#very cool. also the ending of brba

[chooey]

just finished breaking bad

[gomosmorodina]

Tarantino movies for the ask game🫵 And you’ve provably been asked already but I’m also curious to get your opinions on brba/bcs!

since you're the first one asking about brba/bcs, it will be a huuge post

tarantino:

my favorite female character: jackie brown!!!! and also shoshanna, she's such a strong and brave character!

my favorite male character: this game is an evidence that i can't choose one favorite thing lol. so i'll say cliff booth, dr schulz and butch!! and max cherry hehe

my favorite film: inglorious basterds forever

my favorite cast member: samuel l jackson. i love his presence, at least in tarantino's films. very very charismatic

my favorite ship: jackie and max!!!!! give me more couples who are not high-schoolers or young adults.

a character I’d die defending: maybe tarantino himself! let him be extremely violent and use slurs in his movies, he has a point

a character I just can’t sympathize with: there's tons of fucked up guys in tarantino's films, but it would be interesting to say about rick dalton... he is okay, he will be okay, why do i have to feel sorry for him? but probably that was the intention hehe

a character I grew to love: tbh i don't remember much the hateful eight, but i remember how drastically changed my opinion about sam jackson's character. by the end of film i was like "DAAAAAMN HE'S BADASS"

my anti otp: all of the relationships and interactions in these films are cool, i can't think of any

brba/bcs:

my favorite female character: i don't approve many of her choices and i don't think we will ever be friends, but kim. she is entertaining, i love to watch where her weird choices lead her. and in brba marie, of course!!!

my favorite male character: you will be surprised - it's GUS! but also i really really really love mike. my badass sigma dudes 😎

my favorite season: in brba season 1, it's very funny and in some ways cozy. also s4 til the moment walt convinces jesse that gus poisoned brock 😒 in bcs it's s6!

my favorite episode: in brba "salud", second favorite - "peekaboo". in bcs - "point and shoot", plus "fun and games".

my favorite cast member: patrick fabian, rhea seehorn and batsy brandt!! both of the casts are full of charismatic and smart people, but these are just funniest ones, i love how charming and hilarious they are.

my favorite ship: gusmax!!! fits my beloved "partners in crime" trope. ofc mcwexler for the same reason and their sincere attempts for their relationship to work. and also marie and hank! they are obviously not the nice people, but for each other they are very kind, loving, and, most important, accepting.

a character I’d die defending: chuck of course, "he's literally me" (jk, to some extent...). he is not the nice and kind person, but he really is consumed by his mental issues, and the problem is, even the characters base their judgement of chuck on a thought that he's just normal, but awful dude. i believe it killed him, no one truly understood what was going on. but also!!!! in some ways, jesse. as i analyze his path more, i understand he's mostly responsible for his actions and he's done tons of terrible things (but i still think he's not the brightest person and is very influenced, so the people around him contributed to his wrong choices, his parents included). but his sense of justice and inner kindness resonate with me. i like that no matter what happens to him, he still cares for people, loves kids, is willing to help and be open (the last one is at least until his captivation). i appreciate this core kindness in people.

a character I just can’t sympathize with: howard 😐 as he said, he will land on his feet. just feel sorry for his tragic end, but before that... and neo nazis in brba, fuck them!!!

a character I grew to love: i changed a lot of thoughts on brba characters because i was only 19 when i watched for the first time, including skyler and marie. but the most interesting case for me is hank. i'm still watching brba for the third time with my friend, and she made me realise hank is much more complex and interesting than he seems at first! and chuck in bcs, at first i just hated him.

my anti otp: lacho and waltjesse ✋

[mcwexlerscigarette]

What is your top 10 characters Brba/Bcs universe and why ?

Kim Wexler - Her mommy issues + troubled childhood + her whole thing of ignoring her past and pushing forward while trying to make a good life for herself is something very relatable for me. Plus shes beautiful and gorgeous and insanely smart and charming and literally everything about her is amazing to me. She is literally everything!!!

Jimmy McGill - I mean how the hell can you not love him? Yes he's deeply flawed or whatever but hes got so many great qualities. I find it interesting how hes always running from his own self. Idk I just really fucking love him and everything about him like his entire personality and all his problems and whatnot. Also he's just a super fun guy to me soooo.

Skyler White - She went through so fucking much that she really really didn't deserve. She's very kind and loving and smart. She's just a very tough character I guess. And also super gorgeous and also I would NEVER start a meth empire without her permission!!! Also I would let her fuck whoever she wanted and then I would get on my knees and apologize to HER for not being enough.

Mike - He seems all rough and mean on the outside, and I guess he kinda is for the most part, but he's also a very loving and caring guy. The love he has for his son, and Stacey and Kaylee, and Nacho and Jesse and Gus is just very endearing.

Howard Hamlin - He was just a 43 year old child. A little newborn baby. Ok I don't know what to say about him because I'm running out of thoughts but..... I just really love his perseverance to get through his shitty life.

Nacho Varga - He was just so compelling, everything about him. His story is just so beautifully tragic I guess. He kept running from something he was never going to escape. He fought so so hard and lived such a torturous and painful life.....

Jesse Pinkman - He's just a very tortured guy who finally finds some peace in the end. I hope he's living it up in Alaska.

Walter White - Super cool how he went from a sympathetic hero all the way to a villain as time slowly passed. Hes so mean...and stuff lol

McWexler's Cigarette - I just really appreciated my time on the show. It was a great learning experience for me and I'll always be close friends with the Better Call Saul cast (we have dinner together every night and we drink tequila and chain smoke and give random civilians law advice because we are all besties forever)

Ken Wins -What can I say? The guy is a winner!

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

i wasn't tagged in anything and will not tag anyone - partake if you want :)

(i saw @pastafossa 's post and just. removed the questions i didn't want to answer)

do you use sarcasm a lot? yes. more so irl i guess. am i sarcastic on here??

what's the first thing you notice about people? their teeth, skin/makeup and their hair

what's your eye colour? not-pools-of-honey-in-the-sunlight brown

scary movies or happy endings? i really like old horror movies because more modern ones are just. sad. and disgusting. like i'm not scared i just get sad for the people who die or whose lives get ruined.

and as for happy endings, depends on the movie - if it's a rom-com or a drama happy endings make me sad too, because. i am me

but i like them in corny comedies or animated ones. i don't know. sorry but this kind of a stupid question just ask for a favorite genre ( i don't have one)

also no one asked but what i hate the most in the horror genre is when a character gets zombified or gets controlled or literally reduced to slavery. like human centipede, tusk or something. probably why i hate what happens to jesse pinkman as much as i do. there is nothing more sad and nauseating and horrible than that

any special talents? my special talent is always finding a way to ruin my own life for myself for no reason

what are your hobbies? drawing, writing, sculpting, posting as an rp account of characters in one of my fav shows...

have any pets? i have had multiple cats in my life but currently no

what sports do you play/have played? let's not dwell on the past

how tall are you? what height am i giving. do i post like a tall person?

favourite subject in school?  french system so i guess french is the equivalent to when other people say "English". like literature. and PHILOSOPHY AAHHH. does theater count as a subject

dream job? none of these are realistic but actor, writer, film/tv writer, creating my own animated show...there's a lot of things i wish i could do.

but if i get realistic? i hope i can get away with being a lawyer maybe? but that obviously takes a lot of dedication and it's, from what i know, that kind of job that become your entire life. if that makes sense

honestly even a 9-5 job would be okay if i have enough free time to do something cooler on the side.

i have no idea where my life is going and yes, i am terrified

three ships: i've never shipped anyone i think

last song: heart attack (rock version) - demi lovato. this song is really cool and nostalgic but i just wish that it wasn't about having a normal crush and how you want to hold their hand. with this kind of drama and power in your vocals it would've been better if the subject was a little deeper

last movie: Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery (not kidding)

currently reading: my own tumblr posts to cringe at myself (i miss having the time and attention-span to actually read)

currently watching: better call saul (yk i'm on my brba - bcs rewatch. i talk about it too much)

currently consuming: not consuming just watching that unfinished cup of coffee from afar. i could grab it and finish but

currently craving: finishing my very-late assignments

[septembersghost]

