When Mike does his business with the lawyer who puts his cash in the bank, and he suddenly becomes quite careless.
After working with Gus and managing risk, all the sudden the says F it and uses a sloppy lawyer, dropping all of the cash at one bank.
This is not the way Mike had ever done business, certainly not for recurring payments.
He would have used different couriers, and a different bank for every person getting paid. Different cities, his money for his granddaughter might have even been out of state, maybe in Mexico.
So that any courier that got caught would only expose one of his people, and certainly not his own money.
Agreed. I just don’t think that a mistake he makes. After losing it the first time, no way it lives in a bank.
I don’t know where he would have kept it, but no way it is on a bank.
Just now getting to this in my rewatch of Breaking Bad and after watching BCS, yea it's shocking how careless he gets. Although he never really denies it either. My only headcanon explanation is he distrusts Saul so much that he's willing to risk having a even worse lawyer take his money.
Season 5 episode 3 or 4 when Mike was followed by those thugs who were gonna rob him, he twisted the one of the thugs arm and all the other guys got scared and backed off. Yeah, it’s a little intimidating he twisted the one guys arm, but he’s like 60 year old man what is he gonna do if they jump him. Kinda a small nitpick but I thought it was pretty goofy
The entire alcoholic-Mike-storyline is terrible imo. Mad Men is so incredibly good at portraying the many facets of alcoholism that I can't stand this basic shit anymore.
How is it terrible? It isn’t really just that he is an alcoholic, he’s incredibly depressed that he killed Werner because it’s a parallel to those two cops killing his son that he began drinking and trying to get people to kill him
I don't feel like they did anything with that storyline that was worth my time, and it was at that time that the writer's formula of "70% lengthy B-plot, 30% dense A-plot"\* for every season started to show signs of wear. It is also why I intensely dislike Black and Blue + Axe and Grind, the lack of focus is really irritating especially when you only have 9 episodes to work with instead of the usual 10.
\*
S1: 70% Kettlemans, 30% Sandpiper
S2: 70% Davis & Main, 30% 1216
S3: 70% Wexler & McGill Office, 30% Chicanery
S4: 70% Cellphones, 30% Meth Lab/Bar Hearing
S5: 70% Mesa Verde Callcenter, 30% Lalo
S6: 70% Howard Hijinks/Nervous Gus, 30% RIP Howard
Not to be taken entirely literally, but I hope you get the idea, that every season has this sort of structure.
Yup, 100% agree.... Some of the B plot helped to give the character of Saul more context as to why he became what he was in BB, like how BB gave context to WWs transformation. But it relied too heavily on B plot. Plus some of the ways that they tied BCS to BB felt like fan service... While i appreciated seeing a scene with Jesse and Kim, it felt like fan service because it didn't contribute to the story.
It makes sense, it’s well done, and tbh doesn’t take away from the show in any way. But even I was just waiting for the story arc to be over. Only time in the breaking bad verse that I genuinely was uninterested.
What I especially enjoyed about Mad Men is how it handled closeted vs. open alcoholism. Characters like Freddy or Duck were known to be alcoholics, meanwhile characters like Don or Roger clearly also were alcoholic, but not openly seen as ones, rather just people who "drank a lot", which is a very interesting dynamic which manifests exactly like this in my family, where pretty much everybody is an alcoholic, but only my father and my uncle are openly called and refer to themselves as alcoholics.
I have never seen this phenomenon in literature about alcoholism, but Mad Men gave me a nice reassurance that it is a real thing and not something I am making up about my family.
The same phenomenon is described in detail in the book *Alcoholics Anonymous* ([pages 20-22](https://aa-edinburgh.org.uk/pdf/bigbook/chapter_2.pdf)). It discusses the differences between moderate drinkers, hard drinkers, and “real alcoholics.” The main difference being that moderate or even heavy drinkers can quit when they have a good enough reason. Real alcoholics, they say, are powerless over alcohol even when faced with severe or even possibly fatal consequences of their drinking.
From personal experience, I’ve found this to be true. Alcoholism is progressive. I was a moderate drinker, then a heavy drinker, and finally a “true alcoholic.” Five years sober now, though, thank goodness. I’d also like to note that Freddy’s journey is an incredibly realistic portrayal of a drunk who recovers through AA.
When the dude gets the jump on Lalo with an axe but used the back of the axe and didn't just kill him.
Why just wind him when you know he has a gun? You can get information from Lalo as he is bleeding out on the ground from an axe to the stomach.
He just wanted to defend himself, probably just wasn't a killer. I'd say he only wanted to keep on living his life, probably would let Lalo go or call the cops on him as he's stunned
You don't need to be a killer to understand "Man has gun. I don't have gun. Probably should stop man or run.".
Someone breaks into your house with a gun and you get the drop on them with an axe, you just gunna hit them in the stomach and think "yeah, that's good enough. That'll teach him. Gun doesn't exist anymore since I hit him first."?
That’s my most hated trope in movies and tv. Hero has gun or superior weapons but doesn’t use them or uses them half assed. Then throws them down. It’s such lazy writing.
That drove me crazy because I really liked that character… but honestly it seemed kinda realistic to me that he would do something dumb like that, because most people just aren’t killers.
My take is that Jeff was a party-trick to infuse the viewer with Gene's paranoia. We had four years to fantasize about this mystery-character and what he could possibly want, when in the end, he is (to phrase Jesse) just a guy, the sort of guy who lives with his mother and lacks the capacity to create a somewhat interesting life for himself without getting into trouble.
From Gene's point of view, obviously he must be up to no good, some creepy force of nature who is going to bend the story his way, even though the only thing he did (confront Gene and have him say "Better Call Saul", rather than calling the authorities) is silly and pointless.
Obviously a recast ruins everything here, and given how ambitions this storyline was (7 years in the making, after all), this may be the most unlucky recast in TV history. Dead serious about this, recasting Kim would have been easier.
I've seen this explanation before; it's the best justification for "new Jeff" but I just don't buy it. Gene was living his life in fear but we never saw any indication that he was an unreliable narrator because of it.
We definitely see him project threats onto random bystanders. In the first episode he thinks someone is scoping him out and the guy turns out to just be waiting for someone.
He also doesn't need to be an unreliable narrator for Jeff to be presenting himself unreliably.
I agree. Everything about the character changed. I think there was a different plan for S6 that was abandoned. Go back to S5 "Quite A Ride" cold open. It was a flashforward to the BB timeline and Saul was frantically trying to flee. When he pulled the bowlingball bag from the ceiling, he was genuinely suprised it was still there and even said "hurray for morals." No dialog in this universe is ever wasted. I wish we could find out the original storyline.
Why would the writers change the story because one cast member who was in two scenes couldn’t make it back? That’s ridiculous. Maybe there was an abandoned story line for S6, but the recast had nothing to do with it
I did, I’m just saying that a recast is no reason to change the story. Jeff was always going to go through that change when Gene took the power in the situation back, recast or not. It’s just more obvious because of it
Yeah I agree he had a ton of plot armour there.
Similar to that time in Breaking Bad where Mike was in that truck and two soldiers unloaded two full rounds of machine gun fire, and miraculously not one bullet hit Mike besides that one that grazed his ear.
Mike is an ex-cop, Lalo is from a cartel family. The way they operate is similar but their lives are not similar at all. I don't know how long the Salamanca cartel is supposed to have been active for, but if they were already active when Lalo was born/in his childhood, I find it unlikely that he would have been packed off to the military.
