I got bit by the Better Call Saul bug and decided to just start from there. Then I thought, well if I'm doing that, why not redo Breaking Bad, as it's been a while. And if you're already on that road, why not end it with El Camino? Not like I have anything better to do.
But going back makes me mad as to how little praise Saul got from the get-go. It was persistently good, even it's okay episodes were great. I mean look at these metrics:
Seriously, though. I wish someone responsible for negotiating contracts at my work watched the first season of Saul and paid attention to the particulars of the Sandpiper case and how penny pinching should be fucking illegal.
Going back to the start of Breaking Bad after being reminded how good Saul was right through, I forgot how awful all the main characters are.
Skyler gets better but she's not the greatest, I also forgot Marie's a shoplifting klepto and Hank's an arrogant manly man who lives to make Walt feel small. Walt Jr was the best. Everyone's just comically awful, including Jesse. The comedy is really good. But I thought it took a lot longer for Walt to become a total asshole. He's mild-mannered for half the pilot, if that. Oh, and there's a prostitute who showed up to make Howard look awful, it's been that long since I saw the show. It was worth watching Saul even to compare the production differences on both shows. Breaking Bad felt more intense with the camera work, it's showing its budget restrictions, which made it more impressive back then. The comedy from Walt hiding his double life disappears eventually. I'm kinda struggling to be as engaged with it compared to when I first saw it, which is also how I'm struggling to remember how the fuck I watched the show other than illegally since I was past watching network TV when it first aired. Walt's so much more unlikable than Saul, Skyler's so much more boring than Kim. Jesse's the ultimate hero and he nearly got written off entirely. Walt's a product of a bunch of shitty excuses and learns nothing, Saul can say the same but he becomes a man eventually, at the cost of his own freedom.
Oh, and turns out Breaking Bad's just reminding me why I won't touch Six Feet Under again.
I decided to keep going and I'm glad I did, however it's more disjointed to see the drastic differences in interpretations of Saul and Jesse compared to how they were by the end of Saul. Saul's outfits are much more understated, the suits are classic colours but the shirts and ties are more gaudy. He has a more gravely voice rather than high pitched whiny. The tanning lotion's not there but he has a terrible mullet. (Also it's hilarious seeing a very young Hector Salamanca compared to Saul, Fring looks basically the same). I also noticed the cameos Aaron Paul did for Better Call Saul were a weird parody of how Jesse really acted. He really wasn't that emphatic with the thug behaviour, he was very subtle to begin with, this felt like he was just playing it up for fan service now I'm seeing how he used to be.
But Walt's so bad. I forgot how fucking awful and deplorable he is, how you're supposed to defend him stepping on Skyler's boundaries, how he's just unhinged until he has to engage with people like the cops while she's failing to prove he's volatile, I'm sure many an abused wife would be triggered as fuck watching that scene. And I'm sorry, but she did nothing wrong. Stop acting like it was all her fault. Walt chooses to put her in this position, compromises her, and then she compromises herself. The guy she has an affair with is objectively a twit in the end but I always backed her doing it and now even more so for how shitty Walt is. (I know she was fucking dumb for taking the money, I know, but she's not the worst). He apologises but then switches gears. He's such a complicated anti-hero who doesn't learn anything. But him being a "man" and "manning up" is toxic masculinity in motion. He might have a couple of moments where he's catching himself but predominantly he's disgusting and unlikable. He negs Jesse and Skyler, he really goes bad immediately, there's no real gradual transition from meek Walt to malignant Walt. He's hyperfixated on money and power, he's mercurial about going into other territories when Jesse's telling him not to. I forgot people were dying within the first couple of episodes, them being a threat is still such a thin reason for killing them. He has a psychopath's reasoning for this collateral damage. I also forgot about the gym scene where the school mourns over the plane crash and he's diminishing the impact with statistics. There's a reason Jesse becomes the real sympathetic hero and Walt is effectively his nemesis, them having a disjointed father/son relationship is a good dynamic.
Oh, and yeah, Jane died but she was... bad. She does treat Jesse as a pretty disposable option until she realises she can get fuck tonnes of money from him. Walt was absolutely right she was bad for him. Seeing her life outside of it, she's sort of sympathetic until she fucks with Jesse and just introduces him to heroin with barely any encouragement. Jesse's excusably stressed and Jane seems to find a perfect reason to go score and relapse by giving him relief. It made the overdose scene all the more complicated for how she's depicted. She grabs the money and immediately refers to what she can do with it, Jesse's only allowed to come along because he's got the cash but you sense she would totally steal it and bail. So, suddenly Walt's Jesse's saviour but he still defaults to disappointed dad when Jesse fucks up. Meanwhile, Hank grapples with not facing actual PTSD so really he and Walt are two sides of the same toxic masculine coin. He's also a racist idiot who's tolerated by his colleagues because he's a loud, obnoxious white guy. He's so misplaced once he's out of his element.
