Margaux and I finally get to review a show we actually like, Better Call Saul.
Trevor: One of the pleasures of watching Better Call Saul – besides the acting, plotting, dialogue, and general atmosphere – is that this is one of the best-looking shows on TV right now. And it manages to achieve that without ever being showy. “Mable” is full of wide shots and close-ups, and it lacks the grandiosity of anything from Game of Thrones or The Leftovers, but still manages to be riveting. (This is helped by Vince Gilligan’s understated direction as well.) This is something I’m sure we’ve commented upon in the past two seasons’ worth of reviews. I guess it’s my way of saying: goddamn did I miss this show.
Margaux: When Mike stops his station wagon on the dirt road a few miles from him lookout spot (post getting the DON’T note) to ransack the car (which was obviously tracked), the darkened sky above looks incredibly ominous, and then lightning. What a fucking great shot. But let’s start at beginning. As is now this show’s signature, we start every season of with…making the Cinnabon. Who knew a sad mall in Omaha could look so beautiful.
Trevor: I love those flash-forwards. Odenkirk plays a good sad sack, and his voice has a nice soft weariness to it. I also really liked getting a glimpse of Saul Goodman coming out, as he tells the shoplifter to get a lawyer. Then, during his phone call to Howard outside Chuck’s house, the camera is focused tight on his pinky ring. I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of Saul Goodman this season, and the prospect is very exciting, partly because of Odenkirk’s terrific two-season transformation. BCS is a slow burn, but man, the payoffs are incredible.
Margaux: His advice to the CD (really, someone still steals those?) shoplifter was like a warning to his past self, especially when juxtaposed with his scenes with Chuck. And jeez, is Chuck still ever the asshole he’s always been. Not only does he cut through his moment with Jimmy, trying to bond over the discovery of a childhood book, The Adventures of Miss Mabel, by saying, “you will pay for this.” Glad to know he’s feeling just fine. Dick.
Trevor: I was thinking of the same scene, which was almost peak Better Call Saul, down to the excruciatingly long demonstration of how to properly remove duct tape from walnut. I wrote in my notes that it was hard to watch the McGill brothers being so chummy, knowing the betrayal that Chuck has in mind, so in a weird way it was a relief when Chuck undercut it. And it’s a great bit of characterization, that Chuck can compartmentalize so thoroughly that he can share fond memories of reading a book to Jimmy while he’s planning to have him disbarred and arrested.
Margaux: So, you think when Chuck shows Howard the tape, knowing full well it won’t really hold up in court, that he’s going to end up using it to get Jimmy arrested? It’s easy to see how he could use it to get him disbarred, but I was hoping he’d just use it as blackmail to get Jimmy to fly straight.
Trevor: I only have that theory about him wanting Jimmy arrested because he made sure to be very explicit on the tape: “You realize you just confessed to a felony.” I don’t know if it’s plan A, but he’s been foiled by Jimmy before, so he knows it’s always good to have a plan B-Z.
Margaux: I guess the captain from the Air Force base might be right, the wheel is turning for Jimmy, but he somehow always manages to get out of it. It was jarring to see the repercussions of “Fifi” come back to nip at Jimmy’s heels, he tends to get away with minor infractions like these, so it was surprising to see him have to push back with such force and still not have it go away completely seems like foreshadowing. The Tom Cruise-Top Gun line was hilarious though.
Trevor: He’s always trying to spin things – “Look at your recruiting numbers, I bet you see an uptick!” And the absurdity in that scene was great, especially when the Captain was forced to deliver lines like “Fudge is not a person.” Great emotionality from Odenkirk, too, especially when he started to break down and had to reclaim the encounter. Jimmy has been underestimated and spoken down to all his professional life, which is why Saul Goodman always has to be the smartest man in the room. It’s remarkable, at times, how well Better Call Saul works as a prequel – it’s beyond fan service and it shows a genuine evolution of character.
