Better Call Saul - Season 3 (AMC) (1 Viewer)

[Tim Gerdes]

Okay I guess I didn't understand why he didn't just pull the battery...that would have had the same effect.

I assumed he wanted to minimize the risk being discovered. Perhaps removing the battery would result in a sudden lost signal, as opposed to a low battery warning, and trigger suspicion that the bug had been found.

 

[questrider]

Good episode to start off season 3. There was a nice equal representation of Jimmy, Kim, Chuck, and Mike. And no one has perfected the slow burn the way Gilligan & Co. has!

One thing I did notice was the score sounded a bit different during the scenes with Mike taking apart the car and the GPS tracker. It was akin to the Ocean's scores so perhaps they were trying to imbue a sense of trickery and cleverness?

And I can't stop watching or being charmed by Rhea Seehorn. Where has this actress been all these years to finally break out like this in her 40s? I guess Hollywood indeed can be a cruel mistress to have kept her hidden from audiences for all of this time!

 

[Greg_S_H]

In case anyone cares:

https://morrisonvintagemusic.bandcamp.com/track/memory

 

[Walter Kittel]

Went back and re-visited the sequence with Mike and his cars. Totally missed the existence of a second gas cap tracker. Doh!

Lots of stuff to like in the premiere episode of season three, but I think my favorite single thing was when Jimmy glanced at Kim's office (after she said she needed two more minutes) and re-opened the paint can. I really appreciate that the show can employ that sort of shorthand that says so much about the characters.

- Walter.

 

[joshEH]

"FIFI'S A B-29!!!"

Can't believe I'm saying this, but Hamlin actually came off as level-headed and likable, here. It's because he was saying exactly what we were saying last year. That tape is basically worthless, and Jimmy could argue circles around Chuck with it in a court of law. But Chuck's got a plan, here. I think he's hoping that Ernesto tells Jimmy about the tape, and then Chuck is going to try catch Jimmy on breaking-and-entering, destruction of evidence, etc., when he tries to destroy the tape.

Also, did anyone else happen to catch that subtle callback to Brock's poisoning? When the old woman was talking to Saul at the law-firm door, she mentions "Lily of the Valley."

Also-also...Ernesto's sweetass ride:

And I can't stop watching or being charmed by Rhea Seehorn. Where has this actress been all these years to finally break out like this in her 40s? I guess Hollywood indeed can be a cruel mistress to have kept her hidden from audiences for all of this time!

I remember when she was on the NBC sitcom Whitney for two seasons (2012-13), and landed her pretty-plum Vince Gilligan/Heisenverse-gig I think immediately after that show got cancelled. But yeah -- it's bizarre that she's really only just now been given her breakout spotlight career-role, though hopefully it'll lead to still-bigger things down the road.

 

[TravisR]

And I can't stop watching or being charmed by Rhea Seehorn. Where has this actress been all these years to finally break out like this in her 40s? I guess Hollywood indeed can be a cruel mistress to have kept her hidden from audiences for all of this time!

Yeah, it's like when Mad Men started and you wondered how it took Jon Hamm so long to be discovered by Hollywood.

 

[SamT]

How many times they plan to show the black and white sequence with him doing the same things again and again? Cleaning, cooking, gasping.

 

[TravisR]

How many times they plan to show the black and white sequence with him doing the same things again and again? Cleaning, cooking, gasping.

I don't think it's the same thing as much as it's a slow change back to Saul Goodman (which is probably the real Jimmy/Saul/Gene). In the first season, you see Saul is fully defeated and he's completely Gene. In the second season, you saw him afraid to set off a door alarm for fear of attracting any police attention but he did leave the "S.G. WAS HERE" graffiti so Saul was still there. Now, you see Saul starting to really bleed back through as he clearly draws the cop's attention to himself and he's briefly his old self again.

 

[Tommy R]

I feel like a weirdo for being most excited for what happens in the monochrome Cinnabon-opening.

Don't feel weird, I look forward to the Cinnabon openings like Christmas morning! I'm wondering more and more what they have in store for us in the long run with these season openings. I think that they must have something in mind already for the eventual series finale having to do with it. I'd actually love to see a full 10 episode final season dealing exclusively with the post-Breaking Bad timeframe.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I had to rewatch Mike's plot several times to get it (it doesn't help that I was tired), but it's so much better than shows that hit you over the head with an explanation. I hate when I'm feeling smart for making a connection to something earlier and then the show drops a mini-flashback to catch the rubes up. Of course, nine times out of ten, I'm one of those rubes.

 

[TravisR]

I had to rewatch Mike's plot several times to get it (it doesn't help that I was tired), but it's so much better than shows that hit you over the head with an explanation. I hate when I'm feeling smart for making a connection to something earlier and then the show drops a mini-flashback to catch the rubes up. Of course, nine times out of ten, I'm one of those rubes.

Exactly. I was sitting there wondering what exactly he was doing but by the end, I was able to work it out. Even if I hadn't, I would have felt that the writers knew what was happening and I would have felt like the show respected my intelligence to figure it out rather than have some dialogue explaining it.