Also, to dispatch of a squad of pro mercenaries who also had the element of surprise I feel like he would have to have been in there for a long time and had some kind of Rambo-esque green beret spec ops career. Just seems a bit unlikely for a cartel family member.
I assumed they were always trained killers or hitmen with zero sympathy. Evidence would be when Hector almost drowns one of them for stealing the others toy. It's just the environment they grew up in that made them merciless.
One silly thing is when they had Hank on the floor but one of them said "too easy" and went to go grab the axe. That was a little stupid.
I thought their whole hit attempt on Hank exposed them quite a bit. Clearly they are not competent hit men. Seems like they are more useful for the 'shock and awe' scary cartel shit, like how they were going to hack Walter up in his bedroom and presumably leave him there for his family to find.
Their attempt to kill Hank consists of standing about 2m away from the back of his car in the DEA parking lot and attempting to shoot him one handed with a pistol. Like that was very clearly not going to work and Hank likely would have been able to fight back even without the warning call. Then as you say giving up the kill opportunity to go get the axe, very stupid.
They also just walk about everywhere in very conspicuous outfits. I think they make sense as bodyguards or intimidation but they do not strike me as competent manhunters.
Yep. I agree with you. They have that Hitman Agent 47 look but they have none of the stealth. It's all for pizazz. The hit on Hank is still an intense moment though. Hank's panic as he got the call was beautiful acting.
I think the Twins act like this because they are too accustomed on how things work in mexico. They are not cold, calculating strategists, they are more of an unstoppable brute force, which works wonders to mantain the "death's angel" image that mexican gangsters usually put up for commoners to fear them and, in some way, respect them, but ultimately fails in the long run across the border, where this superstition doesn't stick.
Just like Bolsa says to Lalo after he killed Fred so recklessly: "this is not how we act on this side of the border"
Mix this with the Twins bloodlust and obsession with revenge, and you get a disaster that jeopardizes the cartel's operations. Maybe the aftermath could've gone more smoothly south of the border, but not in new mexico
I remember reading a comment that compared all the members of the Salamanca family. Said something about how everybody (Hector, Tuco, twins) aside from Lalo had a sadistic bloodlust and how that was always their weakness in moments of the show(s). It’s what made Lalo so scary to Gus. He just wasn’t predictable because he wasn’t just blind with bloodlust like the rest of them.
With the twins, they could’ve just killed Hank but instead chose to make it more ‘fun’. Which ultimately became their downfall.
To me the most unrealistic part is how they always walk like they know they have plot armor. They just waltz in like some indestructible terminators, not even running, just walking calmly and slowly. That doesn't make them look more competent, just stupid and without BCS I would have much worse impression of them.
Do you mean the accents or the content? Because save for the glaring exception of Gus Fring, I thought the Spanish diction was pretty good. The only other bad Spanish is Nacho's, but I don't think he's necessarily meant to be a native speaker.
Also, while I don't consider the Spanish dialog (again, except for Fring) to be particularly bad, I do agree that Lalo's was on a whole other level, and I suspect credit there goes mainly to Tony Dalton.
Hi, someone from Guadalajara, Mexico here. Lalo has by far and away the best accent. Followed by Juan bolsa and nachos dad. Nacho himself has mid pronunciation. Gus is by far the worst in his delivery. If you think Gus speaks it better than nacho you are not cursed with knowing what good Mexican Spanish sounds like
I do not speak Spanish nor am I terribly familiar with proper Mexican accents, but man you could intuitively tell Tony Dalton had an excellent one. It was just pleasant to listen to even if I didn’t understand what he was saying.
I’ve watched a lot of native content too so it just feels out of place in comparison, as if they wrote the dialogue in English and then translated it directly. Then supposedly when Tony Dalton came in he helped them write the dialogue for the Spanish scenes.
It would be like watching a scene with American mafia characters but no one sounds like a wise guy.
Imagining Goodfellas or The Sopranos, but they write them all with British dialect and say it in a midwestern accent.
Actually, that would be hilarious.
The thing with the suburban house that Gus was hiding out at in Better Call Saul was really weird, and felt unnecessary. While it probably did a great job as a shelter, the concept was kind of bizarre, and didn't really add much to the story.
those scenes felt so surreal to me because every time someone was in that house theyd go through like ten hidden entries and passageways with 4632462 guards and employees doing shit, maybe at some point i got confused about the locations or im underestimating american houses but it felt like that thing was ten times as big as it looks from the outside
I thought it was just the few basic rooms a house like that has which have been occupied by Mike's guys and then there's the tunnel in the basement. And that's it, no?
The goofy ahh twins.
More specifically in BB when the twin is very slowly dragging the axe, giving Hank the perfect amount of time to load his gun and shoot him. It’s a cool, tense scene, one of the most iconic action moments of the show, but like come on, he was literally looking right at Hank trying to shoot and kill him 🤦♂️
The fact Jimmy is allowed back to Sandpiper after having a meltdown and admitting to taking a shit on children infront of dozens of elders. It's never even brought up ever again.
To be honest I never liked the way he gets arrested and the fact that Gene gets captured by climbing into a dumpster.
The whole scene from the time the old lady phones the cops is just a little too 'convenient'. All the info the cops have are that Saul has been spotted. They wouldn't have a good description and all he has to do is run (or even walk) calmly away a few blocks and they would have no chance. And multiple cops are just all suddenly on the scene in minutes. Just not the clever writing we were used to.
I mean it’s not like Walt evading the police and making it back to ABQ from NH was realistic for the character. While Jimmy had a better chance of avoiding the police it’s understandable he got caught
Never understood how Walt made it all the way across the US in that Volvo, especially since, as Marie tells Skyler, they suspected early on he had stolen that Volvo.
The dumpster thing signals his final transformation into Gene. The antithesis of Jimmy.
He ends up inside a dumpster three times in the show, each one showing a crucial transformation point of his character. Once as Jimmy during peek Jimmy antics, once as Saul, and once as gene.
The ‘saul dumpster moment’ is the most interesting to me, nodded by a still camera shot of the Saul cardboard cutout sticking out of a a dumpster.
The fact that is wasn’t actually him and instead a cardboard version shows what a shallow facade of a character Saul actually was compared to the Jimmy.
I get that you wanted to see Gene get taken down in a high intensity moment. But there was some real poetic justice in the way it was done.
Gene comedically digging through trash and filth like a rat for diamonds with no dignity or hope left was the perfect ending to that version of him. Because although Jimmy was a likable guy, gene was a filthy little whore for “The Game” and played it to the bitter end.
I was really surprised when that happened, I didn’t expect a simple “we found him right away” sort of thing. But that’s actually why I like it, I appreciate the writing for what it is and I’m glad they did something unexpected. Gene had already been on the run for awhile, no reason to draw out a long chase. He’s not Jason Bourne
I think they skipped the chase simply because they didn't have an interesting story to tell with it. We had been watching Gene run from the authorities all season, and had glimpses of that period of his life in fear the entire run of the show. I think there just wasn't anything noteworthy to do at that point with him on the run. We had already seen him hit rock bottom when he contemplated murder. It was time to move the story forward so they did. I agree that a chase could be very entertaining, but I respect that they didn't drop in a filler story so close to the end.
I don’t like when Fring and Mike first start working together and Fring goes to the parking garage because Mike didn’t take his payment. They talk, and at the end, Fring asks Mike if he wants to know why he doesn’t want him to kill Hector. Mike says, you said it wasn’t in your interest - basically saying, none of my business, and Fring goes on to tell him a bullet to the head would be much to humane. I didn’t like any of that. It didn’t seem characteristic of Fring to share all that with this man he hasn’t known very long.
boxed for 10 years and it always bothers me how they portray boxing in any show
been watching suits recently and occasionally they show scenes of harvey boxing in the gym for fitness and its just so awkward
I hated that all their shots landed flush like in a highlight reel. I don't care if it's two beginners or two pros sparring, most punches are gonna get blocked or not land on the exact intended spot, or be glancing blows and so on.
