greggwager Reviews

Better Call Saul: Saul Gone (2022) Season 6, Episode 13

Saul's Well that Ends Well

[10/10 · 17 August 2022]

How would you have ended it? BB ended with wicked Walter finally admitting that he liked crime. El Camino ended with untamed Jesse dropped off into the last frontier. BCS ends with Jimmy coming clean and getting tucked away into the cooler for the rest of his life.

Why on earth do we sense that this is a happy ending?

The prisoners respect him and making bread in a sensory-deprived kitchen is not much different than working at Cinnabon (although BCS always took pains to make those damn morsels look delicious). If we're to figure out why Jimmy finds himself at peace enough to fire the double finger pistols at Kim at the end, we'll need to roll this material around in our brains for a long time. At least I will.

But that's why fans of this show are so loyal. We got thanked multiple times at the end. You're welcome.

Compared to Saul's colorful wardrobe and his bachelor pad, the final four b&w episodes of BCS give us more madcap crime procedure interspersed with grim scenes of Kim and Gene's stagnation after Albuquerque. Notice that when Kim and Jimmy share a final cigarette at the end, the flame is in color.

After setting the public record straight as to what happened to Howard, Kim feels better enough to get back to practicing law. Jimmy's squandering of his sweetheart plea bargain similarly releases something as well.

But what exactly? I'm still thinking about it.

When he had his wardrobe and henchmen, he was a villain the likes of Batman would take on. Taking abuse from his brother gave him a split personality. The fact that Kim made so many plans often leaving Jimmy high and dry, at least in his eyes, made him a frustrated lover.

Was Saul actually ready to feed a pack of lies about Kim and Howard to the prosecutor? Or was it actually Jimmy making sure Kim would show up to his arraignment?

The three Time Machine segments (Mike, Walter, and Chuck) seem to show Jimmy's utter cupidity, but we've seen him with a heart (even tears) and know better. Walter tells us these segments are actually about regrets, with Jimmy having no regrets except that he didn't make enough money. Does that really make any sense?

BB and BCS are complex tales about crime in America. We learned a lot from them.

Those rare television shows that actually make history for how deeply they move us deserve finales with surprises and lots to think about. I'm very satisfied that Saul remains a puzzle, but seems to find peace. Like Walter, he stops blaming others for his degenerate criminality. He lived to champion the streets where once treasured items turn quickly into trash. Saul was arrested in a garbage dump, but also built the Sandpiper case there.

Crime may not pay after all. But for some, what a ride!

Better Call Saul: Waterworks (2022) Season 6, Episode 12

Gene the Recidivist

[10/10 · 10 August 2022]

"Waterworks" completes the path that Gene has been on for the past several episodes, if not the entire BB/BCS franchise. Gene might miss his job as Saul the lawyer, not to mention fun-loving grifting with Giselle as Viktor, but his destiny in crime is as inevitable as that circular industrial mixer kneading shapeless dough. Without frosting or spice, Gene's crimes are grim and his urge to be homicidal as routine as taking out the garbage.

Jeff never wanted to threaten Gene. Buddy also had no clue as to deep dimensions of Saul's twisted character. When Jeff made Gene, it destroyed a complete and perfect getaway from Albuquerque. At first, Gene thought he should make another getaway, but addiction for crime awoke which is recidivism.

Will Gene break free and survive? Or is he simply headed for the slammer?

The sky is the limit as to how our anti-hero reveals what will probably be the final word. Until then, this is the smartest of storytelling and commentary on crime.

Better Call Saul: Breaking Bad (2022) Season 6, Episode 11

Our Walter White bon bon

[10/10 · 2 August 2022]

I knew Marion was going to start figuring it all out! "Nippy" was not filler!

Meanwhile, Gene keeps in touch with Francesca Liddy and, we learn, Kim Wexler, although it sounds as if since Saul got into meth, their relationship has been stormy. She's working some dumb job in Florida. All the money is gone.

And we get the long awaited scene with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman! It reminds us how a good percentage of the plot in BCS was the back story for one throwaway sentence in BB.

Gene not only fixed his problem with Jeff, he formed his own crew, performing expertly in a montage to an obscure Michael Nesmith song. At one point he'll have to visit the dog pound in Omaha to pick out a Pomeranian that looks like Nippy. He's got two more episodes and a meeting with Walter White to get this all finished up.

Any predictions? Let the story conclude wherever it takes us.

Better Call Saul: Nippy (2022) Season 6, Episode 10

Slippin' Jimmy solves Gene's problems.

[10/10 · 27 July 2022]

I'm glad that "Nippy" sees Gene returning to "Slippin' Jimmy," even wearing his pinky ring. It also recalls Jimmy McGill the lawyer's gift for Elder Law in the way he can charm the otherwise not-to-be-charmed Marion (played by none other than Carol Burnett). Don Harvey does not return to play Jeff in this sixth season, but is replaced by Pat Healy.