On the one hand I get why Peter Gould didn't want to show Kim returning the finger guns and instead we get an equally heart-wrenching deep sigh like she's about to burst into tears because of course she is, he's in prison and is trying to reassure her and she's worried about him. On the other hand... Peter, honey, some people are still convinced Chuck "He'll Never Change" McGill was right all along, there's only so much you can do when a show is as devoted to the show-don't-tell rule as BCS is. And even when media does the work for you and spells things out clearly (eg, a character stating "THIS IS HOW I FEEL"), people still misinterpret things all the time. It's a bit like the Walt situation where people think he's always in the right and he was definitely doing it for his family even when he finally admits otherwise, except I do feel like Vince Gilligan in the end gives that part of the audience exactly what they want. Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with this and this ask is already getting too long, I just like reading what you have to say about the show.

i've been thinking about this a lot, especially given how many distressing responses i keep seeing about how jimmy was the villain and pure evil/trash from birth and that are convinced, as you said, that chuck was right all along, and/or that kim went to see him ruefully/in anger for the last time and walked away never intending to set eyes on him again - i admire the show for how much it leaned on subtlety and unsaid moments of depth between characters, but in the finale, i actually think peter maybe overestimated its effectiveness. there's almost...a terrible overcorrection happening where WAY too many people saw walt as still being the cool badass at the end of brba, and now too many people are interpreting jimmy oppositely here, as saul only, when neither conclusion was the intent. (it's interesting that you say you feel vince gave that part of the audience what they wanted because i don't disagree, and i don't think even he disagrees with that now. his admission that he did it for himself can easily be read as him giving skyler what she needs to hear, though it is very much the truth. i still think felina is nearly perfect in its execution, but in many respects, walt got the best ending he could have hoped to get, better by far, in fact, than many of our other characters'.)

with regards to the problem of showing and not telling being too easily misinterpreted, the flashbacks, for example - we know why jimmy is remembering specific incidents with regret and how those moments are connected, we know why jimmy can't admit true vulnerability or desires in those moments, and so he deflects and shields in all three conversations. he's not going to tell mike or walt about his regrets surrounding his brother nor how much he wants to change/improve things with kim (and while mike is forthcoming, walt notably also is not - gray matter is the easiest thing for his ego to admit is a regret because of what he's allowed that resentment to become in his head, of course he can't mention what he's done to his family, what he's done to jesse, so what we get to represent the truth is the ticking of that watch), of course jimmy doesn't sit down and stay with chuck and discuss his clients when he's struggling to barely keep them both afloat and is insecure and worried he'll be met with judgment/rejection, even before he knows the entire truth concerning how chuck feels about his legal career. and jimmy can look back on each of those moments with these men and feel contrition about how those situations all turned out, that's why we're seeing them remembered in his head, but so many people are taking them at face value and deciding they reveal the entirety of who jimmy is. someone who only cared about money. someone who only cared about the scam. someone whose relationships were merely transactional. i wish the scene flashing back to bagman was a bit different, in all honesty. this is the man who said he would never have survived, never have made it through the desert, had he not known kim was there waiting for him - and i 100% believe that when jimmy told her that, it was complete honesty from him, stripped bare of any pretense. all that mattered was getting back to her. seeing him pretend that all that mattered was the money is...really off emotionally, even as guarded as his conversations with mike are. i know it's to echo what he says about the kettleman's money in S1, but i wish we got some more interiority from jimmy there because far too much of the audience thinks what he says is all there is to him.

additionally (and i admit this is me being selfish and focused on my interests too <3), i really wish more than anything that the finale had had a flashback of he and kim before everything went so wrong, maybe even before chicanery. i don't know what it would be, but i think something intimate and kind between them would've helped the section of the audience who is still refuting their love for one another, and jimmy's true self, to understand what was going on with them at the end. i also...have this deep sorrow because i feel like we watched kim die screaming in plan and execution and then never got to see her again, only the shadow surviving of her, and there's this heavy sense of mourning i have for her even though she's alive and breathing in the room with him. i wish our last moment of them in abq wasn't the bitterness of the divorce scene. a little reminder of who she was at heart and how she really did care about helping people and how much she loved him, how much they loved and reflected and complete one another, might've given clarity for that audience too, reminding them of where she started and her potential to reclaim her agency, a path she has only just begun at the very end.

i also feel like, if we couldn't have her returning the finger guns (which i do understand! she's holding herself together there because she doesn't want to break, she doesn't want him to see her cry as she has to leave him there, and he's the one trying to reach out across that fence and show her that he's okay and that there's still something good between them - her gesture was sharing the cigarette and giving them light back, providing that hope of a spark), a flashback to jimmy and kim as they were would've been the perfect way to underscore the depth of their love story, and to give us something honest from jimmy's past. i appreciate it being open to our imaginations, but there are benefits to being clear in aspects of storytelling, and i really think that would've helped get the story's ultimate point across. something true from his time machine.

[xensergal]

Xen "Octavia" Sergal Goes On A Very Stupid And Long Rant About Her Favourite Show Helluva Boss Because She Needs To Get This Shit Off Her Chest ASAP™: The Movie.

This is a long, long ass fucking rant about this show. i will type shit as it comes up in my head. i dont care if my takes are "trash" or "shit" or whatever. its my tumblr and i get to choose whats posted here. ok.

its actually fucking insane how my 2 favourite shows are on near complete opposites to each other on the surface. you have an impossibly perfectly written show with 0 bad episodes and the greatest characters to ever be on TV (Breaking Bad), and then you have a 15-20m per episode comedy/musical/drama on youtube (Helluva Boss). but this isnt about me comparing BrBa to HB, its just about HB.

i have a lot to say about this show. a lot i really, REALLY couldnt get out due to twitter character limits/not really having many friends who watch helluva boss, so tumblr gets my full thoughts, straight from the top of my head. right as theyre being produced. enjoy.

Stuff

the premise of this show is pretty damn cool. a comedy/musical/drama about a bunch of imps in hell who start up an assassination business to make ends meet, while also yknow shenanigans n other shit happens like complicated love trigonometry, bc hey its a show you cant 1 thing forever bc thatd be stale *cough* SITCOMS *cough* and repetitive and would be a shit show, this isnt a shit show. its one of the best ive ever seen. but back to what i was saying. the show has a fantastic premise with good plot and cool characters i will get to in just a moment. i rewatched all of whats been uploaded for this post. to refresh my thoughts and finally, get all this shit off my chest which ive been needing to for all this time.

O YEA OBV SPOILERS FOR ALLLL OF HELLUVA BOSS DUHHHHHHHHHH

Pilot

this is 3 years old and damn does it show. the animation is very stiff (but still, well made) compared to later episodes, and especially 1 which ill get into later. but the pilot does a great job and introducing the viewer to the main characters of the show, those being Blitzo (Brandon Rogers), Moxxie (Richard Horvitz), Millie, and Loona (both Erica Lindbeck). all with weird, and fucked up relationships with eachother. M&M are a married couple (gross), Loona is a complete whore with syphilis, and Blitzo is her adoptive Father whos also a complete perv who stalks M&M at their house. its fun! its a good plot with good characters and its pretty damn funny. theres also a major supporting character introduced in this episode, Stolas (Brock Baker). i love him, youll see why very soon.

the pilot isnt without its issues tho, the pacing is complete ass with flashbacks inside of flash backs and its just, man idk its fucked up dude i dont like it. weird shit.

7.5/10, good shit, good opening to HB

Murder Family // S1: Episode 1

good episode! damn after a year of waiting after the pilot for something new people surely had high expectations and id say E1 followed, its pretty good.

plot wise it follows I.M.P on a job to kill some bitch n yknow shenanigans n whatnot moxxie fucks it up because hes a bitch and people almost die but moxxie saves em in the end its good and i like it!

some stuff changed from the pilot, mainly voice actors. Erica Lindbeck no longer plays both Millie and Loona, just Loona. meanwhile Millies new VA is Vivian Nixon and shes pretty good! Millie has more of a southern accent now which will make sense in a future episode. however Stolas also had a VA change, Bryce Pinkham. its flawless and makes me love Stolas even more, you will see why.

8/10 episode, great shit. much better than the pilot.

