Better Call Saul: Why Vince Gilligan Made Committing Crimes Boring and Hard
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ค. 2024
- Con artists, kingpins, and criminals fill the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul universe. Saul Goodman, Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and most of the rest of the cast take on roles normally filled by antagonists and villains, but they don’t act like it. They aren’t often crazy, violent, or impulsive. They spend most of their time discussing logistics or thinking quietly in run-down strip malls and cramped vehicles. And, you watch them do it. These shows capture the process of committing a crime; that process is long and sometimes slow. But, don’t mistake slow for uninteresting. Hard work is hard to hate, and hard to look away from.
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#BetterCallSaul #BreakingBad #VinceGilligan
TIMECODES
0:00 Vince Gilligan Wants Criminals to Clean After Themselves
4:13 Part 1: From Mr. Chips to Scarface
7:31 Part 2: Charlie Hustle’s Hard Times
11:57 Part 2.5: Crimes With Known Outcomes
14:02 A Long Bus Ride to Coushatta
16:24 Hard Work is Hard to Hate and Easy to Watch
17:56 Thank You
Note: While I use Vince Gilligan’s name as shorthand in this video, it should be noted that Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were written, directed, edited, and produced by a very large team of incredibly talented people. This includes but is not limited to the creator of the Saul character, Peter Gould. Unfortunately, I can’t include all of these individuals in a 100-character TH-cam title, but I would if I could.
MUSIC
Main Theme - Red Dead Redemption 2
Thorofare Hike - Firewatch
End Credits Theme #4 - Red Dead Redemption 2
Whirling-in-Rags, 8am - Disco Elysium
The Disaster - Red Dead Redemption 2
BONUS
While pulling clips for this video, I discovered some other video essays on Better Call Saul with topics similar to this one. If you would like some further reading/watching on just how well crafted the Gilligan/Gould verse can be, consider checking out these other, awesome videos:
OneTake: Better Call Saul: The Importance of Detail: • Better Call Saul: The ...
Thomas Flight: How Vince Gilligan Crafted El Camino and Breaking Bad: • How Vince Gilligan Cra... - บันเทิง
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There is nothing boring about chicken slow cooked to perfection seasoned with only the finest herbs and spices.
Welp this says what I was thinking better than what I had in mind
delicious, but don't forget the signature spice curls.
I really debated dedicating another whole section of the video to that montage. What other show covers transportation logistics in that much depth?
One taste... and you'll know
But it is criminal.... criminally delish!
Did you know that Vince Gilligan actually committed all the crimes himself to research for the script? Pure genius.
Bravo Vince.
He defecated through a sunroof!
god this joke is still aggressively unfunny
@@boonsaplenty3924 kid named finger:
@@boonsaplenty3924 this is the exact moment when this comment became heisenberg
I like how they kind of make crimes boring. It’s a more realistic take on crime. It’s not all crazy exciting shootouts. It also helps show how they get away with a lot of these crimes. In BrBa they don’t just kill someone and leave the body like you see in other media, they extensively clean up the crime scene so there’s no evidence.
Ah yes, very realistic. I remember that time I robbed a bank, it was like being in the rain running with your loved one.
@@thehoodedvagabum7375 tf you on about? lmao. They just said that it's a realistic depiction of how crime is REALLY handled (with the exception of some scenes being exaggerated)
@@thehoodedvagabum7375 Nobody robs a bank in either series wtf are you talking about
This 👍
There is no way you abbreviated Breaking Bad to BrBa😂😂😂 it takes just as much effort
one of my favorite scenes across both shows is in Better Call Saul, where Mike is in Mexico and his cell phone battery is dead. He starts trying to jerry rig a charger out of stray electrical parts and it seems like it's going to be another one of those minutes-long montage scenes. And then someone just ... hands him a phone charger. It was such a small throwaway joke but it's maybe the hardest I've laughed in the whole show
I like the part where Mike deconstructs his car looking for a tracker before he realizes to check the fuel cap.
Some of the best parts were the "boring" parts like Mike tightening up security at Madrigal warehouse or Nacho practicing throwing the pills to the jacket or Gus cleaning and cooking or other things.
I loved each of those bits! I went with the bus example because it was the longest and I had the best footage for it, but those are all winners.