We assume that Gene was lying low after getting his new identity, but now realizes that his old talents can solve his newest problems. That's fine until he gets caught. What if Jeff gets caught? What if Marion figures it all out?

"Nippy" might even be the last we see of Gene. The next episodes could do anything to conclude this story. What a great place to be!

Better Call Saul: Fun and Games (2022) Season 6, Episode 9

Gustavo's Eucharist

[10/10 · 20 July 2022]

Don't ignore that long scene in the middle of "Fun and Games" that begins with Gustavo sitting alone at the bar of a posh restaurant, ordering a glass of probably fictitious California wine (no matches from a Google search). The host sees him and becomes the helpful sommelier by getting him a glass of already opened Côte-Rôtie (one bottle can run as high as $500).

Chickenman peddles meth, but is still a professional food and service guy. He knows wine.

Host/sommelier knows all this and more about Gus and tells him a story from his youth, waking up one day in the Rhône Valley, where Côte-Rôtie is made from Syrah grapes growing on the slopes of the river. Then he mentions the "bloody" taste, due to the iron oxide and manganese content in the soil.

Gus comes alive. He's drinking blood. Sangre por Sangre. That look comes over his face, as if he is now inspired to do something. Maybe we'll find out next week what he does, because it's his final scene in this episode. For now, he drinks victory over Lalo.

He leaves the restaurant, because he's had his meal--blood. He carefully stacks c-notes for a glass of wine that was understood to be on the house, crossing his stack with one final c-note for a tip.

As for Kim, her style is not to twist the plot subtly, but administer crisp karate chops. She's suddenly out of the story, but will she find Gene in Omaha?

Is anybody out there used to this storytelling style by now? I expected Walter White to walk through the door during the final scene. I wonder if that was ever planned. It's mesmerizing watching all the highly developed characters now leave this story, one by one: Chuck, Nacho, Howard, Lalo, and Kim. I'm still fascinated, surprised, impressed by it all.

Criminal Minds: Alchemy (2013) Season 8, Episode 20

The World is Watching

[1/10 · 9 June 2022]

I concur with the other 1-star reviewer here, that a television show like this one should not engage in the type of propaganda that would paint a simplistic, gung-ho lie on a potent and sensitive political situation. Leonard Peltier is most likely innocent and was framed by an angry FBI after two of their young agents (Ron Williams and Jack Coler) were killed execution style following an intense gun battle. Also, these agents were not investigating a robbery, as stated in this episode; the FBI's cover story is that they were trying to serve a warrant in a matter regarding a stolen pair of boots; and what these agents were probably doing all along was spying on the nearby American Indian Movement's (AIM) camp, because AIM was hording guns--not to invade anyone or anyplace, but because martial law had been declared on that Indian Reservation, and AIM was protecting themselves and the women and children in harm's way. The United States Government now admits that there were about 80 unsolved murders on the Reservation, although it does not admit that the most likely suspects are the tribal police force that the FBI backed. Actually, it was more like 200 unsolved murders. AIM also circulated a lame cover story that a red pick-up truck delivering dynamite was being followed by the agents when the gun battle broke out. Before Peltier's trial, Bob Robideau and Dino Butler were acquitted of the murders based on self-defense. Robideau admits he fired the shot that ricocheted in a strange way and shredded Agent Coler's arm, which would have killed him. When Peltier was finally extradited, new evidence pinned the executions on him, and the evidence that supported self-defense in the Robideau/Butler trial was not allowed into the Peltier trial. Peltier will probably die in prison while the rest of the world sees him as an American version of Nelson Mandela. How embarrassing that this injustice must go on for so many decades.

Better Call Saul: Plan and Execution (2022) Season 6, Episode 7

Well, maybe there are more important things.

[10/10 · 24 May 2022]

With a simple scientific explanation and demonstration of how to depressurize an overly carbonated soda can before opening it, Howard Hamlin attributes his method of spinning the can to "the greatest legal mind he ever met," Charles McGill (the "M" in "HHM"). That means after his bouts with debt, depression, and failure at marriage, Howard could even be starting to learn what we know his partner Chuck never learned: "Well, maybe there are more important things."

Narcissistic lawyers living elitism as super-citizens can be just as disgusting as out-of-control, homicidal Salamancas. Although Kim Wexler and Jimmy McGill manage to jump off that fast-moving train for "more important things," things they still need to learn shock them.

As irritating as Howard could be, hurling bowling balls at his Jaguar was unfair. Knocking him off his super-citizen pedestal during the Sandpiper mediation falls under the category of all's-fair.

As D-Day peacefully ended, Kim and Jimmy knew their plan had all the justice in the world. But the title of the episode is "Plan and Execution," and the plan gets Howard executed by someone he didn't know and who didn't know who he was.

BCS depicts pitfalls of good and efficiency of bad, but also fair and unfair. Howard's end (named all along after the E. M. Forster novel?) sets it up brilliantly.

Better Call Saul: Rock and Hard Place (2022) Season 6, Episode 3

Story of a Sharp, Shapeless Shard

[10/10 · 26 April 2022]

The story commences slowly, with the camera searching an area of desert seemingly untouched by humans. It could be five years into the future; it could be 500.

