Author Topic: Better Call Saul  (Read 184577 times)

Offline Brian Blessed

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #160 on: February 18, 2015, 09:53:58 pm »
It's excellent. It's also good to rewatch after listening to the Insider podcasts.

Offline sinnermichael

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #161 on: February 19, 2015, 01:14:25 am »
Just caught up on this now. Enjoying so far. Mike is boss!

Offline Skidder.

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #162 on: February 19, 2015, 01:45:55 am »
Better Call Saul has surpassed my expectations significantly. The show is already a masterpiece in its own right. If you can't tell already, I love it.

I've rightfully bolded this statement, three episodes in.


don't buy it for a second....

Good point on Cheers/Frasier thing - I never got into Frasier, but I was a Cheers fan growing up. They did a few Cheers spin-offs didn't they?
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Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #163 on: February 19, 2015, 03:21:56 am »
Good point on Cheers/Frasier thing - I never got into Frasier, but I was a Cheers fan growing up. They did a few Cheers spin-offs didn't they?

apparently there was another one (and a few characters from cheers spilled over into other shows), but frasier was the most successful (and it also spun off in a small way itself, in the form of sideshow bob and his brother and father on the simpsons).  definitely give frasier another go if you haven't watched it recently.  i'd recommend it to anyone.

and while just about every single main character from cheers turned up in frasier at some point over the 11 seasons, they were eased in very gradually, to the extent that by the time the first one arrived, the audience was just as familiar with the new characters who'd developed up to that point.

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Offline Phil M

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #164 on: February 19, 2015, 09:18:45 am »
Better Call Saul has surpassed my expectations significantly. The show is already a masterpiece in its own right. If you can't tell already, I love it.

Far too early to be getting into superlatives. It's been a slow burner for me.
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Offline Pistolero

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #165 on: February 19, 2015, 09:40:54 am »
Not bad up to now...

I hated Frasier...
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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #166 on: February 19, 2015, 10:52:59 am »
Not bad up to now...

I hated Frasier...

Massively smug programme, he wanted a good smacking. That said I did watch it quite a lot...mind you we only had 4 channels back then ;D not like today's infinite choice.
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Offline Yiannis

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #167 on: February 19, 2015, 10:55:23 am »
Far too early to be getting into superlatives. It's been a slow burner for me.

Zephyr's post just got into hyperbole's definition example.
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Offline Flaccid Bobby Fowler

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #168 on: February 19, 2015, 12:51:59 pm »
Fraiser was shite

Offline Rococo

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #169 on: February 19, 2015, 04:23:56 pm »
Far too early to be getting into superlatives. It's been a slow burner for me.

Same here, it's got potential and isn't bad so far but I'm not quite as enthusiastic as others just yet

Offline Redman0151

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #170 on: February 19, 2015, 04:45:43 pm »
Same here, it's got potential and isn't bad so far but I'm not quite as enthusiastic as others just yet


Yeah I don't like how IMDB has already rated it higher than the sopranos and the wire...
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Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #171 on: February 19, 2015, 05:48:42 pm »
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Offline Skidder.

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #172 on: February 19, 2015, 08:05:47 pm »

Yeah I don't like how IMDB has already rated it higher than the sopranos and the wire...

Not directing this at you - But if you take IMDB's word nowadays, you're a mug. Massive IMDB hacking scam around the corner methinks. Well, not hack, but i'll bet it is dragged through the mud in the next few years due to the voting/rating system.
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Offline Red_Irishman

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #173 on: February 19, 2015, 09:04:05 pm »

Yeah I don't like how IMDB has already rated it higher than the sopranos and the wire...

IMDB ratings are the greatest load of shite ever. Wouldnt mind them at all.

Edit: The point is right though, theres no way it can be considered within an asses roar of the wire or the sopranos.
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Offline Melbred

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #174 on: February 19, 2015, 09:08:32 pm »
Shows always start off high on imdb and gradually drops over time. So if it can last the test of time, imdb's pretty accurate (for me, anyway).