@@TrackingShots I also loved Walt building his pipe bomb out of freezer packs and baby monitor, as well as Mike sitting on a stakeout at Los Pollos in season 3 while watching with binoculars through the rear view mirror, and the part of Mike taking apart his car to find the bug as well as Mike putting the tracker on the car of the men tracking him, effectively turning himself from the hunted into the hunter, was just plain awesome.
@@quicklyform5162 haha that's awesome man. I actually found myself dressing like Mike often. Slacks and a tucked in collared shirt with my black windbreaker jacket.
best? i agree they werent borning scenes, but "best"? calm down buddy lol
@@Yambag smell my farts
it's amazing how at the beginning of BCS, we all wanted to see Saul Goodman, and with the final episode coming soon, the writers have told the story such that we all just want Jimmy back
I think the cut to Saul at the end of episode 9 is my favorite moment in the series. What an amazing way to finally give the audience what they think they want.
Nah ion want jimmy back. Saul ftw baby
I love jimmy
Jimmy is boring. I prefer Saul
@@RikiJasmin bro just didn't watch this video
it's important to know that Better call Saul was primarily ran by Peter Gould, the showrunner. Vince stepped back his role on the show in season 2 and only returned for the sixth season.
So all of the talk of Vince is fine. But seriously, give Peter some credit
Bravo Vince!
Bravo Vin- uhhh, Peter!
Everyone wants to give credit to "Bravo" Vince Gilligan but not enough people give credit to Peter "The Other One" Gould
vravo bince
it is true, he's even credited in creating the character. i've been listening the bcs insider podcast and it's astonishing to hear how much effort went into creating this series, and yeah even though vince is in most episodes, you can clearly hear peter talk way more about the character.
0:58 the way he said los pollos genuinely took every fiber of my being to not click off immediately.
Essentially the writers realized they couldn’t get tension out of Saul or Mike’s ultimate fates… so they decided to create tension in the smaller moments where the audience isn’t sure what they’re doing or why, but knows that SOMETHING’S up.
I just thought they have a problem with exposition, you can have a character just explain what they're doing or feeling like most shows(not always realistic, why are they explaining it?) or you can just show them going thru the process, or show how they are feeling through action(might come across as boring, or the viewer might just not get it)
@@keithmichael112 I think both reasons might be true. The show’s dialogue does often have a naturalistic feeling to it, and I agree that more obvious exposition would disrupt this. But I also think they want the audience to feel like that one cat picture sometimes too. “What they doin ova der?”
I feel like the next spinoff will be a Mike prologue tho. EIther him or Gus. They're just gonna keep digging back in history, and both of those two have an incredibly complicated backstory that from the sound of it would make for classic (maybe even *too* classic) television.
@@jonathanbeatrice8317 either way his ride's gonna end. Jimmy now has motive to kill Kim tho, and Kim has not reported him being alive so there's still an out if he keeps her from testifying. Speaking of which, Kim and Howard's wife now have a testimony implicating people across a range of international murderous syndicates. Unless they get everyone up to the fucking UN involved, both of them are basically marked for death by a whole bunch of dangerous people.
I mean sure a lot of the shotcallers in that document are dead, but it's still probable cause for the cops to start raiding those groups left and right. I bet that's how they're gonna search that bunker lab and find Howard's body, too.
I remember really feeling the payoff of Gus' death so much, that I was initially shocked upon watching him walk out of Salamanca's room, only to reveal his face having been ripped off. For a moment I was caught thinking "no way he survived that," before the camera pans to his face. It's like Vince knew people would panic about the aspect of Gus surviving after so much work, so he played with us for a moment.
Same
They kinda pushed the "realism" aspect with that scene, but it was so perfectly done that I can accept the spectacle.
@@johnchedsey1306 I feel like a character like Gus deserved some spectacle, even at the cost of realism. While seeing his mangled body would have been "more realistic" I love the scene we got.
@pyropulse nigga why did you censor dumbest this isn't grade school lmao
@pyropulse the show was never very realistic. Gus was pretty much omnipotent from the very start and Mike was an unkillable super assassin. Plus the Salamanca twins were basically comic book characters with the way they walked in unison and never spoke. The chemistry was the only realistic part of the show.
The slow scenes do such a good job of showing us how much effort the characters are putting into what they're doing. A lot of shows tell you a character did something crazy and cool and hard, but we only see the final result, and it kinda feels like they didn't really do anything at all
Yeah, I'm remembering the ending of Death Note where both characters are pulling out their crazy plan and one includes doctoring an entire book by hand and we're just told the character "did it all in one night." Like wow, wish I would've actually got to see how that was done because it kind of sounds impossible and stupid.
