Better Call Saul – Season 1, Episode 4 – An Ill-Fitting Suit ← FREE KRAUT!

Better Call Saul – Season 1, Episode 4 – An Ill-Fitting Suit 7

This one made me like the last episode more.

I was disappointed in the last episode, as I found the dumb behavior of most the characters disappointing. But this one, despite the heroic antics, was mostly tiresome. Perhaps it’s just my impatience. It felt like half the episode was devoted to Jimmy’s efforts to mimic his brother’s partner, down to the predictable defeat (and the ironic victory in spite of it all). I didn’t find it clever, or interesting, or remotely smart. That was a lot of money to waste on clothes to imitate a guy he hates, when it’s very clear that Jimmy really needs the money. It felt like I was waiting for the plot to spin its wheels until viewers get a real story. While I know that’s the point of this season, maybe I’m not just as interested in Saul’s evolution.

The episode started stronger, with another flashback to young Jimmy, this time pulling a small-time con for beer money. Again, we see the future Saul more clearly in these flashback scenes, as the young Jimmy is far closer to the future Saul than the current, trying-to-do-good incarnation. But he is not good enough to avoid taking bribe money, and the Kettleman wife stings him by saying he’s the sort of lawyer that guilty people hire. This, coming from her when she desperately needed his help, left a mark. The other bright side was a little more of Kim, his friend and sort-of love interest. I’m still bored with Chuck.

The thing about this show is that I will be quite patient with it, as Vince Gilligan has got a serious amount of goodwill with me. It’s just getting tested a bit.

7 thoughts on “Better Call Saul – Season 1, Episode 4 – An Ill-Fitting Suit

  1. FreeSeatUpgrade Feb 24,2015 8:35 pm

    I liked this episode, again, precisely because of the effort it made to give us more about the evolution of Saul. You’ve got scamming Jimmy pulling the well-executed grift in the alley, no hesitation or moral qualms at all. After that era, but before the show’s present time, we know from last week that Jimmy had a come-to-Jesus moment in Chicago jail that got him to drop the scam life and get straight enough to go to law school.

    Then you have Jimmy the present-day lawyer faced with the choice of taking the Kettlemen bribe, and he is torn. Odenkirk played that scene beautifully, his face showing genuine conflict, whether to take the money, his choice, to Break Bad. And he did. And then on to another scam, and while it certainly seemed ham-fisted, I suspect there is a deeper cleverness is yet to be revealed to us, and Hamlin Hamlin McGill is in more trouble than they realize.

    Loved the way early scammer Jimmy dropped the phrase “S’all good” to his patsy, the first sense we get of the etymology of “Saul Goodman.”

    Also loved the way Jimmy talked an angry Nacho off his vengeance, seemingly. Whatever else he is, Jimmy McGill is sharp on his feet.

    One question that has been bothering me since BB: Many times in Breaking Bad, maybe even every time, that a big fat stack of cash was shown it was in $50s. Again last night, the Kettleman cash was in $50s. $50 bills are pretty uncommon, while stacks of $100s are the currency of choice for large cash transactions. What is it with Gilligan and $50 bills?

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
  2. ptbnl Feb 24,2015 11:24 pm

    It’s clearly no BB (and shouldn’t try to be), but I liked it well enough. Clearly Jimmy knows he’ll lose the billboard case in court, but that’s only the setup for the staged heroics as he breaks out his dormant grifting skills.

    The AMC streaming set-up is unbelievably bad though. Once again the show continued to run for 15-20 seconds under the adverts, and once again it irrevocably froze with 2 minutes to go.

    If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
    • nevermoor Feb 25,2015 9:55 am || Up

      The staged heroics are clever, but I don’t get the sense it was a plan from the get-go, just a clever con-man’s reaction to yet another setback.

      I never got the sense from BB that he was a good lawyer, and his argument before the court (bizarrely, seated in chambers) is fully consistent. He’s clever, though, and constantly able to see creative options that others don’t see.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
      • ptbnl Feb 25,2015 10:05 am || Up

        He’s clearly smart enough to know that there was no way he was going to win the case in court, and not to have blown through the bribe expenses money without a follow-on plan.

        If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
        • nevermoor Feb 25,2015 11:02 am || Up

          That’s what I’m disagreeing with. I suspect he thought the “but it’s my name” argument would win. When it lost, he thought the press would bail him out. When the press didn’t care, he found a way to change their minds.

          If it was all a clever plan, why call all those reporters instead of going straight to his scam?

          "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
          • ptbnl Feb 25,2015 11:06 am || Up

            But he goes way beyond the name (hair, clothes, font, … ) in ways that he must know he’ll lose on, and then calls the press because he needs media coverage for the scam to work.

            If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
            • nevermoor Feb 25,2015 8:58 pm || Up

              To me that sounds like desperate guy not knowing how to dress well.

              It is interesting to me that we both crafted pretty rich, but wholly contradictory, impressions of the guy.

              "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"

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