Here's a link to a pretty good interview with Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fien-print/better-call-saul-creators-season-3-premiere-992427

 

[Ronald Epstein]

First of all, as worthless as the tape is, it's not worthless. Apparently, it's going to play some big part here.

I kind of missed something in the conversation between Kim and the representative from the lawyer firm. Why was Kim haggling over the legal document so many times. What was said to her that has her second-guessing the entire situation?

Great start to the third season. The writing is top-notch as always.

 

[Paul D G]

I kind of missed something in the conversation between Kim and the representative from the lawyer firm. Why was Kim haggling over the legal document so many times. What was said to her that has her second-guessing the entire situation?

I took it as - she got the contract (or whatever lawyers call it) because Hamlin/McGill 'screwed' it up because they got the address wrong. To Kim this contract is a HUGE thing and she's just obsessing over it; making sure every little detail is exactly right. She doesn't want to blow it.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Chuck definitely wanted Ernesto to hear the tape. The 'play' button was already pressed with the battery popped out, so that when Ernesto put a live battery in, it would automatically start playing. Maybe you have to be real old school cassette player owner to notice this. But we all had those portable cassette players (I had an Amex - remember that company?), and I used it to tape TV theme songs, among other uses.

 

[joshEH]

I love how they sweat the details on this show. Joe DeRosa inquiring about the dog he sold Mike back in Season 1. The Air Force-guy coming back to tear Jimmy a new one. That's one thing this series shares with Breaking Bad and few other shows -- no one seems to get away with anything in this universe, at least not out of hand.

That Air Force-guy scene cast into sharp relief Jimmy's scummy side. It's hard to view his misdeeds objectively when he's with Chuck, since Chuck's vendetta seems so rooted in jealousy and resentment, but there's no shrouding that Jimmy's pretty awful to a wholly-innocent person here. That, "Always on your high horse"-slip showed beautifully that Jimmy was projecting Chuck onto this guy.

Everything about Kim hurts. You like her so much, yet you know there's nothing but bad news in her story's future.

Don't ask me how they make extended montages of Mike meticulously assembling and disassembling things compulsive television, but they sure as hell do. Digging the score, too. And that gorgeous, twilight "Magic Hour" New Mexico cinematography.

I just want Ernesto to make it out of this unscathed. But I'm seeing that the second episode is titled, "Witness."

So glad to have this show back. It's been a full twelve months since we saw Chuck push the "stop" button on the tape recorder. I had rather thought the Geneva Conventions had outlawed that sort of thing.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I fully expect the tape to screw up Kim's deal with Mesa Verde. Chuck knows that will gut Jimmy more than anything that would happen to him directly. He'll get word to them that Jimmy set the whole failure up, and they'll assume she had to be in on it. She'll be ruined and she and Jimmy will be done. Though, I do like the "setting Jimmy up for a tampering with evidence felony" theory, too.

 

[joshEH]

Chuck definitely wanted Ernesto to hear the tape. The 'play' button was already pressed with the battery popped out, so that when Ernesto put a live battery in, it would automatically start playing. Maybe you have to be real old school cassette player owner to notice this. But we all had those portable cassette players (I had an Amex - remember that company?), and I used it to tape TV theme songs, among other uses.

Yup -- and Ernie lied on Jimmy's behalf in the S2 finale, claiming that Jimmy's convenient appearance right after Chuck's collapse at the copy store was due to Ernesto calling him ahead of time. Based on this, Chuck may consider it inevitable that Ernesto would alert Jimmy about the recording.

It feels like he's setting Ernesto up, either as a way to get Jimmy to do something stupid, or to punish him for bailing Jimmy out earlier, or both.

 

[WillG]

"FIFI'S A B-29!!!"

Can't believe I'm saying this, but Hamlin actually came off as level-headed and likable, here. It's because he was saying exactly what we were saying last year. That tape is basically worthless, and Jimmy could argue circles around Chuck with it in a court of law. But Chuck's got a plan, here. I think he's hoping that Ernesto tells Jimmy about the tape, and then Chuck is going to try catch Jimmy on breaking-and-entering, destruction of evidence, etc., when he tries to destroy the tape.

Maybe, but I'd have trouble buying it. Even if Jimmy was made aware of the tape he would know just as well that it's useless as evidence (and on top of that he could always claim he said all that for Chuck's benefit as it's very clear that Chuck is in a mentally ill state)

And yeah, I also caught the Lily of the Valley callback.

 

[WillG]

I remember when she was on the NBC sitcom Whitney for two seasons (2012-13), and landed her pretty-plum Vince Gilligan/Heisenverse-gig I think immediately after that show got cancelled. But yeah -- it's bizarre that she's really only just now been given her breakout spotlight career-role, though hopefully it'll lead to still-bigger things down the road.

Yeah, it's like when Mad Men started and you wondered how it took Jon Hamm so long to be discovered by Hollywood.

Just a question, when did those two "enter" Hollywood?

 

[TravisR]

Just a question, when did those two "enter" Hollywood?

I could be wrong but I just assumed they started in their twenties and plugged away in relative obscurity for nearly 20 years until they managed to get high quality and high profile roles.