Yea tht happened with burn notice for me. Like yea Michael Weston can make a bomb but how does he make the bomb? U knw what I mean
@@Jayphil1 lol
Bad writing is when you plot out events that must happen and the presence of characters are just coincidental to give cause for the already plotted effects. Good writing takes characters and through them causing the plot to happen.
you only see the crazy and the cool, never the hard
Loved that when you talked about everyone having normal names, you listed Mike as 'Finger' haha
5:00
Perfectly normal name in the land of chicanery
Honestly one of my favourite episodes is when Walt is installing a water heater
There’s rot, Skyler. Rot!
You did neglect to mention one or the best parts of BCS... they made us care about several new characters who's whereabouts was unknown in BB... Nacho, Kim, Chuck & Lalo, which made up for the lack of mystery about the BB characters.
wdym? howard and lalo were in breaking bad
@@beatman2359 yeah, they appear in all lab scenes
@@hdmi8586 yall made me think for a minute lmaooo
Yeah, I think the fact that most, but not all, of the important characters are people for whom you know what the future holds, makes the ones where you don't stick out like a sore thumb. Like I'm gonna be even more tense during a Nacho scene than even some of the intense parts of Breaking Bad, since I'm extra conscious of the fact that nothing is guaranteed
@@beatman2359 GODDAMMIT
The fact that they make cooking meth and making more than I will ever see in my life seem like a bland 9-5 situation is genius
Kinda like the Sopranos where yeah there's some exciting scenes but it's treated like a 9-5 where you hang out with your buddies and go to therapy because of the fucking reguarlness of life
@@chrisd2051real crime is boring, yo
I like how Fred Whalen's murder was investigated. He wasn't just forgotten.
Same thing with the kid from Breaking Bad.
@@jameson32 kid named finger
@@comrade_boi9941 as soon I saw the word kid I knew someone was gonna comment this lmao
@@comrade_boi9941 Teacher: Today we're going to murder Drew Sharp in cold blood.
Kid named Drew Sharp: '_'
The scene I remember the most was Mike dismantling an entire car to find a tracker. And the show took its time showing the steps.
mostly cuz of the badass song they chose for it
Mine was Mike just walking around with a metal detector. The way he clones himself was kinda fun for some reason.
So much of what i love about the Vince Gilligan universe is exemplified in Mike. Just in the way he approaches crime (taking a brown bag to a gang meet because he researched Nacho and knew it wouldn't be violent, buying a replacement for the tracker in his gas cap and reading the manual to make sure it works, ect). He treats crime like its a blue collar job; like he went to crime technical school and got his crime certification lol.
I mean he did vis a vie the police academy where I'm assuming criminology is a subject taught and also I think it's either explicitly stated or hinted at that Mike was in the service so he's used to reading manuals over and over to get it right.
these "boring" scenes really do a good job of making the world and characters portrayed feel real.
It's a weird middle ground for me, usually in a show you just wanna see the juicy scenes but Vince's work I could watch a whole season on Walter doing groceries. Only watched a bit of BCS and my favorite episode so far is where Mike spends most of an episode take apart a car to find a tracker. He's so in-depth with the search it's almost satisfying
Better call saul is amazing, on par with breaking bad. Season 6 has blown me away with everything it has to offer. You should definitely continue watching.
bcs is the greatest piece of television ever. watch it all!
these scenes put us inside the world. they do what Raymond Carver did and take the mundane and make it beautiful. it's such a talent.
Yes, exactly. They make the mundane beautiful and visually interesting.
Would you please be quiet, please?
The "kid named finger"-blip was making me exhale through my nose, well played sir
These scenes are what keeps us in the universe. There's no cutting corners, Vince shows instead of tells. There's no cop out 'oh come on' strokes of luck that break immersion. Events and outcomes come from the characters meticulous work and we're along for 100% of that work which is part of what makes these shows so incredible
I would argue they occasionally include cop out options, but the protagonists only take those options when the audience is supposed to feel isolated from them. For instance, I feel like the "Gliding Over All" Breaking Bad episode (5x8) shows a very overconfident Walter who is using others to complete his dirty work. He uses Jack's crew instead of figuring out a more creative, less violent solution just as the audience is supposed to really start disliking Walt for killing Mike needlessly.
