Brain Wave #16: ABSOLUTE CINEMA

Brain Wave #16: ABSOLUTE CINEMA

So I took some time off, both from the blog (actually no ideas :P) and my "daily movie watching" thing I have going on this summer, to go back and finish Better Call Saul, which I paused during exams and never came back to lmao. Two things I'd like to say about finishing the show: first off, I kinda managed to take a break before the last four, in my opinion best ending episodes, of the show which was a cool coincidence. Secondly, whatever I am gonna say from the next paragraph onwards will be a huge, very disorganised, mix of personal thoughts and "review" of the show. I am definitely not qualified to review a TV show, but having done lots of research and study on cinema over the years,,,and having had a stupid YouTube channel about movie reviews, kinda gives me a bit of an advantage to make a "review" about it. So yeah, just get ready for a big mess of an essay. Obviously there are gonna be spoilers as well... how could I not?

I've been wanting to watch this show for a while, I knew people who have been watching it while it was coming out, therefore told myself that I would watch it once it finishes. So lately, I have found the time and the drive to watch it, in order to "prepare myself" I decided to watch Breaking Bad just before, to refresh myself on everything, and honestly just rewatch it after a while; trust me watching that show with a more mature mind really amazed me, to summarise this time I really disliked the character of Walter and Jesse, and I mean  I get not liking Walter: as an adolescent one might think he's really cool and hard, but watching his character development now really made me mad, I really thought he was a dick, I get it that you're trying to do this for your family and shit, but the difference between Walter and Heisenberg really hit me, Heisenberg is actually evil that piece of utter shit. Whereas for Jesse, OH MY GOD, yes his character development is great and shit, but I feel like I really cannot put up with such a childish and irresponsible person, I get it, I know and am very aware that it's the whole point, but like really he cannot stand him. Favourite character obviously is Gus, I always liked him, Giancarlo Esposito did an exquisite job and I can never shut up about it. Mike was also really cool in my opinion, I really got his character trait this time, found him real interesting, I'll definitely come back to these two later of course. Finally technically speaking Breaking Bad really excited me, I chose that word because I really enjoyed the late 2000s low budget style, which is literally what it is, and as the production got better the standards really got raised and the real show came out! (crazy how those times are probably now considered "retro" by nowadays kids, just like how my generation thinks of the 90s... am getting old)

So that was a summary... get ready.