Offline Redman0151

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #175 on: February 19, 2015, 11:04:44 pm »
Not directing this at you - But if you take IMDB's word nowadays, you're a mug. Massive IMDB hacking scam around the corner methinks. Well, not hack, but i'll bet it is dragged through the mud in the next few years due to the voting/rating system.

Yeah I don't take them too seriously, just for general recommendations, the obvious fanboying there just annoys me a bit
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Offline Pistolero

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #176 on: February 19, 2015, 11:09:05 pm »
the bottom half of IMDB makes me want to kill the Internet...
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Online SamAteTheRedAcid

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #177 on: February 19, 2015, 11:59:48 pm »

Yeah I don't like how IMDB has already rated it higher than the sopranos and the wire...

Like my favourite music magazine, Q*, voting OK Computer the best album ever after 2 months on the shelves...IMDB had the second Nolan Batman film as the best film ever shortly after it came out...alright film like, but fucking hell, have some basic respect for cinematic history...Orson Welles, Hitchcock, Scorcese, nah, overrated shite. It should be mandatory for things to have a gap of at least a couple of years before people rank it in the all-time canon, freshness always makes things seem shiny and new. Look at 'Album of the Year' lists, or 'Film of the Year' lists from any year end, ten years later, nobody is listening/watching 3/4 of them. Perspective required.


*awful middlebrow shite mag
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Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #178 on: February 20, 2015, 02:28:23 am »
Like my favourite music magazine, Q*, voting OK Computer the best album ever after 2 months on the shelves...

it's not even the best radiohead album ever...
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Offline Brian Blessed

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #179 on: February 20, 2015, 03:23:04 am »
You lot take imdb far too seriously.

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #180 on: February 20, 2015, 07:45:26 am »
You lot take imdb far too seriously.

On the contrary, it's a massive joke.
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Offline Yiannis

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #181 on: February 20, 2015, 09:39:50 am »
I don't have many issues with the IMDB movie rating (haven't seen a lot of it admittedly though). It's the series rating on there which has become a joke. They throw a '7' or an '8' on absolute shit.
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Offline Rococo

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #182 on: February 20, 2015, 11:02:00 am »
As an aside, I'd forgotten what it was like watching a series/ box set one episode per week. 

Netflix has totally changed my viewing habits and now I expect to watch a whole series back to back in one weekend!

Offline UntouchableLuis

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #183 on: February 20, 2015, 05:56:49 pm »
This is great. Another excellent series from VG.
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Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #184 on: February 20, 2015, 10:04:15 pm »
As an aside, I'd forgotten what it was like watching a series/ box set one episode per week. 

Netflix has totally changed my viewing habits and now I expect to watch a whole series back to back in one weekend!

whereas i've gone entirely the other way - even with instant full box sets at my disposal, i still only watch one episode a week, usually on the same day too.  it's how TV is meant to be viewed.
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Offline Skidder.

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #185 on: February 20, 2015, 11:35:40 pm »
As an aside, I'd forgotten what it was like watching a series/ box set one episode per week. 

Netflix has totally changed my viewing habits and now I expect to watch a whole series back to back in one weekend!

Did a shitload of research on this around this time last year - viewing habits and audience psychology. Tiring shit to trawl through; interesting but a good portion of bollocks. There are companies and organisations who make a living out of this shit and a good portion of it is just fuzzy logic/research. We had access to some mad shit man.

I remember reading a report by a subsidiary of Nielsen which stated that Mountain Dew was the drinks company who would gain maximum profits from buying advertising from Breaking Bad. The report postulated that Mountain Dew is the drink of choice in drug circles due to it's excessive sugar/caffeine content, since Breaking Bad would draw a substantial amount of Drug users, Mountain Dew should actively buy airtime in the shows slot. Also though, it even proposed that consumer/audience form habits around colour theory/psychology - The report suggested that viewers would naturally lean towards Mountain Dew as a beverage of choice due to it's green appearance. Fitting in with the Breaking Bad theme of green, yellow and cooking (Fizz).