There were tons of lucky moments and close calls, wdym?
Worth noting that seeing all this legwork also helps to prop up the guys you DON’T see the legwork for.
Gus seems like such a big deal in the drug trade because we’ve seen what Walt had to do to get where he is, but Gus has such an advanced operation that you can only imagine the steps he had to take
I was very invested in jimmy defending that vet who was gonne get his house torn down
I didn’t expect so much banking and elder law when I started Better Call Saul last month, and I certainly didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.
Bare genitals!!!!
*Y U P*
@ Felix: And remember: Kim put him up to it.
“Yup”
"IIIII'M DOOOOON WAAACCHHTEEELLLL."
minor thing but Peter Gould deserves his flowers too considering he’s been the show runner behind bcs
I agree. That’s probably my biggest regret with how the final edit came together. I did mention him in the description and I would refer to “Vince and the team” but that probably wasn’t suffice. He does make a brief cameo in some comic con footage in the back half of the video, but again, probably could have mentioned him more.
@@TrackingShots all good man, just a small thing that most ppl don’t even draw attention to anyways I wouldn’t hold it against you
I appreciate it. I’m glad someone else thinks of the writers behind the creator! I originally was going to do a whole bit on the individual guest directors and what they brought to both series, but that would have doubled the length of the video, and I wanted to release it before the finale.
@@daggy5505 LOL or 's all good, man.
Not only is he the showrunner, he created Saul Goodman's character.
One thing that I liked about season 1 that never appeared after that was the detective work Jimmy put in several times, like when he found the Kettlemans and when he found out about Chuck's secret betrayals, and of course the Sandpiper case he finds. They also didn't tell us right away what clues he caught, but we saw the next steps.
I find it interesting that they dropped that aspect in season 2, I guess it didn't work with the story after that point.
Edit: Not that I'm complaining either, the scheme setups are really the show's bread and butter.
I think some of these scenes are some of the most beautifully shot. Like, that one eagle eye view in El Camino where Jesse is tearing apart Todd’s apartment still gives me chills
Better Call Saul feels like a universe ending with the black and white setting.Like a comic combining to the void, like a story of 80s coming to end
It’s certainly a particular v i b e
The thing i love most about it all is how it doesn't spell out what you're seeing, or why people are doing what they're doing. It demands a level of attention, even, or sometimes expecially in it's quieter moments, that most other shows would just fill with mindnumbing exposition, spoon feeding the audience every plot beat like they're toddlers. When a scheme comes together in the end, and you've sat there without a clue for half of it and yet saw every detail of it. Thats why i love it.
Like Lalo going "What's he up to man, what's he doing?". That was hilarious, but also almost a fourth wall break given how the Series works overall.
I loved the cleaning scenes. I always watch shows thinking about the mistakes criminals make “o you left the box open, you left your finger prints, someone’s going to see you on camera” and breaking bad does amazing job of letting their crimes be realistic making their getaways be satisfying. You not left thinking this is the stupidest police force why don’t they just blank, you can enjoy the fact that there good at what they do
the characters are always so smart, even if clumsy. or at least the ones who get away with it are. its so satisfying and makes you root for them so much more
Let’s be fr though the dea in brba is mentally disabled. Gus frings operation was unknown completely. He would be hard to catch no doubt but there isn’t a world where this man is meeting and calling known drug traffickers and not being on the radar. Him being unknown is super unrealistic
My favorite example of this is in bcs when mike is sitting down on his sofa, watching black and white television, and sticking nails through a hose. It’s so incredibly mundane and yet later the hose proves to be part of a totally genius plan. I love it. Vince shows all the little boring bits and pieces of these characters and it makes the feel so fucking real.
I just saw this in BCS and it reminded me of all the scenes that are like that in BB…it honestly gives me a ASMR vibe. I feel laid back seeing these characters just…doing stuff lol there’s something relaxing about those scenes and Vince knew what he was doing
That Jonathan Banks Breaking Bad compilation is one of the best things to sleep to
@@fulgore5431 lol SAME! Feels very much on purpose, like they crafted the scenes around that idea
lofi hip hop radio - Banks to relax/murder to?
Hi. Im from Switzerland. What stands for "ASMR"?