Loo Loo Land // S1: Episode 2

words cannot describe how much i love this episode. its flawless.

saying something is flawless is big, really big, but i do feel like this one is. and its all thanks to the opening sequence. the opening sequence makes the audience do a complete 180 about what they thought of a character, no longer is stolas just "a rich, important figure in hell who is extemely gay for blitzo" hes that, plus a loving and devoted father. and the music, its perfection. its the highlight of the whole moment alongside the beautiful visuals and deep character development. and on the subject of characters. Stolas #1 comfort character.

this episode introduces quite a few, the first 2 youll see are Octavia (Barrett Wilbert Weed), Stolas' daughter and Literally Me™, and also Stella (Georgina Leahy), Stolas' arranged wife who wants him dead as hell with NO shoes on in the casket for fucking blitzo. shes hot. very hot. girlboss. shes mean to Stolas tho :(

this episodes plot is cool too. I.M.P make an exception for Stolas and are hired to be bodyguards for the day at a theme park oh joy a theme park how whimsical and fun loving! oh goody! everything is on fire by the end of the episode! splendid!

but like yeaa dude this episode slaps, great plot great characters great shit, O YEA CHARACTERS i forgot about Fizzarolli (Alex Brightman) hes in this episode too, at least a robot version of him. Blitzo and Octavia hate him, thats cool.

10/10, i think this is the best episode of HB released so far. it also has Wally Wackford (Don Darryl Rivera)

Wally Wackford Counter: 1

Spring Broken // S1: Episode 3

oh damn! another banger! lets keep this good episode streak going!

this episodes also great. not as great as E2, but still great.

I.M.P get their parking spot stole by Verosika Mayday (Cristina "Vee" Valenzuela) whos a famous popstar in hell (thats why theyre in hell because they listen to pop and pop sucks listen to metal instead youll also go to hell but for a much cooler reason) and just happens to be Blitzo's ex girlfriend. so Blitzo challenges her to a duel where he bets I.M.P can kill more people than Verosika can fuck by the end of the day an who wins gets the parking spot (spoiler alert blitzo wins bc ofc, plot demands it) and then shenanigans lol.

i really dont have much to say about this one other than i like it, verosika is hot, drunk moxxie is funny, and that hehehoo sex joke. O YEA the musics good too its very good

9/10. banger

C.H.E.R.U.B // S1: Episode 4

i hate this episode. i really really hate it.

nearly everything which couldve went poorly, did. and i dont like that. let me explain.

the plot is okay, I.M.P go to kill a trillionaire. good! thats cool! fuck billionaires and especially fuck trillionaires. meanwhile a competitor, C.H.E.R.U.B, is trying to stop this guy from ending his life. and I.M.P cant have that so they convince him to fuckin die already lol. its fine but how the episode executes this is atrocious. you could easily skip through this one and go onto E5 anyway, this plot adds nothing to the current overarching storyline. yet.

for comedy, pacing and the actual joke is everything. especially if your main writer for this episode (at least by order of appearance in credits) has been doing comedy skits on youtube for many, many years now. no offense to Brandon Rogers, hes phenomenal, but this episodes pacing and jokes are trash. the pacing goes as follows:

Beginning plot development/jokes - meeting the competitors/jokes - joke - joke - joke - fight - joke - end joke. its trash and doesnt work at all imo. the jokes fall flat and its not well paced at all.

however there is 1 more point i want to bring up about not just the episode, but the show in general. regarding moxxie and the things which happen to him. moxxie in this show is essentially a less depressed Squidward Tentacles. this sounds fucking insane but Let Me Explain. the writing has him treated like a fucking punching bag for jokes and/or plot development. in E3, this was for plot development. he got stuffed in a beer keg and nearly got ate by a monster fish. this episode it was for no reason whatsoever. he just, got hurt and thats the joke. the joke is moxxie got hurt. thats it. next episode does it worse, ill get to it.

but anyway, this episode was shit but i liked the fight scene in it, that was cool.

4/10, trash but the fight was good. it also has wally wackford.

Wally Wackford Counter: 2

The Harvest Moon Festival // S1: Episode 5

wow.

when this episode first released, i didnt think much of it. i believe i said it was about an 8/10ish or something like that. rewatching it, i couldnt have been more wrong.

this episode has some fan-fucking-tastic plot. and it just might be the best plot driven episode to date. maybe E7 gives it a run for its money, maybe.

the plot is as follows, Stolas invites I.M.P to the wrath ring for a day off for the harvest moon festival. here we get to meet Millies parents Lin (Su Jan Chase) and Joe (Edward Bosco), but also Striker, whos played by Norman Fucking Reedus from video game kojima. and my GOD he fucking slays the role. besides Bryce Pinkham as Stolas, Norman Reedus as Striker has to be my personal favourite Voice in the show. its fucking fantastic.

however there is 1 character i do have to mention in particular, Sallie May (Morgana Ignis).

Why her in particular? she only has a few lines! yea true, however it gives me an opportunity to talk about the shows flawless LGBTQ+ representation. In Sallie's case, shes Transgender. you can tell the gender of an Imp by the pattern on the horns, millie for example has mostly black horns with thin white stripes, a sign of being AFAB. Moxxie and Sallie however have even sized black and white horn stripes, a sign of being AMAB. but what about other characters?

(these are all from memory so forgive me if any are wrong)

Blitzo is Pansexual

Moxxie and Millie are both Bisexual

Stolas is Gay

Stella and Octavia are currently unconfirmed (i think) tho i headcanon them both as Lesbian because i can.

Striker is also probably Gay i mean have you seen him talking to blitzo like cmon

(also funny side note i should add the VA's for Stella and Sallie, Georgina and Morgana respectively, both ship their characters together i think thats pretty fuckin cool i feel like i just have to mention that somewhere)

theres def a lot more ive missed, however these are the ones which come to mind. their sexuality/gender identity is never forced in your face, its never too painfully obvious that theyre gay for the sake of it, its pretty much flawless representation and i feel more shows should take a thing or 2 from HB in this aspect

Gushing over Norman Reedus amd LGBTQ+ rep aside, the plot revolves around a yearly game of strength in the harvest festival where blitzo and striker (among many others) compete in together. also tangent time

LETS COUNT HOW MANY TIMES MOXXIE GETS FUCKED BY A SHARK

3. thats 3 times. again, punching bad. what did moxxie do to you, anyway tangent over.

anyway striker competes in the games to gain the trust of I.M.P to stab them in the back by killing their gateway into the living world, Stolas. and you wouldnt believe who hired him (at least i didnt when first watching), Stella. anyway moxxie finds out, shit goes down, they fight, striker gets away. moxxie finally gains the trust of millies parents, big reveal, episode end. banger fucking plot and its just so damn good.

remember how i said the animation in this show gets really gooood,,this is the episode i was thinkin about when writing that. this episode has hands down the best animation (aside maybe the finale of E6) overall of any episode. with cool panorama shots which go around the whole charaters, n shit like that its great.

banger song too, striker did a sing and its good.

10/10, a great episode, but still a weaker 10/10 than E2. it also has Wally Wackford

Wally Wackford Counter: 3

Truth Seekers // S1: Episode 6

I barely remember anything from this episode, and at the time of writing, i only watched it five minutes ago.

so the plot is like, blitzo and moxxie get captured by crazy conspiracy guys called D.H.O.R.K.S (haha dorks) and its up to Da Girlz™ to save em meanwhile Da Boyz™ get truth gassed and spill a bunch of plot shit and its good i dont remember what exactly they said but its a fuckin good scene the animation is great with a unique visual style bc theyre hallucinating and OOOOOOOH the hallucination song its a fucking bop i love it (This is a good time to mention for anyone who yet doesnt know Sam Haft has put a bunch of the songs hes wrote for HB on Spotify, they may be just covers, but theyre still fucking great.) but anyway the fuckin, fight scene when millie and loona catch up to moxxie and blitzo is gahhdamn fuckin beautiful its so well animated n shit and then ya just got

Demon Stolas.

because fuck yes.

anyway yea good episode i guess plots good everythings good its just, i forget about this episode so often im convinced its not real

6/10, banger, just wish it wasnt so forgettable

OZZIE'S // S1: Episode 7 - FINALE PART I

rewatching this episode hurts. i cant put it into words how, its just a lot of fucked up shit to take in at once and i really do not want to write about this because its late and im tired so ill keep it fucking simple

Blitzo fucks everything up by using a fake date with Stolas as a cover to stalk M&M on their 1 year anniversary of their wedding, but then moxxie breaks into song and Asmodeus (James Monroe Iglehart) does not like that one bit so he and fizzarolli fuckin rip him a new asshole meanwhile blitzo interferes and gets both him and stolas into shit and my GOD this is where it gets depressing.

this song, despite it being a banger, is depressing as shit. i cant stand it, i cant stand how it treats blitzo and stolas

the shitty choices theyve made...

the people theyve thrown away...

its all coming back to them in song form. and it fucking sucks for them.

but m&m are doin okay ig they fuckin, hit fizz over the head and continued their song after that shit its all good for them tho ig or smthn idk im tired.

