by Robbie Jones
Praise the Lord! Whilst this week’s episode of Better Call Saul may have adopted Homeland Season Four’s weird habit of “Episode named after random quote from episode that has absolutely no relevance”, it has improved greatly since last week’s dud episode. This week’s strengths include its humour and the chemistry of its cast, but most notably, the improved pace.
Praise the Lord! Whilst this week’s episode of Better Call Saul may have adopted Homeland Season Four’s weird habit of “Episode named after random quote from episode that has absolutely no relevance”, it has improved greatly since last week’s dud episode. This week’s strengths include its humour and the chemistry of its cast, but most notably, the improved pace.
The problem with Better Call Saul so far has easily been the pace; all the components for a great TV show have been there, but have been unrecognisable due to the fact the show was moving at the speed of a snail. This week’s episode was a lot faster, appropriately, and everything finally went smoothly. You know when you’re on Netflix and you accidentally jog your mouse and the bar comes up at the bottom telling you much how longer is left? Well, now when that happens, you won’t be saying “Oh my God, is this still on?” when you see the time, but rather “Oh my God, is this almost finished?” which is great because now we’re finally wanting more, we’re finally being teased and much like Breaking Bad, we’re hanging on, hoping for just a few more minutes. The best thing about this, and the way you can tell it’s so effective, is that not much actually happens in this episode. It’s mostly just a lot of talking this week, and where previous weeks have had much more exciting events, only this week has it been gripping.
“The Alpine Shepherd Boy” is the funniest episode we’ve had so far, and subtly so; it’s contained in scenes that don’t seem important or feel like filler. Towards the beginning, we see Jimmy talking to several clients: A rich Texan wanting to make his land a sovereign state, a very slow elderly lady sorting out her will, and a guy who’s invented a majorly sexual potty training device, and each segment is hilarious. There’s no big jokes, just small gags that elicit a big laugh. Bob Odenkirk’s face when he’s handed dollar bills with the Texan’s face on them, or his face when he’s listening to the toilet talk is just priceless. It’s humour like this that the show needs to keep up.
“The Alpine Shepherd Boy” is the funniest episode we’ve had so far, and subtly so; it’s contained in scenes that don’t seem important or feel like filler. Towards the beginning, we see Jimmy talking to several clients: A rich Texan wanting to make his land a sovereign state, a very slow elderly lady sorting out her will, and a guy who’s invented a majorly sexual potty training device, and each segment is hilarious. There’s no big jokes, just small gags that elicit a big laugh. Bob Odenkirk’s face when he’s handed dollar bills with the Texan’s face on them, or his face when he’s listening to the toilet talk is just priceless. It’s humour like this that the show needs to keep up.
It also excelled in chemistry this week. Jimmy and Chuck (Whom the episode centres around) really feel like brothers in this episode, and there’s that feeling of concern for Chuck when Jimmy must decide whether to put him in therapy or not. He doesn’t show concern for his well being perhaps, but for his brother’s wishes, and is ignoring the right thing to do so as not to upset him. Also, the chemistry between Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn is fantastic as well. It’s pretty obvious that these two are going to end up together, or at least that there’s something there to play/tease with, and the way these two actors work off each other just makes you root for that to happen. That scene towards the beginning where he’s painting Kim’s toes is a perfect example; they share a laugh, she jokingly moans for painting her skin, they talk seriously about their careers for a second, all of that in about three minutes. You just know they would work as a couple and if the show is setting it up, then they’re doing a very good job of it by getting viewers on board early.
Finally, we were left with an interesting cliffhanger as Mike waited outside the home of some woman, and was then met at his own door by police. What’s going on there? Could this be the mother of his granddaughter? Whilst the relationship between him and his granddaughter in Breaking Bad was lovely, you could tell there was some kind of friction with the other relatives. Hopefully Mike’s story will be as interesting as we’re expecting it to be.
So overall, this week’s episode finally reached its potential, with great performances, humour, camera work (The shaky cam shot of the hospital light from Chuck’s point of view was fantastic; it made the scenes very scary and uncomfortable) and an interesting cliffhanger. Roll on next week!
Finally, we were left with an interesting cliffhanger as Mike waited outside the home of some woman, and was then met at his own door by police. What’s going on there? Could this be the mother of his granddaughter? Whilst the relationship between him and his granddaughter in Breaking Bad was lovely, you could tell there was some kind of friction with the other relatives. Hopefully Mike’s story will be as interesting as we’re expecting it to be.
So overall, this week’s episode finally reached its potential, with great performances, humour, camera work (The shaky cam shot of the hospital light from Chuck’s point of view was fantastic; it made the scenes very scary and uncomfortable) and an interesting cliffhanger. Roll on next week!
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