@@mr.fuckyourfeelings5558 Here is the google definition lol "Autonomic sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that some people experience when exposed to particular types of auditory or visual stimuli such as whispering, tapping and slow movements." If you go on TH-cam, it's a HUGE category, and honestly I use to watch those videos to fall asleep lol
5:01 Thank you for Finger. That caught me off guard
The idea for that joke is one of the main reasons I decided to make this video.
@@TrackingShots honestly it made me sub. Good shit man. Good shit.
@@TrackingShots THAT GOT ME HAHA
@@TrackingShots Why is Mike 'Finger'? I don't get that reference.
I'm with ya man, I'm not ready for the BB/BCS universe to come to an end. Shows like these don't out every year.
I think AMC said that it was interested in creating more BB/BCS spin-offs.
@@CancerGaming56 I think VERY recently that either Vince Gilligan and/or Bob Odenkirk said that wasn't going to be anymore spin-offs.
@@michaelhowell2326 RIP I guess. Well there’s always the masterpiece called “Slippin’ Jimmy”.
I think a big part of why they make these 'cleaning' scenes so detailed (aside from the general accuracy in the show) is part of their intention of not romanticizing organized crime. They want the audience to understand that maintaining that lifestyle is really hard and costly (both financially and emotionally), and you have a be meticulous to a paranoid degree or else things end up badly for you.
Excellent analysis - this is one of the first videos I've seen that gets close to what I personally consider the engine of these two series: the commitment to a slow, obsessively thorough buildup in order to make the payoff all the more powerful. BB and BCS might be the two strongest, most coherent narrative shows in the last twenty years - almost no plot holes or loose ends, almost every shot in service of a bigger arc... Can't wait for next Monday, but I also wish it would never come!
I’m going to bawl my eyes out when it ends.
Update: I did.
@@TrackingShots 😭
You can think of it a lot like music. When I've worked with professional composers, one of the big things that is discussed a lot is about "earning" the big moment of a piece of music. You can't just make an entire track epic and amazing, it has to work to it. It has to be earned to really be epic and have staying power for the listener. You build to it. You establish the theme, you express the theme a few different ways. You build a little, you break it down again, and you build again to a climax. You really bring the listener on your journey to that big moment you had in your head when you started. You, the composer, already know that's the part you wanted them to love. But to get a listener to come with you, you have to take them on that journey in pieces, so they can really appreciate the big moment.
Love that analogy!
I love the scene with Mike watching with Jesse and Jesse being impatient.
Mike: “sorry kid, watchin is most of the job. It’s ok… *biggest smile Mike has ever had* I made sandwiches with pimento cheese!”
I like how there is real life consequences as well for everything they all done. Nobody got away with the crap they pulled. Kinda the opposite to the series called “Power” when Ghost and Tommy go around killing people like there is no tomorrow and never seems to be any consequences, I know things never ended well for Ghost but it still wasn’t the law that got him
jesse got away as far as we know
@@golem3080 the one guy out of how many? and he has to look over his shoulder for rest of life so define “got away”
That's why I like there being a season after his death. Everything it took to get there should and does have massive consequences, making walt's atrocities actually feel real
@@oogs9114 jessie's arc is soo sad dude, and it made me appreciate skinny pete and badger even more. Theyre the epitome of bros.
So sad this universe is coming to an end… been such an awesome ride
Who knows, there could be another spinoff.
@@Skrenja Gotta Fuel Huell, Sprinkler-Seller Wexler, etc
@@Decentricity A Heull sitcom would be great.
Invisibhuell when?
We could get "Fixing Finn" a show about an IT guy with Cerebal Palsey, or maybe "Curious Kaylee" about a PI looking for for her missing pop pop. Maybe even "Brock's Bounty" about a young man whose mother was brutally murdered and now he bounty hunts the most evil of people for revenge.
A story that I can’t readily predict is always fascinating
I agree! Can’t wait for Monday’s finale.
"Do you remember how Gus Fring managed a restaurant?"
Yes. That's one of the great parts of that character. That he's fastidious and professional in everything and that's one of the reasons why he's so successful. Does anyone NOT remember this about him?
5:02 That “finger” thing made me laugh so damn hard
I saw a comment someone posted on another video saying that their parents started BCS and then went onto BRBA. The fact you can start on either show without any consistencies shows how carefully Vince constructed the BRBA Franchise.
