Better Call Saul: 50% Off

 "Dude, that's almosthalf!"

I love these kinds of episodes- slow, building up to something, lots of character stuff, lots of room to breathe.

We're fainly fcusing on Jimmy- busy busy busy with his new, Saul Goodman, type of criminal law stuff, and having to juggle things- proper con man stuff. And, of course, his massive discount sparks off a minor drime wave... but hey, it's all about Jimmy, as ever. Never mind the little people who get hurt.

The relationshiop between him and Kim... well, she's busy and blows off a movie night. Are they drifting apart, with their obvious ethical differences, and that nonsense with the big house being obvious pie in the sky? Well, yes... but we still see him charming her as ever.

It's an interwsting scene with Mike, too. At first we see his wholesome grandad side... but then he lashes out angrily at Kaylee when she asks too many questions about her dad being a police officer. This is a fascinating scene... but I'm sure, too, that it's leading somewhere.

But most fascinatingly, perhaps, we have Nacho. His father threatened by Gus, he has to gain Lalo's trust in order to relay thingsback to Gus... and does so in pretty much the most badass and hugely entertaining fashion possible, in a sequence that has to be the highlight of the episode... but what does he want with Jimmy....

Superb stuff, as ever.

Better Call Saul: Coushatta

 "Yes, well, I got my crawdads in my pants."

Another subtle little character episode here, setting things up for the final two episodes, in which, Ive no doubt, a lot of dramatic stuff is going to happen. As is often the case, though, the episode essentially being set-up doesn't make it any less gripping.

We haven't seen Macho in a while, but here he is, taking Hector's place at the back as each dealer comes in with the money. It's fascinating seeing him violently assert himself- he's clearly playing a part, effectively, yes, but with such visible discomfort that he has to be reassured. Nacho is a man trapped in a life and a role he does not want. He has too much self-awareness, too much decency, to tolerate this existence.

Yet at least he seems to have stability... until the end, where another mewmber of the Salamanca clan, Eduardo, introduces himself.

Mike, meanwhile, is supervising Werner and his underlings at a rather unpleasant little strip club. They are, inevitably, indiscreet, including Werner. Mike realises the implications, and so does Werner by the end. A brief but chilling pefrformance by the estimable Giancarlo Esposito makes it very clear that Gus does. Given Werner's little speech to Mike on his love for his wife... I don't see him getting out alive.

And there's the fun little Slippin' Jimmy trick to get Huell off that gradually unfolds throughout the episode, from the bus-based letter writing montage to the exasperated judge. Jimmy's plan is brilliant, underhanded, discraceful, inspired... and very, very Jimmy. He may start the episode on very thin ice with Kim, but the scheme ends with her spontaneously kissing him... until, in the cold night of day, it becomes clear just how unethical it all was. Poor Kim. Helplessly ensnared in the web of a self-centred man who destroys every life he touches. But then, aren't we all, watching this exquisite little character study of a show?

Better Call Saul: Gloves Off

 "Just saying... you went a long way to not pull that trigger. Why?"

This is a fascinating episode. Yes, lots of plot happens. Yes, there are lots of characters from Breaking Bad doing rather cool cameos.But this is, at its core, a character study of both Jimmy and Mike, both of whose essences get a pretty thorough and pretty fascinating examination here.

Jimmy is lucky not to get fired. He may work for a snooty law firm. His bosses are right. We didn't keep them informed. Yes, hisb type of advert is successful. But Sandpiper isn't the firm's only case, and they have to be snooty because their upmarket clients are. Image matters, and that overrides day-to-day case needs. Jimmy, at heart a con man and salesman, an extrovert in a world of cautious introverts, is a fish out of water. We know he has no future here.

Does Kim? That's the question. She's the one who suffers here, unfairly. This is, quite simply, a dumping offence, yet Kim doesn't seem to dump Jimmy. She really, really likes him despite everything. And it's because of that, I suspect, that she's going to fall very far indeed.

The argument between Jimmy and Chuck, roles now reversed, is fascinating, deeply revealing in multiple ways, and superbly acted. Each has the measure of the other. Chuck is right that Jimmy is no lawyer, just a quick tongued shyster. Yet Jimmy sees Chuck's rigid hypocrisy too. I suspect neither of them will have a happy season.

But the excitement comes from Mike's strand of the plot. There's a tendency for episodes of Bettef Call Saul to revolve around clever plans, usually from Jimmy, with the fun being in seeing the plan play out. This time it's Mike's turn. Even better, it involves our old friend Tuco, with Raymond Cruz exqwuisitely menacing as ever.

And we end with the question posed by the quote. Yes, Mike is fiendishly clever, albeit fortunate that the police arrive exactly when the plot requires. But when Tuco gets out, Mike will be a target. Is he so determined not to kill? It's fascinating seeing the character get such depth, a deeply moral man who ends up as the Mike from Breaking Bad. The parallelk between his trajectory and that of Walter White can only be deliberate.

