Independence Day: Resurgence

First, some clarification for my extended absence.  When I started writing here, I failed to remember just how much time baseball season consumes. It got really tough to keep up TV recaps and the like when baseball viewing and writing was at its heaviest.  I feel like this place will get more updates in the fall.

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There's at least one movie you watch in your youth that takes on a special significance to you that few others will ever quite understand. The 1996 blockbuster Independence Day was that movie for me.

I was nine years old in the summer of 1996 when I went to the theater with my friend Mike, his family, and friends of his siblings. There wasn't a set movie in mind upon arrival, but once the few adults in the group had conferred, the choices us kids had were The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Independence Day. I was still pretty all about Disney at the time; the previous summer I'd laughed my ass off when A Goofy Movie came out and the year prior to that was the thorough amazingness that was The Lion King.  Though I had no particular desire to see Hunchback, it seemed right in my comfort zone and I probably would have selected it in a vacuum.

However, Mike brought another one of his friends from our school with whom I was not as comfortable around nor necessarily on friendly terms with. As a rising fifth-grader, I had no desire to look like a dweeb by picking the kiddie movie. I knew nothing about Independence Day other than that it was rated PG-13 (and would become the first PG-13 movie I'd see in theaters), but social pressures being what they were, when given the choice, I selected it without hesitation. Can't show 'em weakness.

When waiting for the movie to start, I asked Mike if he knew what it was about and he told me "aliens".  Wait. Aliens?  Really?  The film was called "Independence Day".  Surely this was some sort of mistake. Nothing in the title remotely implied that this would be some sort of extraterrestrial thriller. Having been scarred by the Alien component of The Great Movie Ride at Disney World a couple years before, I became nervous and asked the incredibly silly and unmistakably dweebish question, "Um, you mean like scary aliens?"

I hoped his other friend didn't hear me.

In any case, I pretty much held it together during the movie and really became enchanted by it towards the end. President Whitmore's speech really fired me up and I cracked up hysterically when Jeff Goldblum delivered his perfect, "Forget the fat lady, you're obsessed with the fat lady. Drive us out of here!" It was an epic film unlike any my nine-year-old self had ever seen before.

Of course, several times over the next few months I went to sleep worried about an alien invasion of Earth. 

When the movie came out on video. I told my dad that I'd seen it in theaters and since I knew he had some interest in Star Trek and the like, one night I encouraged him to watch it with me when we were trying to figure out something to do. My dad became a pretty big fan of it as well, and other than Christmas movies, it's probably the film we've watched together the most. Since I knew what to expect the second time around, I was much better able to appreciate the little one-liners, character ticks, and understand how the various plot pieces fit together. From that point forward, at least until I became old enough to appreciate movies with more depth to them, Independence Day was my favorite movie.

A few years (and quite a few views of Independence Day) later, I'd become very good friends with a guy named Gino who could quote Independence Day for hours on end just like I could. Independence Day was therefore more to me than a sci-fi adventure film, it was a bonding experience between me and my dad as well as me and Gino.

I recently Googled what reviews of Independence Day were like and most of them contained a heavy dosage of the word "cheesy". When you're 1996 Roger Ebert and are accustomed to reviewing films like Braveheart, Forrest Gump, and The Shawshank Redemption, I could see how Independence Day might fit under the "cheesy" label. But when you're nine-year-old The Pat Hatter, you have little-to-no concept of "cheesy". The film had already taken up a special place in my heart before I'd become mature enough to pick up that perspective. I think it's fair to say that I look at Independence Day through a much different lens than most.

There was little question that on opening weekend, Gino and I would see Independence Day: Resurgence together. Saturday was the much-anticipated night. Prior to seeing this film, I naturally checked out what the reviews were like and most of them were not positive. I therefore went in fully expecting a film full of strange plot devices, corny dialogue, and weak characters. I got all three.

So, with that out of the way, Gino and I agreed that the film was thoroughly entertaining. The two of us have a heavy dose of bias and it's a clear step down from its 1996 predecessor, but for us, it was plenty of fun.

Jeff Goldblum reprises his role of David Levinson and in the absence of Will Smith (conveniently written out as deceased from a training exercise, because apparently Steven Hiller is talented enough to deftly fly an alien craft in the first movie on the first try but can't survive a training exercise) he's very much the star of the show. Jurassic Park and Independence Day both allowed Goldblum to showcase his excellent delivery in the 90s and that ability of his hasn't declined whatsoever with age.

Other favorites from the first movie return, including (now former) President Tom Whitmore (Bill Pullman), stripper-turned-doctor (???) Jasmine Hiller (Vivica A. Fox), the ever-quotable Julian Levinson (Judd Hirsch), and Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner).  Okun's reappearance was actually pretty surprising, as he was presumed dead after a confrontation with an alien in the lab during the first movie. The writers apparently fell in love with the quirky scientist because he received an unexpectedly large amount of screen time for a guy who was just a bit player in the first movie. His "death" was written off as a 20-year-long coma. That didn't make any sense to me because they appeared to check his pulse in the first movie and conclude he was dead, and he'd have a pulse if he were in a coma. But whatever! I'm not here to judge! (Okay, maybe I actually am, but I'd rather have a film with Okun than a film without Okun.)