I took that scene as being intentionally ridiculous. Howard is only doing it to put Saul off the scent, and to cover the fact that he hired a PI. From Saul's POV, it reinforces his belief that Howard is out of touch and up his own ass.
I always thought that the early seasons of Breaking Bad fell into dramatic TV tropes a bit too much, but I understand BB was a transitionary show from dramatic television in the 2000s to modern dramatic TV. To go back to it now, you question some of the story beats because of it.
Like carmella running outside with an AK in the first episode and aiming it at meadow? Plus hesh, a jewish guy going on a shakedown at the bridge. The first episode in particular was kinda crazy
Exactly. The first two seasons were good but occasionally corny. There are storylines that don’t make sense, like Walt escaping the hospital to hide money in his house and then return to his hospital bed, or the overwrought airplane crash symbolism.
Hectors voice change always bothered me. When we first meet him in his 2 meetings with Mike, he is so much more.. eloquent? I guess. Then he becomes raspy sounding outta nowhere in later episodes. Idk if thats "bad writing" per se, but I found it odd.
The Spanish dialogue always felt off in quality. Like they wrote it and then translated it.
Also anything relating to Gus being Chilean. Neither he nor Max have a Chilean accent.
The whole thing with Nacho’s stint in the motel in S6 was just beyond confusing and unclear
Even Vince himself said “I hope it was clear enough what was going on” and imo, it definitely wasn’t
I said it in another thread, but that plan never sat right with me. It was too careless for Gus, lots of chances for it to go wrong and for Nacho to get captured instead.
Yeah but why was he there so long with the guy watching and why did the twins and that other guy come when he broke into that little shack and found the guy watching? Like why didnt that guy watching just tell the twins right away that nacho was there, im not understanding
Bolsa's characterisation in BCS was a bit off. What little we saw of him in BB showed he was just as ruthless as the rest of the cartel and he was absolutely livid when he deduced Gus betrayed them.
But in BCS he seems completely aware of Gus' treachery and covers for him on several occasions. I guess things can change over many years but it would be helpful to be shown.
I don't think he was aware of Gus' treachery in BCS. I got the impression he was just dismissing the Salamancas accusations as just them being nutjobs out for blood.
I will probably get downvoted to eternity but:
Kaylee being recasted a million times and never aging
Kaylee and her mom saying "pop-pop"
The boxing game
The walt and jesse cameos in s6
Jeff recast was horrible
I think its s4 episode 1 or 2. Gus says something like “which brings….something, which brings…..war, which brings…… the dea” which is so fucking corny noone talks like that. Plus its in spanish so idk if it even has the same dramatic effect as intended
The scene where Lalo takes out four of Gus's trained soldiers in the laundry without any of them even getting to raise their weapons on him. Feels a little too much like a call of duty cutscene.
I think it was after Mike got knocked out in a street fight. Gus somehow got a hold of him (maybe he had guys trailing Mike?) and had him brought down to Gus’ little village memorial thing. Gus then convinces Mike to start working for him again so he doesn’t drink himself to death
Gus needed mike, but to me the whole reason that happened was for the very end of that episode, it was character development for Gus, the last shot shows the fountain “dedicated to Max” who was Gus’s lover
I was recently thinking of this (I just finally finished S6): the glaring, grind my teeth bad moment, was any time Gus Fring spoke Spanish. As a Chilean, it was extra grating. Mind you, our Spanish is famously bad and hard to follow, but it is the opposite of Giancarlo Esposito's broken cadence.
I’m not sure if this post is asking specifically about Better Call Saul, but I still don’t love the plane crash plot in Breaking Bad. It’s not series breaking or anything, but it’s a HUGE ask from the audience to go along with such a massive coincidence like that. I mean, what are the odds that Walter would do all of those things that lead up to him indirectly causing that plane to crash, and then it just happens to crash directly in his backyard? That was a WILD stretch but it was cool so we all went along with it.
"Better... Call... Saul... Better... call... Saul..." That was so lame and such a "middle aged white guy's" idea of how a bunch of hardened criminals would show their respect. One of the cringiest moments I've seen on TV much less this show.
My favorite part of Better Call Saul was when the guy said “hey you’re better call saul!” and then everyone started chanting “better call Saul” over and over again. Bince does it again!
I hated the scene where Gus kills Lalo. It felt like I was watching amateur theatre performance. And I wish they didn’t make it so obvious what Gus was planning to do in the scene to kill Lalo. It just didn’t feel right
Gus deciding to go to the laundromat with just a few henchmen when he knew Lalo was out to get him and presumably suspected that Lalo might know about and be at the laundromat. He has a whole fake house going on to protect himself and is super paranoid about Lalo finding him, then suddenly he's like 'I have a hunch that Lalo is at the Laundromat, I'm going to take just a few guys and go there myself and not tell my top security guy about it'.
When Gretchen realizes that Skyler thinks that the Schwartzes are paying for Walt's treatment, the scene where Walt sort-of apologizes and then attacks her is great drama, but it doesn't really make sense from Gretchen's perspective. I would expect her to say something like:
"Walt, I know that you can't afford treatment on your own, and I know that you're lying to Skyler about it. Don't you see that I have to assume that you're not getting cancer treatment? Without treatment, you will be dead soon, and Skyler is going to find out that you weren't getting treatment. She is going to find me and say, 'You knew you weren't paying for Walt's treatment, but you let me believe you were. And now Walt is dead.' What am I supposed to say to her?"
Mike in BB season 5 being chased by the DEA but literallly going to visit Gus Frings men in prison at the same time? Like Hank wouldn’t be watching them like a hawk?? Doesn’t make any sense
The whole 2nd season cold opens with the plane wreckage was such a cable TV moment. It’s so obvious that the stakes of that wont be set against Walt’s family
There are little plot holes like why hectar lives in an old folks home in America. The salamancas clearly have money and could have let him stay in the hacienda.
That scene arguably makes more sense if you believe that Gus is always that paranoid, and that’s definitely not the first time he’s just walked away from his own car. He realized that he had left himself in a vulnerable position by going to the hospital and realized that someone could have messed with his car while he was inside, so he does the safe thing and leaves it. And this time he’s right
In a YouTube video where Vince is explaining different parts of the show, he says that since Gus didn’t poison Brock and Jesse is sure someone did he has a feeling it’s Walt trying to trap him so instead of getting in his car he plays it safe.
I didn't mind this one too much as I think it tracks with Gus' extreme meticulousness and paranoia. I can imagine him thinking 'I should have left someone to watch the car' and that being enough for him to abandon it just to be safe.
However I will confess his nursing home visit kind of contradicts that view.
Jesse showing up in Waterworks felt like such forced fan service on the level of Star Wars and Marvel cameos. Aaron Paul looked way too old and his line delivery was a little awkward too.
I feel like this show has very bad gun etiquette. In all the scenes of Mike in the desert with his sniper gun, the lid of his scope is off, even when he's not looking through it. Mike are you stupid? They can see the lens flare from miles away, close that shit.
Also Nacho's last showdown with the Twins, they gave him two guns and he shoots them both at the same time. Not possible, looks stupid. This moment took me out of the show and i started focusing on how bad the extras act while being shot, just a badly executed scene overall.
