Anyone watching Better Call Saul?

I just watched the episode "Rico". I think it may have been my favorite so far. Brilliant writing & engaging plot. The show itself seems to be as much an underdog as James McGill. But I'm rooting for it, despite minimal fanfare & critical acclaim.

I've also establishing the pattern that when they do 'flashback' sequences, it looks like bad work with Magic Bullet filters.
 
Yeah, it keeps getting better, the latest episode "Pimento" is my favorite so far. Really digging this.
 
I'm loving it! Great show. The hard lighting is a really interesting choice I think - it certainly stands out from everything else out there at the moment. Can't say I agree on any of the visual parallels with Breaking Bad - it looks completely different to me.
 
Absolutely loving this show. It's a slow burn, but very methodical in how the transition to Saul eventually occurs. IMO, the only weak spot in this entire show is the cinematography. It is solid for the most part, especially when they can take advantage of real sunlight. But skin tones just look way too strange in most shots that are completely lit by whatever lighting they're using (bar scenes, night scenes / alleyway, office scenes, court scenes). Something just looks really polluted and waxy to me, and not in a stylistic sense you'd encounter after something has been graded as a look. It's strange. Shots in broad daylight / outside look okay to very good for the most part, but a huge step down from what we were spoiled by with Breaking Bad's 35mm godliness.

The cinematography or maybe I should say the image / grading are a bit of a let down, but it's minor when compared to how good the rest of the show is. Can't wait till next season.
 
They are taking serious liberties with color. Did you see the bar scene? I see blue people... with green highlights! I think one convention they have adopted is to do this desaturated blue look for flashback. Same thing in the alley and on the patio scene with Mike a couple of episodes ago.

Brilliant writing! The epic betrayal. I love it that in the end Jimmy is given a choice! Thank you! So much poor writing is about things happening to people instead of them making deliberate choices. They really know what they're doing. So good.
 
L1N3ARX said:
But skin tones just look way too strange in most shots that are completely lit by whatever lighting they're using (bar scenes, night scenes / alleyway, office scenes, court scenes). Something just looks really polluted and waxy to me, and not in a stylistic sense you'd encounter after something has been graded as a look. It's strange. Shots in broad daylight / outside look okay to very good for the most part, but a huge step down from what we were spoiled by with Breaking Bad's 35mm godliness.
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They're using Cineo TruColor HS LED's...not true color enough apparently. I like the look when it works. Reminds me of Andrzej Sekula's work on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, a lot of hard, graphic light.
 
The epic betrayal.
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Yeah, how about that?

This show ultimately did not play out as I speculated it would, but I've been pleasantly surprised. I figured they would fast-track the storyline to his place as a crooked lawyer and we'd be seeing lots of weekly shenanigans at the infamous office. But as mentioned, it has been a slow build. I must be getting old. Never thought I would be into a show where the major plot point was a class-action lawsuit involving a retirement home.

Off topic: One shot really had tones of Breaking Bad for me: A high angle looking down on the mini van as it pulled out of that abandoned factory. Simple but good.

I'm excited for season two....someday?

The cinematography or maybe I should say the image / grading are a bit of a let down, but it's minor when compared to how good the rest of the show is. Can't wait till next season.
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Amen.
 
Just finished the season finale and it ended exactly how I expected and exactly how good shows do, foreshadowing more exiting things to come in the next season. Definitely looking forward to it.
 
Scott F said:
The first episode of season 2 was pretty amazing.....just sayin'. Glad my DVR picked it up!
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Second episode was even better. My only complaint is that some scenes and speeches go on a LITTLE too long, but that's minor. Side note, one of my sister's songs was in the first episode!
 
Wow you guys - so many people loving this show... I'm intrigued. I confess, I watched the first episode of the first season and quit in disgust - I just felt it was completely miscalculated, basically a fail in every respect; Bob Odenkirk was awful; the writing was pitiful - bits went on and on and on, clearly miscalculated and telegraphed a million miles away (like that bit with Saul leaving the court parking lot and hassling the guard about the ticket), just really, really bad writing. Worst of all, the atmosphere was not working - like when Saul was taken into the back room of that hood and being forced/threatened to work together... it felt so TV unreal - somehow Breaking Bad pulled it off, but here it just fell flat and felt sad and unreal. The whole thing just smelled of failure. For the record, I loved Breaking Bad, and I loved the Saul character in that, and I was super stoked to hear about this spinoff... so I was tragically disappointed.

And then I read the rave reviews here. What happened? Was the first episode just really bad, and then the writing team were body-snatched and good writing magically came down from the sky? Has it improved that much... like by 1000 times? If so, I'll go back and watch more! But it's also possible that tastes differ and it is just epically not working for me. Now I'm really curious.
 
One thing that has thrown some people is that they expected a Saul Goodman show, which is understandable considering the title. But it's about how good lawyer Jimmy slowly became Saul, similar to how Walter White became Heisenberg. I'd stick with the show at least until the Mike-centric episodes. If those don't work for you, then I'd bail on it.
 
It's a decent show, but I really haven't seen anything so far that even remotely approaches the tension of BREAKING BAD.
 
I love it, I love it, I love it. S2 E1 was pretty slow, but E2 picked up. I'm partial to the unconventional framing that works. There is a visual language going on that tells a story. I'm also partial to having to fill in the blanks, or read between the lines in movies or shows where there are long pauses or scenes with no or little dialog. It causes me to engage and try to think what is going on in the character's minds. The story is clever as well. Acting is great. There are quite a few things that put this show on a different level than most TV shows... for me at least. Excited to see where this season goes.
 
Didnt realise it was available here...my search for it on netflix had it showing next year there or now in the UK. I should have searched further!
 
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