10/10, a phenomenal ending to the 1st season of one of the greatest adult animated shows ever written. it also has Wally Wackford.

Wally Wackford Counter: 4

THE CIRCUS // S2: Episode 1

damn i like this episode

i like the blitzo backstory with how he and fizz used to be before they now hate eachother, with how he met stolas and became his first friend. with everything really. its a great episode and like

damn its good idk what to say im tired its just a good episode.

Johnathan Freeman does a good job as Paimon, stolas' dad too even tho hes a shitty dad.

ok yea plot tho, it takes place like ~25 years before the pilot which is neat i like backstories. but like, paimon literally bought blitzo just so stolas could have a friend so he didnt need to be a father to him thats just. man i dont like that. blitzo and stolas are so cute tho i like them. uuuh fuckin, more stella content too shes back still a girlboss still hot, still mean to stolas :( you can tell im tired cant you lemme just say a thing

WAIT I FORGOT THE SONG AT THE END the song at the end is so goood i love it. idk if i like it more than You Will Be Okay but i like it its good i like it thats all i can really say rn. i could say more if i wasnt tired but im tired.

9/10, good shit, good backstory, good good good good episode.

SEEING STARS // S2: Episode 2

i have. so much to say about this. too many words to fit into tumblrs infinite character limit. but ill keep it brief because i want to

you have no idea, how long, i have waited for this to happen. just one scene between Octavia and Loona. just one, and now i have it. i am complete.

i saw this post which talked about star and moon symbolism between octavia and loona and it made me realise, holy shit, there is gonna be so much more octavia and loona content in future episodes if all this isnt a coincidence. and i am ready for it all.

i could talk about the rest of the episode if i wanted too, but i dont. i only want to talk about these perfect 2 minutes between these characters. i do think this is the best moment in the entire show so far. seeing a headcanon that youve had for so long (in this case loona and via being friends) become true, it connects with you in a way that not much else can.

and i dont care about the rest of the episode. not one bit. not right now anyway. i just want this moment, forever.

10/10. a good episode all around, and a truly, perfect moment. it also has Wally Wackford.

Wally Wackford Counter: 5

and damn thats like, all of helluva boss so far. ive been writing this for like 7h now becasue tumblr keeps breaking for me and i keep having to write anything all over again. god im tired. but im so glad to finally get all this off my chest after years of not really having anywhere to gush about this show. it means a lot to me, more than what people think. and i dont know where i would be without it, literally.

"but whats with the wally wackford counter" its there because its funny and hes a funny character.

[thealogie]

i like to think saul/jimmy sees a bit of kim in skyler 😔 also the weird thing about brba is how it kinda faded away from the public consciousness despite having an ending people seemed to like at the time. it's almost like the same thing that happened to game of thrones minus the initial outrage if that makes sense. ive seen an article attribute that to the ending being too neat and leaving nothing to interpretation but also i think it's just the overexposure that made people tired of talking about the show

he like definitely likes the smart bossy blondes (I’m very excited to see the jimmy/Kim dynamic, which I’ve seen only a little of!)

Yeah it was definitely like GoT except with a universally beloved ending. I definitely think it was the overexposure and also i think it was how bad the guy/mainstream fans were...like it wasn’t just the skyler white haters who were bad but just, so many people were focused on the “oh cool action!! drugs!! twisty plot!!” aspect and if you don’t care about it on a character level you can’t really care about the show after it’s over. And that vibe was off putting tbh. I love getting into (or back into!) things after no one cares about them....my show now....

[jimmymcgools]

Idk if you’re still doing the fic meme but would love to hear your commentary on the afternoon scene at white sands!

i definitely am! ♥️♥️♥️ and so excited to get to talk about white sands. this turned into an extra long one, too, so brace yourself.  

fic commentary meme and my answers 🙌

this whole afternoon i’ve been trying to remember how i picked white sands. it must’ve been looking through photos of new mexico on tumblr? i can’t think of any fun origin story for it at least, and i definitely had no idea that it’d end up being such a turning point in the story. white sands! it stands in for so much now.  

He realizes that the haze he saw from afar was actually the white sand of the dunes, picked up by the wind and left hanging in the air like a fine fog. this specific detail is something i noticed on google streetview more than any photos 

so hazy!

The artwork in the visitor’s center had depicted mammoths and giant sloths in the grasslands around the lake, lush and vibrant. there’s a bunch of those streetview bubble things actually inside the white sands visitor’s center, so i snooped around in there. zooming in and reading all the info boards like a tragic version of a real tourist. 

It’s finer than any sand he’s ever felt—more like flour than anything, and it’s completely cool to the touch despite the afternoon sun.  i really wanted to capture the tactile feeling of being in this place, and luckily a bunch of tripadvisor reviews had described the feeling of the sand well enough that i could give it my best shot! 

“So I guess there used to be a big lake here,” Kim says, staring out over the edge of the dune. alternate take: kim and jimmy visit camp green lake and dig holes every day and eat raw onions. 

He wiggles his bare toes in the sand. “Fists with your toes,” he says. Kim chuckles. “Better than a shower and a cup of coffee.” kim and jimmy the movie nerds! jimmy probably should’ve done this as soon as he landed in abq, huh? at least he’s doing it now. the secret to surviving.  

“I wonder if Chuck’s ever been out here,” he says gonna go ahead and make that a definite “no”, jimbo. 

The first time I was just dumb and eighteen,” Jimmy says. “I was off and on with her all through high school ahh the infamous marriages. i wanted to preserve the vibes of like, stupid romantic-at-heart jimmy, especially because by now i had settled pretty firmly into an acb jimmy who looks at kim wistfully like 😍24/7, so i needed continuity with that. i think i actually included them in the cicero chapter, but “mr and mrs kimberly wexler” “do you make 25 foot signs? no!?” legal pad boy 100% seems like someone who was filling notebooks with a girl’s name in high school. 

i like the idea that he did some dumb, grand, drunken, romantic gesture while they’re all cutting loose in vegas. something that doesn’t look nearly as cool as he thinks it does.  

i have a little timeline for jimmy’s life, and so i knew that i could sync this marriage up with roughly the era his father loses the store and then dies. i liked the idea that this and other circumstantial changes happened and the teenaged relationship just couldn’t weather it. 

“College of DuPage,” Jimmy says, and he holds up his fist. “Go Chaps!” jimmy’s college years!! this is so interesting to me! did someone in his family really encourage this? was this an earlier attempt to get on the straight and narrow? all food for thought. either way, he didn’t go far from home, unlike chuck. 

Me and Lisa…we were pretty good. For a long time. She did theater jimmy should’ve just been a theater kid. get in a spotlight, get those eyeballs on him.  

“And the worst part is, I introduced them! Because he was dating Mom,” Jimmy spits i think i saw someone else use this somewhere, and i wish i could remember who, but as a way to tie in the step-dad thing from brba it appealed to me. i think ruth has that same playful/theatrical side to her as jimmy, so i liked that connection here, too. also it’s just so horrible and dividing

She folds her lips inwards and studies him, then tilts her head and gives a little smile. “I can’t believe you’re telling me this in your stupid sombrero hat.”  i hadn’t planned this at all when i had jimmy buy the dumb hat in the last chapter, but it ended up working well -- kim deflecting from the serious moment with some lively hat talk, jimmy loves hat talk, the perfect distraction

The white sands seem almost to reflect it, becoming nacreous with pink and yellow and orange, taking on the color of the world above.  as a little metaphor for jimmy, here. he’s just reflecting everyone around him. 

