Better Call Saul: Quite a Ride

 "You can't play chicken with me. I invented chicken."

It's a fascinating choice that this episode, filled with notably creative directorial choices even by the standards of Better Call Saul, begins with a flash forward to the very end of Breaking Bad, showing us the offices of Saul Goodman for the first time,or the last time, depending on your perspective. Saul's... Jimmy's last goodbye to Francesca is as awkward as it was always going to be. It's the end of Jimmy's life as anuything other than monochrome mediocrity and paranoia, reminding us that yes, he may seem to get away with his morally dodgy choices while others suffer, but karma will be back to punish him in the end.

Jimmy's behaviour here is typically cynical. Instead of honestly selling phones in the shop, he goes out at night to sell to the mildly criminal, grey market semi-undrrworld, only to be mugged for his pains: on this one occasion, karma is more immrediate, and he seems to learn his lesson and go back to orthodoxy. At his typically hmilating meeting with his parole officer, he seems resigned to biding his time until he can hopefully get his law licence back. And... we've seen where that ultimately leads.

Meanwhile, he continues to slowly ruin the lives of others around him. Kim really damages her reputation with her Mese Verde clients because she's having to take on other work to support Jimmy. And Howard, being a decent sort, seems to be falling apart with all the guilt. Guilt that rightly belongs to Jimmy.

And yet, while elsewhere we see Jimmy with his dodgy ways, and how he damages the lives and careers of thosearound him, we end the episode with a German structural emngineer bimpressing Gus with his consummate professionalism. Professionalism with not a Jimmy in sight.

Superb telly, obviously.

Better Call Saul: Expenses

 "Come on. Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple."

"Oh, Another Brick in the Wall."

"I weep for the future."

Oh my. There's so much to break down here. This is, as I'm fond of occasionally stating, an episode of developmemnt and set-up of plotlines and characters. In a sense, not much happens. In another sense, a lot does.

For Jimmy, he's hit with a new, brutal reality. This con man, who sees rules as being for other peoople, has no choice but to follow the rules on community service. There's no refund for his insurance despite his disbarment as a lawyer. His TV commercial business is failing. He's maxing out his credit cards. He stares in the face of ruin. He's cornered, desperate, dangerous... and so deliberately sets out to ruin Chuck. Behind the nice guy act, Jimmy is not nice at all.

Yet poor Kim can't see this, despite everything. She's besotted. Yet her conscience about Chuck, which is really troubling her, contrasts with Jimmy's latest casual betrayal. And it's revealing that their night out is spent looking at potential marls to con. She's horrified when Jimmy seems to be suggesting it for real, but soon falls back under his spell. Oh, Kim...

Then there's Mike, using drug money to work on a church playground, and... am I reading too much into things, but does he meet a potential love interest?

Nacho, too, is a desperate man. To save his father, he must destroy Hector. So he turns to baseball card man, who will never escape from him. Yet Mike, being Mike, takes control of the situation. So many spinning plates, but Mike spins them with aplomb.

No action, then, but first class writing and action. And an awful lot is being set up. Superlative, as ever.

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: Mabel

 "For ten minutes today Chuck didn't hate me..."

This opening episode of the season was written and directed by Vince Gilligan himself. That certainly explains the quality of the writing, and the direction, upon which Mike's subplot depends to a huge extent. That this is a superb piece of television hardly needs mentioning.

Let us begin with Mike. His arc is extraordinarily based on visuals, montage, facial reactions, superb direction, Jonathan Banks being an actor of the very first rank. The upshot seems to be that this season will follow Mike's pursuit of who lies behind Hector Salamanca, whom we know to be Gus. Is this episode a statement of intent from Gilligan himself to that effect? Or am I entirely wrong?

Then there's Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy. We start with a flash forward to the monochrome life of "Gene" in Nebraska, deeply frustrated and unfulfilled, in a deeply revealing scene. Gene, Saul, Jimmy: all are very different personas.