Better Call Saul is whatever you saw in Breaking Bad, on crack and with the content taking a leap into the unknown.
You start off the show presenting you Jimmy McGill, a little bastard who tries his hard to make his life half decent while trying to catch onto the little life he's got left, and even that isn't that great. HE DOES NOT change a tad bit. Throughout the 6 seasons of this show this person may seem to change overtime, but that is so not the case: every decision made by him, even if not according to his own opinions, are all affected by the world around him, which by the way is always gonna treat him like shit, no matter what. I'm not gonna stay here telling you the story, but y'know I kinda got to set the scene here. Jimmy loves and will always love Kim, he will always only trust his own decisions and will always feel like him and only him is correct, he cannot bring himself to see someone else's point of view, because he cannot trust it. Charles, it's kind of his fault. But that's simply because Chuck is just like him, he will never bring himself to be convinced by an opposing opinion: everything he believes in is a postulate, and I kind of don't blame him, being a very intelligent man he can be easily drawn to believe that his own thoughts come from absolute truth and correctness. But in both cases they have someone who they trust, Chuck has Howard and Rebecca, but due to his big big ego he will never bring himself to trust them 100%, something in him will always tell him that their opinion will result to be incorrect at some point. Not saying that Jimmy doesn't have as big of an ego, he's just the same as I said, but it's different, simply because Jimmy believes that somehow he has to prove Chuck wrong and to bring him to his sense because of how much negative criticism he has received from him; whereas Chuck always tries to prove to Jimmy that he will never get to his level, that Jimmy will never be able to accomplish his same achievements because of their different pasts and personalities. All of this in hindsight doesn't mean anything, they're different people and what they achieve in their lives is all based on their intrinsic values. but obviously as humans they're trying to keep this brotherly connection between them, to get more involved in each other's lives even though they don't wish that. I personally feel like Jimmy has done a whole lot to prove himself to his brother, did he do it in the right or wrong way? That is totally up to which point of view you're looking at, I feel like Jimmy cannot achieve what Chuck did, but at the same time Chuck could never make it the same way that Jimmy did. I feel like Chuck got too fed up in this silly little "Slippin' Jimmy" world of his, which drove him to... y'know what.
Kim, oh my God the love of my life. Protect that woman at any cost, she is an angel, must be blessed. Ok, on a serious note without talking about my personal love to her hehe, Kim is a character I truly did not expect to come out of this "universe", I feel like she's big part of why the show is the way it is: she is the other side of the coin for everything that Jimmy is about, but obviously this does not mean that she isn't human as well. She always has her problems with Jimmy because of how she's about everything else that he's about, but that's also part of why she loves him as well, other than feeling a sense of responsibility towards him, she also gets to get out of her own bubble whenever she's with him. Take for example every time they go scam people and shit, she's having a blast but of course she can't do that forever. Kim is very caring and very put together towards the people around her and her work, no matter how much her environment tries to kick back, she will give her best effort just to successfully finish whatever her job is, and this workaholic mindset follows her everywhere, which honestly I love because I'm partly like that as well. Rhea Seehorn, fantastic!
Gus! Holy shit, do I even need to say anything?! The guy is just fantastic, more cool ass lore about him?! Give me more!
Mike... alright I got mixed feelings on Mike this time. At the start I thought that his whole storyline, interactions with Jimmy, backstory, and missions were quite cool, BUT those were dragged for way too long in my opinion. Like, I get it that eventually you need to get to his connection with Nacho and the rest of the cartel shit, but really this guy is like 680 years old and he's out here shooting at a whole hit squad by himself without a scratch. Yes I am very aware that this whole show is a prequel and that they're meant to be younger, but how much younger was Mike in this show compared to BB??? I really feel like his whole storyline became quite pretentious after a while, but once he got to work for Gus: we're back on track, this guy really lives up to his standards in the other show, I really feel like his character is quite better put together in Breaking Bad, but that's just my opinion.
Let's get to my favourite character, other than Jimmy and Kim duo, Nacho. Again, this is a new addition to the whole "universe" something I feel we haven't really seen before. Nacho is this kid who doesn't want anything to do with the gangster life, but that's basically the only way for him to get out of a shitty life. He's very independent, even though the Salamancas almost consider him one of their own. Emphasis on the "almost". Nacho is someone they still keep their eyes on, at the end of the day he still works for them, and they know that he hates their guts lmao. But he's a good worker, raised well by his dad that's for sure, but he wants to get out, he doesn't think that it suits him, he doesn't even really like it that much, he just wishes for a quiet life. But being in the position that he's in he can never achieve that, he's stuck with the Salamancas. His way of thinking might not be the smartest one, but at the same time he's not an idiot: he can think for himself, but that's the biggest problem in his life, he's only got himself and nobody else to live for, other than his dad who doesn't wanna hear it though. From start to end he really amazed me, I loved his resilience and his drive to try to do the right thing and get out of the mess his in, chasing his ideal life no matter what.
Lastly, I wanna talk about Lalo. Lalo is a very unexpected character if you ask me. He's pure evil, but again, he's not a complete idiot. This guy will do anything to defend his family's name. He's very charismatic and that's what makes him so interesting, he always manages to pull something off for his evils. He needs to be stealthy and cautious, he will. He need to be bloodthirsty and ruthless, he certainly will. He will be the REAL piece connecting the two plotlines of this show: Jimmy and the cartel, the reason why everything really starts to fall apart, the law and crime don't really go that well together lmao.

This show surely made me feel a lot of emotions: from anger to excitement and from curiosity to pure boredom to be completely honest. But what I feel like really puts this show together the way it is, is the characters. The way the characters interact really makes this show special in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, that's a huge piece of the puzzle for BB as well, but that is also driven by all the plot points and the whole deal with what BB is about. I really feel like I'm not explaining myself that well here lol. But what I'm saying is that for BCS the plot itself is not that complex just like BB, but the way that the characters are built and work with each other, really excels in this one, again not disregarding the previous show, I really feel like they're both absolutely great. But y'know this really made me feel like something deeper was going on, which then obviously traced in the other show with Saul.
In my personal opinion: Jimmy never really became Saul, not to say that he never "played his character" but I'm just saying that he did everything he did as Saul for a reason. The transition was more intentional than natural, In the whole show, even before Saul existed, Jimmy did everything he did NOT for himself, Jimmy barely "lives for himself" he's always trying to do everything he does for the people in his life. Mostly this can be just Kim, but it was for Chuck as well, Jimmy lived for the acceptance of others in their lives, mostly again because of Chuck's criticism and because he wanted to feel like he met people's expectations. Jimmy might not have always went for the most orthodox way of approaching his needs, but at the end of the day he always kept going on for others, which is what made him, him (phrased real bad, no idea how to convey this message...). Unlike Heisenberg, he never actually changed, in the B&W timeline he wants to go back to being Saul, I think, because he just wished to go back to his original life, before he had to flee. He did it for Kim, which is what I try to tell myself towards the end of the show, he tries to push her away from his life because he learnt that by staying with him she will not be better off, which I mean is the reason why Kim wants to leave him (the whole "break up" broke ME are you kidding me?!) but Jimmy wants to emphasise this point and wants the best for Kim, which is trying to give her a normal life, which is what she might actually enjoy. The show ended with Jimmy just demonstrating that, he takes as much time as he can in prison just so he can leave Kim to her life, which will not bring her any more trouble. I am literally about to tear up just thinking about and writing about this, I swear this show is a bitch if you get emotionally moved by shit like this, I swear I love it and hate it at the same time because of this.
Nacho and Mike always made me feel like there was some hope in bringing justice, I am always intrigued by drug stories for some reason, but I feel like this one is better portrayed in BCS from the whole cartel side of things. Duh, that's like THE plot line in the show. But Nacho's resilience throughout the show and Lalo's non-stopping sense of vengeance really turned up this story a notch, because they show how really messed up this whole criminal life can be. And the whole involvement of Jimmy and Kim really amalgamates well together with the whole law side of things. Honestly, all I got in my head at the moment is just whatever I was talking about before lol.