The brim of the hat casts a diagonal stripe of blue shadow over her face. ahaha oh god i had forgotten i’d included this sledgehammer-subtle parking garage scene reference

“I’m not ashamed of being from there,” Kim says crisply. She shakes her head as if to shake that thought of her mind. “Not at all. But I wanted a blank slate. i always go into writing a scene like this planning for her to reveal more than she does, but it never feels believable. but i wanted to make that distinction between her hiding red cloud and her being ashamed of where she was born. i don’t think it makes sense for kim to be the latter. 

“I guess they just wanted somebody to listen to them. But it bugged me. Like they expected me to fix the weather for for them, too, in between bagging their groceries.” this seems like a very kim trait to me. that rather than just listening and nodding along to these farmer’s chatty complaints, she feels like it’s on her to fix everything, when of course it isn’t, and i doubt any of these customers would expect it to be.   “There was a time when I thought I could get married,” she says. “It even seemed almost inevitable. Like getting wound up so tight and then released on a path. i think it was a friend who made this connection, but imo kim does this in bcs too. especially when you think about her career path at HHM and how it’s going in s1/s2, or her time with mesa verde. to her credit, she breaks off the rails eventually in those situations, but she does seem to ride these tracks long past the point when it’s clear she’s not on a good route. i guess you could say that about her relationship with jimmy, too? depending on how fatalistic (and maybe reductive?) you want to be. 

The sky around it glows amber. West, he thinks. “But you weren’t stuck in Red Cloud,” he says.   and kennedy’s head faces west, faces the future.  

he pauses for a moment, eyes drawn to the long shadows cast backward by the two of them, rippling over the white dunes. They stretch away so far they seem to vanish before they end.  something about this image seems perfect for the two of them. maybe that’s just the dumb jimmy romantic in me talking. kim and jimmy’s shadows dipping over the curve of the dunes, out of sight, before they end. 

hell, this got LONG! i’ll end with this quote i took a screenshot of in the visitor’s center. better call saul, anybody?

[dedicadoamax]

here’s all my hcs about gay brba/bcs characters’ relationships to and experience with their homosexuality just for funsies

gus - understood himself to be totally disinterested in girls since like age 8, didn’t realize that that meant he was interested in boys until his late teens. had really no hangups about it, as he already knew that he wasn’t like other men and would never be like them, so this didn’t make a difference. def had some one-off sexual experience while serving in the chilean military but frankly didn’t even imagine he would ever be in a serious relationship until he met max

max - knew from a young age due to being in love with a childhood best friend, but had his heart broken. dealt with internal shame over it for a while, but by his mid-20s was kind of working his way through all the other gay men in the communist party of chile. it never worked out with them for more than a month or so. and of course he finally shacked up with a literal member of the junta fgfdfvfds

mike - the lack of ANY canon details about his marriage other than that it lasted 22 years, including the fact that he never even says the word “wife”, makes me wanna think that his spouse wasn’t even a woman. i’m thinking two possibilities: 1) he had a kid with a woman who ran off after the fact, leaving him a single father, and soon after he privately “married” a man who acted as a second father to matty, or 2) his husband was trans. in any case due to the time period i have to think he was deeply closeted for much of his life, perhaps he gave in and went to a gay bar after returning home from the vietnam war and that’s where he met his future husband.

gale - no way that that fruit was ever NOT obvious. he’s always been THE weird gay kid and he’s owned it. he was the head of UNM’s GSA, he’s organized pride parades, he’s written spirk fanfic, the whole nine yards. the only thing that’s kept him from long-term relationships are his strong controversial opinions. also definitely has a crush on gus.

nacho - has known he’s gay most of his life, likely initially through a crush on domingo, but has remained completely in the closet in order to maintain his image and his safety. if it were just his relationship with his father that he was worried about, he could get away with simply not being obvious about having a bf - but he’s also stuck in the deeply homophobic environment that is the cartel. hence the two entire girlfriends. they maintain his cover (whether they know they’re a cover or not) and in return, he takes care of them. when he’s feeling particularly pent-up and can find the time, he’ll go out to a gay club to hook up. but the closest thing he’s had to a meaningful relationship with another man are the feelings he used to have (and still occasionally gets) for domingo and the dynamic he has with lalo.

lalo - due to his environment, he could unfortunately comprehend sex long before he could comprehend romance - but even with lust being the only thing on the table, he’d grown up without having his desires questioned and so he still confidently knew that he only wanted it with men. the salamancas could always tell that something was “off” about him and he could tell that they could tell, but he knew that ultimately nothing would be done about it as long as he served the family. so he’s never bothered to really keep it a secret. he’s had many flings and treated them all seriously, knowing well enough that his affections would fade and that he would move on after a bit. nacho’s likely the first one to challenge that, as he’s the first guy to also be in the cartel and not fear him and therefore to really Get him.

howard - realized through a fling with jimmy, back when he worked in the mailroom. started with a drunken makeout in a closet at an HHM christmas party, turned into a series of rendevous that ended when jimmy decided that howard was ashamed of him and that he’d only ever be howard’s dirty little secret. the truth was that howard’s reputation and therefore privilege was on the line, and he just couldn’t risk that becoming known about him. and he likely doesn’t become ready to let people know that until after chuck’s death, after he’s gotten therapy. in the meantime he’s neglected to get married and has honestly probably been pining for jimmy the whole time. 

jimmy - not gay but bi, but still included here bc i gotta. similar to gus his realization that he liked men was just like “ok cool just another way i’m unique :)”. he had it in highschool when following through with a drunken dare to suck a dick, and he also realized that he was pretty good at it. tbh i think he might’ve done it as a side-gig whenever the scams he pulled with marco were coming up a little dry. it’s very fitting that he later gets repeatedly told he’s The Guy With The Mouth.

[tinylilvalery]

Ok here are all the theories in my head of what tf happens to Kim by the end of BCS and why she isn't in BrBa. Please interact! Okay anyway:

1. I'm gonna rip the band-aid off and say the one I fear the most: Kim dies. Somehow, idk. There's argument for and against this in how Jimmy would cope: would he keep being a lawyer if Kim died (especially if it was too do with his connections to criminals)? But on the other hand, when people extremely close to Jimmy have died (big examples being Marco and Chuck) Jimmy does a very good job of burying them mentally, repressing them after a short period of grieving, and just basically pretending like they never existed as a way of coping... So, considering his character, maybe he could do that to Kim.

2. Kim and Jimmy go their separate ways. Who knows why: do they get divorced because they can't be in a relationship anymore? Do they stay married but seperate for each other's safety due to an outside threat? I could see this happening but also, Kim and Jimmy getting married was a massive step in the sense that despite the relationship reaching near breaking point, Kim would rather marry Jimmy than cut him from her life. Before their marriage I could see them seperating far easier, especially in the earlier seasons when their relationship wasn't so solidified and they had rocky spots, but after the marriage idk. They're extremely attached now and Kim has shown that she wants to be with Jimmy despite the dangers that have come into his life. At this point I really don't know what it would take to shake Kim so much that she leaves Jimmy. Jimmy is totally smitten with Kim so I have to squint really hard to just imagine him being the one to seperate them. I could see him trying to do it if it meant Kim was protected if her life was in danger, but this is Kim we're talking about, she would stand her ground.

3. This is a kind of extension to 2, but the theory that Kim disappears with a new identity thanks to the vacuum cleaner dude that Jimmy uses to set up his life as Gene. Maybe her life was in danger so that's what she does. I have the same rebuttal tho as I said in 2. Kim is fucking tough and stubborn, I can't see her running away from a fight, no matter if her life is in danger. Like, in season 5 after Lalo came to the apartment, it was Jimmy that insisted they go stay in a hotel for safety, and it was Kim who was like "okay cool but I'm still gonna go to work, I'm not hiding for the rest of my life".

4. Kim goes to prison???? I thought of this like half an hour ago and ahhhhhh. Idk tho idk.

5. Kim doesn't go anywhere. She's married to Jimmy throughout BrBa we just don't get shown it because he's a side character. While I do like this for obvious reasons, it is a bit cracked. Jimmy's remarks about other women (mainly in his first season of BrBa) indicate that he's single and not in a committed relationship with Kim. Knowing his characterisation and how much he worships the ground Kim walks on, cheating is out of the question for him. I don't think this theory has any real grounds to it, but it's nice and fun to think of them still being married and together in BrBa because it gives me emotional support lol.