A single blue blooming flower memorializes something. When a rainstorm begins, the drops of water hit a piece of glass, washing away caked-on dirt with musically percussive pings.

The shard forms no particular shape. It's even difficult to see at all.

It's not like someone threw a bottle into the desert and smashed it into pieces. You can barely make out that it is something unnatural in the middle of the overgrowth.

For the first five seasons of Better Call Saul, a character named Ignacio Varga got into adventures as a soldier for the Salamanca family. He hires Mike to kill Tuco, but Mike puts forth a more difficult but better plan. Don Hector tries to force Igancio, known as "Nacho," into using his father Manuel Varga's auto upholstery business to smuggle in product from Mexico. Gus Fring ruthlessly gives Nacho threats of harming the father in order to make him into a spy.

In the end, Nacho becomes a Judas by allowing a team of assassins into his boss Don Eduardo's compound. As a result, Nacho agrees to die giving a false confession in exchange for the safety of his father.

But Nacho has one last moment of dignity, embellishing the plan to kill him by somehow breaking free of his zip tie and threatening Don Bolsa, while he tells off the Salamancas once and for all. We don't see how Nacho breaks free; we only see blood starting to drip off his fingers, as if he were clutching something sharp.

Then we see the bloody shard on the ground, exactly where it was during the opening shot of the episode. It's as if the creators of Better Call Saul had this episode in mind all along when they inserted Nacho into the series.

Best thing I've ever seen on TV.

Better Call Saul: Something Unforgivable (2020) Season 5, Episode 10

Nacho is Judas with Louis XIII

[10/10 · 14 May 2020]

Who suspects "Something Unforgiveable" as the third part of a trilogy with "Something Beautiful" (season 4, episode 3) and "Something Stupid" (season 4, episode 7)? Peter Gould directs and co-writes this one.

Kim wants nothing but pro bono work. She rests assured Lalo is now dead, little suspecting he isn't.

One moment Lalo imbibes Louis XIII cognac to seal Nacho's promotion. The next he seethes with anger, looking for Nacho his Judas. He should never have served the Louis XIII in a decanter (the crystal bottle it comes in is worth $200).

Saul lives with dissociative identity disorder. He wonders aloud if his bowling-ball-chucking Mr. Hyde isn't bad for Kim.

The Sandpiper case could hurry along by ruining Howard's career. It could net Saul $2 million.

Perhaps the two finger pistols Kim fires at the end represent the split personality she develops loving both Jimmy and Saul. Saul sees it and smiles for his partner in crime, but then what's left of soft-hearted Jimmy is bothered by the way he is dragging someone he loves into the filthy streets.

Try to keep one step ahead of these writers. Television psychodrama never had it so good.

Better Call Saul: Something Unforgivable (2020) Season 5, Episode 10

Nacho is Judas with Louis XIII

[10/10 · 22 April 2020]

Who suspects "Something Unforgiveable" as the third part of a trilogy with "Something Beautiful" (season 4, episode 3) and "Something Stupid" (season 4, episode 7)? Peter Gould directs and co-writes this one.

Kim wants nothing but pro bono work. She rests assured Lalo is now dead, little suspecting he isn't.

One moment Lalo imbibes Louis XIII cognac to seal Nacho's promotion. The next he seethes with anger, looking for Nacho his Judas.

Saul lives with dissociative personality disorder. He wonders aloud if his bowling-ball-chucking Mr. Hyde isn't bad for Kim.

The Sandpiper case could hurry along by ruining Howard's career. It could net Saul $2 million.

Perhaps the two finger pistols Kim fires at the end represent the split personality she develops loving both Jimmy and Saul. Saul sees it and smiles for his partner in crime, but then what's left of soft-hearted Jimmy is bothered by the way he is dragging someone he loves into the filthy streets.

Try to keep one step ahead of these writers. Television psychodrama never had it so good.

Better Call Saul: Bad Choice Road (2020) Season 5, Episode 9

Lalo and Goldfish

[10/10 · 14 April 2020]

The symbolism in this episode maneuvers slightly from "being in the game" to its title, "Bad Choice Road." Mike hits us with blunt explanations. Last week he told us what keeps him going (his family), and this week he accepts how small choices can put us on long roads we can't get off.

PTSD-suffering Saul wonders aloud how this tough old guy got so wise. Unlike Saul, we know Mike's backstory.

Meanwhile, Lalo taps the glass of Goldfish's tank (which upsets the fish). If Goldfish still represents Saul's post-Chuck family, we can figure this one out.

The suspense comes to a boil when the crosshairs on Mike's sniper rifle rest on Kim, who might become collateral damage if he needs to take Lalo out. We suspect Kim's days are numbered.

This could have easily been her last episode, or is that coming in the next episode? This would be a twist: what if she disappears for season 6 until the very end when she meets up again with Gene?