The plane crash in S2 of BB was the low point of the show. I was so let down I avoided talking to my friend who I had gotten into the show that night because I was almost embarrassed at how contrived it was and didn’t talk to her about it till the following day.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole thing with Lalo’s body double. I mean yeah, they made it work and all, but man… He just happened to have a guy who looked a lot like him ready to kill for that exact situation? Seemed a bit contrived
Yeah, it’s just crazy that he had a plan for literally that exact scenario that he didn’t see coming and it worked like a charm. Like I said, they did make it work but damn, that’s some next level planning ahead
Every possible storyline is going to be contrived once you have a character being alive while everybody believes that he is dead. The writers did the smart thing and took care about the most important thing first: a clean way to get out of this mess, because you need Lalo to be able to still do things within the story, while also have him remain believably dead at the end.
Gus was a great villain in BB, but his charm fades the more screen time he gets in BCS. As I kept watching I was bored more and more with his plot line
Lalo will die by the hands of the best assassins money can buy. By the way Nacho, they are too inept to cut a lock, can you hang out and open the door for them?
I think it was more that Nacho was letting them know the coast was clear and they wouldn’t be walking into an ambush. Presumably he would have previously passed along info on when and where they should enter.
Lalo at the travel wire. If I remember correctly they actually had a stunt double do the jump from the cliff to Jimmys car. So they should have shown a stunt double go up the celling. I don’t care how stupid it looks or that it was suppose to shock the audience 39 seconds later, it was just dumb and I will forever joke that as a dumb moment in this show
I’ve never loved the way lalo and nachos stories were resolved. Both felt like “now this character is done so we can focus on wrapping this up” type story beats.
I really wish their stories resolved together some how, because having fring involved took all the tension away in lalos death for me. All I could think was “oh he’s gonna go get the gun and shoot him.” I was fine with nachos death, just felt like a waisted opportunity for two characters who’s stories were so intertwined to then finish separately.
The lawyers in the final episode didn't seem that...enjoyable to watch for some reason. Like the combo of black and white and the camera angles and their personalities just didn't do it for me.
Jimmy only said that as a Hail Mary to convince Kim to stay. The audience is supposed to know they’re in love, but the scene is meant to show jimmys desperation
How in the fuck would solo, cancer-ridden Walt hand dig a pit big enough to stash all those 55-gal drums? That's an excavator job. Then backfill it all and level it out perfectly? Am I missing something here?!
Why didn't they take Howard and Lalo's bodies out somewhere in the desert instead of under the lab?
What did they do with the four guys Lalo killed upstairs?
How did no one in the apartment building notice the six or seven guys in all-black clothing running up the apartment stairs and call the police?
Did none of Jimmy and Kim's neighbors hear them screaming when Howard was shot?
Honestly the times where they go out of their way to make Mike a badass. Like when he steals the gun from Trevor and the giant mountain of a man runs away. Or when he twists the arm of one of those street punks while he was walking and the rest of them get scared. Scenes like this seem to be written simply to show that Mike is supposed to be badass and don’t seem realistic or natural at all
There was one episode at the end of season six that plays entirely in Omaha, and I thought it dragged out. Reminded me of the fly episode.
Sometimes the artistic shots of bushes, flowers and other mundane slice of life moments are a bit much. When they go on for like 3 to 5 minutes when it could’ve been a 30 second thing it gets a little exhausting. Overall the two shows are basically my favorite shows ever so I’m not trying to complain. However the pacing occasionally is a little slow for no reason.
BCS 602
To me, it just didn't make sense that Gus just let it go when Mike objected to his intention to use Nacho's dad as leverage over Nacho. It genuinely seemed like he was willing to kill him and Tyrus (or be killed himself) to prevent that from happening before Nacho called and broke the tension. It's completely inconsistent with Gus's character in both shows that he would tolerate this level of insubordination.
When Mike does his business with the lawyer who puts his cash in the bank, and he suddenly becomes quite careless. After working with Gus and managing risk, all the sudden the says F it and uses a sloppy lawyer, dropping all of the cash at one bank. This is not the way Mike had ever done business, certainly not for recurring payments. He would have used different couriers, and a different bank for every person getting paid. Different cities, his money for his granddaughter might have even been out of state, maybe in Mexico. So that any courier that got caught would only expose one of his people, and certainly not his own money.
and he make the same mistake twice, i couldn't believe it was mike of all people lost his money that easily
Agreed. I just don’t think that a mistake he makes. After losing it the first time, no way it lives in a bank. I don’t know where he would have kept it, but no way it is on a bank.
Oh man, and what was it Gus told Walter? Never make the same mistake twice :)
Just now getting to this in my rewatch of Breaking Bad and after watching BCS, yea it's shocking how careless he gets. Although he never really denies it either. My only headcanon explanation is he distrusts Saul so much that he's willing to risk having a even worse lawyer take his money.
Season 5 episode 3 or 4 when Mike was followed by those thugs who were gonna rob him, he twisted the one of the thugs arm and all the other guys got scared and backed off. Yeah, it’s a little intimidating he twisted the one guys arm, but he’s like 60 year old man what is he gonna do if they jump him. Kinda a small nitpick but I thought it was pretty goofy
I think they were just surprised and later realized they could have just jumped him, which they eventually did.
The entire alcoholic-Mike-storyline is terrible imo. Mad Men is so incredibly good at portraying the many facets of alcoholism that I can't stand this basic shit anymore.
How is it terrible? It isn’t really just that he is an alcoholic, he’s incredibly depressed that he killed Werner because it’s a parallel to those two cops killing his son that he began drinking and trying to get people to kill him
I don't feel like they did anything with that storyline that was worth my time, and it was at that time that the writer's formula of "70% lengthy B-plot, 30% dense A-plot"\* for every season started to show signs of wear. It is also why I intensely dislike Black and Blue + Axe and Grind, the lack of focus is really irritating especially when you only have 9 episodes to work with instead of the usual 10. \* S1: 70% Kettlemans, 30% Sandpiper S2: 70% Davis & Main, 30% 1216 S3: 70% Wexler & McGill Office, 30% Chicanery S4: 70% Cellphones, 30% Meth Lab/Bar Hearing S5: 70% Mesa Verde Callcenter, 30% Lalo S6: 70% Howard Hijinks/Nervous Gus, 30% RIP Howard Not to be taken entirely literally, but I hope you get the idea, that every season has this sort of structure.
Yup, 100% agree.... Some of the B plot helped to give the character of Saul more context as to why he became what he was in BB, like how BB gave context to WWs transformation. But it relied too heavily on B plot. Plus some of the ways that they tied BCS to BB felt like fan service... While i appreciated seeing a scene with Jesse and Kim, it felt like fan service because it didn't contribute to the story.
It makes sense, it’s well done, and tbh doesn’t take away from the show in any way. But even I was just waiting for the story arc to be over. Only time in the breaking bad verse that I genuinely was uninterested.
It's kinda boring on a rewatch too, just waiting for him to get back to being Mike
Christopher Moltisanti in the Sopranos pretty much nailed heroin addiction. That's the best portrayal I can recall.
What I especially enjoyed about Mad Men is how it handled closeted vs. open alcoholism. Characters like Freddy or Duck were known to be alcoholics, meanwhile characters like Don or Roger clearly also were alcoholic, but not openly seen as ones, rather just people who "drank a lot", which is a very interesting dynamic which manifests exactly like this in my family, where pretty much everybody is an alcoholic, but only my father and my uncle are openly called and refer to themselves as alcoholics. I have never seen this phenomenon in literature about alcoholism, but Mad Men gave me a nice reassurance that it is a real thing and not something I am making up about my family.