The new cast includes Liam Hemsworth, who portrays a fighter pilot whose parents were killed in the first invasion. He's romantically involved with Whitmore's daughter Patricia, who's unfortunately played by the completely milquetoast Maika Monroe. If I had to pick one (of several) complaints about this movie, it's that the very talented Mae Whitman was not asked to reprise her role as Patricia Whitmore, ostensibly because of height and not fitting the "Liam Hemsworth Love Interest Archetype". He teams up with Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), Steven's son, during many of the movie's visually impressive action scenes. 

One of the reasons this film falls short of Independence Day is that the 1996 film did an excellent job of conveying a sense of desperation and hopelessness among the survivors before the winning idea was eventually conjured. In this film, we have several utterances in the vein of "shit, we're not going to win this time", an idea that packs much more of a punch when the audience feels it without it having to be said. The sense of urgency picks up late in the film, but before then, we're not given many reasons to worry or even care if the humans are able to fight off their alien rivals. I guess part of that's to be expected when we take it as a given that the film will retread some old ground, but that aspect of it was disappointing.

Nonetheless, there's plenty of enjoyment to be had and while popular perception seems to be that the film is a money grab (strongly reinforced by the suggestion at the end of the movie that there will be another sequel), that doesn't mean that it can't be fun along the way. Goldblum, Hemsworth, Hirsch, and Spiner in particular are very fun to watch on screen and the film's action scenes and special effects are top-notch. Independence Day: Resurgence will likely continue to get panned by reviewers, and understandably so. But for true fans of the first movie, there's enough here to appreciate in callbacks and familiarity alone that the flaws can be accepted and two hours' worth of enjoyment can be had.

Rating: 5 / 10

A Review of Nationals Park in Washington

When I graduated college, I had no aspirations of seeing Europe, the Seven Wonders (pick any of them, I'm sure there's like eight sets of Seven Wonders), mountains, or jungles. No, all I wanted to do was just wanted to see the 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. That might seem pretty bland (or "fitting", depending on your impression of me), but that's just who I am.

Yet, despite having a then-girlfriend-now-wife who has always been fond of traveling and enjoys going to baseball games, eight years passed without me seeing a new baseball stadium. In addition to U.S. Cellular, I've been to Wrigley, Progressive, Kauffman, Miller, and the Rogers Centre (the Skydome when I visited).

I had a work conference in Washington and the Nationals were playing the Braves, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally cross a new one off the list. Here's notes on my experience at Nationals Park:

• The park has a very clean, new, yet unremarkable look to it. It was a pleasant place to be but it was certainly lacking in a "wow" factor. The outfield deck had plenty of bar/seating areas as well as ledges overlooking the park for you to eat and drink.
• The center field entrance gate:

• Views from my seat:

• The pitching matchup was Max Scherzer vs. Bud Norris, which seemed pretty one sided, but neither guy was on his game. Crooked numbers were posted in each of the first three half-innings.
• A.J. Pierzynski came to the plate in the top of the first and delivered a 2-run double off Scherzer. The dude can still hack it at the plate and this warms my heart.
• The hometown crowd LOVES Dusty Baker. This might be a "Not Matt Williams" effect, but he was cheered whenever he showed his face over the dugout. He also replied to the fans with a kind smile and wave. If he wasn't such a fucknuts with baseball decisions, I could see really loving rooting for Dusty Baker.
• The P.A. announcer was very unremarkable. On a scale of one to Gene Honda, I give him one-and-a-half stars.
• The Nats show the artist and title of each player's walk-up music. I think this is a great feature.
• On the subject of walk-up music, possibly my favorite choice was that of Wilson Ramos. He walks up to "Wilson" by Phish. The crowd chants "WIIILLLL-SSSOONNN" along with the music. An extra bonus: Ramos went 4-4 with 2 RBI, so the Wilson Ramos experience was thoroughly enjoyable.
• Bryce Harper walks up to "The Best Is Yet to Come" by Frank Sinatra. If the best is yet to come for Bryce Harper, we're talking about an inner-circle Hall of Famer.
• The Nationals' ushers don't let you walk down the aisles to your seats during an at-bat. I like this rule.
• Food! The Cell certainly beats the hell out of most ballparks when it comes to food. I asked for some advice in the RRRR regarding what to eat. At the suggestion of a South Side Sox commenter, I found the Island BBQ stand in centerfield that served jerk pork ribs and plantains.

• I could have done with more sauce and seasoning, but these were worth it, especially because I usually don't branch out at ballparks for food that much.  I enjoyed these from a neat outlook point in center field.

• The beer selection was just "eh". I drank mostly Goose Island IPA. It's a bit disappointing that I went with a Chicago beer in Washington, but the only interesting-looking thing they had that I never tried before was a stout, and I wasn't in the mood for a stout.
• I then got a burger from Steak Shack. This is the Smoke Stack burger with bacon, cherry peppers, and Shack Sauce. No cheese. Sorry I'm not sorry. The lighting's not great. Sorry I am sorry.