The final episodes of season 5 use only the stalwart storytellers of the franchise. "Bad Choice Roads," written and directed by Thomas Schnauz, opens by resurrecting Lola Marsh's version of "Something Stupid" (from season 4, episode 7) and ends sending Lalo and Nacho on a "long road" to Mexico, teeing up the showdown with Juan Bolsa (season 5's finale).

Better Call Saul: Bagman (2020) Season 5, Episode 8

A to B

[10/10 · 7 April 2020]

"Bagman" has only one plotline. Money gets from A to B (to be continued).

In a Cartel warehouse over the border near Antelope Wells, two workers chop a Cadillac from Massachusetts used in a double homicide. There, the twins light the fuse.

Shortly after, Mike saves Saul from certain death with quiet sniper fire. Mike then teaches city-boy Saul how to survive in the desert.

Saul wears down and opens up too much. Now Kim is "in the game."

"Mrs. Goodman" blunders too. Lalo now has a new way to leverage Saul if needs be.

Marriage may fend off hapless clients at Mesa Verde, but not Salamancas. Aren't criminals smarter than investment bankers? Are investment bankers more moral than criminals?

Families of criminals are always in danger. Just ask Nacho.

Gordon Smith's minimalist script draws from other desert survival films. Director Vince Gilligan makes sure Saul's urine is extra yellow; spider crawls on the rock; blood on the cactus prong out of Saul's toe is red; and suburban does an extra few flips before landing on its top, a total unsalvageable wreck.

These storytellers jam. "Bagman" is a labor of pure love.

Better Call Saul: JMM (2020) Season 5, Episode 7

Return of Peter Schuler

[10/10 · 31 March 2020]

As "JMM" reaches for ratings with wedding, nude scene, explosion, and utter emotional meltdown of the lead character, my favorite moment finds the unassuming return of Peter Schuler (whose only other appearance in the franchise involves committing suicide during a German-language teaser of BB season 5, episode 2, titled "Madrigal"). Iconic for dipping junk food into goopy sauce and shoveling it into his face, Peter, we now learn, also has a history with Gus. Together they go back to some heroic deed in Santiago. If I were writing it, the back story would involve Pinochet and Nazis.

Otherwise the plot shows us one pointless vendetta following another in the dithering criminal world. Last week Mike put Lalo in the slammer; this week he springs him.

Mike tells Stacey he'll play the cards he's been dealt. He is at peace now.

The wedding supposedly creates a spousal privilege between two lawyers who already improperly engaged in shady dealings with Mesa Verde. Judge Gerard Velber (played with extra dark circles under his eyes by Jim Hoffmaster) delivers droll vows while Huell steps up with disposable camera as wedding photographer.

Meanwhile, Gus shows some regret as he burns down his restaurant, rigging a frozen chicken to slide into the grease cooker as it thaws. He'll get a fat insurance check. Yma Sumac's legendary 1953 recording "Chuncho" provides the eerie soundtrack.

But "JMM" shows Saul still cares. Lalo the monster says "just more money." Saul pauses when he sees the murder victim's family grieving in court. Lalo sees them too and feels nothing. Water damage on the ceiling of the courtroom symbolizes obvious decay of the institution.

Howard sees the demon driving Saul. It will take Saul to a strip mall where Walter White will find him. Kim won't be there by then. The end of this season (the next three episodes) promises answers. I sure want them.

Better Call Saul: Wexler v. Goodman (2020) Season 5, Episode 6

Twist and Out

[10/10 · 24 March 2020]

Figuring out these episodes makes its own suspense. You might not be wrong, but always wonder about being right.

Unexpected twists are especially hairy in "Wexler v. Goodman": Saul betrays Kim; we expect she will walk away before she gets irreparably harmed (as she does with her drunken momma in the opening flashback); she has suspected all along that her boyfriend has an identity disorder, but instead of giving him tough love she ends up loving both personalities (Saul as much as Jimmy); and most unexpectedly, instead of doing what's reasonable and smart, she suggests they should get married. Saul appears to muck up Kim's life and career, but Kevin will probably take the deal he offers, and all will be good, man.

Meanwhile, Mike outs Lalo with virtuosic control and sneakiness. He anonymously leads the police around by their noses. They get their suspect in the wire-service murder (what ended season 4). Who will Lalo call with his legal problem?

Some loyal IMDB critics complain that viewers who gush about Better Call Saul (like me) should be more circumspect. I give every episode ten stars because this bizarre story has never made a misstep.

Eventually our unconventional, scrappy defense lawyer will tease Walter White about not having the immorality that would save money by putting a prison shiv into Badger. Taking out Jesse Pinkman is like "Old Yeller," remember? There's still a long road ahead. I can't wait travel it.

Better Call Saul: Dedicado a Max (2020) Season 5, Episode 5

Swimming Pools and Fountains

[10/10 · 18 March 2020]

Mike's healing dominates "Dedicato a Max." As benefactor and warrior, Gus provides therapy to his valuable asset.