This shit is fucking driving me crazy. I need Kim to be okay 😭. Also in the black and white post BrBa future that plays out in BCS I have no fuckin idea what the ending is going to be. The fairytale ending is that Kim finds Jimmy and they reunite and it ends with them being together again..... I'm not ready to face the possibility where the show doesn't end like that. Like, why tf would you build up these characters so much and make me love them so much to not give me a happy ending 😞😞

[cesaray]

Ehy there! I'm the same anon as before. Wanted to let you know that your answer was very cool! I personally prefer BrBa (there is a weight in BrBa that I genuinely love despite feeling emotionally drained every time I rewatch S5), but I totally get what you mean with BCS being lighter and so, easier to watch. This said I'm curious, what do you think about the various characters? Other than Walter White, who is probably the biggest asshole in history (to be fair, that was the point though) lol

hey anon! i get what you mean by the weight in brba and perhaps a few years back i would’ve liked that as well, but in these trying times bcs hit the spot better for me. maybe i’ve evolved as a viewer as well and now also looks for other factors that make a show ‘good’, beyond ‘dark and gritty’ and the like 

now characters - overarching comment is that i like how complex and morally gray they are 

>>> [as of now i’m on 5x09 so i don’t know anything that happens hereafter] 

- jesse: perhaps the character that the audience feels the most - he was absolutely not ready for the whirlwind ordeal he got himself into. he’s desperately trying to retain some humanity but at the same time is constantly being threatened, cajoled, and deceived back into the fold. talk about trauma! there is still so much good in him and i hope he gets to a good place again. protect him

- mike: what a guy!?! mike had similar motivation to walter at the outset (to provide for his family) but went down the road very differently. he’s methodical and pragmatic but didn’t get consumed by ‘the game’. i think his backstory in bcs was brilliant and it shed more light on how a former cop came to do what we see him doing on a day to day basis in brba. 'providing for kaylee’ as a sole motivation for turning criminal is too thin, while the story with matty made the character of mike whole, because it made a crack in him that let other things in. absolute legend. shame he got off’d by walter with his tiny gun

- fring: what a great character - giancarlo esposito did an amazing job with him. a man so meticulous, so rational, so careful, whose eventual downfall stems from his irrational, burning hatred for the man who killed his lover (getting black sails vibes here guys). and what a very terminator way to go. i have manythings to say about fring but also nothing at all because he’s just *chef’s kiss* 

- lalo: exuberant, flamboyant, surprisingly well-adjusted lalo. how brilliant. the biggest menace up north in a floral shirt. brings real diversity to the salamancas who otherwise are blanketed crazy or crazy. gets hosed by kim about getting his shit together? actually proceeds to get his shit together. absolutely dying to see him in bcs s6

- skyler: for the first few seasons skyler kind of served as the mirror, reflecting the horrors of walter’s grotesque transformation. then she corrupts herself and helps walter launder the money in an attempt to protect her family, only to find that there is no end to walter’s pursuit for more, and this time the danger comes from not who walter associates himself with, rather from walter himself. i hope something good happens to her!! [edit during 5x12: i take it back - the blasted woman wants walt to kill jesse] 

- jimmy: saul goodman as we see him in brba is a completely flat character - he’s a dirty lawyer. that’s pretty much it. bcs is the polar opposite. i remember watching bcs and reflecting that (esp the first few seasons) the show was not in a hurry to go anywhere, but rather explored every possible angle and just let the audience bask in Good Writing. jimmy mcgill who started off just wanting to get his place in the world, and ended up finding a way to do that by becoming saul goodman - leaving his family name, his brother who loomed over him all his life behind. with that said i feel like there’s quite the gap to fill between end of s5 bcs and brba

- nacho: ngl he’s kind of a fav of mine. what’s up with him constantly trying to kill his boss? dude singlehandedly accelerated the demise of the salamanca name. and what a backstabbing little bitch after lalo brought him to his HOUSE and poured him (expensive) drinks by the FIRE. absolutely dying to see what happens in bcs s6. (although i think my boy ignacio is destined for tragedy here... )

- kim: what can i say about kim other than that i love her?? brilliant, fiercely protective kim. kim kind of mirrors skyler in that initially she gets pulled into the orbit of someone else’s chaos. however kim saw the dark side and on some  subconscious level, liked it. also she’s So Good at her job and it’s so enjoyable to watch. she’s also the reason lalo knows about the cayman islands 

there are other characters i could write about but i will end my little essay here 

[villa-kulla]

Some of the Breaking Bad sights from my mini-trip to the southwest! Was visiting a friend in Colorado but flew in and out of Albuquerque so took full advantage by making my way around some of the more iconic BrBa/El Camino/BCS locations! (going down, left, right, left, right...)

The Holy Land aka Twisters aka Los Pollos Hermanos! This one in particular was pretty surreal, and my visit happened to coincide with a small tour group passing through so I was able to eavesdrop on their guide and hear about who sat in which booths etc. Didn’t eat there but did get a couple gatorades since I - very predictably - got sunstroke on the first day.

Had my first breakfast at The Grove! Super nice cafe which I would have enjoyed more had I not been so anxious that morning. Two of my flights in were cancelled (one literally turning back midair), so I’d gotten in super late and had a stressful time finding my way to my hotel in the dark with no internet/gps, in a rental car I didn’t really know well yet. Anyways woke up the next morning at 4 feeling so anxious I debated just flying back home that same day lol. But I told myself to get a grip and to go sightsee to feel better AND I DID. Anyways this was my first stop after getting myself out of the hotel and I couldn’t eat much of what seemed like a very good breakfast sandwich. But the tea + stevia was great! Better than Lydia’s anyhow:P

Got my nails done at Zen Nail Spa, which was the one Saul tries to convince Jesse to buy to launder his money! “Pink, Pinkman, get it?”

The Dog House! I so wish I’d eaten here, but when you’re full you’re full. Also wish I’d gone at night to see the neon sign properly, but I was pretty wiped out by sundown and had a long drive the next day. Next time!

Jesse’s House! Okay so I wasn’t originally planning on going to any of the houses, but when I realized how close it was to the Dog House I walked by, and since no one was home I snapped a quick pic. It really is a gorgeous house/neighbourhood. I wasn’t even tempted to go to the ‘White House’ though, just knowing how much the owners have to put up with lol.

Tuco’s clubhouse!...which is actually a very funky cafe called Java Joe’s.

The Owl Cafe! This one I’d already seen pictures of pre-El Camino, and it’s exactly the kind of kitschy structure I’m into. Picked up a very good chocolate milkshake there. 

Probably the highlight of these sights, El Moreno aka ‘El Michoacano’ aka where Nacho and the Salamancas conduct their cartel business! This one is quite close to Twisters, and on my way there I was like ‘oh that’s a cool yellow building, oh THAT’S IT!’ Stopped in on the way back, and it looks exactly like it does on the show. I ended up grabbing early dinner there which was delish (I don’t think it was it was Lalo cooking back in in the kitchen...). But yeah just a really neat, out of the way, super authentic little restaurant, and I totally get the showrunners seeing it and wanting to include it just because of what a distinct exterior it has.

Also picked up some swag of course! It’s probably for the best I never visited ABQ at the height of my BrBa infatuation haha otherwise I’m sure there wouldn’t have been a single piece of merch left in the city:P But I got a BCS mug to go with my BrBa one and some blue ‘meth candy’ from the lady who made all the rock candy for the show. 

Oh and I also had a nice long chat with the guy who runs ‘The Breaking Bad Store’ in Albuquerque, which is all very cool BrBa souvenirs. He’s met pretty much the whole cast/crew and says everyone is crazy nice. He has a lot of their autographs tattooed on his arms (if it were not obvious, he’s a massive fan lol) and apparently when Rhea Seehorn saw them she said ‘not a lot of the women on there, huh?’ so he had her sign his arm and he later showed it to her tattooed and she was delighted lol #queen. But yeah we traded BCS theories, gushed a lot about different scenes, and you should definitely stop in and say hi if you’re a fan and in town, because he’s very nice and had a lot of good stories!