Technically speaking, Holy Jesus, Mary, but not Joseph because he isn't really that Holy. I mean yeah, you got Netflix's production backing you up, but Vince Gilligan just excels at what he does, because y'know,,,he's just HIM. As a cinematography nerd, this show is just so good to watch, I cannot express in words how amazed I have been EVERY single episode, just by how some scenes are shot, the whole set just looks pristine and the camera movement/placement just captures everything in such an impelling way that you cannot blink once. Colours are something that I really liked in this show rather than the previous one. I mean yeah, Saul is a colourful character, his suits are going to look extravagant compared to the formality of the whole show, but even the representations of Chuck's condition and visually representing the character's interactions really just leaves me with my jaw on the floor. I really don't know how to put it in words. And obviously they have to do their thing where they place a camera on a random object that moves linearly as someone is handling it, and the shot somehow looks clean as fuck and really shows you the vigour of the whole scene.
Now, call me crazy all you want all these blog posts I come off as crazy, but I have a weird theory on MANY of the shots in the whole show. This is mainly about Jimmy (he's the main character...) but in a lot of tense and important scenes, where Jimmy is in a situation where an important decision is being taken, or strong opinions are clashing, or even just a situation is taking a significant turn: Jimmy is on the right! I mean this both literally and figuratively, whenever in an important scene Jimmy is right about something, he's in the right side of the screen. Now! I tried to do some research on the show's cinematography, and other than learning that it's stunning, I have not seen anybody talk about this! Whenever Jimmy is right about something, he's in the right of the shot! Now, I say "right about something" that's definitely "subjective", in quotation marks as it sometimes depends on the characters and sometimes on the viewer's opinion, as what is right and what is wrong cannot really be a quantified, determinable, variable: things can obviously go a whole different way. But whenever this happens with Kim, she sometimes is on the right, and this whole thing always becomes so clear with them two, sometimes she is on the right, other times he is. In some situations, the verdict becomes clear. I'd like to add that personally I noticed this quite early in the show, when Jimmy first decides not to take his job from Cliff, he's in the right of the shot looking at the sky, probably symbolising how Jimmy is on the right for not taking that job and looking for other chances. I don't know I haven't been in an English class in like 4 years... But this must be a thing, I swear. So because of that I just started noticing it throughout the whole show. Even up until the last scenes where Jimmy appears on the right, behind the jail's fence and Kim not on the right for being outside of jail: Jimmy did the right thing for her. I'm again about to cry, I cannot stop thinking about this.

But yeah, I finished the show 2 days ago and thought that having the whole thing ferment in my mind overtime would help me to write, as a lot of the things I thought beforehand for once,,, I honestly I loved it so much, for some reason I am not like obsessing over it and loving it so hard that it's always in my mind, which I am honestly surprised, because that's what usually what happens whenever I enjoy something this much. It might just be because I took a while to watch it, I just processed it quite well in my opinion, it was a bit longer and it lives in like the back of my mind lmao, I don't really know how to explain (anything).
Honestly, if you read all this you might be insane? I'm literally just yapping about a TV show, and I know I always say this, but this time it's for real, I didn't really expect anything on the length, but it is a lot to digest. But all this makes sense in my head, so easy job for me hehe. Watch Better Call Saul, life changing type shit.

Good bai for now, poposwag.