I vaguely remember in Breaking Bad when Hector executes Gus's partner Max Arciniega with a shot to the head (season 4, episode 8 titled "Hermanos"). The murder occurs next to Don Eladio's swimming pool, and the Salamancas hold Gus down to make him stare at Max's shocked and lifeless face.

Rumors among fans still speculate that Gus and Max were actually lovers. It remains a big part of Gus's untold story.

In "Dedicato a Max," we see that Gus built an elaborate memorial: a secluded adobe compound in Mexico where Gus is invisible benefactor. School, hospital, and modern fountain honor Max, along with benevolent cook Señora Cortazar who lives there and kindly feeds visitors like Mike.

Such humanity and peacefulness help heal Mike. More than that, it teaches him Gus's revenge.

The familiar Dr. Barry Goodman (played by JB Blanc) patches up Mike's wounds. He'll do it again in Breaking Bad after the shootout when Gus poisons Don Eladio (season 4, episode 10 titled "Salud").

Max's character is named after the actor who plays Domingo Gallardo Molina, a.k.a. Krazy-8. Obviously the franchise owes him much for making those first episodes of Breaking Bad so compelling.

The other plot shows Kim at the crossroads. Earlier, she deceived a pro bono client for his own good. Now, is she helping her client Kevin Wachtell or swindling him?

With a Grinch-like grin, she claims to discover how she will take Kevin down. Snapshots secretly taken inside his house reveal some kind of trademark infringement with the Mesa Verde cowboy symbol.

Her boss Richard Schweikert reads the situation well and knows such schemes might lead to Kim being disbarred. Kim loudly confronts Schweikert in front of the other employees at the law firm. What a bombshell it will be when she finally realizes that he's probably right.

As calmly and slowly "Dedicato a Max" unfolds, symphonies of relationships, symbols, and plot points keep unpredictably changing this now humungous Breaking Bad universe. There are more characters and situations than a Tolstoy novel, and we are still enjoying, not straining ourselves keeping track of it all.

Every time I think one of these episodes will misstep or disappoint me, I allow the material to do its magic and find myself even more amazed.

Better Call Saul: Namaste (2020) Season 5, Episode 4

Dissociative Identity Disorder

[10/10 · 10 March 2020]

Details accumulate requiring vigilance. Careful!

At the center of this episode is Howard Hamlin's 1998 Jaguar XJ8, which now has a personalized license plate that reads "NAMAST3." Something about that car becomes a symbol of rage for Saul, who sneaks into Howard's driveway at night and lobs three bowling balls at it. The teaser before the credits for this episode, titled "Namaste" (which is an East Indian greeting that is supposed to convey an Asian version of the Christian Golden Rule), shows Saul in a junk shop browsing carefully for the perfect item to chuck (no pun intended...or?).

Yes Howard remains clueless about Saul, and thinks his old friend Jimmy will come back to work for him. Before having lunch with Howard, Saul defensively adjusts his pinky ring (i.e., Marco's ring acquired at the end of season 1). Howard introduces Saul to his golf partner, a Federal Judge that Saul knows by reputation. The conversation includes the names of older characters: Clifford Main and Kristy Esposito. Little by little, Howard's flakiness eats away Saul, who hammers down his drink. Something about the situation reminds him of his brother Chuck and all the abuse he took in the past as Jimmy.

Perhaps writer and director Gordon Smith (who has been with the franchise since season 3 of Breaking Bad) finally gives us dribs and drabs of what is Saul's genuine dissociative identity disorder (once known as "multiple personality disorder," which in modern usage is not related to a completely different disease called "schizophrenia"). Typically created by abusive family members, the disorder brings about different sustaining personalities in one person. Jimmy, Saul, and perhaps even Gene are not acting. They are actually three different personalities inside the same brain. Becoming Saul allows Jimmy to forget who he once was. This episode shows us like never before how Jimmy can become maniacal Saul. Chucking beer bottles off your balcony is one way of letting off steam, but lobbing bowling balls at a vintage Jaguar is different. Saul is not Jimmy and this is a serious disorder.

Mike faces his issues over Werner and Matty by getting beat up, stabbed, and dropped off at a mission somewhere (Mexico?). Suspenseful crosscutting shows Fring's assistant Lyle cleaning the cooker while Hank and Gomey chase after the guy who picks up the money at the last of three dead drops and gets away.

Oh yeah, and Tucumcari is two and a half hours east of Albuquerque, near the Texas border; Bobby Foster is a boxer with a road named after him; and O'Neill's is a famous Irish restaurant in that neck of the woods. The two meth heads now have names (Sticky and Ron). Stacey Ehrmantraut's car still has Pennsylvania license plates on it.

I know I'm watching as carefully as I can. I hope you are too. Denouement is near.

Better Call Saul: The Guy for This (2020) Season 5, Episode 3

Trash in the streets

[10/10 · 4 March 2020]

I admit that I missed last week's very obvious symbols: 1) the lawn gnome that the meth heads leave broken in the street; and 2) Saul's ice cream cone. The slow pan close up shot of the gnome with hat pointing left resembles the same slow pan close up shot of the ice cream cone pointing right. One is toward the beginning of the story; the other ends it.

