Better Call Saul: Breathe

 "I decide what he deserves. No one else."

Better Call Saul already seemed to be pretty much the embodiment of televisual perfection. Yet, two episodes into its fourth season, it seems to show signs of getting... better? Can such a thing be possible?

Jimmy's job interview for the position of photocopier salesman reveals so much about him, even though his real agenda is revealed later on. He's so very suited to the job, whuich suits him far more than being a lawyer- not to stereotype those in said profession, but Jimmy is outgoing, dishonest, a born bullsh***er, and entirely devoid of any true moral sense. He effortlessly charms his prospective employers, "selling" himself to get the job despite his dodging the awkward question on why he stopped practising law... and throws it all away by insulting them as soon as he gets the job out of what looks like pure self-loathing- and I think, despite the ulterior motives, that remains a fair summation.

Kim, meanwhile, is a total git to poor, decent Howard, guilt tripping him on Jimmy's behalf at the discussion of Chuck's will... and hiding Chuck's letter to Jimmy. Jimmy's behaviour is rubbing off on her. Kim is, of courdse, doomed by her love for Jimmy... perhaps this will be via the slow ruination of her character? She always liked the Slippin' Jimmy stuff. She's the good girl who fell for the bad boy.

Mike, meanwhile, is confident despite his sparring with a highly annoyed Lydia: Gus likes him, and he knows it. And Gus has never been more chilling than in this episode, nor Giancarlo Esposito a more sublime example of acting perfection: Mr Esposito truly is up there among the greats. Gus's sadistic, vindictive desire to consign Hector to a life of fully conscious, helpless paralysis is a thing of pure horror. As is the tone of voice wioth which he says "you're mine" to Nacjo after the horiffic final scene.

Wow. Can Vince Gilligan make some more telly please?

Better Call Saul: Off Brand

 "It's a name..."

This episode is a crossroads in several ways. It moves away from the Jimmy/Chuck sparriung of the first half of the season into other plot threads, and also makes a conscious choice to look ahead to Breaking Bad. Hence Gus deciding on the meth lab. The surprising cameo from Lydia. The first inkling we see of Don Hector's health problems.

There's also a nice wholesome scene between Mike and Stacey highlighting how sweet and wholesome their relationship is, utterly unlike all the other things in Mike's life. But there's nothing else at all wholesome in this packed episode.

We begin with Kim being magnificent in defending Jimmy, succeeding in limiting him to being barred for twelve months only. She does so much for the man with whom, sadly for her poor, doomed self, she is besotted. Besotted in spite of glimpses of his bullshitting self which she is nowhere near sufficiently stupid not to notice. There's one momernt in particular here, where Jimmy seems to disown Chuck in front of Rebecca, that his coldness really shows. And Kim doesn't fail to see it.

There is also much fascinating political skulduggery between Don Hector and Gus, with Nacho in the middle. It is he, as lieutenant, who exerts violent authority on behalf of Hector. And yet, when Hector threatens to use Nacho's father's business as a front for smuggling, suddenly Nacho has a motive to turn right against his boss. I've no doubt this will be a step in Hector's downfall.

Jimmy, of course, is not a lawyer for a year, and needs to do something else to keep Kim and himself afloat. He's desperate, creative... and then it happens: a TV commercial for TV commefcials. But he can't do it as Jimmy the lawyer. after some "Karloff" stuff... the character of Saul Goodman is born. Viewers had, literally, better call Saul.

This is, needless to say, exquisite.

Better Call Saul: Chicanery

 "My brother, whatever else may be said about him, is quite clever."

Before I write a blog post, I invariably look at iMDb in order to get the names of the less regular actors to put in those labels at the bottom. Thgis time, though, I couldn't help but notice that this episode had been rated 9.7. That is, it has to be said, a bit good. And I'm not surprised. This may be the finest courtroom drama since Witness for the Prosecution.

Other things happen too, though, although for once there's no Mike this episode. We see Kim having professional success with Mesa Verde, impressing her clients. Jimmy isn't ruining and destroying her career yet... but the foreshadowing is obvious. Then we have the flashback, tintred blue, of Chuck enlisting Jimmy to go to elaborate lengths to hide his "condition" from Rebecca. This, of course, is also foreshadowing.Yet there are other character moments, too. Chuck and Rebecca, with their cultured cosmopolitanism, do not live in Jimmy's world. And Chuck, while disapproving of Jimmy's tricks, is happy to benefit from them.

Yet the courtroom drama is, of course, exquisite, a masterclass in psychologicak manipulation and, well, chicanery. Jimmy's position starts out as extraordinarily weak, and yet Chuck is humiliated and destroyed. His outburst at the end is ironic- it makes him seem unhinged, persecuting his poor, innocent, doting brother, yet every word is literally, unambiguously true.

Better Call Saul: Rebecca

 "My brother is not a bad person. He has a good heart. It's just he can't help himself..."

I find myself saying variations of this exact same sentence in relation to many serialised television dramas, but let's say it here... this isn't a landmark episode. It contains no set pieces or big moments. It exists for arc plot reasons, moving the pieces around the board so that future episodes can have those moments. It's a self-abnegating but necessary task. This episode is, at its root, functional.

Yet it's bloody brilliant.

Episodes like this, in the greatest television shows, transcend their functionality. An episode like this can still be well shot, can have writing that exposes character subtly and beautifully, and said exttraordinary writing can be riffed upon by extraordinary performances.

So we see how Jimmy is a con man compatred to Chuck as the rigorous professional... yet he has charm that Chuck doesn't. We hear, from Chuck, the family backstory of hoew Jimmy's inability to resist temptation can hurt those he loves to the ultimate extent... a warning to Kim of what, I'm sure, certainly awaits her. Jimmy may be in the doghouse right now, but Kim's love for him will be her downfall. I say this unspoiled, but I have zero doubt of this. She's doomed. Which is awful, Her realism, patience and professionalism are a huge contrast with Jimmy- con man, salesman, whose tricks work until one day, inevitably, they don't, like Wile E Coyoye running for a few feet after the edge of a cliff.

There's a highbrow cultural reference for you.

Then we have Mike, approached in that diner by Tuco's dad, at this point still walking and talking. He's given a proposition to testify and reduce Tuco's sentence. And, yeah, this is Mike. Proud, principled, a good man morphing into a criminal for the berst of reasons.

He's going to say no. There's no tension intended here.

Oh, and we're introduced, in flashback, to Chuck's eponymous wife. The questiuon of what happened to her hangs in the air.

This is as good as television gets.

Grimm: Lycanthropia

"Yeah... but who attacked whom?"

It's a neat and elegant, if simple, story of the week this episode as we inevitable get the Grimm take on werewolves: they're the result of an incurable disease for Blutbaden. All this plays through as the A plot for the episode,  it a nice little twist at the end raises this from the unremarkable to the rather good.

In more arc-related news Sean meets with Adalind but doesn't have a lot to tell her about what happened to Diana. They part awkwardly, but at least the series is acknowledging that this is a dangling plot thread that will have to be dealt with at some point.  What's more intet sting is how Sean noticed how Adalind's Hexenbeist powers seem to be returning. How will he use this knowledge?

We also have Eve telling Nick and Hank about Sean being made to run as new candidate for mayor by Rachel Wood, and how all this has to have been planned before Andrew Dixon's assassination. All this stuff is fascinating, and that's the point; the stories of the week on Grimm right now are perfectly decent but the arc stuff is what we're really interested in and it just isn't foregrounded enough.