Except the characters age wrong, but that can't be helped
Both shows are a showcase in hyper-competent characters. Generally, we love seeing people do things well (just look at how many videos on this website are about people being really good at some specific field). The process is 100% the point, and even if there isn't a chance for dangerous failure, the how becomes interesting to watch just by virtue of how good the characters are at doing it.
I want a Mike Ehrmantraut DIY TH-cam channel.
I want to know what will happen to Lyle. Dude was fiercely loyal to Gus at the restaurant even though Gus almost set him up to be killed
The thing I always say about BB or BCS is that you can’t “watch” the shows while doing other things- like folding laundry, ironing, or house-cleaning. You have to WATCH it and give it your complete attention. Otherwise, you miss very important things.
I get so much more out of a story if the writer actually shows me how the characters live. Mundanity matters.
It's something so simple that is easy to overlook when making a character but very umpactful for the audience.
This is probably shallow of me, but - when someone says they find BB or BCS “too slow”, I always imagine that they must like to watch the most frenetic, colourful, overly-high-energy shows ever created, haha. Either that or the fairly mindless superhero stuff. For me, the “big payoff” moments in any show don’t really have the same weight if there isn’t some slow moments and character building/development that happens in the meantime. The action starts to be meaningless when it’s ALL action, all the time. I feel like the BB writers understood the value of buildup and payoff so well.
Definitely. I'm pretty sure Vince and Gould said they envisioned the Bagman episode when creating the series, but wanted to lay the groundwork first. 4 full seasons and 7 other episodes to get there. Just shows the strength of their vision, and their restraint in service of the full story.
Let me tell you, I’ve sat through a lot of Blue Bloods episodes and other procedurals at older relatives’ houses. THOSE are the kind of shows I picture the average Joe watching and not getting bored with. BCS doesn’t wrap up each episode in a gunfight/standoff/chase so I guess that makes it boring to some people.
BB/BCS always felt like a spaghetti western to me, as did films like No Country For Old Men... Long drawn out scenes with no dialogue with focus cinematography, closeups and good locations. People find those movies slow for the same reason, but they both do a great job in immersing you into the atmosphere and ambiance of the world within the film. Real life is slow, and I feel you can learn more about and feel more connected to a character when you see them in those slow moments doing relatively mundane things, like you would in real life. In 'Taxi Driver' you watch a guy exercising, eating junkfood, talking to himself in the mirror and ranting away but it's one of the most powerful scenes in the film, even though it involves something we all do. Someone who is a non-stop action hero with never ending one liners just feels completely detached from reality, but I guess it depends what you're looking for.
This explains why I still remember some of the best scenes in both shows and why I don't remember other major scenes in other movies or shows
Quality content like this is what we all need right now as we brace for the inevitable heartbreak after the finale of Better Call Saul effectively ending the 14-year run of the Breaking Bad universe.
Great video you put together and I LOVE the music (RDR2 and Disco).
I think what makes the scenes that would normally be boring is just overall editing choices and the creative cinematography choices that make these scenes appear more interesting
true, even scenes after shit already went down like AHEM a certain one halfway through season 6 of bcs are made more interesting through the visual parallels and other cool imagery they threw around a lot. in just a 3-4 minute long montage of saul and kim trying to go about their business like nothing happened being contrasted against mike and co cleaning up after their mess, spotting all the overlapping shots as they swap back and forth between their different perspectives was the entertainment while they showed how the situation was handled by either party
To me the true testament to BB and BCS is that I am perfectly happy to sit down and binge a season or two if I have a free day and just wanna enjoy some good writing, *or* if I just need something to watch while having dinner or kill an hour, I can pick an episode of either and be equally enthralled.
For myself there was never a slow or dull moment. My faith in Vince & Co. was so great that even though there were [many] times throughout the seasons I'd be scratching my head wondering where this was going I ALWAYS had total faith that when I got to the punch-story-line I knew without a doubt that I would be completely surprised and entertained. Vince never let me down.
mostly unrelated to the video- when i heard the whirling-in-rags theme fade in, that really made my day. thank you for including disco elysium music in this :]
seriously amazing video and analysis! this series/universe has been an amazing journey and has only continued to exceed any expectations I might’ve had. it also has made me appreciate things like the cinematography and writing, even beyond tv shows (i.e. video games, books, movies). Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan are geniuses at what they do and I cannot wait to see the conclusion of Better Call Saul and what else is to come from these two. also the algorithm sent me here
Your observation about pacing in both series it’s interesting, and while I can’t be certain I suspect that people who find the show too slow are most likely not readers, either now or in the past. although a visual medium, at times the series seems somewhat literary in pacing and detail, as well as exploring certain occurrences. I resisted watching BB when it was all the rage years ago because I thought I would hate the subject matter, and although it is unseemly I found the series fascinating, as well as BCS, for many of the reasons you explore in your commentary.