"The Guy for This" begins with an even closer shot of the ice cream cone as industrious red ants begin to discover the morsel. They scale to the top as if it were some snowy Swiss alp (to the strains, believe it or not, of real Swiss yodelers: Jodlerklub Bärgblüemli Schattdorf's "Jänzigrat-Jüz").

What does it mean? The in-your-face symbols must mean something important. Precious delights left behind in the street transform quickly into trash. The streets are horrible junkyards filled with these once treasured items. Work the streets; trash your stuff; trash yourself.

Always remember that episode 8 of season 2 of Breaking Bad was titled "Better Call Saul" and introduced Saul, the "criminal lawyer." When Walter and Jesse put on ski masks and kidnap Saul, making him kneel before a ditch, Saul mistakes them for another client and calls out to someone at the time we didn't know named "Lalo." It's subtle, but if your TV has captions, you can catch it.

Now the Saul story nears this moment, but will need to have Saul move into his strip-mall office before that happens. Lalo hires Saul and pays him 8 grand. Saul now has enough to move in.

Hank and Gomez are now introduced into the story. Ocho Loco is now their CI (confidential informant).

The scene between Nacho and his father is touching. So is Mike asking the bartender to take down a postcard of the Sydney Opera House (Werner's father worked on it).

Both Kim and Saul end the episode chucking Bock beer bottles off their balcony. Integrity is really beginning to suck for them both. What will they leave behind to become trash in the streets?

Better Call Saul: 50% Off (2020) Season 5, Episode 2

Dude, that's almost half

[10/10 · 25 February 2020]

Writer Alison Tatlock makes a point as to whether lawyers encourage crime when offering half-price discounts. Enter as of yet unnamed meth heads portrayed by Sasha Feldman and Morgan Krantz who take Saul's business card and 50% discount offer as an invitation to a petty crime spree. After all, "Dude, that's almost half," says one of them.

Although giving away cell phones, discounts, or even stuffed animals along with legal services may not really encourage crime, the theory allows us to enjoy watching Skinny Pete and Badger look-a-likes joyously embracing their philosophy of life: stealing groceries, a lawn troll, lotto scratchers, and junk food, while destroying most of it and other things along the way, high on meth which they always duly pay for.

As Saul has his epiphany as to how he can flood criminal courts with petty ne'er-do-wells and play the system like the con artist he was born to be, we still wonder how Kim manages to hang on. She misses Jimmy. She thinks advertising 50% off legal services is undignified, and she lets Saul have it when he proposes she lie to her clients, even though apparently that worked just fine at the end of the last episode.

Here, Saul takes Kim to a two-story model home to soften her up. She lays down her own law for her lawyer boyfriend and tells him she won't lie to clients. Saul can still read Kim and works things out with her. We still suspect his new take on practicing law will never jive with her more respectful approach. She will leave, if she doesn't get hurt.

Meanwhile, Werner's death eats away Mike. He goes on a bender and ends up snapping at Kaylee.

Fring puts extortion spurs into Nacho, telling him he must "find a way" to win suspicious Lalo's trust. He does.

Domingo earns the name "Ocho Loco" when Lalo bluffs him out of winning a pot with three eights. Domingo gets caught possessing meth shortly thereafter.

Saul bribes a janitor to trap ADA Suzanne Ericsen in an elevator to winnow out his case load with crude negotiations. He even all but snubs Howard Hamlin's lunch invitation.

Here are two new entries into my BCS glossary: 1) "skell" is a word from the 1950s, perhaps short for "skeleton," referring to a homeless person; and 2) Christian Louboutin (b. 1963) designs women's high-heeled shoes that can run up to $1000/pair. Also, did anyone notice that an Apple Arcade commercial that runs during BCS is using the same Jim Reeve song, "Welcome to my World" from "Magic Man" and one of the BCS trailers?

We who support Better Call Saul, especially now with 18 episodes to go, hope nagging mysteries about TV's most crooked lawyer will slowly but precisely unravel. We might even be underwhelmed when it's all over. It's still a great ride while it lasts.

Better Call Saul: Magic Man (2020) Season 5, Episode 1

Game On!

[10/10 · 24 February 2020]

As nonchalantly and routinely as Season 5 of Better Call Saul begins, don't overlook the masterful touches that keep you thinking and ruminating. Gilligan and Gould have profoundly painted themselves into a corner by promising a detailed and plausible story about how the twisted and maniacal Saul Goodman comes into being.

In "Magic Man," they ante up.

The final encounter between Mike and Kai shows clearly the difference between the latter's untempered braggadocio versus steely resolve wrapped around a good heart. Mike doesn't kill Kai, rather gives him one in the chops, or what Kai's papa should have done long ago. But Werner's ghost lingers, challenging all who knew him to stay in the game.

Such simple encounters help set up characters, settings, and props on the chessboard. Good criminals make it by the end of the story; bad ones don't. What's the difference? Stay tuned.