Margaux: When pushed, Jimmy can seemingly become the world’s foremost expert on nearly any topic through bullshit osmosis alone. A bit of the grudge he holds against his brother nearly comes to the surface when arguing with the Captain, Jimmy’s voice even pitches upwards in a childish tone, an ongoing conversation he’s had with Chuck his whole life (“But I am worthy”). Those McGill brothers sure are fucked up!
Trevor: Typically I’d worry when a show introduces a brother or sister we’ve never heard about before (the worst example of this, to me, is still New Girl)…
Margaux: (For me, it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ll never forgive you, Joss Whedon.)
Trevor: …but Odenkirk and Michael McKean are so goddamn good it doesn’t both me at all. And it actually informs Jimmy as a character.
So, can we please talk about Mike? One thing I love about this show – and Breaking Bad – is that it shows us that, yes, Mike is a badass and a curmudgeon, but he’s also very smart. I loved the looooong montage of him dismantling his car; his attention to detail calls to mind his famous “No half measures” speech. And the score really pulled its weight here. What could have been a boring or overlong sequence was granted tension and stakes because of the heist-movie soundtrack. Mike’s whole plot in “Mabel” was excellently tense and methodical.
Margaux: What I love most about Mike scenes are how unbelievable peaceful and totally fraught with tension they are. He speaks – what, maybe one page of dialogue? And even though you know he doesn’t die in this timeline, you’re still overcome with feeling that someone could dead around him at any moment. WHILE HE SAYS NOT WORD ONE.
Trevor: That’s an excellent point, and I hadn’t noticed it – which, arguably, is the point. “Mabel,” and the show as a whole, uses silence exceptionally well.
Margaux: Much like Mike’s quest to find this goddamn tracker unfolds quietly and methodically, your head seemingly fills in the words for you because you’re so immersed in what Mike’s doing, you can’t help but put yourself in his shoes. When he takes apart his car in the junkyard, my notes devolve into frustration because if I were him, I’d of ditched the thing in anger two hours ago. My notes are a series of, “where the fuck is this thing?” and “fuck this shit, get a new car.”
Trevor: I kept wondering how long the sequence was going to go, and then it kept going longer. It was like Funny Games.
Like we said earlier, though, the payoff was great. Even if you couldn’t follow every part of Mike’s plan, there’s no denying that by the end of “Mabel” he has the upper hand. It’s moves like that which make Mike so easy to root for (that, and Jonathan Banks’ terrific, subtle performance). I like that, for now at least, Mike and Jimmy are operating on parallel tracks, and that Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have taken the opportunity presented by this show to focus on both characters (if I were showrunner, this would have devolved into I Like Mike a long time ago).
Margaux: The candy dish of shells to show the passage of time was a nice touch, reminiscent of Mike’s cop, stake-out days. Mike’s following this swapped tracker signal to Gus, right? Like, that’s the only possible outcome, considering the heavy, Los Pollos Hermanos-centric marketing for this season.
Trevor: And it makes thematic sense – Walt put a tracker on Gus’s car, Gus (probably) put one on Mike’s.
Okay, this review could easily be 5,000 words long, so I feel like we should segue into talking stars, unless you have other pressing points.
Margaux: The Ernesto/Chuck scene at the end. First of all, Chuck has to die this season. His little electron allergy shtick is starting to wear thin, and with all his nefarious scheming to get his brother disbarred and arrested, and now implicating Ernesto in all this mess, where can all this be leading?
Trevor: Wherever it leads, it ain’t gonna be nice for Ernesto. He’s going to wind up as collateral damage in this war, and Chuck will blame it on Jimmy.
Margaux: Being an intern is the worst. Stars?
Trevor: I mean, sentimentally I want to give Better Call Saul a big 5-star hug, but as good as “Mabel” was, I know this show has some tricks up its sleeve. I think this is a solid 4.5 Great fucking episode.
4.5/5
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