Anyways I saw a lot of other cool, non Breaking Bad stuff in ABQ too haha, it’s a very neat city, but thought I’d keep the BrBa pics/trivia confined to one post:P But yeah, I had a shorter trip than planned because of all the nonsense with my flights, but it was still nice to get one full day in ABQ before driving up to see my friend! I’d go back anytime.

[mcgills]

So, this happened. ANDJDJEKDB. SEEING NETWORK AND MEETING BRYAN CRANSTON IS A THING THAT HAPPENED. If you’ve been following me a while, you probably know Breaking Bad is my favorite show of all time. I never dreamed I’d get to see Bryan on stage, let alone meet him, but then I found out Network had transferred to NYC, and I got my ticket—forth row center ahhhhh that in and of itself was a trip. Still, even then I never presupposed I’d meet him because I never want to get ahead of myself—BUT HERE WE ARE. Without any hesitation, he is absolutely phenomenal. That is one Olivier that was very well deserved x infinity. There is so much heavy lifting to be done in this show on all fronts—dramatic/comedic/physical/emotional—and he makes it look easy. It’s hilarious and tragic and unsettlingly real, and it runs a mile a minute. I hope beyond hope The National Theatre Live releases it. He’s just a force to be reckoned with and such a nice, funny person.

Not that anyone would want to, but please do not post my pics elsewhere. Thank you!

A cut for dashes!

He’s just like I imagined, really. He is so kind to fans. He even guaranteed he WOULD sign for and take pictures with everyone so that people weren’t pushing and shoving and vying for the front. One girl pushed in from the second row (why are there always those that just CAN’T follow the rules) on the second night and he told her he would come back to her after he got through with those there before her. (Go Bryan!) His assistant keeps track of who is next at the barriers, and she even takes the picture for you. It’s such a cool thing for them to do because really...they don’t have to do any of this, but they want the process to be civil and respectful and as chill as possible, which I majorly appreciate. He’s a huge cut-up, which you probably know if you’ve ever seen any of his interviews or BTS commentaries, etc. He jokes with everyone, seriously...everyone, but you can also tell he loves his craft and is serious about it (obviously). He takes in stride the never ending silly questions and comments like, just from my two experiences, “How is Malcolm?” or “Hey Bryan, I am the one who [insert verbiage here]!” comments (This probably is just my own issue, tbh. LOL. Because I know he fully loves and embraces BrBa completely and still does charity events, etc. involving the show). He’s just a really genuine, light-hearted, super passionate, super caring, super vibrant presence. In short, he’s awesome.

The first night, I was toward the end of the “first row” of the line. This was also the night I saw the play, so I ran out just as soon as I could with my Playbill hoping I would get a good spot (if indeed he came out). The security guy told us he would sign for everyone but that pictures had to be when he was signing because Bryan had somewhere to be. No actual pics WITH Bryan. Just as soon as he came out, that totally didn’t happen. For everyone who asked, Bryan took the time to take a selfie with them. He was very good to make sure people got a successful pic as well. He always greeted me with a “Hi! How are you?” I told him how phenomenal the show was. I asked if I could take a selfie with him and he said “Sure!” You can probably tell how excited I was by my horrible face in the first pic. lmao. IGNORE THAT. He thanked me for coming and I told him I was a big fan. He did sign for everyone and took a nice amount of time with each person given he had to be somewhere.

The second night was busier, but even more chill because he was able to take more time. I wanted to get my poster signed, so I went back and got a front spot at the barriers hoping for a second stroke of luck. IT HAPPENED. I have to first tell the story of a lady beside me because it’s just TOO GOOD.

This lady had her Network script for Bryan to sign. She also had her friend and interpreter with her because she was deaf. When he got to her, she told Bryan that the theater told her they did not have an interpreter for the show. So she would know what was going on, she purchased and read the play script before her upcoming show the following night. Not only did he seem super touched by this, but he was also shocked that the theatre didn’t have an interpreter. He said, “Really?!? We don’t have that here? In London, I know we had that.” Then he went, “Bastards!” and then he told the interpreter to say: “Assholes!” Done. And lastly...”Motherfuckers!” lololol. By this time, the friend was cracking up, the lady was covering her mouth “shocked.” She was dying laughing and we were dying laughing, and then he laughed and genuinely said, “I’m sorry. Tomorrow, right?” to reconfirm the day she was seeing the play, then he asked if she wanted to get a picture (the answer was yes) and told her it was nice to meet her.

So, by this time, when he got to me, I was ofc losing it, grinning like an idiot. (I do that anyway, lbr, I had no chill, and I’m like WORDS. What are words??) I said my customary “Hi!” and he goes “How are you?” I said, “I’m good! I love the show.” I had my Network poster out for him to sign, and as he wrote “Bryan” I went, “Do you mind to personalize it?” To that he looked at me and said, “Sure! What’s your name?” I said, “It’s Ashlee with two e’s. A-s-h-l-e-e.” He said, “Hold on — A-s-h...” Me: “l-e-e.” Then he went, “L-E-E. OOOOO...FANCY!” In a sing-song voice. LOL. I know I looked like the biggest friggin’ idiot because I was smiling so big. I laughed and said, “Yeah. I’m a non-conformist. Breaking out of the mold.” He finished the auto with “Fancy!” and I died. He always asked each person if they wanted a picture. Very cool. Everyone always said yes. lol. For me, this was all an out of body experience since I don’t even remember handing his assistant my phone, but when I reached my hand out and he saw my phone case (it has got these tiny black Swarovski crystals literally all over it) he said, “Look at that! Beautiful!” He puts his arm out and we take the pic and he said, “Nice, sparkly phone case!” I was still grinning like an idiot (SHOCKER). I said, “Thank you SO much!” He said, “You’re welcome.” and I went back to the hotel flipping outtttt. I’M SO PSYCHED RN I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. It was one of those moments where I was going THIS IS WALTER WHITE. THIS IS HOWARD BEALE. THIS IS CRANSTON WHO WON THE OLIVIER AND A MILLION EMMYS, ETC. AND HE’S SO NICE. It was another one of those unreal experiences I’m incredibly grateful for, and I just love when my faves turn out to be awesome. 15/10 person/actor would recommend on all counts.

[enbouton]

Better Call Saul Rewatch, Part 3/30: Reasonable Doubt Type Stuff

Nacho (Season 1, Episode 3)

Written by Thomas Schnauz / Directed by Terry McDonough

A metal container hinges open; someone tosses in two sets of keys, a pen, and then an enormous brick-type cellphone, signalling that this is the show’s first flashback. There’s a distinctive cool blue tint to this scene that’s consistent through all but a couple of the other flashbacks, and the lighting is even more polarised than usual. (Writing this, I just remembered the one time Breaking Bad used this specific flavour of colour and lighting: the early flashback to young Walt and Gretchen.)

It’s the early nineties. Chuck wears a three-piece suit (of course he does) and Jimmy, ostensibly about 28 or 29 here, sports jailhouse scrubs and an awful shag mullet. Credit to Bob Odenkirk for animating Jimmy in such a way that he does come across as much younger; he fidgets on the edge of his seat like a restless teenager, his emotions spilling everywhere.

Chuck informs us that Jimmy is not only facing property damage and assault charges but a potential place on the sex offender registry. (They did a good job holding back the payoff— what Jimmy actually did— until the end of the season.) Jimmy admits to being in “a bit of a pickle”, but insists that the charges are trumped up. It’s telling that while Jimmy clearly does admire and respect Chuck for his standing as a lawyer, he talks of the law solely in terms of “tricks”, “loopholes”, “technicalities”— as if all he needs to get out of trouble is for Chuck to apply the right cheat code.

As Jimmy squirms, Chuck mentions that it’s been five years since they last saw each other. According to Chuck, their mom called him after Jimmy called her from jail, crying and begging for help (Jimmy strenuously denies that last part). “I know I’m a lousy brother,” Jimmy says. “I’m a lousy brother, I’m a big screw-up... and if I was just a better person, I would not only stop letting you down, you know what? I’d stop letting me down. And it’s about time that I start to make both of us proud. Am I right?” 