And Kim Wexler proves that swindling the system for comfortable millionaires of Mesa Verde is not the same as for a helpless poor family. Saul doesn't balk in such situations, but Kim feels the ache of betraying her ethics.

Fring dances with Lalo. So does Nacho.

Goldfish and his bubbles still provide the ambiance that represent Saul's new family, while Kim gradually reveals herself as the fish out of water.

In Breaking Bad, Saul taunted Walter and Jesse when they ponied up a five-figured sum to save Badger from a prison shiv. Morality hurts.

Gene feels it too when he is made by a taxi driver. Expense and inconvenience or murder?

Birds of Prey (2020)

Post-reality Fun House

[9/10 · 16 February 2020]

If Americans are so irreverent to European traditions, why do children's cartoons and graphic novels (comic books) introduce us to characters based on commedia dell'arte, a tradition of improvisatory Italian folk theater? The biggest revelation I got from watching Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is that the main character's name is a parody of "Harlequin." (After all, I only saw bits and pieces of Suicide Squad on television for the past year and never even heard of the Saturday morning cartoon debuting her three decades ago.) I saw this film on a Thursday afternoon, paid $11, and was the only person in the theater. I had heard it was all but tanking at the box office, so didn't expect much. I had not even researched if I was to be in the DC or Marvel universe (let alone cared that much which). Other expectations I took with me were that Thanos already showed us you can only blow up the universe a few more times before it gets dull; Scorsese taught us guilt for being curious about these post-cinema comics creations; a retaliating AARP invented new cinema awards for grownups; but Joaquin just won an Oscar for portraying Harley Quinn's ex-boyfriend. That and a couple of routine curses to the Libertarians for exchanging our once promising Star Trek future into a Mad Max one. So, this slow-cooking razzle-dazzle about fighting chicks who do slow-mo cartwheels accompanied by lots of rock and rap music sneaks into an arid February release slot. In a panic, the studio even truncates the title. Villain-protagonist Harley Quinn brings us plenty of moral ambiguity. It's Kill Bill territory or even Pulp Fiction's "Fox Force Five," as well as Tarantino's convoluted narrative and skewed timeline. Margot Robbie herself co-produces this most confident Harley Quinn incarnation, with only a few CGI explosions and a pet hyena as sole CGI creature. Rosie Perez deadpans her way as crusty detective who turns to join forces with fem vigilantes. Fresh off Dr. Sleep comes a solid supporting role for Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis, a.k.a. "Black Mask," a sociopathic kingpin, sexually immature, who cruses for bruises and gets them from high-kicking, grenade-tossing girls. Kooky gender warfare. That leaves seething Mary Elizabeth Winstead (unrecognizable from Death Proof and Die Hard IV) as edgy, crossbow-wielding "Huntress;" Jurnee Smollett-Bell as smooth crooner in tight pants named "Black Canary;" and Ella Jay Basco as pathetic teen pickpocket caught in the middle of it all. Fellow chick Cathy Yan directs only her second feature, first entirely in English, with style and humor. No need to spoil a plot that is barely necessary anyway. Find your way into this post-reality fun-house of effects that jump into your lap and other colorful surprises and there will be a sense you've been thrilled as you step out of the theater. This genre may be short-lived and shallow, but get yours while the getting is good.

Broken Rainbow (1985)

It's about the coal, stupid

[10/10 · 4 January 2020]

Maria Florio and Victoria Mudd triumph with this documentary, but never forget that film critics like Siskel and Ebert (who are often otherwise reliable) tried to bury this film as if it were a dizzy conspiracy theory. The filmmakers bluntly present the immoral situation without apologies. Watch our familiar politicians state their twisted case in their own words, which isn't much of a case at all. Don't blame the documentarians for that. The evil nitty gritty of how this situation came to be in the first place would turn this documentary into a horror film.

It runs like this: coal is discovered on an Indian reservation; coal company wants the coal; coal company does not want to mine coal conventionally because paying union workers is too expensive; coal company wants to strip mine the area, even though it leaves behind an environmental disaster; coal company must move people off the surface of the land so bulldozers can bulldoze; Indians live on the land you want to bulldoze; coal company gains influence over a tiny Indian nation through its even tinier Tribal Council; tiny Tribal Council successfully uses the Supreme Court to assert property rights over the area to be strip mined; tiny Tribal Council draws up a new map of boundaries; tiny Tribal Council says Indians living on the wrong side of the new boundaries must move; and, finally, Federal Government steps in to forcibly relocate over 10,000 people so that coal company can strip mine the area and completely destroy it. Decades later, the sinister scheme has thankfully still not been hatched, thanks to a film like this.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Monster Mashup

[10/10 · 23 November 2019]

Writer, director, and editor Mike Flanagan obviously had a whim in his head that bothered him. Thankfully, he didn't shoo it away like the rest of us might've and kept developing it before courageously committing it to film. Add typical mechanisms of movie sequels that may make the final plot for Doctor Sleep sturdier than its premise, but what prevails is unchartered territory in slow-cooking terror and remarkably intelligent acting for such a modestly budgeted horror film.