Load of utter pseudo-science if you ask me, it is interesting to read and makes some great links and stuff - What that has to do with boxsets, I don't know; but there were quite a lot of reports on the Boxset generation - How physical medium is dying and Boxsets being likened to LP's, shit like that.

I think top-and-bottom, expect Netflix to go out like Boxset's as it's another 'medium' if you will - From looking at it in a totally topographic way, there'll be some kind of Netflix/Youtube crossover whereby people can binge on what they want, but they have to sit through vast amounts of advertising to get where they want.

Then there's the other train of thought who think that Netflix will carry on as it is, going from strength to strength, but employing a massive amount of product placement and product realisation. Which in turn is...

Has anyone seen House of Cards? - That Waterrower that is in it? Well, that company has been going for a long time and I read somewhere about the sharp spike in sales thanks to House of Cards. Make of that what you will, but you have to wonder how crafty someone has been with that whole 'Marketing push'.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2015, 11:46:38 pm by Kidder. »
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Offline Brian Blessed

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #186 on: February 21, 2015, 12:20:12 am »
whereas i've gone entirely the other way - even with instant full box sets at my disposal, i still only watch one episode a week, usually on the same day too.  it's how TV is meant to be viewed.
thats becoming more outdated by the year, and wasn't really what happened a lot of the time even before the internet became so prevalent. Back in the early nineties, I'd binge four episodes of TNG every two weeks when the VHS cassettes came out on a Tuesday. Two eps per tape, two released tapes on the same day.

Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #187 on: February 21, 2015, 01:08:35 am »
thats becoming more outdated by the year, and wasn't really what happened a lot of the time even before the internet became so prevalent. Back in the early nineties, I'd binge four episodes of TNG every two weeks when the VHS cassettes came out on a Tuesday. Two eps per tape, two released tapes on the same day.

so?  my point is that TV as a medium is designed and structured not to be binged.  the fact that people binge on it is pretty irrelevant to that idea.  quality serial long-form narrative TV drama needs breathing time between episodes.

even the netflix gimmick of launching all the episodes on the same day benefits from that breathing space if you ignore netflix's marketing BS, even though their whole business model is built around bingeing.

each to their own though.
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Offline Brian Blessed

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #188 on: February 21, 2015, 01:37:33 am »
Yes, you're outdated.

The once a week thing is of convenience. Nothing more.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2015, 01:39:37 am by Impolite King Brian Blessed »

Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #189 on: February 21, 2015, 02:28:00 am »
Yes, you're outdated.

The once a week thing is of convenience. Nothing more.


i'm not even sure what that means, but OK.
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Offline Brian Blessed

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #190 on: February 21, 2015, 03:58:32 am »

i'm not even sure what that means, but OK.
really? I didn't think it was that complicated.

Back in the day, it was easier to broadcast shows on the same day at the same time. So you'd know, 9PM on a Tuesday, ITV would be showing Boon.

With the advent of the internet and indeed the VCR, (and then DVRs) and DVDs, the arbitrary one a week thing has gone out the window. Should one watch TV episodes once a week, so it can be savoured? No more than any other form of art.

You're signature indicates you've written a book. Did you release the whole thing at once, or bit by bit, Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" style? I suspect you released the entire thing in one go. Do you think less of your readers who can't put your book down than those who read a chapter at a time, and wait a week before reading the next one?


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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #191 on: February 21, 2015, 09:45:18 am »
so?  my point is that TV as a medium is designed and structured not to be binged.  the fact that people binge on it is pretty irrelevant to that idea.  quality serial long-form narrative TV drama needs breathing time between episodes.


I'm with you on this...and I speak as someone who binge-watches.....for me, the one week break adds to the experience and increases the overall enjoyment..
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Offline DrTobiasFunke

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #192 on: February 21, 2015, 12:11:22 pm »
I think I tend to take a lot more in when I watch shows once every week. When I binge watch, I'm obviously still enjoying it at the time but by the time the next series comes out I can't remember some of the details from the previous one.