Breaking Bad: ...And the Bag's in the River

 "I've got lung cancer. I'll go make you another sandwich."

Yes, well I suspect I'll have to find endless ways of praising an episode as superlative if this third exercise in sublimity is anything to go by. This is television of the very first class.

We begin, after a nice bit of directorial showing off, with Walter continuing to clean the blood while we have a flashback to Walter and a woman to whom we've yet to be introduced. They are workimg out the percentages of elements in the human body: the literal human condition. This nicely artistic use of chemistry reminds me of Primo Levi, and makes me wonder if this is going to be a cleverly done episode of cleaning up blood (itself symbolic) with lots of flashbacks to flesh out Walter's past.  

But no. It's better than that.

Stuff happens, of course. Skyler gets even more suspicious to the point where Walter has a lot to do to explain himself to her... but that's next episode. So is the fact that, in a nice touch, Hank is slowly but unwittingly on Walter's train as he and his men examine the scenes of previous episodes.

But no: the episode starts properly as Jesse buggers off and leaves Walter with the dilemma of whether or not to kill Crazy Eight. It begins with a hilariously nerdy list of pros and cons but centres around a long and extraordinary scene, a simple two hander between Walter and Crazy Eight which is at once superbly scripted and proof that Bryan Cranston is an extraordinary actor with phemomenal range and talent.

Ultimately, after discovering he was about to be betrayed, Walter ends up committing his first unambiguous murder. The following scen finds him at a literal and metaphorical crossroads. He's taken yet another big step into darkness. Can there be any way back?

Also, loving the way Walter makes sandwiches ithout crusts. These little touches say so much.

Breaking Bad: Cat's in the Bag...

 "The hell is a MILF?"

This second episode is just as good as the first but, fascinatingly, very different. Walter has got his hands dirty, started cooking crystal meth and committed his first murder. I'm reminded of Macbeth in that our protagonist, a seemingly decent man, makes a few decisions that seem to make sense and suddenly there's no going back. And yet, serious though the underlying themes are, on the surface the episode is basically slapstick comedy about disposing of a body (the Denis Nielsen way) and killng someone whose existence is somewhat inconvenient.

And it's good comedy, with Jesse dragging the corpse upstairs and, yes, the incident with the bath. Jesse is clearly being treated as the Stan Laurel to Walt's Oliver Hardy here- yet he's also Walt's mentor into how the business works.

We get some nice contrasts between all this and Walt's home and work life, and another partly comedic sub-plot as Skyler gets suspicious and ends up getting the wong idea about Walt's secret being weed. Yes, the scene where she confronts Jesse is hilarious farce, but Walt's face and manner to her after his "confession" shows a new, menacing side to him. And then there's the scan, as the couple discover the sex of the baby Skyler is carrying, and the look on Walt's face as he hears the words "when she's sixteen, when we suddenly remember the inoperable cancer that is the catalyst (See? I can do chemistry allusions too!) of all this.

I love the slower pace here, as we see how Walter slowly adjusts to the consequences of his actions and his slow yet inexorable descent into villainy. This is, yet again, first class telly.

Breaking Bad: Pilot

 "Actually, it's just basic chemistry, Jesse. But thank you."

Fear not: my existing series will continue to be blogged as normal. But Sundays will (usually) be Breaking Bad for the foreeable future. So let me start with the executive summary: this is sublime, as good a first episode as The Sopranos and Deadwood managed and a very similarly arthouse directorial style. The first things we see are a cactus (the New Mexico locations are magnificent) and a pair of trousers floating in the breeze like that plastic bag in American Beauty.

This episode is, basically, art, while still functioning as entertaining drama. On both counts it's rather helpful that Bryan Cranston's acting is simply incredible. Already it's quite plausible that Walter While could be a role as complex and multifaceted as Hamlet. His moral situation is exquisite.

I don't think it's the premise, superb though it is, that makes this as good as it is, though. Yes, the concept of a fifty year old chemistry professor, struggling to support his wife, disabled son and another baby on the way on his chemistry teacher's salary suddenly developing inoperable lung cancer and deciding to cook crystal meth to raise money is a bloody good one. There's an awful lot of subtext there, from the absurdity of the world's biggest superpower settling for a third world health system to the implied criticism that crystal meth dealers are crap at chemistry.

Yet it's the handling of White's interiority, more than the concept itself, that this programme reaches sublimity. Is he a good man, this meth maker in a pinny and a pair of pants? Is he, er, breaking bad? Was he always a latent psycho underneath? There's a fascinating late scene where some kids mock his son and he threatens them with violence... and all three of them sod off. It's a little microcosm of the benefits of being bad. To misquote Blackadder's Christmas Carol, sometimes we want more from life than a Bible and one's own turnip.

It's also interesting that he can't get it up early on during a delightfully awkward hand job scene but later pounds the missus properly after killing a couple of violent thickos. There's also a moment at the end where Jesse finally realises that his new partner may well have what it takes.

Excellent stuff. More please.