We have the fascinating contrast, as a marker in the season opener, between Kim and Jimmy. Kim is professional, agonising over a bit of puntuation while taking on some of Jimmy's tiresome old clients while Jimmy just... well, does his thing. And receives a visit from an aitr force captain that harbinges that monochrome future. 

Then there's Chuck. There's the brothers bonding over childhood stuff... but Chuck has the recording. And a plan. Is this brother versus brother, step vs, counterstep, to define this season? Is this episode a statement of intent from Gilligan himself to that effect? Or am I entirely wrong?

Be that so or be it not, this is a triumph of the televisual art.

Better Call Saul: Nailed

 "Like two hundred bucks expensive...?"

Oh Jimmy. Oh Kim. Oh Chuck. This penultimate episode is where, if I can play fast and loose with metaphotrical cliches, the chickens that are Jimmy's sabotage with the photocopier last episode come home to roost. Which is... yeah, a terrible sentence. But I'm going to leave it as it is, because I'm a terrible person.

Chuck, in court, is humiliated, meant to look a buffoon. Then, and shortly after, it's made clear that, while in recovery, he's mentally fragile, however intellectually sharp he may be, and however easily he may be able to realise what's happened... which leads us to a truly fascinating scene played with utter sublimity by three actors of the very first rank. Chuck explains to Kim what he believes Jimmy did, with great perception and accuracy. Bob Odenkirk is superb in playing Jimmy's blustering, while Rhea Seehorn is extraordinary, giving us a seething emotional reaction from Kim which could mean either she believes Chuck or she doesn't. Despite initial appearances, for Chuck's benefit... she does. And this is going to remain unspoken and drive a wedge between her and Jimmy.

As an interlude... Mike's subplot is the fun one, aa he stages a caper to steal huge wodges of cash. Very clever. Very Zorro. Well done. Drinks all round. Except... Nacho can put two amd two together. Will Hector? Worse: a "Good Samaritan" died because of Mike's actions. Yes, Hector was the killer, but... consequences.

So it is for Jimmy. He sees, with his own eyes, the consequences of his actions as a Chuck who is stressed, upset, not well... hits his head on a counter. Jimmy is charming, personable, likeable. It takes a while to realise what a malevolent, destructive, evil man he is. And yes, he is. You're right, Dave.

This extraordinary series gets deeper and deeper into the human condition.

Better Call Saul: Fifi

 "Things work out the way they're supposed to, I guess..."

We begin with an extraordinary tour de force of direction with a van crossing the border from the part of Mexico run by the Mexican government to New Mexico, a part of Mexico occupied by the United States since 1848. He said innocently. But this is all one shot, with so many camera angles, as exacting as theatre but in more dimensions. Exquisite.

This is part of Mike's sub plot where, as well as having a nice grandad/granddaughter scene, he plots his revenge against Hector. But that's for later. This episode is about Jimmy, Kim, and Chuck.

Kim, as I may have occasionally mentioned, is doomed. Yet the die is cast. She resigns to an oddly gracious Howard who, once again, shows himself to be tough but not necessarily a total bastard or without integrity, much as his management style is, thank the gods, frowned upon these days.

Thing is, she has all her eggs in the Mesa Verde contract. She does well, is about to get it, but... is sabotaged. By Chuck. Whose first day in the office without the tech hocus pocus is all aboit screwing over Kim, which Jimmy is somewhat displeased by, hence... and I never expected to type these words... a MacGyver-style photocopying montage.

Jimmy has, basically, set Chuck up to fail. And, in so many ways, his arrogant older brother deserves it. But Chuck expressesa his gratitude for Jimmy staying with him, which he disn't. Ouch.

Two episodes to go.So many twists and turns. This episode feels primed and ready to emit intense dramatic stuff. Simply masterful writing. And that's not without even deploring the characters' sadly realistic ignorance of the Pacific theatre of the Second World War.