Found a happy medium with The Sopranos. Watched the entire thing on Lovefilm DVDs so watched 3 episodes in quick succession, then had to wait a few days before the next disk arrived.

Offline sideshowme

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #193 on: February 21, 2015, 02:00:12 pm »
really? I didn't think it was that complicated.

Back in the day, it was easier to broadcast shows on the same day at the same time. So you'd know, 9PM on a Tuesday, ITV would be showing Boon.

With the advent of the internet and indeed the VCR, (and then DVRs) and DVDs, the arbitrary one a week thing has gone out the window. Should one watch TV episodes once a week, so it can be savoured? No more than any other form of art.

You're signature indicates you've written a book. Did you release the whole thing at once, or bit by bit, Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" style? I suspect you released the entire thing in one go. Do you think less of your readers who can't put your book down than those who read a chapter at a time, and wait a week before reading the next one?



hi-ho silver.

you seem to be missing the point - most series (and particularly older series, but equally modern binge-produced series) were written with a purpose, and a structure to end on a point that leaves you surprised, or angry, or concerned or whatever about the characters and the story.  the idea is that those feelings then have a week to swirl around your head, to the point where you felt compelled to tune in for the next one.  it's part of the design of serial TV. 

so while you certainly can watch the resolution to a particular crisis thirty seconds after seeing the crisis emerge, you lose that sense of TV series as experience - part of the experience is the gap between episodes, where you get to think it over, theorise, rewatch bits of the last episodes for clues etc. 

it's true of a lot of things in modern life: just because you can do them quicker, doesn't mean you necessarily should

with regards the book, by the way, you miss the point spectacularly once again.  we didn't release it over a number of weeks, because we didn't plan to.  had we intended to release it as a serial, then yes, we would have done just that - we certainly have plans to release future books in weekly/bi-weekly chunks, and lots of authors already do this.  if i wrote a novel, i'd prefer if people read it all in one sitting; it i wrote a serial, i'd prefer if people read it with a delay between parts.  of course readers/viewers are not obliged to respect the author's intentions, but i think it helps the experience.  still, each to their own :)
« Last Edit: February 21, 2015, 02:39:16 pm by sideshowme »
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Offline Redman0151

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #194 on: February 21, 2015, 02:28:42 pm »
I do think the one week break allows you to appreciate the characters and show more. I love discussing and guessing what will happen next too.

I do binge watch everything as quick as I can though
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Offline Rococo

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #195 on: February 23, 2015, 09:22:57 am »
whereas i've gone entirely the other way - even with instant full box sets at my disposal, i still only watch one episode a week, usually on the same day too.  it's how TV is meant to be viewed.

I do think the one week break allows you to appreciate the characters and show more. I love discussing and guessing what will happen next too.

I do binge watch everything as quick as I can though

I know - there's something really enjoyable about it. I watched the first series of 24 this way and remember looking forward to Sunday nights and the prospect of a new episode.

That said, there's something great about writing off a weekend and watching a whole series of something while living on a diet which consists purely of crisps


Offline Glass Kites

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #196 on: February 23, 2015, 01:39:54 pm »
Watched episode 2 last night. Not completely into it at this stage. Seems to be some scenes which I feel are dragged out for no reason - almost as if they're padding parts out to last a full hour. Not sure if anyone else felt that?

Offline kennedy81

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #197 on: February 23, 2015, 09:36:37 pm »
No episode this week?

Offline DrTobiasFunke

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #198 on: February 23, 2015, 09:39:40 pm »
No episode this week?

It's on Monday nights. I keep forgetting that too after the first episode was on a Sunday.

Offline moondog

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Re: Better Call Saul
« Reply #199 on: February 23, 2015, 09:40:54 pm »
Check out the final episode of Baking Bread by local lads 'superior films'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcfrPbFFRDc