I subscribed to Netflix for the first time about 1.5 months ago and started watching the Breaking Bad universe in chronological (not release) order with Better Call Saul thru season 6 episode 9. Love it. Then started Breaking Bad and, what can I say? It was a bit of a slog at first, but I just reached Saul’s “re-appearance” and I’m stoked. He really elevates the material. Not that Breaking Bad 1.0 is bad… it’s just not Better Call Saul.
Although there are many other shows I am working my way through for the first time, I dropped in here to mention that season one of AMC’s The Terror is now streaming on Netflix as well. I correctly deduced from that that there is in fact going to be a season 3 of The Terror!
Anyway, season 2 was kind of middling, but season 1 was and is amazing, so hopefully 3 is closer to 1. For those who have not seen it, each season is self-contained and serialized. So season 1 tells its story with a beginning, middle, and end, and season 2 tells its story, with a beginning middle and end of its own. You don’t need to watch season 2 to see how the events of season 1 continue (they don’t), and you don’t need to watch season 1 to understand season 2.
I cannot recommend season 1 highly enough, both as a horror story and as historical fiction, set around the lost Franklin Expedition (Google it if you need to), with some supernatural thrown in. I always like how the supernatural elements of season 1 fit within the historical context and seemed a good metaphor for the hubris of the characters and the doomed nature of the expedition itself. Whereas, I think one of the primary defects of season 2 was that the supernatural elements appeared only tangentially related to the historical setting, and even less so the suffering of the characters to their own decisions and guilt (by and large, the suffering is not a product of their decisions and the bare no guilt: it is imposed upon them—which is a story to tell, but it has nothing to do with the ghost story being told in parallel).
All that to say, if you have Netflix but have never seen The Terror… go watch it! Do it now!!!
Season 3 of The Terror doesn’t appear to be a period piece like the first two seasons, so there doesn’t seem to be any connecting thread between seasons beside a general Horror genre.
I’d say that’s true whether it’s a period piece or not. But just *briefly looking into the book it was based on, it’s not clear to me what the time period is. Perhaps it’s modern, perhaps it’s not. I’ll give it a shot either way.
*I don’t want to look too much into it to avoid spoilers.
I’ve given up on Doctor Who, finally. Only took 36 years. It’s been limping along for a while, and this season’s finale was the last straw. The show doesn’t even try to make sense anymore.
I have Acorn now so I started The Brokenwood Mysteries. I enjoy it, but it does have 11 seasons and some aspects have started to get a little stale. I think they need a small shakeup if they are going to continue.
I googled it and it is a very popular show in New Zealand. I’ve been using ‘Ta’ in place of thank you and nobody understands me, but I’m going to keep going until it catches on. It worked with ‘No Worries’.
That’s definitely and interesting take on the two shows. Most people consider, I think, Breaking Bad to be the better of the two shows and BCS is the one that’s a ‘bit of a slog at first’. Though I think you’re the first person I’ve heard of that watched it the other way around.
I don’t know how much lore you’re aware of. In Breaking Bad, there’s a scene where Saul is brought out to the desert by Walt and Jesse in masks. While pleading for his life, he mentions Ignacio (Nacho) and Lalo. That throw away line was the basis for Better Call Saul.
Yes, I noticed that. It’s impressive how much they were able to develop that kernel of information, and even his real name (which is also disclosed in his first appearance on Breaking Bad), into series-long archs.
But you see to me, I had no idea, watching BCS, how the feud(s) with the Salamancas would play out. I think a lot would have been lost for me knowing that certain characters were guaranteed to survive into Breaking Bad form, for example, while others would never make such appearances. Going into BCS, I only knew (by cultural osmosis, mostly the mere existence of certain YouTube clips) that two characters had to survive (one of them, obviously, was Saul himself). The rest were a toss-up to the end (of episode 9).
Season 1 is easily my least favourite season of Breaking Bad and I skipped it when I rewatched. But Better Call Saul never really hooked me in (except for the parts with Mike which were great).
I’m definitely not “most people” then, Breaking Bad never really hooked us (even if we watched several episodes, I don’t remember if we finished a season).
But in this house we are complete fans of BCS.
My husband and I are watching Paradise on Hulu with James Marsden and Sterling K Brown. We’re halfway through and really like it. We had a bit of a dry spell for a while where we couldn’t find anything that we were both interested in. We had our regular shows that we watch, but we needed something to fill in. I’m glad we came across this.
I’ve been slogging my way through Bet and I’m up to episode 8. Unfortunately, there’s a lot less actual gambling and a lot more Wednesday-style teen drama (but not as good as Wednesday) than in the source material.
My wife and I finished S.1 awhile ago and enjoyed it. A bit too much talky-talk and backstory IMHO; could have used a little less of that and a bit more action. The penultimate episode of the season really delivered in that regard, though. I believe it’s greenlit for season 2.
Poor Marsden, though–he’s become America’s Sean Bean…he seems to get killed in everything he’s in. He’s not even alive for one current-time minute of this show-- all of his scenes are backstory.
I watched them in televised order and I prefer BCS. The cartel stuff is a little less interesting to me and than the moral decline of Jimmy/Saul. When some were decrying that there was not enough focus on the cartel plotlines in BCS, I thought the balance was just about perfect. In a sense I find BCS a slightly deeper show and I appreciated the little extra tidbits of humor. Taken together I think they are a masterpiece of modern television, but I’m more interested and invested in watching clips and analysis of BCS than BB. Might just be that as flawed protagonists, Jimmy and Kim to me are a little more compelling watch that Walter and Jesse.
I completely agree with the character side of things. BCS, for me, has the edge when it comes to the descent of Jimmy into Saul, compared to Walt into Heisenberg. I also find the major support characters of Kim and Chuck way more interesting than, say, Skylar. Then throw more Mike than in BB into the mix and you have a fantastic set of characters.
I really thought Rhea Seehorn hit it out of the park as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul, and so I was stoked to learn that she will be starring in the upcoming AppleTV series Wycaro 339, which is helmed by Vince Gilligan (the showrunner of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul). Surprisingly, it seems to have a sci-fi element to it.
Were you being ironic? Vince Gilligan was a writer who became not only a regular writer, but a director and many levels of producer on The X-Files. Sci fi is definitely in his wheelhouse.
