Better Call Saul

Couldn't Jim just say he said all that crap to make Chuck feel better?

I think, or at least hope, that the solution won't be so easy.

That's probably what Jimmy will say. But if Ernesto or the clerk crack, then Jimmy is screwed.

Chuck wasn't just randomly crazy, he was just undergoing a bad case of Nocebo effect called Electrosensitivity.

The show could have acknowledged that his issue is a thing that happens to other people. Instead, they presented him as a freak. Not cool.

"Randomly crazy?" "A freak?" That's an extremely bizarre characterization of Chuck, who I always thought was a great example of how to have a character with a mental illness (in this case a psychosomatic illness) without basically treating them like a nonperson. Or in the case of someone like the Joker, making them just an evil person who laughs a lot and calling them "crazy" and "insane" all the time.

Very often those seem to be the only two options. But Chuck? He's an extremely competent lawyer with a passion for the law and a hidden petty side where his brother his concerned, who unrelatedly suffers from a condition that makes him believe he has a hypersensitivity to electricity. Is the only thing that made him appear as "a freak" the fact that other people with the same condition weren't mentioned?

I'm pretty sure that the first season did more, albeit subtly and in passing, to show that Chuck wasn't the only person in the world dealing with this. He'd occasionally mention something new that had been discovered about the condition or new advances or ways to deal with it.

Of course, the first season also definitely showed that it was psychosomatic instead of a physical condition when Chuck went to the hospital and the doctor showed that Chuck didn't react to a piece of equipment that was left on while all the other stuff in the room was turned off, but that aligns with the general medical opinion in the real world.

Finished watching 2nd season a few days ago. I kept asking myself why didn't they just tell Chuck his condition is just psychosomatic. I was expecting Jimmy to reveal it in many situations. What could happen?

What bothered me most is how the revelation that Chuck's condition is nocebo appears to have been forgotten; characters still respect the rituals enforced by Chuck, even when he isn't looking (for instance, grounding themselves before entering Chuck's house), why so? Retcon ?

Because Chuck won't believe its psychosomatic. He has been informed and won't listen.

Chuck's the equivalent of an anti-vaxxer who is convinced they know what's really going on and what the science really is.

Season 3 just premiered, and it looks like Chuck is planning something to ruin his brother more complex than simply outsting him.

Also if there is a purgatory, it's apparently working at Cinnabon. I wonder why they agreed to lend their likeness when it's consistently portrayed as Jimmy/Saul's personal hell. The collapse. Was it stress? A heart condition?

edited 11th Apr '17 7:47:42 AM by Beatman1

Cinnabon seems almost incidental-just a quiet, dead end job like so many others-and, well, no such thing as bad publicity. I think the collapse was a combo of stress and shock-after spending so much time carefully cultivating this life beneath notice, Saul could not help himself and old habits bled through, creating a scene right there in front of the police.

Honestly, I know this show is ostensibly about how we get Saul from Jimmy, but I cannot be the only one who finds Mike's journey the most interesting part of the show right now.

We seriously spent half this goddamn episode on Mike discovering his car was bugged, and then replacing the bug with another bug so he can trace the folks who traced him.

Half an episode of Mike disassembling his car, ordering a part of the black market, and then staring at his vehicle.

I think yes, you can absolutely be the only person who, after this specific episode, finds Mike the most engaging part of the show.

I seem to have forgotten to put in humor mode...that said, I did find what Mike was doing to be more interesting than Jimmy the first half of last season. While Odenkirk was fine, I think his work at the firm and finding out where he fit started to drag around the time the excrement hit the fan for Mike. Different strokes and all, I find Mike's work more interesting atm; I kinda-sorta stand by that.

edited 12th Apr '17 7:03:51 AM by ViperMagnum357

Chuck's spiteful planning is the most interesting thing in the show right now to me personally.

Chuck's master plan, get Jimmy to destroy the tape in the presence of witnesses, turning something that could be dismissed into viable evidence.

God I hate Chuck.

After this episode, I am feeling that we are going to get a trial where Jimmy is able to emerge generally unscathed, and be left with a decision: Let Chuck and HHM off relatively easily with some egg on their faces by playing by the book, or take a big risk to burn Chuck personally. And he will take it, demolishing Chuck, but also inflicting a lot of unnecessary damage to himself, Kim, and HHM.

Yeah, I can definitely see that happening.

I kinda feel bad for Howard. The poor guy is just trying to run his law firm and keeps getting caught up in this insane feud between the Mc Gill brothers.

He did almost seem like an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, just from bumbling around through the back yards. Though... from reading through the tropes (my actual memory of last season is fuzzy), he's not entirely innocent either- he apparently manipulated/cajoled Chuck into "poaching" Mesa Verde back from Kim by making it seem like Jimmy was more involved in that than he was. Yeah, trying to retain your clients is part of "running your firm", but this escalating war is partly his fault. Apparently. I could stand to watch the rest of the show again.

I bet this arrest is going to be the event that creates Saul.

It seems that way.

Chuck's whole plan seems to be to disbar Jimmy so he can lord his professional and moral superiority over Jimmy. The fact that it's going to trial is going to cement why Jimmy has to become Saul.

It's funny to me that two mentally unstable video game antagonists - Vaas Montenegro and Trevor Phillips from GTAV - end up with their voice/motion capture actors portraying two violent characters in both Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead respectively.

Steven Ogg (Trevor) is on Better Call Saul too. Mike beat him up in episode 9 of season 1.

(and wait, wasn't Trevor one of the three protagonists of that game?)

edited 28th Apr '17 5:15:55 PM by StateOfBedlam

I'd argue that depending on whether or not you side with Trevor, or play the story mainly through Michael's perspective, that Trevor is effectively the antagonist, albeit a lesser one.

Also, yeah, I forgot Steven Ogg was that bounty hunter who Mike humiliated.

Alright, now I am convinced that Kim is going to be taking the heat for Jimmy and wind up disbarred for something he does. Also, am loving every scene with Jonathan Banks-that split cut in Chuck's house was perfect.