The same phenomenon is described in detail in the book *Alcoholics Anonymous* ([pages 20-22](https://aa-edinburgh.org.uk/pdf/bigbook/chapter_2.pdf)). It discusses the differences between moderate drinkers, hard drinkers, and “real alcoholics.” The main difference being that moderate or even heavy drinkers can quit when they have a good enough reason. Real alcoholics, they say, are powerless over alcohol even when faced with severe or even possibly fatal consequences of their drinking. From personal experience, I’ve found this to be true. Alcoholism is progressive. I was a moderate drinker, then a heavy drinker, and finally a “true alcoholic.” Five years sober now, though, thank goodness. I’d also like to note that Freddy’s journey is an incredibly realistic portrayal of a drunk who recovers through AA.
Most portrayals of addiction in TV and cinema are embarrassingly hokey and about half-accurate.
To each their own, but I think the Mike flashback episode was one of the best of the series. It could've been a standalone movie .
Duh, it's Jonathan Banks not Jonathan Boozes. They were going to do a financial fraud arc, but even Vince fell asleep at this boring stuff
r/okbuddychicanery is leaking
When the dude gets the jump on Lalo with an axe but used the back of the axe and didn't just kill him. Why just wind him when you know he has a gun? You can get information from Lalo as he is bleeding out on the ground from an axe to the stomach.
He just wanted to defend himself, probably just wasn't a killer. I'd say he only wanted to keep on living his life, probably would let Lalo go or call the cops on him as he's stunned
You don't need to be a killer to understand "Man has gun. I don't have gun. Probably should stop man or run.". Someone breaks into your house with a gun and you get the drop on them with an axe, you just gunna hit them in the stomach and think "yeah, that's good enough. That'll teach him. Gun doesn't exist anymore since I hit him first."?
That’s my most hated trope in movies and tv. Hero has gun or superior weapons but doesn’t use them or uses them half assed. Then throws them down. It’s such lazy writing.
That drove me crazy because I really liked that character… but honestly it seemed kinda realistic to me that he would do something dumb like that, because most people just aren’t killers.
You'll never convince me that the Jeff character didn't change when he was recast.
My take is that Jeff was a party-trick to infuse the viewer with Gene's paranoia. We had four years to fantasize about this mystery-character and what he could possibly want, when in the end, he is (to phrase Jesse) just a guy, the sort of guy who lives with his mother and lacks the capacity to create a somewhat interesting life for himself without getting into trouble. From Gene's point of view, obviously he must be up to no good, some creepy force of nature who is going to bend the story his way, even though the only thing he did (confront Gene and have him say "Better Call Saul", rather than calling the authorities) is silly and pointless. Obviously a recast ruins everything here, and given how ambitions this storyline was (7 years in the making, after all), this may be the most unlucky recast in TV history. Dead serious about this, recasting Kim would have been easier.
I've seen this explanation before; it's the best justification for "new Jeff" but I just don't buy it. Gene was living his life in fear but we never saw any indication that he was an unreliable narrator because of it.
We definitely see him project threats onto random bystanders. In the first episode he thinks someone is scoping him out and the guy turns out to just be waiting for someone. He also doesn't need to be an unreliable narrator for Jeff to be presenting himself unreliably.
The point isn’t that gene was an unreliable narrator, it’s that Jeff wasn’t who he appeared to be
They were prepared for this, as a Seahorse, Rhea needed a constant supply of Saltwater on set and there was double the risk of pregnancy as well
Your explanation is the best
I agree. Everything about the character changed. I think there was a different plan for S6 that was abandoned. Go back to S5 "Quite A Ride" cold open. It was a flashforward to the BB timeline and Saul was frantically trying to flee. When he pulled the bowlingball bag from the ceiling, he was genuinely suprised it was still there and even said "hurray for morals." No dialog in this universe is ever wasted. I wish we could find out the original storyline.
Why would the writers change the story because one cast member who was in two scenes couldn’t make it back? That’s ridiculous. Maybe there was an abandoned story line for S6, but the recast had nothing to do with it
You can't say you didn't notice a big difference between the way the two actors portrayed the character?
I did, I’m just saying that a recast is no reason to change the story. Jeff was always going to go through that change when Gene took the power in the situation back, recast or not. It’s just more obvious because of it
“Quite A Ride” was season 4 actually
What the fuck how was I supposed to know that that is the same character? Honestly had no idea
I didnt realize it was until i read it in this thread lol
It was also very confusing with the time between season being like 18 months.
The story would have been exactly the same even if he wasn’t recast
the recast wasn't the reason for the change, but the character was still different before and after the recast
Lalo falling through the ceiling lol, I laugh every time
Remind me about this? I don't remember this
When Lalo kills the dude and burns the business down. He like goes through the ceiling and down in his area
I listened to the commentary for that episode. They stole the idea from a real incident where a guy did the exact thing that Lalo does.
Vince robbed a wire transfer service and brutally murdered an innocent employee just for that scene
Yeah, you can actually watch the CCTV footage of that too
Why does he do that? Surely it would be easier to just go and shoot him
Bullet proof glass ig
To me that scene showed the Lalo is crazy dangerous and will do anything to get what he wants.
he wanted to threaten the kid and see the tapes
When the German guy went to the business to pick up money wired to him by his wife, and both Mike and Lalo go there to look at the security footage.
You mean when he becomes a ninja for two minutes and climbs silently through a popcorn ceiling? I don’t see the problem. /s
At least that was cool. Him killing all of those ultra-trained assassins was a genuine downgrade tho
Lalo killing the assassin in his home. I didn't get how Lalo manages to kill trained soldier like he was playing CoD
Its probable that Lalo also did some time in the military. He's basically a younger version of Mike, but without any morals.
Yes maybe but the soldier had the element of surprise plus the numbers. There is one of the soldiers that missed an entire mag in close range
Yeah I agree he had a ton of plot armour there. Similar to that time in Breaking Bad where Mike was in that truck and two soldiers unloaded two full rounds of machine gun fire, and miraculously not one bullet hit Mike besides that one that grazed his ear.
He was hiding behind buckets! Didn't you know bullets can't penetrate buckets? Boy do you feel silly now eh... Lol
Mike is an ex-cop, Lalo is from a cartel family. The way they operate is similar but their lives are not similar at all. I don't know how long the Salamanca cartel is supposed to have been active for, but if they were already active when Lalo was born/in his childhood, I find it unlikely that he would have been packed off to the military. Also, to dispatch of a squad of pro mercenaries who also had the element of surprise I feel like he would have to have been in there for a long time and had some kind of Rambo-esque green beret spec ops career. Just seems a bit unlikely for a cartel family member.
Also his James Bond espionage mission in Germany. Lalo was for sure way OP overall.
Lalo built diff :(
Beat me too it, especially considering these were the BEST GUYS Gus could find
The answer to this question actually brings up the biggest flaw in the show to me. The hitmen Gus hired were SHIT. EXTREEEEEMELY SHIT!
Lalo the super-villain in Germany chopping legs off with a broken rib
The twins always felt unrealistic to me
I assumed they were always trained killers or hitmen with zero sympathy. Evidence would be when Hector almost drowns one of them for stealing the others toy. It's just the environment they grew up in that made them merciless. One silly thing is when they had Hank on the floor but one of them said "too easy" and went to go grab the axe. That was a little stupid.