This is a messy as fuck show, it glorifies nothing. The acting is great. I appreciate we don't spend multiple episodes of Walter just spending the entire time trying to cover himself from everyone, Skyler finds out at a reasonable point in the story, so we can at least spend more time with her grappling with the ethics of defending a criminal while being tempted by the dividends of the crime. I don't know why she wasn't given more credit for actually helping Walt make buttloads more. I don't know if Kim was written to be more sympathetic and tempted by Saul's bad behaviour, like she's the cool, more accepted version of Skyler. I prefer her to Skyler, but I don't hate Skyler. You're not supposed to hate her, so Anna Gunn did not deserve the Joffrey levels of hatred she received. People treat her like some men treat Steven Crowder's wife for not being grateful and wifely enough for ALL their men do for them, even if it's being a total shithead who profits financially from their shitty behaviour. He's doing it for you, lady. You should be grateful. Fuck you.
I'm just watching the bottle episode about the fly, which was supposedly one of the lowest rated but still critically good episodes, and I forgot they reused the "Walt's in a state of sedation and letting info slip" mechanic that revealed his duplicity before. It's less tragic since Jesse misses out on the actual truth but the tension is there, it's not a bad thing necessarily, just a reused mechanic. We only catch Walt in this weird vulnerable moments and they're pivotal it just seems a bit odd to rely on it in terms of Walt dropping his guard in medically induced stupors.
I should add to the stuff about Saul at least, we get to see the famous certificate when Skyler examines it, she decides to meet Saul, but I don't remember him incriminating her when he tells his story about meeting Walt. He's kinda weirdly sexist and condescending to Skyler, he basically butters her up, but as we know she's as smart as Kim, it's not entirely out of character given Kim didn't technically exist at this point, but it would've been a nice moment for him to say something like, you remind me a lot of... and he trails off and changes the subject. I also didn't realise the receptionist shows up more often to be part of their scams, I think we needed to see her grapple more with keeping her job with Saul realising what she was getting herself into after the Sandpiper bullshit. She seemed too nice to be so easily corruptible. He even ended up calling her honey tits and she's jaded enough to put up with it.
I got off my ass to get my laptop just to mention they did the "medicated Walt has a slip of the tongue" thing again when he calls Walt Jr Jesse (and to be fair it's a trope at this point). But the reaction Walt Jr has to Walt being vulnerable for half a minute, that was a tearjerker. Walt's pointlessly a giant mess of paranoia and in heavy denial of the fact. Jesse's failure to poison Fring is so fucking valid, Fring's too fucking smart for Jesse.
Skyler's whole issue with the other guy is a nightmare but she handles it smartly and the twit who doesn't figure it out her generosity. This is all leading up to that horrible moment with the crawlspace, and yes, the optics for her are bad but in defense, Walt's been acting like they have a bottomless pit of cash so how's she meant to know? If anything, it's a commentary on how couples should communicate their personal crimes better. It's not supposed to be an opportunity for wife-bashing. Skyler has cunning, she came off as a nagging, naive wife but she's far too smart for the men who publicly bashed her character online. She stepped up and tried to fix her own problems, it's the fucking dumbass men in her life that keep fucking it up for her. Her plans are solid, she has to endure mansplaining and condescension. She was written to have agency and determination, she's not a fawning sap. Fuck, she's interesting, it's just you want to paint her as the villain to justify misogyny. Shut up.
Ooh another Easter egg popped up. The copper cork with the spikes makes an appearance, too. The guy who played Fring suggested watching Saul first, I'm glad I did for all the little details you can see. So great. And I don't like that shit usually.
I thought maybe I could do a Skyler vs Kim breakdown however that'd take ages to do a compare/contrast. It'd be better to break down Saul and Walt as anti-heroes, only it's clear Saul's the more sympathetic one. Saul's backstory was better illustrated with how his dad was being ripped off and how Charles assumed he was skimming the till. I don't think we absolutely needed flashbacks of Walt's childhood, I don't think we needed to sympathise with him as much as we do Jimmy/Saul. Heck, Gus Fring gets a more sympathetic flashback when his partner's killed. One of his enemy's says "Et tu." I mean that's sick, and he has to drink from a poisoned chalice to win. Walt's problems are all from bloody-minded stupidity. Even him asking Mike not to get mad about Hank sniffing around makes him look like a simp after he goes on about being the one who knocks. He butters up the poor cleaners and gets them deported for cleaning the lab. He's so stupid, and there's a damn reason for that. He's not cool he just does some badass not very dad stuff that made people give him Tyler Durden levels of misappropriated respect. Saul is a badass, yeah he does childish shit right up until the end but he throws it all away just to win back respect of the woman he's likely never going to see again. It's the absolute inverse of Walt's downfall.
