The half-gritty edge of Better Call Saul
The first season of Better Call Saul I remember enjoying thoroughly and the final scene of Jimmy driving away with the song: Smoke on the Water tugged at my heart strings, and screamed that so many loose ends were hiding in plain sight. Let's get down to brass tax with a characteristic rant that some of you love and hate me for. I love watching Jimmy/Saul Goodman in action, and not because its Saul Goodman on vein-tearing steroids; but because Vince Gilligan and the producers decided to create something not marginalized to expectations that the prequel must top Breaking Bad, and be the biggest, baddest sin-torquing palace in grit district.
The show is playing tricks with which character you like and don't; what you mistake for a petty grudge between Jimmy and his boss Howard Hamlin was really a poisoned misperception and though this is Jimmy's fault (you really can understand why he thought this) the shocking blow that it was his brother, Chuck McGill, undermining him one step at a time answered so many questions and unleashed the catalyst for Jimmy's evolution to Saul Goodman. Meanwhile, you see Howard in a wholly differing light, and sort of emphasize with his plight of being stuck in the middle between Jimmy and Chuck, and having to deal with the lashing-out antics of Jimmy (such as that hilarious billboard of Jimmy wearing the suave blue suit and standing behind a mockingly identical background to Howard's own).
The devil really is in the details; the fifty dollar tequila shots they hustle out of that corporate, stock-investing putz hooked up to his celluar earpiece happens to be the same tequila Gus Fring vengefully poisons his cartel buddies with and the air of disdain earpiece arse wafts around structures the tone undeniably for, "yeah, let's rip this guy off."
I suppose a half-decent person would advocate this was a real scuzzy thing for Saul to do if they take into account the corporate goon was known as Ken the obnoxiously-tongued "I r winner" from the season one episode Cancer Man of you guessed it... Breaking Bad. During this episode he "tragically" had his white BMW go BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould collaborate masterfully in mounting the coincidences atop each other (the wires of my hair were indeed thinner come morning), this continues to sate the sinful community's most inner narcissitic and amoral green lights (oh c'mon man, the worst thing that has happened in the show so far is some pinheads got their legs broken by Tuco), this episode still didn't deliver for me. There were a few scenes that reeked of unrealistic plot devices; when the cops show up and move geeky hummer man's hidey-hole didn't sit well with me (hummer man was just in the other room, and I don't think they had enough time to violate his civil liberties without consequence).
But am I jumping the gun? The first episode of any season tends to just be pins-and-needles til you strike that squirmy vein wobbling at the corner of your taut eye bleeding with all the colors of fire. We establish the ground-work, Jimmy has been wanting to chase a deep intimate relationship with Kim Wexler, a fellow layer, and he seals the deal. She is impressed by his quick-thinking and the bogus story that irrigates both of them into racking up a jaw-dropping bill for Mr. Ken.
Episode 2
We get to see how really disgusting Chuck is in his relationship with his brother. The toxicity of his jealousy he masks in his paladin-esque interpretation of the law. Like a tormite, Chuck is not one that wishes to create more rules to find the easiest loophole/shortcut, unlike Jimmy. Chuck also does not have the charisma Jimmy employs to side-step obstacles.
The power of rejection is palpable (especially when its done deceptively and its your own flesh-and-blood), and when he receives the call from Mike (a call to be ethically debased) it's already formulated as an enthusiastic yes in his mind. So Jimmy uses falsified evidence to circumvent the cop's proddings of Mr. Wormhold (I think that was his name!), the evidence in question being too inappropriate to mention here... let's just say it involves pie.
When Jimmy breaks the news to Kim, he clearly thought she'd be just as proud and intrigued about what he did, as she was with cheating Ken out of highcoin tequila shots. However, she is greatly disappointed and awards him with a cold countenance and the instruction to never mention his dirty tactics again. Episode 2 ends.
Episode 3
I was thinking something has to relent at this point, the manic whisperings that at least some semblance of Breaking Bad intensity should rear its gritty face took indomitable root within me, that the show needs to be challenged and bulldoze away some of that softness. We have office-room politics boiling out to a mean sear, with Chuck suddenly cured of his neurotic-fuelled phobia of electromagnetic waves and literally haunting Jimmy with his mere presence at the office. He is much like a bull in a china shop (asking Jimmy in front of the many other lawyers in the room if solicitation took precedent in getting twenty plus more senior citizen clients for the law firm), willing and ready to latch his enamels into Jimmy's weaknesses the moment he slips up.
And this leads to a near social faux paus at the office which is luckily mitigated by Jimmy (or maybe because of the simplest gesture of kindness by Kim laying a hand on his knee under the table). He doesn't feel comfortable with Chuck there, and asks him directly why he is around. Chuck responds whisperingly, "To bear witness," and it was at this point I felt cold fury slathering up my spine, wanted to death-throttle Chuck furiously through the screen.
The redemptive ace-in-the-hole for episode 3 was the black-and-white commercial Jimmy manufactures of a distressed old women claiming she lost all of her money, ending with her endorsement of the law firm.
His new boss Cliff Main calls Jimmy in the middle of the night, obviously upset about Jimmy doing things in a roundabout way without consulting him or the other parnters. Demands he meet him the first thing in the morning and calls him a god-damn arsonist, Jimmy goes back to the victory couch to continue to gloatingly watch his commercial with Kim. Pretending to end the conversation on a pleasant note with Cliff, and tucking his cellphone innocently away.
This scene alone compensates for the loss of gravitas felt in the earlier episodes, and to be honest, this episode in its entirety was enough for a edgy depraved grimdark-enthusiast as myself to enjoy it for its subtlties and entertainment value.
Things with Mike seem to go knee-deep in a mire this episode, and he ends up staying awake all night in his car outside of his dead son's wife's house after she claims she heard gunshots right outside of the house. Happens to be there are no gunshots, and she is reeling from the traumatic effects of her dead husband, and the still-fresh discovery Mike was responsible for breaking his own boy towards the corrupt side of law-enforcement.
My vague-ass predictions for the show's future? We won't ever see Saul softly scraping the cold stainless steel knife-point at someone's throat while smiling amiably, we won't see Saul gagging and bounding victims and dumping them into the back of a SUV, he won't be assuaging his blood-rage bouts by hurling shite, glass-bottled gnomish ales out of a ROFL copter to shatter over unsuspecting heads; but he will be defending this greasy, tainted segment of humanity for the foreseeable future-- well until he is back to the sordid, unalluring future of working at a Cinnabon just to get locked in the trash-room at the end of the night (and it begs the question: does Jimmy get locked in that Cinnabon every night like some creepy cosmic punishment as seen in the Twilight Zone Episode where the man is screaming up and down the ship in vain, to disbelieving faces, warning of the inevitability of it sinking into the depths of death-saturated, frigid waters?) I suppose crime pays in waves, some are lazy-flowing and made of enough cast-iron to last just enough for the words to spill out the textured, tortured recesses of our mind: "You were right, Jimmy. It was worth it."