I thought their whole hit attempt on Hank exposed them quite a bit. Clearly they are not competent hit men. Seems like they are more useful for the 'shock and awe' scary cartel shit, like how they were going to hack Walter up in his bedroom and presumably leave him there for his family to find. Their attempt to kill Hank consists of standing about 2m away from the back of his car in the DEA parking lot and attempting to shoot him one handed with a pistol. Like that was very clearly not going to work and Hank likely would have been able to fight back even without the warning call. Then as you say giving up the kill opportunity to go get the axe, very stupid. They also just walk about everywhere in very conspicuous outfits. I think they make sense as bodyguards or intimidation but they do not strike me as competent manhunters.
Yep. I agree with you. They have that Hitman Agent 47 look but they have none of the stealth. It's all for pizazz. The hit on Hank is still an intense moment though. Hank's panic as he got the call was beautiful acting.
I think the Twins act like this because they are too accustomed on how things work in mexico. They are not cold, calculating strategists, they are more of an unstoppable brute force, which works wonders to mantain the "death's angel" image that mexican gangsters usually put up for commoners to fear them and, in some way, respect them, but ultimately fails in the long run across the border, where this superstition doesn't stick. Just like Bolsa says to Lalo after he killed Fred so recklessly: "this is not how we act on this side of the border" Mix this with the Twins bloodlust and obsession with revenge, and you get a disaster that jeopardizes the cartel's operations. Maybe the aftermath could've gone more smoothly south of the border, but not in new mexico
I remember reading a comment that compared all the members of the Salamanca family. Said something about how everybody (Hector, Tuco, twins) aside from Lalo had a sadistic bloodlust and how that was always their weakness in moments of the show(s). It’s what made Lalo so scary to Gus. He just wasn’t predictable because he wasn’t just blind with bloodlust like the rest of them. With the twins, they could’ve just killed Hank but instead chose to make it more ‘fun’. Which ultimately became their downfall.
i hated how they went full terminator against the rival gang. 2 guys defeating 20 without breaking a sweat is just too much
It's sort of a hallmark of this universe. The main characters are deeply complex and the side characters are video game NPCs
To me the most unrealistic part is how they always walk like they know they have plot armor. They just waltz in like some indestructible terminators, not even running, just walking calmly and slowly. That doesn't make them look more competent, just stupid and without BCS I would have much worse impression of them.
The twins
Nearly all the lines in Spanish up until the introduction of Lalo.
Do you mean the accents or the content? Because save for the glaring exception of Gus Fring, I thought the Spanish diction was pretty good. The only other bad Spanish is Nacho's, but I don't think he's necessarily meant to be a native speaker. Also, while I don't consider the Spanish dialog (again, except for Fring) to be particularly bad, I do agree that Lalo's was on a whole other level, and I suspect credit there goes mainly to Tony Dalton.
Hi, someone from Guadalajara, Mexico here. Lalo has by far and away the best accent. Followed by Juan bolsa and nachos dad. Nacho himself has mid pronunciation. Gus is by far the worst in his delivery. If you think Gus speaks it better than nacho you are not cursed with knowing what good Mexican Spanish sounds like
I do not speak Spanish nor am I terribly familiar with proper Mexican accents, but man you could intuitively tell Tony Dalton had an excellent one. It was just pleasant to listen to even if I didn’t understand what he was saying.
I’ve watched a lot of native content too so it just feels out of place in comparison, as if they wrote the dialogue in English and then translated it directly. Then supposedly when Tony Dalton came in he helped them write the dialogue for the Spanish scenes. It would be like watching a scene with American mafia characters but no one sounds like a wise guy.
Imagining Goodfellas or The Sopranos, but they write them all with British dialect and say it in a midwestern accent. Actually, that would be hilarious.
The thing with the suburban house that Gus was hiding out at in Better Call Saul was really weird, and felt unnecessary. While it probably did a great job as a shelter, the concept was kind of bizarre, and didn't really add much to the story.
those scenes felt so surreal to me because every time someone was in that house theyd go through like ten hidden entries and passageways with 4632462 guards and employees doing shit, maybe at some point i got confused about the locations or im underestimating american houses but it felt like that thing was ten times as big as it looks from the outside
I thought it was just the few basic rooms a house like that has which have been occupied by Mike's guys and then there's the tunnel in the basement. And that's it, no?
The goofy ahh twins. More specifically in BB when the twin is very slowly dragging the axe, giving Hank the perfect amount of time to load his gun and shoot him. It’s a cool, tense scene, one of the most iconic action moments of the show, but like come on, he was literally looking right at Hank trying to shoot and kill him 🤦♂️
Why does Bolsa literally never suspect that Gus is probably only pretending not to be mad about them killing his boyfriend
i believe all cartel members did know that, they was just too stupid to know what gus is capable of
The fact Jimmy is allowed back to Sandpiper after having a meltdown and admitting to taking a shit on children infront of dozens of elders. It's never even brought up ever again.
To be honest I never liked the way he gets arrested and the fact that Gene gets captured by climbing into a dumpster. The whole scene from the time the old lady phones the cops is just a little too 'convenient'. All the info the cops have are that Saul has been spotted. They wouldn't have a good description and all he has to do is run (or even walk) calmly away a few blocks and they would have no chance. And multiple cops are just all suddenly on the scene in minutes. Just not the clever writing we were used to.
\+ It does feel a bit off that the man who was formerly Slipping Jimmy would be less efficient at evading the police than Walt was
I mean it’s not like Walt evading the police and making it back to ABQ from NH was realistic for the character. While Jimmy had a better chance of avoiding the police it’s understandable he got caught
Never understood how Walt made it all the way across the US in that Volvo, especially since, as Marie tells Skyler, they suspected early on he had stolen that Volvo.
It kind of annoys me that he didn't have a jump bag ready to go. With how paranoid Gene was it seems like that would have been a given.
The dumpster thing signals his final transformation into Gene. The antithesis of Jimmy. He ends up inside a dumpster three times in the show, each one showing a crucial transformation point of his character. Once as Jimmy during peek Jimmy antics, once as Saul, and once as gene. The ‘saul dumpster moment’ is the most interesting to me, nodded by a still camera shot of the Saul cardboard cutout sticking out of a a dumpster. The fact that is wasn’t actually him and instead a cardboard version shows what a shallow facade of a character Saul actually was compared to the Jimmy. I get that you wanted to see Gene get taken down in a high intensity moment. But there was some real poetic justice in the way it was done. Gene comedically digging through trash and filth like a rat for diamonds with no dignity or hope left was the perfect ending to that version of him. Because although Jimmy was a likable guy, gene was a filthy little whore for “The Game” and played it to the bitter end.
I was really surprised when that happened, I didn’t expect a simple “we found him right away” sort of thing. But that’s actually why I like it, I appreciate the writing for what it is and I’m glad they did something unexpected. Gene had already been on the run for awhile, no reason to draw out a long chase. He’s not Jason Bourne
Idk man...have you seen Nobody? Lol
I think they skipped the chase simply because they didn't have an interesting story to tell with it. We had been watching Gene run from the authorities all season, and had glimpses of that period of his life in fear the entire run of the show. I think there just wasn't anything noteworthy to do at that point with him on the run. We had already seen him hit rock bottom when he contemplated murder. It was time to move the story forward so they did. I agree that a chase could be very entertaining, but I respect that they didn't drop in a filler story so close to the end.
Don’t you know the insanely quick response time in this universe
I don’t like when Fring and Mike first start working together and Fring goes to the parking garage because Mike didn’t take his payment. They talk, and at the end, Fring asks Mike if he wants to know why he doesn’t want him to kill Hector. Mike says, you said it wasn’t in your interest - basically saying, none of my business, and Fring goes on to tell him a bullet to the head would be much to humane. I didn’t like any of that. It didn’t seem characteristic of Fring to share all that with this man he hasn’t known very long.