Both shows definitely demand a lot from viewers. Even though I watched the shows fairly attentively, I still get shocked by details and symbols I missed. The video from OneTake I linked in this video’s description completely blew my mind with a character detail I missed in BCS Season Five’s Bagman episode. Specifically, a callback to Chuck.
I read, but sometimes BCS is waaay too slow. I love it, but some scenes are tedious. Dunno, maybe it's my attention span.
@@valentinom.4292 I mean... yeah. This is an instant gratification society right now. You're loathed to see a 15 second commercial nowadays. That's a deal breaker for most people, sitting through anything makes a lot of you quite bored. Anything not filling yah with that hit. It's not a failing, it's just the way things are going.
@@truethat15 I read, i watch slow things. But i don't know if a scene of Saul walking for 5 minutes grasps my interests. The show is great tho.
@@valentinom.4292 Its cinematic perfection. You walk the path the character walks. You feel what the character feels. It builds tension.
There's rarely a music montage and when there is, its often telling an important part of the story instead of just being a way of brushing off something because "its boring". Makes even the most mundane things look important, and thats because they are
Teacher: “Alright class, today we’re going to finger Pollos.”
Kid named Polos: 😮💨
Kid named finger
Teacher: Alright class today we're going to nuke Ukraine. Kid named finger:
You said “Los Pollos” in the most American way possible and it made my ears bleed.
@@Rameon Yeah, I somehow missed that in the edit. In my defense, I took Chinese in high school, not Spanish. Hope your ears recover.
@person you do NOT want to copy your pronounciation of anything spanish from Gus
...hes chilean, after all
"Hard work is hard to hate."
This one is likely going to stay with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.
What a great video! So glad this popped up in my recommended
Glad you enjoyed it!
So excited to watch the final episode.
I loved watching this video, really emphasises the people who work on this shows genius.
One of my favorite details about the commitment to realism is that they had DEA chemists teach Brian Cranston how to cook meth
I love every scene with Gus working in Los Pollos. When he helps Jimmy get his watch out of the trash, when Lalo is complimenting his chicken, when he meets Walt for the first time. Civilian Gus is unironically in my Top 10 characters.
That's exactly how i feel about the show! what a wonderful vid, well done :)
"polos"
Ikr
Amazingly well thought out analysis. Thanks for taking the time.
Those scenes are what make us love the show so much. They make the world feel that much more real and immersive- more in depth and maybe even relatable. They're part of what makes this universe so great.
and all the credit goes to vince gilligan even though peter gould is showrunner on bcs lol
Yeah, I feel bad about how that ended up getting framed in the video. Vince is the more well known name, but I wish I had mentioned Gould directly instead of just referring to “Vince and the team.” For what it’s worth, I did include a clarification in the video’s description.
Glad you talked about the Coushatta episode. Lovely Jimmy/Saul scam and that ending with our new villain showing up :)
Who again?¿
i like the sea power song you put in there. i remember disco elysium instantly. and for these stories to spark in my mind simultaneously it feels kind of amazing
BrBa, BCS, and El Camino is a surprisingly perfect trilogy, and I cant wait to see what Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould do next
I’ve been a mega Better Call Saul fan for a while now but for whatever reason I never put together that Jimmys association with Huell would violate his PPD agreement. Damn lol
Not even a mention of Nacho. Incredible performance and a compelling emotional story. Made the show for me
That Disco Elysium soundtrack on the backgroud caught me off guard, love it. amazing video!!
Just watched the last episode of Saul and the fact that your video ends with Jimmy and Kimmy sharing a smoke couldn't have been better. Subbed
Having been a drug dealer, I can confirm that most of your time is really fucking boring. Either driving to a spot or waiting at a spot or shutting down people trying to trade you random bullshit in lieu of cash. Sometimes shit got scary, sometimes it was fun, but most of the time you're just weighing up and pacaging shit and eating ice cream sandwiches or something.
Yeah but did you break bad
@@TheRedCap30 I was already pretty shitty, so I think the most I broke was the speed limit a few times.
