire series of Breaking Bad which I liked for the most part although I do in fact think that certain very passionate fans have a habit of overrating it. I can't speak on the Wire as I've never seen it nor am I interested.

[–] Threadkiller (3086) 6 years ago

A couple things I'd like to add. Probably my main issues with Breaking Bad

1. Depended way too much on Jesse going through manic depressive/drug addled episodes, doing mind numbingly dumb, nonsensical things to stir up conflict and move the plot forward.

2. The big conflict with Gus Fring - Heavily relying on problem #1 and a number of other implausibilities, the conflict/war with Gus felt terribly forced and contrived for tv drama.

3. Sherlock Hank - Also relied on too heavily to push to plot forward.

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

I agree but it can be that and be boring. All the Jimmy scenes in the series opener were dull as dirt. We didn't learn anything new about any of those characters and it didn't progress the story.

[–] slimone (7996) 6 years ago

I agree. I don't want a character study. Give me a story!

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

Thank goodness for Mike and Kim or I would have probably quit.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

What all these "I want Saul NOW NOW NOW!!!" people are missing is that this journey to Saul IS the show. It's the narrative thread for the ENTIRE show. What leads Jimmy to becoming "Gene in Omaha" IS the entire show.

People need to realize that, when Saul finally 100% emerges, the narrative thread will come to an end and the story of Gene will then have to be wrapped up and that's the end of the series. The journey to Saul IS the series. All that Saul/Gene stuff is the bookend to the series.

Honestly, if people are watching this show just constantly and impatiently waiting for Saul from episode-to-episode then this really isn't a show for them. You're supposed to appreciate the journey. That's the point. If after four seasons you're still just waiting for Saul and sick of waiting then yes--you're watching the show wrong. "That boring stuff" IS the meat and potatoes of this show. It's what the show IS.

I don't feel sorry for these people complaining, though. Who puts themselves through FOUR seasons of a show that annoys/bores them this much? They're stupid to continue watching it if it irks them this much. People are stupid.

[–] Jehosaphet (1063) 6 years ago

Honestly, if people are watching this show just constantly and impatiently waiting for Saul from episode-to-episode then this really isn't a show for them. You're supposed to appreciate the journey. That's the point. If after four seasons you're still just waiting for Saul and sick of waiting then yes--you're watching the show wrong. "That boring stuff" IS the meat and potatoes of this show. It's what the show IS.

It reminds me of that Smallville show. I never watched it, but a Youtube video about it showed that it wasn't until the very last scene of the very last episode when Superman donned his costume and became Superman. Flew off into the sunset to start a life of crime-fighting, banging Lois etc.
Could you imagine fidgeting through the ten seasons of that show waiting for Superman to finally make an appearance, only to have him show up right as the final credits began rolling? What a sucker you'd have been...especially when you could have better enjoyed the ride had you shed what turned out to be a presumptuous expectation.

My point is that Superman is horrible and nobody should have been watching that show to begin with. I wonder if there were people like that though...with Smallville. Man wouldn't that have sucked lol

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

I never watched Smallville but I've read enough about it to know that they basically dragged that show WAY too far out--stretched so thin that even the Justice League eventually appeared. It's as if they ran out of prequel story and decided to pretty much throw in many Superman stories without making him Superman.

Thankfully, we don't have that to worry about with Better Call Saul as I can envision them ending this show organically and not stretching it out.

We're four seasons in and only just now getting to the point where all the cartel stuff is heating up but I don't feel they've stretched it as everything has been building up to these moments. Everything is happening organically and Jimmy has a significant transformation in every season. I WILL say that I do feel that Season 2 was a bit stretched, though. Too little happened in that season compared to season 1, 3 and 4 but Gilligan and Gould admitted they wanted a little more time with Jimmy and admitted that Season 2 was a "pump the breaks" season. I can accept that as we still had many developments from that season.

Seasons 3 and 4 feel like they're at the perfect pace, though. I actually appreciate the pace they've decided to take with Jimmy's development as he's a far more complex character than Walter White, if you ask me, and far more of a gray character than Walt ever was. That's just my view. I see Jimmy/Saul as something similar to Jesse. Jesse had many of those same complex layers. I hope that, like Jesse, they make Jimmy's story a redemption story. Like others have stated, the Gene scenes really do seem to iron out a potentially remorseful Gene who just wants to put some semblance of a life back together. I hope they send his character off with something of a happy ending if possible.

[–] RobPatelli (188) 6 years ago

I hope there is some happy ending somewhere for Jimmy/Saul.

I just love this character and would be very unhappy if they just killed or made his life hell (but sadly I think the show is hinting towards it with some 'current' Saul Goodman shots).

I will be sad when Jimmy & Kim break up but that is coming up in this season. :-(

[–] OhHeyBro (362) 6 years ago

Yeah it's sad how there are so many people who don't understand this show. Same thing happened with Breaking Bad.

These idiots be like "When will Jimmy become Saul?" and "When will Walt show up?". It's really sad.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

I'm convinced that more and more people are losing their attention spans nowadays. People can't even understand simple superhero movie plotlines anymore. NOTHING.

People don't have the patience to think and contemplate about plotlines anymore. It's rather horrifying, really.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Yeah, fools expecting Saul in Better Call Saul.

[–] Jehosaphet (1063) 6 years ago

FOOLS!!

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

A lot of that misunderstanding is because of how they sold the show to the network execs and Sony and they announced it was going to be a comedy to the public.

Vince Gilligan was down here in Australia last year and explained it as:

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/breaking-bads-vince-gilligan-reveals-most-likely-spinoff-from-better-call-saul-20170711-gx8r2g.html

11 July 2017

The original idea, he says, was for a straight-out half-hour comedy. Maybe it'll be Saul sitting in his office in front of the American Constitution on his wall and the Styrofoam columns on either side [a staple scenario in Breaking Bad]. And interesting, quirky people will show up every week with legal problems and he'll solve them. That was the original pitch.

There are laughs to be had, but this is primarily a dark moral drama in which we follow the transformation of Jimmy McGill from a guy who works in the mailroom of his brother's law firm while secretly putting himself through law school at night, into Saul Goodman, whose quick wits and ethical slipperiness lead to him working as legal adviser to the drug cartels.

We love putting as much comedy in our dramas as possible but at the end of the day we're one-hour drama guys, says Gilligan.

There is more in the article than just that however that is the gist of it, part of which is that with Jimmy/Saul they were going to write him as a comedy character. Then once they started making the show they discovered that Odenkirk could do the dark just as well as the comedy and started writing more dark stuff for him.

So yeah it's great show as is, however I do remember that when I first heard about it coming it was to be as a comedy rather than a drama and I think a lot of people heard the same and were expecting that (so are now disappointed).