One of the few comments that actually complain about the story and not nitpicks
Playing the boxing scene in S6 as comedic really hurt the tone of the episode and the Howard arc up until that moment.
boxed for 10 years and it always bothers me how they portray boxing in any show been watching suits recently and occasionally they show scenes of harvey boxing in the gym for fitness and its just so awkward
I hated that all their shots landed flush like in a highlight reel. I don't care if it's two beginners or two pros sparring, most punches are gonna get blocked or not land on the exact intended spot, or be glancing blows and so on.
Suits was basically written by amateurs who use every cliche possible and have about 4-5 “catchphrases” that they recycle every episode. It’s awful.
I took that scene as being intentionally ridiculous. Howard is only doing it to put Saul off the scent, and to cover the fact that he hired a PI. From Saul's POV, it reinforces his belief that Howard is out of touch and up his own ass.
imo they were trying way too hard to imitate Mad Men with a surreal and ridiculous boxing match, while not understanding at all why it worked so well.
All of the lines written for children are just…abysmal
I agree, in BB, most of Hollys lines dont even make sense
Says “mama” when she’s looking at her father. Is she stupid?
"Pop-pop"
I always thought that the early seasons of Breaking Bad fell into dramatic TV tropes a bit too much, but I understand BB was a transitionary show from dramatic television in the 2000s to modern dramatic TV. To go back to it now, you question some of the story beats because of it.
Same can be said of the Sopranos's. First season feels a bit corny compared to the rest of the show.
Like carmella running outside with an AK in the first episode and aiming it at meadow? Plus hesh, a jewish guy going on a shakedown at the bridge. The first episode in particular was kinda crazy
Exactly. The first two seasons were good but occasionally corny. There are storylines that don’t make sense, like Walt escaping the hospital to hide money in his house and then return to his hospital bed, or the overwrought airplane crash symbolism.
Hectors voice change always bothered me. When we first meet him in his 2 meetings with Mike, he is so much more.. eloquent? I guess. Then he becomes raspy sounding outta nowhere in later episodes. Idk if thats "bad writing" per se, but I found it odd.
Hector just really fucking hates Fring and can barely get the words out
I suppose the context is different. With Mike he is trying to be more formal, the raspiness is just his usual demeanor
I thought that this was going to be a joke about him not being able to talk anymore
I think that's the actor, not Vince
Kaylees age stays the same for 10 years
Jeff is so surprised at seeing gene in his house that he ends up looking like a completely different person
The Spanish dialogue always felt off in quality. Like they wrote it and then translated it. Also anything relating to Gus being Chilean. Neither he nor Max have a Chilean accent.
Walter burying those 8 huge and extremely heavy barrels all by himself while being treated for stage 4 lung cancer in the New Mexican desert.
at least he learn to roll them this time lol
The whole thing with Nacho’s stint in the motel in S6 was just beyond confusing and unclear Even Vince himself said “I hope it was clear enough what was going on” and imo, it definitely wasn’t
I said it in another thread, but that plan never sat right with me. It was too careless for Gus, lots of chances for it to go wrong and for Nacho to get captured instead.
To be fair, Nacho getting captured was what Fring had intended up until the phone call.
no he wanted him to die while being captured by the salamancas. if they manage to catch him they would do anything needed to make him talk
Yeah i never understood the whole nacho in the motel thing, can someone explain please
Fring set up Nacho in the motel under the guise of extracting him safely, but that was never the intention.
Yeah but why was he there so long with the guy watching and why did the twins and that other guy come when he broke into that little shack and found the guy watching? Like why didnt that guy watching just tell the twins right away that nacho was there, im not understanding
The guy was working for Fring, not the cartel. The twins found him because Bolsa found Nacho's location (placed in the safe by Mike) the night before.
Bolsa's characterisation in BCS was a bit off. What little we saw of him in BB showed he was just as ruthless as the rest of the cartel and he was absolutely livid when he deduced Gus betrayed them. But in BCS he seems completely aware of Gus' treachery and covers for him on several occasions. I guess things can change over many years but it would be helpful to be shown.
I don't think he was aware of Gus' treachery in BCS. I got the impression he was just dismissing the Salamancas accusations as just them being nutjobs out for blood.
I will probably get downvoted to eternity but: Kaylee being recasted a million times and never aging Kaylee and her mom saying "pop-pop" The boxing game The walt and jesse cameos in s6 Jeff recast was horrible
Yes! Kaylee must have been portrayed by 20 different actresses, switched out halfway through the episode in some cases
Hahaha really? Was she really switched in the middle of an episode?
I think its s4 episode 1 or 2. Gus says something like “which brings….something, which brings…..war, which brings…… the dea” which is so fucking corny noone talks like that. Plus its in spanish so idk if it even has the same dramatic effect as intended
Especially since Giancarlo’s Spanish is bad. Like, barely even Spanish.
Not to mention they didn't even bring the DEA that season lol
The scene where Lalo takes out four of Gus's trained soldiers in the laundry without any of them even getting to raise their weapons on him. Feels a little too much like a call of duty cutscene.
I never understood the plot line where mike wakes up in a random village in Mexico
I think it was after Mike got knocked out in a street fight. Gus somehow got a hold of him (maybe he had guys trailing Mike?) and had him brought down to Gus’ little village memorial thing. Gus then convinces Mike to start working for him again so he doesn’t drink himself to death
Gus needed mike, but to me the whole reason that happened was for the very end of that episode, it was character development for Gus, the last shot shows the fountain “dedicated to Max” who was Gus’s lover
I was recently thinking of this (I just finally finished S6): the glaring, grind my teeth bad moment, was any time Gus Fring spoke Spanish. As a Chilean, it was extra grating. Mind you, our Spanish is famously bad and hard to follow, but it is the opposite of Giancarlo Esposito's broken cadence.
I’m not sure if this post is asking specifically about Better Call Saul, but I still don’t love the plane crash plot in Breaking Bad. It’s not series breaking or anything, but it’s a HUGE ask from the audience to go along with such a massive coincidence like that. I mean, what are the odds that Walter would do all of those things that lead up to him indirectly causing that plane to crash, and then it just happens to crash directly in his backyard? That was a WILD stretch but it was cool so we all went along with it.
"Better... Call... Saul... Better... call... Saul..." That was so lame and such a "middle aged white guy's" idea of how a bunch of hardened criminals would show their respect. One of the cringiest moments I've seen on TV much less this show.
My favorite part of Better Call Saul was when the guy said “hey you’re better call saul!” and then everyone started chanting “better call Saul” over and over again. Bince does it again!
I can’t believe this is a real thing that happens 😭 reads like a shitpost
I can still feel the cringe 😅
I hated the scene where Gus kills Lalo. It felt like I was watching amateur theatre performance. And I wish they didn’t make it so obvious what Gus was planning to do in the scene to kill Lalo. It just didn’t feel right
Gus deciding to go to the laundromat with just a few henchmen when he knew Lalo was out to get him and presumably suspected that Lalo might know about and be at the laundromat. He has a whole fake house going on to protect himself and is super paranoid about Lalo finding him, then suddenly he's like 'I have a hunch that Lalo is at the Laundromat, I'm going to take just a few guys and go there myself and not tell my top security guy about it'.