Flanagan probably surmised that making a sequel to a Kubrick film can't ever be the best of ideas. There's an unflappable sense of "we are not worthy." After all, filmmakers doting on their master end up doing downright dumb things (such as bending over backwards in a sequel to exonerate Hal the computer).

Less sequel than new concoction borrowing from both King and Kubrick, Doctor Sleep introduces diverse characters that wonderfully keep us on our toes. Lookalikes represent the old characters reduced here to still compelling cameos.

Praise for Ewan McGregor for taking on an acting project such as this, which requires insightful acceptance of all its bizarre premises. His adult version of Danny Torrance requires him to immediately recognize what "shining" can and can't do, while not upstaging all the tricky and creepy goings-on he encounters. He stoically conveys the hodgepodge without ever confusing us.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Kyliegh Curran as psychic savant Abra Stone, who confidently balances teen ingénue with intrepid magic warrior. Above all, Rebecca Ferguson's character, billed as "Rose The Hat," ranks up there with all the legendary movie monsters I have ever seen: beautifully seductive, but never a doubt as to her evil (i.e., all the makings of a popular action figure).

Aside from these lead roles, the acting support from many of the lesser roles was downright astonishing: ever-reliable Cliff Curtis gives us a sweet and humble version of Danny's loyal buddy; Emily Alyn Lind sizzles in her own combination of beauty and evil, not to mention angry youth; Zahn McClarnon meticulously works his ghoulish persona and trimmed beard into the menacing "Crow Daddy"; while Carl Lumbly channels Scatman Crothers with eerie but fascinating mimicry (or perhaps a little help from CGI).

Scary movie aficionados know who they are and have a high tolerance for violence and gore. Doctor Sleep has painful moments to watch, but in our own twisted way, we have to admire something that makes us think this way and works ideas until they are just right--or marvelously wrong.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

In or Outside His Element?

[8/10 · 27 July 2019]

Those who know and respect the Tarantino canon might wonder what stories he has to tell about Hollywood at the end of the 1960s. Are movie actors twisted and maniacal enough to give him something to work with?

Five years older than he is, I also get prickly when such stories don't jive with my own memories. This movie gets much of it correct, so there is much to admire, but still has plenty of room for dispute.

QT was six years old when the Tate/LaBianca murders took place, but precocious enough to be as addicted to TV of that era as I was. On my first screening of Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood, I counted only one mention of Vietnam, and no footage of Ronald Reagan as Governor of California, even though in at least the early 1960s he and Nancy were still just as much a part of the same swinging Hollywood scene depicted here.

Call it a fine line between swaggering tough guys and Hollywood types who actually had to straddle the old glitzy era of Hollywood into that new era of sex, graphic violence, and swearing. Even Bruce Lee is depicted as a braggadocio, a far cry from his humble counterpart on the Kung Fu television series.

On the other hand, it is Tarantino fantasyland, where you can still buy Red Apple cigarettes (what Bruce Willis asks the bartender for in Pulp Fiction). Add to the mix much that is historically accurate about the Manson Family and Sharon Tate, with much that is deliberately inaccurate.

I can't tell if an iconic filmmaker has left his element, redefined his element, expanded his element, or stayed the same. Other than that, he's learned a lot about making films since Reservoir Dogs.

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

About zombies, for zombies

[10/10 · 23 June 2019]

Funnier than the film itself are some of these reviews I've been reading. No one gets this movie, including me. Still, I thought it was hilarious, and I'm going to go watch it again, because I have some nagging questions about it, but also because I enjoyed it. If you're simply disgusted that a filmmaker would try your patience this way or refuse to make sense, you'd best stay home and lock your doors.

Men in Black: International (2019)

Clumsy Suspense and Brain-Wracking Spy Drama

[6/10 · 15 June 2019]

I really wanted Men in Black: International to work, but this reboot of the franchise has changed much of the stuff that made 1 to 3 so enjoyable. I longed for preposterous plots with K and J, but instead got tired spy drama with H and M.

In the original, aliens tried to blend with humans, never quite getting it, although they enjoyed simple pleasures on earth: pierogis, Twister, pastrami sandwiches, et al. Now, swashbuckling agents track suave aliens and banter back and forth as if trapped in a rough cut of Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy.

Chris Hemsworth does make for a likeably irrepressible hunk while Tessa Thompson wins us over as a more nerdy buff making good. Meanwhile, her sidekick Pawny overdoes the cutesy critter routine, making us wish a flyswatter were handy.

Barry Sonnenfeld was the genius behind the original franchise and although he serves as Executive Producer, allows director F. Gary Gray and the new franchise to get bogged down in clumsy suspense and brain-wracking plot. The deadpan dialogue keeps those born before 1990 listening more intently, but has funny moments if you're patient.

Still, not nearly enough fun, even if Europe is harder to make fun of than New York City. Plenty could have been made of it, but wasn't.