Walter White sucks. He's supposed to suck.
Having said all that Todd's the absolute devil in this, he's a pure psychopath, I've never said he wasn't the worst. He's worse than Gus. He's soulless hiding behind a boyish smile. Jesse Plemons really knocks it out of the park, I'd say he and Aaron Paul were easily the best.
Speaking of Aaron Paul, I made it to El Camino. The whole thing took me ten days plus this one, I assumed I'd be watching for easily a month. We get an actual movie quality movie it's not an extended episode. We get to see Mike and Jesse have a moment. I like they gave Vince a chance to do something like this. (I also either forgot or really didn't know Rian Johnson directed a few episodes of BB. - I'm going to abbreviate the other shows from now on). I like we get Skinny Pete and Badger recreating that once scene from 40 Year Old Virgin with Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd dissing one another while playing video games (a scene no movie needs but has anyway). Jesse looking like a fuckin' mountain man at this point was a good look for him. Badger looks older and a lot more cleaned up. I really don't remember much of this movie. There's a six year gap between the finale and this movie coming out, I was dubious about it when it was being mentioned but the trailer set me up. I think Jesse did deserve a proper ending. I guess this is Jesse's odyssey to a better life which can only happen with cash. It's also appropriate Paul looks like he's aged ten years from his ordeal, it's not a stretch. Making him look younger for BCS would've been hard. They've found good ways to incorporate smaller players without it feeling shoehorned.
The town's also hot as fuck and crawling with cops, Jesse has too much to contend with. We get a few "flashback" moments where Jesse's bugged by Todd. (I didn't realise it was an Aryan Nation club, I know they had the tats I missed that specificity). Jesse Plemons probably gets more to do now than before, but boy is he pudgier in this. He's Mr Kirsten Dunst now, so that's something, they're doing their best not to focus on him physically. This is my biggest beef with these types of projects is just the pure lack of continuity when you have consecutive finale/movies that have to draw attention away from the real world timeline. But de-ageing tech and resurrecting dead actors is 1000 times worse.
Todd's character being fleshed out to include a dead maid is really dark and still an awesome way to have him play against Jesse and have their dynamic get more screen time. It wasn't like a rivalry for Walt's attention, Jesse had to kill Todd but they've found a way for us to get a better idea of them as a pair than the show allowed, and makes sense of Jesse's Stockholm Syndrome in terms of not escaping and putting Brock in danger. And having Todd being a mild-mannered Nazi psychopath is really great, he's unflappable compared to Fring, like they tricked us into thinking they couldn't make up any other fucked up characters outside of Fring, Salamanca and the Twins, or even Tucco. Other shows should've paid more attention to BB's ability to really keep a story going forward whilst looking back, I've been watching Titans and you lose entire episodes to character development and backstories that bring the plot to a grinding halt, shitty pacing really fucks with a show. It wasn't much of a gimmick to have the cold opens with the ambiguous shots of a later scene, it was also good about how flashbacks were shot in terms of lighting and tone and aspect ratio. Meanwhile, 13 Reasons Why thinks it can pull the same nonsense using the same techniques and it's embarrassing. Also having Jesse watch his shithead parents on TV acting like it's all his fault reminds us how fucking terrible they were. I agree that putting Jesse in jail would've been a shitty ending for him, I appreciate they didn't do this, and Walt and Saul were punished. That was another thing I neglected about Jesse and Todd, Todd weirdly found ways to look out for Jesse's welfare whenever the Brothers were pushing it with his treatment. Jesse's revenge on the guy who helped weld him to his leash is well played. He also rightfully screws his parents over too, even if he gives them a pass on their parenting skills, the little brother's not the golden child which we discover early on when Jesse takes the blame for a stray joint. There wouldn't have been much to get out of him seeing his little brother by this point, we just know it's lil bro's birthday that's more important for being the safe's combo.
The epilogue with Jane's flashback is fitting, maybe she wasn't as bad, given time they could've fixed one another or themselves on their own. Only one of them had a chance. I liked this more than I remembered. Walt's scene is bittersweet. Nothing feels forced or fanservicey. But that's where I'm signing off, it was all as good if not better than recalled. I wish more people like Vince were around being a good guy with wacky ideas. Far as it goes, we got some good TV that didn't drag on to become bad or stale or overdone. We didn't need 20 seasons of this, but we do of Gray's Anatomy?? Okay.
