this is going to sound like stereotyping but if you give a Hispanic or Asian (who is known for being uncurious ) a nice job with benefits and tell them “that black door doesn’t exist and no one ever enters or exits it” they will mentally convince themselves that door isn’t there even if they pass by it 30 times a day and people walk in and out of it " or if they do notice it its “none of their business”
Or the other method is give them sonething so intensive that they never look up or around the area (like the scene from casinoexplaining how it was possible in a old style casino for some one to walk out with cases of cash and no one even notice anyone was in the room but themselves because if they lost count it would take hours of starting over )
As Jimmy was taking in more and more cash outside the Dog House, I was thinking “how can you be failing to realize that a lot of these sketchy characters will be noticing that you now have hundreds of dollars in your pocket?” I just didn’t buy that he would be so oblivious to the danger. No matter how much he’s hurting over Chuck’s death, Jimmy is not stupid enough to be that oblivious.
For me it was a flaw in the writing. If they’d previously established that since the death Jimmy had started making stupid mistakes, putting himself in danger repeatedly, then I might have bought it. For example, there could have been scene of him putting a plugged-in radio next to the bathtub then getting in, or a scene of him driving through a railroad crossing a second ahead of an oncoming train. Or anything that would have established that he was behaving self-destructively (presumably out of a guilty reaction to the way Chuck died). They didn’t, though.
Maybe I’m alone in this (I don’t see others mentioning it). But it bothered me.
Gus probably already owns the chicken farm, which is well outside of town. He could easily dump the dirt on his own land. And he might have some construction going at the chicken farm, and just order excess material and use it for the superlab.
It worked for me. It’s not that Jimmy is oblivious to danger or has any kind of self-destructive wish. It’s that he’s picturing himself once again as the untouchable con man Slippin’ Jimmy, who can maneuver through the criminal ecosystem without fear. People know his reputation and treat them as one of their own, and if he does get into trouble he’ll just talk his way out of it.
The problem is that he’s in a new pool now and he needs to start over as a small fish. He’s rusty and careless. Luckily he’s still really smart, and it’s unlikely he’ll make the same mistake twice. Good thing this time it was just a couple of street punks, because he’s going to be tangling with more dangerous people very soon.
This has mostly been covered, but one point to keep in mind is that this episode didn’t show the creation of the secret lab. It showed interviews of prospective contractors who might or might not be building it.
Would you want that first French guy to know where your secret lab is going to be? He’s not working on it, he’s not getting paid to keep quiet, and he was happy to blab to a stranger about his secret Mexican tunnel.
They haven’t indicated that the construction workers themselves are going to be brought to and from the site using the rental car + hood method.
Was there any significance to ‘Dr. Zhivago’? The movie or the music?
I’m surprised someone could say this – watch it again.
They walk from their car slowly and conspicuously. We don’t see them look around apart from when they were in the car. All their hand movements are slow and theatrical.
Later, when it cuts back to one brother pinned down with an SMG and another sneaking around the back, that’s fine. That’s a more typical movie / TV shootout, and I’m fine suspending disbelief for that part. And, like I say, Nacho’s role was particularly well done; he’s not going to Arya around after being shot in the gut.
But the early part, and most of what the brothers do in general? Nah.
Were they being taken and routinely used for that in 2004? And Albuquerque isn’t “near the border,” it’s 250 miles away.
So, has this been mentioned yet - The Dog House? Unlike any other business in BB or BCS, the Dog House isn’t fictional - it’s a real business in Albuquerque. Are there any other examples of this in the two series? I don’t recall seeing an Allsup’s or Blake’s or any other real business on the shows. Maybe a nationally known chain or company, but not a local business.
Btw, do we know what the phone call that Saul wanted Francesca to make was? Is that something from Breaking Bad I’ve just forgotten about?
Does the place have to be named on the show? Mike’s hangout, Louie’s Pub and Grill, is a real place.
Didn’t think I’d be making rules, but I’ll allow it. BTW, in BB when they showed Jane’s apartment, I had a moment of deja vu, as I’ve spent a few nights in that apartment when a friend of mine was renting it. Well, the back section, as it was partitioned into two apartments at the time. Still kinda cool.
Doesn’t it bother them that their free publicity involves being portrayed as a hangout for criminals and assorted lowlifes?
Have you been to an Allsup’s?
When you go, get a chimichanga or two. Remember, in New Mexico, you pick your gas station based on their breakfast burritos.
I would bet a years salary their business has, or will, take off like a rocket, doing better than they ever imagined.
I thought for sure he would get up and have a secret money belt or something, like he knew he might eventually get mugged.
I was disappointed and annoyed that he just simply got beat up and robbed.
As I quoted and my comment was in response to, there was no mention of satellite images being used. I’ve requoted the statement I responded to, it since you seem to have missed it in my original post, and it doesn’t talk about satellite images, it talks about ‘any inspectors who happen by’. And inspectors don’t just rove around randomly inspecting buildings where they don’t think construction is going on. “Inspectors happen by” is not a problem that needs to be dealt with because it simply doesn’t happen. Coming up with objections to the implausibility of something that hasn’t even happened on the show on the basis of things that don’t happen in the real world is just silly.
Is this ‘near the border’ in the same sense that the four minute firefight was ‘prolonged’? Albuquerque is 250 miles from the border and the laundry is somewhere near it, I don’t think that qualifies as ‘near’. And I’d like a cite for the claim that in 2003 monthly photos were being taken of every small town 250 miles from the border and compared to look for signs of construction. And I don’t see why it would be so difficult to camoflague a few trucks that it strains credibility that Gus, a man who’s hiding a drug distribution network inside of his fast food franchise, would be able to manage it, especially when he’s already acknowledged that the project will be difficult and expensive.
You’re arguing that a man who spends a decade running a secret criminal enterprise for the hated cartel while maintaining both the facade of a mild-mannered fast food manager to the outside world and loyal drug distributor to the cartel that killed his close friend (possibly lover) would find mixing some bags of concrete and water just too lacking in fun for him to summon the willpower to deal with? And it’s even sillier to act like mixing concrete is beyond Mike, he did it on screen in S3 E7! There’s a lot of stuff that strains credibility in this show, but “Gus and Mike manage to endure the unfun aspects of mixing concrete on site” is really, really far down the list.
Hmmm…could that lawyer friend whose card he gives her possibly be a former roommate?
Of course they walk from their car slowly and conspicuously without making any suspicious movements, because the firefight hadn’t started. They’re walking from the car to the front door exactly the way they would if were there for some legitimate reason so that they can get close enough to knife the front door guys without them thinking anything unusual is going to happen until the knife comes out. (And they’re knifing the front door guys so that there is no gunshot sound to alert the people further in). Looking around furtively, or moving from cover to cover, would cause the guys in front to raise the alarm because it’s suspicious behavior.
Venezia’s Pizza is a real pizza chain that was often frequented by the cast and crew. The ‘we don’t slice the pizza and pass the savings on to you’ gimmick was made up by the show to explain why Walt had an unsliced pizza when the real reason was just that they needed an intact pizza for the throwing to work. Cinnnabon actually signed on to endorse Better Call Saul and love the publicity, Bob Odenkirk has actually been through their training and the Gene scenes were shot at a real Cinnabon.