Looking at Chuck’s face here, you get the sense that it barely matters what Jimmy does from this point on; even if Chuck did once have the capacity to feel proud of him, that ship has sailed.

Back in the present, Jimmy, not actively suffering for a change, helps himself to some cucumber water, which is both pleasing to look at and makes nice underwater sounds. 

He wears white in this scene, maybe indicating his attempt to make a fresh start and do the right thing. Credit where it’s due: Jimmy’s desire to warn the Kettlemans is genuinely altruistic, and he doesn’t stand to benefit from it at all.

Jimmy considers calling Nacho, then calls Kim, whose first instinct is to ask him if Chuck’s all right:

Jimmy: Yeah, Chuck... Chuck is Chuck. All right? Everything’s all right. I just wanted to call you. So, uh... hey. Whatcha doing?

Kim: Jimmy... no. I’m not talking dirty to you.

I love them and I love this conversation. This is how you establish intimacy! Jimmy promises nothing but “quality PG phone conversation, PG-13 at worst” and then steers the talk towards the Kettlemans; he gets all “gee, it sure would be bad if something were to happen to them!” with her, laying it on just thick enough to weird her out but not to make her concerned for their immediate safety. Plan A having failed, Jimmy tries Plan B, section I, “Warn The Kettlemans While Disguising My Voice”, then section II, “Just Tell Them They’re In Danger Then Hang Up Very Fast”, and in the end they get the message (it helps that Nacho’s van is indeed lurking outside their house).

(Aside: the Kettlemans’ awful voicemail message is amazing. You just know they dress up in matching outfits for the annual family Christmas card.)

Next morning, Kim calls: the Kettlemans have gone missing, and Jimmy has neither the cash nor the stickers to leave the courthouse parking lot. Mike won’t budge, so Jimmy reaches into the booth, raises the boom himself, and drives off yelling “screw you, geezer!”; ah, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

At the Kettleman home, Kim implores Jimmy to tell her why he said what he did; he looks torn, but tells her that he doesn’t know what happened. He drives to a payphone and leaves several breathless, desperate messages for Nacho, framed effectively in a mixture of tight close-ups and expansive wide shots (they make good use of that big blank wall behind him). There’s such a good long beat after Jimmy takes the hang-up call: high angle, city noise.

It turns out that the cops were already tracking Nacho, whose license plate was reported by one of the Kettlemans’ neighbours, so the scene culminates in Jimmy getting chased down an alley and arrested. Nacho assumes that Jimmy set him up (this episode is just rife with misunderstandings) and orders him to get him out, “or you’re a dead man”. Kim, Jimmy and the detectives head back to the Kettlemans’ house, where Kim pointedly tells Jimmy the names and ages of Craig and Betsy’s kids. Jimmy infers from the missing doll that Jojo wasn’t kidnapped, but the show doesn’t present the detectives as incompetent— they already noted that the doll was missing, and they’ve verified that the Kettlemans haven’t travelled. “If you run, everyone knows you’re guilty,” Jimmy insists, foreshadowing what will happen to him seven or eight years down the line.

Jimmy finally admits that he gave the Kettlemans an “anonymous” warning call, whereupon Kim delivers the deathless line, “Oh God, you didn’t… you didn’t do the sex robot voice, did you?” There is, as they say, a lot to unpack there, but the Kettlemans are still missing, so the conversation quickly moves on. Jimmy speeds back to the courthouse and gets arrested again after assaulting Mike, who has decided he doesn’t want his parking business any more.

There’s a glint of interest in Mike’s eye as Jimmy insists that the Kettlemans “took themselves”. He may not like Jimmy very much at this point, but he sees something in him worth paying attention to. Declining to press charges, he tells Jimmy a story about a man back home who disappeared and was found hiding two doors down from where he lived. “Nobody wants to leave home,” Mike says. Yet he’s very far from home; so is Jimmy; so is Kim. (So is Gus, more so than any other character.) The multiple meanings of home, and what it means to be alienated from a place you are tied to in the past or the present, are some of the most interesting themes explored in BrBa and BCS.

Jimmy goes back to the Kettleman home, deduces that they’ve gone camping, and plunges into the Sandia foothills to track them down. The shots in this montage do well to establish just how far he’s hiking and how sweaty and miserable he is in his suit and loafers. 

Around nightfall, his efforts are rewarded: the family are right where he guessed they’d be, and so is their loot. Jimmy and Betsy tussle over the bag, a seam splits, and hundreds of stacks of cash come tumbling out. For a moment, it looks like Craig and Betsy will be forced to reckon with reality.

Misc.

Jimmy corners DDA Oakley in the men’s room and browbeats him into accepting a deal for a client who “assaulted a cashier with a bottle of Kahlua”.

The “JPi” tag on the payphone also appears in Jesse’s house.

“I refuse to believe [you let me off because] you have something resembling a heart inside your body,” Jimmy tells Mike. “You’re not gonna have a heart inside your body in about five seconds,” Mike counters.

Anyone else get a very strong True Detective season 1 energy from these shots of Jimmy’s hike?

Timeframe: a single day in the first week of June, 2002. The flashback most likely takes place in the spring or summer of 1993 (in season 3, Howard says he’s known Jimmy almost ten years).

Music

“Find Out What’s Happening” by Bobby Bare (1968), as Jimmy tracks down the Kettlemans

References

“I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque” is an old Bugs Bunny catchphrase.

The Donner Party was a group of frontier travellers who set off for California from Wyoming in 1846 and got stranded in the Sierra Nevada after an ill-advised shortcut. Over half of the travellers died en route; some resorted to cannibalism to survive. 

Jimmy compares the detectives to Cagney and Lacey, the titular characters in the 1980s police procedural.

Mike talks about a Philadelphia bookie disappearing after the Super Bowl (Dallas Cowboys v. Pittsburgh Steelers). The Steelers won against the Cowboys in 1976 and 1979; the Cowboys won against the Steelers in 1996.

“Here’s Johnny!” is from Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining (1980).

< PREVIOUS EPISODE: MIJO

> NEXT EPISODE: HERO

[jawsplitter]

📃💢&✨ ! :)

hiii ty so much sorry im getting to this late i just woke up!!!! :-))) ill be talking about brba/bcs

this got long so its under a read more so i dont clog my muts dashes @__@

📃 what is the plot of your hyperfixation? and is it a movie, game, show, etc?

pretty much everyone knows the plot of brba lol! but its about a high school chemistry teacher (walter) getting diagnosed with lung cancer n he doesnt have the money for dealing with that and taking care of his family, so he starts making drugs with a kid who he used to teach (jesse). wacky antics ensue

and bcs! it a prequel about saul (a character who was also in brba if youre unfamiliar), a kinda down-on-his-luck lawyer trying to get by, and how he becomes the popular criminal lawyer that u see in brba! it takes place 7 years before it

n theyre both tv shows! there is also a movie tht takes place after brba n its about jesse going to alaska i think, its called el camino, but i havent seen it yet

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

here at leons brain were all about crime media . so that mainly id say! that is why i was drawn to it in the first place and definitely why i like it so much. i think its interesting seeing this kind of “Bad” stuff portrayed so closely, and in the way that brba does it. its sort of hard for me to articulate it but i hope u get it??! 

n im drawn to bcs mostly bc its got my faves from brba (saul and gus) and added more characters that i fell in love with (kim, nacho, lalo) ahgfdsf!!! but it is a great show, very different from brba at least imo. its a lot more uhh...friendlier i would say? the subject matter isnt as heavy and it has a very funky feel. i rlly like when it shows saul tackling cases bc i dont know much about the law so its cool seeing him get into it.

💢 what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it?

kill off walter early. but jokes aside i wish they wouldve portrayed skyler differently in the later seasons. i think this is an unpopular opinion (i dont involve myself w fandoms so i wouldnt know lol), i love her & she deserved better ofc, but there are some points, in mainly s5 if i remember right, where she comes up with solutions that end up making the problem way more complicated and harder on herself when easier solutions are like Right There, and its especially frustrating since its s5 and tensions are super high. other than that i cant think of much besides kill walter and hector early and get rid of todds family. they all need to go in the trash

and bcs.....i havent seen all of it (waiting for netflix to get s5. fml) but as of rn theres nothing id really change!! :-)