Written by James M. Tate / 2/09/2015 / No comments / 2015 , bob odenkirk , pilot , TV
SUNDAY PILOT OF BETTER CALL SAUL TITLED UNO
year: 2015 Grade: C |
We begin much like the last stretch of BAD when Walter White was hiding out, incognito, dead to himself and the world… Yet Saul has a menial job leading to a bland apartment with a mixed drink to save his own pathetic life... And while little happens to the character within the first five minutes, the direction is sparsely artistic with the right touch of purgatory Noir – then we zoom out of the present and into the pulse of the matter at hand…
Only catching a rudimentary glimpse of fan-favorite, Mike, played by Jonathan Banks, as a security guard at the courthouse, a desperate Saul is working out a cryptic deal with a tableful of uptight suits – and what's occurring, like in the usual Vince Gilligan fashion, isn’t quite clear until it’s just clear enough to be intriguing and suspenseful… Much like Quentin Tarantino's explanation of what others have said about his style, “You don’t know what’s going on until you know what’s going on.”
While on paper the ingredients are all intact, there’s very little edgy dynamic… Saul spent so much time and energy selling himself to Walter White that now, as the man of the hour, it’s his task to successfully present others for the audience to embrace like we already did him – including Michael McKean as Saul’s… or rather… Jimmy’s lawyer brother, stricken with some kind of fatal disease (sound familiar?) and two skateboard riding accident-fakers resembling hipster versions of Napoleon Dynamite, filling in the same punchy pocket as any of Jesse Pinkman's banal tweaker pals, only athletic.
And so, in phase one, the stuff just isn’t there, yet… Perhaps because “Jimmy” hasn’t come into the deliciously shifty style that would make him a good/bad lawyer, which explains the lethargic courtroom scene that had potential but, like everything else, fell flat, lacking our hero's pizazz and charm while the cliffhanger is more like balancing off the side of a gutter with very little to lose until, hopefully, the next episode, the true start of the series, will make things right as wrong again… Fingers crossed, and toes too. OVERALL RANK: Jedi, Rebel, Droid, Sith...
Labels:
2015,
bob odenkirk,
pilot,
TV
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All Time Popular
-
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
-
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
-
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
-
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
-
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
-
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
-
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
-
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
-
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
-
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
Featured Post
DEFENDING THE BREEZY SEQUEL 'BREAKIN 2': ELECTRIC BOOGALOO'
Title: BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Year: 1984 Rating: *** Cannon Films' BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO was rushed out the same...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.