In_Waterworks_, the opener is Saul bouncing a ball around his office until he eventually hits one of his foam columns, which then falls over. He goes over to pick it up and puts it back into place, although it's not quite aligned as it was before. It's a great opening for what the episode becomes, symbolizing his loss of power and his whole facade crumbling around him, but it's also perfectly representative of Jimmy McGill, Saul Goodman and Gene Takavic's convergence and his eventual "losing." And that's what this season is. Actions have consequences.
It's an amazing season, honestly. It's shot as beautifully as ever, the digital work of that ARRI Alexa shining beautifully, especially with those night scenes. It was one of my favorite parts of El Camino's look, and it really suits it here too, I think. Might be a controversial opinion, given the sanctity of film, but Gould and Gilligan know what they're doing! Speaking of that cinematography, the framing and shot composition is fucking incredibly good. Scenes are given long, drawn out moments, rigs are used to just play off of what's happening in the moments (a camera being attached to a chair being pulled along is coming to mind), and shots just linger whenever they need to, and cut when they don't. Lovely stuff!
Everyone gives it their all this season, Michael Mando gives his tragic last moments this tenacity and grit that you can feel Nacho Varga has been building and simmering this whole time, and in probably one of the most shocking moments of the show (another being Howard Hamlin's death), and speaking of Patrick Fabian, he gives a wonderfully tragic performance of Howard just, losing it, eerily similar to Michael McKean's Chuck MicGill earlier in season 3. But the real star of the show, besides the already amazing Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan banks and the downright terrifyingly calm Tony Dalton and Giancarlo Esposito is Rhea Seehorn. If she doesn't win an Emmy this award season, that will be one of the biggest snubs in awards history, I think. Rhea has to switch between the poison and the cure, she has to lie and sell, and there's one particular long scene of her holding her composure before just breaking down and sobbing, and it almost made me cry to see it. She fucking killed it as Kim Wexler, throughout this whole show, but especially this season. I also just gotta say, someone like Lalo Salamanca is one of the most terrifying villains I've ever seen, Tony Dalton portrays it with this perfect malice and calmness too.
A big part of the show that I thought (and knew) this season was gonna be doing were the cameos made by the amazing Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and surprisingly Betsy Brandt. These were implemented waaaay better in my opinion than the distracting Dean Norris and Michael Quezada as Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez, because they put in Walter and Jesse in the moments leading up to meeting Saul and including one really good scene where Walter and Saul are awaiting their new lives, and Saul asks his time travel question, and as a result of what's said we suddenly get this one pure moment of a character defining insult that Walter, the fucking worst person on the show lmao, gives to Saul: "Oh. You were always like this." Betsy Brandt appears also as Marie Schrader as an emotional weight against Saul in a way that really just, sells what I think this whole show really was leading up to but is super defined in season 6. Actions have consequences. But what happens to those that have to pick up the pieces? Well, Saul ran from his consequences. But Jimmy picked up what was left.
Review by faustyBlockedParent2023-08-08T19:37:05Z
In_Waterworks_, the opener is Saul bouncing a ball around his office until he eventually hits one of his foam columns, which then falls over. He goes over to pick it up and puts it back into place, although it's not quite aligned as it was before. It's a great opening for what the episode becomes, symbolizing his loss of power and his whole facade crumbling around him, but it's also perfectly representative of Jimmy McGill, Saul Goodman and Gene Takavic's convergence and his eventual "losing."
And that's what this season is. Actions have consequences.
It's an amazing season, honestly. It's shot as beautifully as ever, the digital work of that ARRI Alexa shining beautifully, especially with those night scenes. It was one of my favorite parts of El Camino's look, and it really suits it here too, I think. Might be a controversial opinion, given the sanctity of film, but Gould and Gilligan know what they're doing!
Speaking of that cinematography, the framing and shot composition is fucking incredibly good. Scenes are given long, drawn out moments, rigs are used to just play off of what's happening in the moments (a camera being attached to a chair being pulled along is coming to mind), and shots just linger whenever they need to, and cut when they don't. Lovely stuff!
Everyone gives it their all this season, Michael Mando gives his tragic last moments this tenacity and grit that you can feel Nacho Varga has been building and simmering this whole time, and in probably one of the most shocking moments of the show (another being Howard Hamlin's death), and speaking of Patrick Fabian, he gives a wonderfully tragic performance of Howard just, losing it, eerily similar to Michael McKean's Chuck MicGill earlier in season 3.
But the real star of the show, besides the already amazing Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan banks and the downright terrifyingly calm Tony Dalton and Giancarlo Esposito is Rhea Seehorn. If she doesn't win an Emmy this award season, that will be one of the biggest snubs in awards history, I think. Rhea has to switch between the poison and the cure, she has to lie and sell, and there's one particular long scene of her holding her composure before just breaking down and sobbing, and it almost made me cry to see it. She fucking killed it as Kim Wexler, throughout this whole show, but especially this season. I also just gotta say, someone like Lalo Salamanca is one of the most terrifying villains I've ever seen, Tony Dalton portrays it with this perfect malice and calmness too.
A big part of the show that I thought (and knew) this season was gonna be doing were the cameos made by the amazing Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and surprisingly Betsy Brandt. These were implemented waaaay better in my opinion than the distracting Dean Norris and Michael Quezada as Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez, because they put in Walter and Jesse in the moments leading up to meeting Saul and including one really good scene where Walter and Saul are awaiting their new lives, and Saul asks his time travel question, and as a result of what's said we suddenly get this one pure moment of a character defining insult that Walter, the fucking worst person on the show lmao, gives to Saul: "Oh. You were always like this."
Betsy Brandt appears also as Marie Schrader as an emotional weight against Saul in a way that really just, sells what I think this whole show really was leading up to but is super defined in season 6.
Actions have consequences. But what happens to those that have to pick up the pieces?
Well, Saul ran from his consequences. But Jimmy picked up what was left.