Did u call Saul?
@@comrade_boi9941 I sure better have
If you sold drugs to children you're a scumbag who deserves torture but if not then you're alright.
Really great analysis. I also watched Breaking Bad for the third time this month.
Also great choice in music, Red Dead Redemption II does the same thing of details and stuff.
Subscribed!
Thank you! I was very pleased with how well RD2’s ost worked. It supported my feelings that Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul can act as modern westerns. They certainly reference them a lot!
@@TrackingShots Oh Yeah! That's right, now that i think about it, they really act as modern westerns. The BrBa finale, especially.. and El Camino even had Jesse doing stand off. Wow, amazing stuff!!!
Absoluety fantastic video! No new praise to add that others haven't already said better, but I was *not* expecting to hear Whirling in Rags! Fit really well and gave me a happy Shiver and i had to comment xD Thank you for making this video!
For the alg. I love this video essay you’ve made. Already watched BB years ago and just started the first season of BCS. Thank you.
Personally what made the tension real for me in BCS wasn't "What is going to happen to Jimmy next?" But instead "What is going to happen to the people around him?" Because after watching Breaking Bad I knew many were gonna live for the time being, but I also knew there were many characters weren't present in Saul's life during Breaking Bad, and that's what made the tension real, asking yourself "What if they do something to Kim? Why doesn't Saul have a brother in Breaking Bad? Etc" Which is honestly a great effect that only a prequel can have.
the little scenes where nothing happens mean everything to the film. without them, the repeated dopamine hit of "damn that was action packed" then "damn that fight was incredible" every other scene would make the real scenes where the story advances worse. the calmness that seamlessly flows through every scene helps make the heavier scenes hit much more
Amazing use of soundtracks for this video! I think your monologues are THAT much more powerful with a good track behind it
Especially when it's some of my favorites- love disco elysium!
one of my favorite scenes is when Mike is looking for the tracker and takes apart his car entirely before finding it. i was so invested in his search like damn where tf is it
I only felt the slow pace until the end of season 2. Watching and finishing the series changes your mind on this though, you learn to really love those first two seasons basically only for the character development as the action isn’t too crazy and Gus/mike/Saul and the cartel haven’t even been introduced yet. But those slow character building moments when we just get to grow and learn who Walter and Jesse are. But season 3 it goes into full drive right until the end.
I must admit, you are a very underrated TH-camr, I’d love to see more from you and see you expand in the community! This video was excellent
Thank you!
@@TrackingShots holy shit only 2k subs, ur gonna blow up with content of this level
This was a very well made, composed and eloquent analysis and take, thank you
Wow, thank you so much for such a nice comment!
@@TrackingShots :)
I love that those scenes are included. Adds so much realism.
I think some of these scenes are actually one of the things that make BB & BCS so unique and interesting. You rarely see that in other shows/movies
They show the small things in life, parts of crime, and it makes it more realistic. This show humanizes the whole drug world, whereas most movies just sensationalize everything.
Very well made analysis. Glad to see this video blowing up.
I always loved these scenes. It does a lot for relatability and character detail. The fact other shows gloss over the logistics of the best parts make them feel far more hollow.
The first minute into this video, I had to press like on it. Besides the mispronunciation on “pollos”, you highlight the significance of the meticulous presentation of the characters and how it makes it so intriguing for the audience to keep tuning in hour after hour. Keep it up! Thanks :)
When I'm in a watching paint dry competition and my opponent is a Better Call Saul fan
Amazing video!! This was incredibly well put together
sick video bro. deserve more recognition
Awesome video. I think you really hit the nail on the head when talking about how both shows are about the process of committing the crime. Really great analysis! Unsubscribed.
What makes Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul different, is that other shows i watch the characters, in BB and BCS i feel like i get to know them. That is because they take time to show small details and take it slow.
Take the MCU the reason it worked, was because they built up the characters and the universe. And why DCU didn't work, because they thought, hey lets just cut out all the slow world building and rush to the action and to a TEAM MOVIE.
If you expect me to care about characters, you gotta let me get to know them, and that takes time.
Great video!!!! I appreciate that you appreciate VG, BB and BCS as much as I do. I’m so sad it’s ending and we’ve just re-started BB again to sooth our grief. Bb is better after watching BCS and I did not expect that.
A great video outlining why the breaking bad universe is so unique and spectacular. Writers, you guys are geniuses!!