Post by Ripley on Mar 1, 2016 9:45:13 GMT -5
"Jimmy McGill continues his tragi-comic slouch to legal hustler Saul Goodman in the second season of Better Call Saul, and the Breaking Bad prequel continues a steady ascent to singular greatness. If last year was about Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) accepting with clarity and grace his slippery grifter orientation as his authentic self, this year seems to be about deciding how to best manage it — or not.
The opening two episodes present the floppily-coiffed bogus barrister as a relapsed addict, a reckless thrill-seeker, or a (con) artist figuring out his medium, sometimes all at once. “Are you still morally flexible?” asks tollbooth attendant and underworld fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), phoning him with a job. It’s a call to heroic adventure, a devilish temptation, and an opportunity for catharsis. The rewards: fortune, fulfillment, some feeling of victory in his cold war with his more accomplished yet strangely afflicted big brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), who last season helped catalyze Jimmy’s current spiral with a betrayal and a damning judgment. Where Jimmy once chased Chuck’s affirmation, for better and worse, he now petulantly runs away from it, also for better and worse. Indeed, Jimmy’s evolution toward Saul has reached an adolescent stage. Here in season 2, he’s temperamental and easily triggered, testing identity and testing limits. At risk: a future with friend, colleague, and would-be lover, Kim (Rhea Seehorn). At one point, she makes a condition on their relationship by drawing a moral line with him. He agrees not to cross it. Yeah, right. Destiny beckons like the Statue of Liberty inflatable that’ll grace Saul’s strip mall HQ, a siren wooing him to the rocks.
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The opening two episodes present the floppily-coiffed bogus barrister as a relapsed addict, a reckless thrill-seeker, or a (con) artist figuring out his medium, sometimes all at once. “Are you still morally flexible?” asks tollbooth attendant and underworld fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), phoning him with a job. It’s a call to heroic adventure, a devilish temptation, and an opportunity for catharsis. The rewards: fortune, fulfillment, some feeling of victory in his cold war with his more accomplished yet strangely afflicted big brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), who last season helped catalyze Jimmy’s current spiral with a betrayal and a damning judgment. Where Jimmy once chased Chuck’s affirmation, for better and worse, he now petulantly runs away from it, also for better and worse. Indeed, Jimmy’s evolution toward Saul has reached an adolescent stage. Here in season 2, he’s temperamental and easily triggered, testing identity and testing limits. At risk: a future with friend, colleague, and would-be lover, Kim (Rhea Seehorn). At one point, she makes a condition on their relationship by drawing a moral line with him. He agrees not to cross it. Yeah, right. Destiny beckons like the Statue of Liberty inflatable that’ll grace Saul’s strip mall HQ, a siren wooing him to the rocks.
.."
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