Better Call Saul Season 6 thread (with spoilers)

I actually like the Jesse scene.

 

Some good stuff in last night’s episode, but overall, the end of this series has been disappointing.

Plot pacing goes from glacial to Usain Bolt-like. Too pretentious (the Saul B&W was fine as a flashback device, but is over-the-top now) and masturbatory at times. The Breaking Bad call-backs have mostly been awkward and don’t fill in many blanks.

They kind of screwed up Kim. At first, she seemed to have mischievous tendencies exacerbated by Saul, but was shocked by Jimmy’s descent into Saul. Then she was all in on the shtick, maybe even accelerating it, leading to her own self-destructive decisions as bad as Saul’s. Then, after Howard was killed, she was morally bankrupt (remember the icy-cold cover story she told Howard’s widow?) to the point of being even more unsympathetic than Saul.

Then, without explanation, she turns on a dime and leaves Saul because she’s had enough? It was too abrupt, given that she was driving the immorality bus as much as he was. It made her regret from last night’s episode feel unearned to me. She was no angel and I was fine with that, but they’re trying too hard to keep her in the company of angels.

So what was she? Just a blank page subject to whomever is influencing her life? That doesn’t jive because the first few seasons set her up to be independently intelligent. Why did she decide to seek and accept a mundane life? She was a great character, but they turned the knob on her way too much to the point where she doesn’t make much sense.

Finally, in a show that essentially had three interesting backstories from Breaking Bad to start with, Mike has been turned into a guest star on his own show and his story was consigned to nothing, really. Just the wise head who warns various characters not to do shit they end up doing anyway. His appearances had an obligatory feel. They could have added a laugh track intro when he made his appearances.

Maybe Odenkirk’s heart attack screwed up the arc of what they wanted to do, who knows? But this season dropped off pretty sharply once it resumed. A real shame because it was good to brilliant for the majority of its run, but the end has been a buzzkill.

 

While I agree that she would have to be greatly affected by Kim's confession, I have found it strange that the only time we saw her before Howard's death (that I recall) was to establish that the couple was essentially separated but keeping up appearances and living apart under the same roof. If all that did was establish that maybe Howard's wife felt like she didn't really know him when he turned out to be a paranoid coke addict who ultimately committed suicide, it was a long setup (and, until Kim called her out at the memorial service, she didn't believe any of that to be true). In the end, it seemed a bit unnecessary. So, fast forward to last night, it was hard to be too sympathetic with her as a viewer, knowing that she really had no time for her husband in the only scene we ever saw them together.

 

Everything since the end of "Fun and Games" has felt really jagged in its storytelling, and I think it's intentional. Or at least I hope it is, because it goes with the theme of these last four episodes that have essentially served as an extended epilogue to the series.
It's like the damaged videotape we've seen in the credits at the beginning of the past few episodes. It's broken. Nothing works anymore. It's got time jumps and flashbacks and echoes of memories, like someone losing their grip on either sanity or their situation in life — which Saul certainly is, and which we now see Kim is as well. If the pace of the series is uneven, I think it's reflective of the arc of the characters at this point. If it's rushed it's reflective of how, for lack of a better term, life comes at you fast. Saul's new world that he was carefully building has unraveled in a few weeks and the quickened pace of the show reflects that.

 

One other thing I will say about this episode is that is makes me reconsider Lalo's murder of Howard. When I watched that episode I disliked it because it felt like a lazy splash of violence to shock the viewer.

But now it at least serves more of a narrative purpose, which was to shock Kim.

 

Thank you for the great explanation. I'm often stupid and that explains why I never, ever figured out what the hell that was about. I'm now understanding this whole series. Carry on.

 

This show — and Breaking Bad as well — is obviously in love with the camera tricks and weird shots, but they often enhance the story.
Like from this past episode, the shot of Kim arriving at the courthouse. She drives past the ticket booth that Mike used to man, and which is now empty and replaced by an automated ticket machine. It was obvious, but they didn't beat you over the head with it.
Or the office zombies singing "Happy Birthday." The way that scene is shot, with the slow zoom toward her, feels like it's out of a horror movie. Your chest tightens up a little because you can see how empty and soulless Kim's life has become and it instills a sense of dread.
Breaking Bad used a lot of shadows and angles to show the power dynamics between Walt and other characters in various scenes.
It's a remarkably visual show that's fun and interesting to watch for that reason. I've sometimes found myself noticing something watching it, then rewind and watch it again to really digest it. Some of it is just the cinematographer showing off or having fun, or just being artsy. Call it mental masturbation if you want. It almost always seems to serve the story, though.

 

I love the show. The characters. The cinematography. Still think the mall heist episode was proof it’s run its course.

 

Andy Greenwald was commenting on how much just having that office scene costs. To bring on all those actors with only one episode to go, to travel to Florida to shoot it… just massive amounts of money you don’t think about.

 

They lingered too long on Kim's life in Florida. My wife was yelling at the screen, "All right already, we get it! Her life is boring!"

 

I like the show a lot, but sequences like that are why I don't think I would ever rewatch it. There are some episodes from earlier seasons in which I would fast-forward through the making of the morning coffee of whatever else the show was choosing to document in fetishistic detail. Stuff like that is part of what gives the show it's vibe, but I don't always feel like riding along.

 

They couldn't have shot that in L.A.? Or even Albuquerque? I think the cookout was the only scene that was an exterior with enough visual cues to tell where you where they were. All of the interior office scenes could have been shot anywhere.