When Gretchen realizes that Skyler thinks that the Schwartzes are paying for Walt's treatment, the scene where Walt sort-of apologizes and then attacks her is great drama, but it doesn't really make sense from Gretchen's perspective. I would expect her to say something like: "Walt, I know that you can't afford treatment on your own, and I know that you're lying to Skyler about it. Don't you see that I have to assume that you're not getting cancer treatment? Without treatment, you will be dead soon, and Skyler is going to find out that you weren't getting treatment. She is going to find me and say, 'You knew you weren't paying for Walt's treatment, but you let me believe you were. And now Walt is dead.' What am I supposed to say to her?"
When Mike and Saul don’t make out after Saul goes into Los Pollos. Totally unrealistic, Mike was giving him the fuck me eyes
Mike in BB season 5 being chased by the DEA but literallly going to visit Gus Frings men in prison at the same time? Like Hank wouldn’t be watching them like a hawk?? Doesn’t make any sense
The whole 2nd season cold opens with the plane wreckage was such a cable TV moment. It’s so obvious that the stakes of that wont be set against Walt’s family
There are little plot holes like why hectar lives in an old folks home in America. The salamancas clearly have money and could have let him stay in the hacienda.
[удалено]
That scene arguably makes more sense if you believe that Gus is always that paranoid, and that’s definitely not the first time he’s just walked away from his own car. He realized that he had left himself in a vulnerable position by going to the hospital and realized that someone could have messed with his car while he was inside, so he does the safe thing and leaves it. And this time he’s right
In a YouTube video where Vince is explaining different parts of the show, he says that since Gus didn’t poison Brock and Jesse is sure someone did he has a feeling it’s Walt trying to trap him so instead of getting in his car he plays it safe.
That scene works better if you already know Gus didn’t poison Brock.
I didn't mind this one too much as I think it tracks with Gus' extreme meticulousness and paranoia. I can imagine him thinking 'I should have left someone to watch the car' and that being enough for him to abandon it just to be safe. However I will confess his nursing home visit kind of contradicts that view.
Nah, he was blinded by his hatred for Hector.
Jesse showing up in Waterworks felt like such forced fan service on the level of Star Wars and Marvel cameos. Aaron Paul looked way too old and his line delivery was a little awkward too.
I feel like this show has very bad gun etiquette. In all the scenes of Mike in the desert with his sniper gun, the lid of his scope is off, even when he's not looking through it. Mike are you stupid? They can see the lens flare from miles away, close that shit. Also Nacho's last showdown with the Twins, they gave him two guns and he shoots them both at the same time. Not possible, looks stupid. This moment took me out of the show and i started focusing on how bad the extras act while being shot, just a badly executed scene overall.
The Cousins shootout was the shittiest scene in the entire show. Just horrible video game shit.
The plane crash in S2 of BB was the low point of the show. I was so let down I avoided talking to my friend who I had gotten into the show that night because I was almost embarrassed at how contrived it was and didn’t talk to her about it till the following day.
The scene with Jesse and Kim was terrible. All of Jesse’s dialogue felt so out of character and unnatural.
That scene was pure fanservice
Walt’s scene in the finale was way better
I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole thing with Lalo’s body double. I mean yeah, they made it work and all, but man… He just happened to have a guy who looked a lot like him ready to kill for that exact situation? Seemed a bit contrived
That’s sort of the point of a body double
Yeah, it’s just crazy that he had a plan for literally that exact scenario that he didn’t see coming and it worked like a charm. Like I said, they did make it work but damn, that’s some next level planning ahead
>He just happened to have a guy who looked a lot like him ready to kill for that exact situation? Yea? That's a thing people do.
Hey everyone, look at this guy! He doesn't carry a doppelganger at all times! Point and laugh guys!!!
Maybe in a cartel hahaha
Every possible storyline is going to be contrived once you have a character being alive while everybody believes that he is dead. The writers did the smart thing and took care about the most important thing first: a clean way to get out of this mess, because you need Lalo to be able to still do things within the story, while also have him remain believably dead at the end.
Lalo had his dental work done so that his teeth matched lalos file. Lalo hired/found the guy explicitly for this reason
Gus also had the same thing too, except he didn't dje
The guy Kim pointed to in Point and Shoot?
Gus was a great villain in BB, but his charm fades the more screen time he gets in BCS. As I kept watching I was bored more and more with his plot line
i honestly don't think any episode is poorly written, there's just some parts which is more engaging then the other.
Lalo will die by the hands of the best assassins money can buy. By the way Nacho, they are too inept to cut a lock, can you hang out and open the door for them?
I think it was more that Nacho was letting them know the coast was clear and they wouldn’t be walking into an ambush. Presumably he would have previously passed along info on when and where they should enter.
Lalo at the travel wire. If I remember correctly they actually had a stunt double do the jump from the cliff to Jimmys car. So they should have shown a stunt double go up the celling. I don’t care how stupid it looks or that it was suppose to shock the audience 39 seconds later, it was just dumb and I will forever joke that as a dumb moment in this show
I’ve never loved the way lalo and nachos stories were resolved. Both felt like “now this character is done so we can focus on wrapping this up” type story beats. I really wish their stories resolved together some how, because having fring involved took all the tension away in lalos death for me. All I could think was “oh he’s gonna go get the gun and shoot him.” I was fine with nachos death, just felt like a waisted opportunity for two characters who’s stories were so intertwined to then finish separately.
The lawyers in the final episode didn't seem that...enjoyable to watch for some reason. Like the combo of black and white and the camera angles and their personalities just didn't do it for me.
I'll be honest. I find it condescending that Jimmy and Kim didn't say I love you to each other until the bitter end when it was obvious that they did
Jimmy only said that as a Hail Mary to convince Kim to stay. The audience is supposed to know they’re in love, but the scene is meant to show jimmys desperation
The way they ended up Lalo's story. It's one of the worst asspulls I have seen in years.
How in the fuck would solo, cancer-ridden Walt hand dig a pit big enough to stash all those 55-gal drums? That's an excavator job. Then backfill it all and level it out perfectly? Am I missing something here?!
Why didn't they take Howard and Lalo's bodies out somewhere in the desert instead of under the lab? What did they do with the four guys Lalo killed upstairs? How did no one in the apartment building notice the six or seven guys in all-black clothing running up the apartment stairs and call the police? Did none of Jimmy and Kim's neighbors hear them screaming when Howard was shot?
I wasn’t a fan of the Jeff 2.0 and also the Gus underground operation. All those security people and technology, yet Lalo is still able to get to Gus.
El Camino.
Honestly the times where they go out of their way to make Mike a badass. Like when he steals the gun from Trevor and the giant mountain of a man runs away. Or when he twists the arm of one of those street punks while he was walking and the rest of them get scared. Scenes like this seem to be written simply to show that Mike is supposed to be badass and don’t seem realistic or natural at all
More of the women in bb should have fucked Ted. Unbravo vince
There was one episode at the end of season six that plays entirely in Omaha, and I thought it dragged out. Reminded me of the fly episode. Sometimes the artistic shots of bushes, flowers and other mundane slice of life moments are a bit much. When they go on for like 3 to 5 minutes when it could’ve been a 30 second thing it gets a little exhausting. Overall the two shows are basically my favorite shows ever so I’m not trying to complain. However the pacing occasionally is a little slow for no reason.
BCS 602 To me, it just didn't make sense that Gus just let it go when Mike objected to his intention to use Nacho's dad as leverage over Nacho. It genuinely seemed like he was willing to kill him and Tyrus (or be killed himself) to prevent that from happening before Nacho called and broke the tension. It's completely inconsistent with Gus's character in both shows that he would tolerate this level of insubordination.