• "Root, root root for the NATIONALS" had a really bad ring to it during the 7th inning stretch. There really was never meant to be a third syllable there.
• Jonathan Papelbon was actually booed by a decent portion of the hometown crowd when he came on to pitch. He got the save, but all three outs were hard lineouts, one to each outfielder.
• The last out of the game? None other than Gordon Beckham, who pinch-hit in the pitcher's slot. I was quiet for most of the game being alone in an unfamiliar city, but I felt just fine giving him an earful. It was the only time I can remember cheering for Jonathan Papelbon. The Nats won 6-4.
• This was the first time I've ever been to a baseball game alone. It was an interesting experience being able to wander around as I pleased without regard to whether I was spending enough time with others. I'd much rather go to games with other people but there was a certain liberating aspect to it.

More pictures that I took:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (Spoilers)

Film adaptation (and Jennifer Lawrence) give The Hunger Games trilogy the fitting conclusion that the novels never had.

I read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy quite some time ago and greatly enjoyed the first installment as well as the second, Catching Fire.  Unfortunately, the third novel in the series, Mockingjay was an absolute disaster. It was a brutal slog of a read that intermixed uninteresting slow stretches with action that took place too quickly for it to truly resonate. The story that Collins chose to tell was admittedly a tough one to convey via text, and the extreme action of a war zone found in many chapters of the story was always better suited for the big screen than paper. Still, one can't help but feel that a superior author (e.g. Martin, Tolkien, Rowling) would have done a better job with the difficult wrap-up of such an enthralling series.  Collins fell short, but thankfully, Jennifer Lawrence and a good cast of actors did not.

I can't say I'm particularly surprised by that result because I enjoyed the first three films in the series probably equally as much as the accompanying novels.  It's a story that lends itself well to film, for sure, but I think that a common reaction to movies based off of literary works is, "Well, the book was better."  I never once got that sense in The Hunger Games trilogy. The movies managed to do the books justice, and in the case of Mockingjay (particularly Part 2), the film version exceeded expectations.

Of course, one thing that Mockingjay the movie had going for it that Mockingjay the novel did not is Jennifer Lawrence. She did such a great job of conveying the horrors and emotional trauma of war through her face and I can't say enough about her performance. From an entertainment perspective, Lawrence was able to keep me sucked in despite a plot built with obviously problematic elements. "Oh, hey Prim, guess you're randomly here in this war zone with us and.......now you're dead. Good seeing you for three seconds, I guess. That death was totally fitting for four installments' worth of character building."

Unlike Prim's death, the movie handled Finnick Odair's demise far, far better than the novel. The book versions of Catching Fire and Mockingjay did a great job of establishing Finnick as an unexpectedly sympathetic character, and he quickly became a favorite of mine while reading. Unfortunately, the novel Mockingjay wrote him off quickly as a death at the hands of the mutts, much the same as it did a few other nondescript characters in effectively the same scene. I always thought he deserved better. By contrast, the movie was able to paint Finnick as a hero, bravely fighting off monstrosities and even saving Katniss' life before he's dragged to his death. Rather similar to Cato's death in the first movie, Katniss kills Finnick (and the mutts) with an explosive, though this time it's out of love rather than mercy.

Admittedly, a lot of the details of the book escaped me over the course of these past five years (it was bad, remember!), but one scene that I was anxiously awaiting was Katniss' decision to kill Coin instead of President Snow at Snow's execution. The movie set this up very well, and you could even see a knowing grin on Snow's face (Donald Sutherland was consistently awesome throughout the four movies) before Katniss physically changed targets.

The conclusion of the story, involving Katniss' choice to remain with Peeta over Gale, made much more sense in the movie. The audience could see Peeta's slow return to normalcy over the course of the film and Katniss' growing distrust of Gale's methods and attitudes towards war and its victims. The ending of the Mockingjay novel was pretty confusing (to be fair, it's possible and even likely Collins intended to get the same effect as the film did, but she didn't, because the book was bad!) and felt pretty rushed after the action-packed scenes that preceded it. The ending of the movie felt far, far more natural and satisfying.

In the epilogue, we see Katniss and Peeta relaxing in a peaceful meadow with their two children.  In the first installment, Katniss insisted that she was never having kids, and it's implicit that the reason why is that she would never want to bring new life into the horrors of the world in which she lives. That she ultimately chose to have children is indicative that she approves of the new order established in Panem and that the world has become a better place as a result of her choice to assassinate a potential tyrant in Coin. It's as happy an ending as the trilogy could've had, I guess.

Mockingjay Part 2 suffers a bit from alternating dullness and rushes of action, but it was just going off of the source material, so it's hard to fault it all that much. It has plenty of excitement, feeling, and some nice character work (though I would've liked more Haymitch, because Haymitch is great).  It feels like a genuine horror movie when the squad is trekking through the sewer-like tunnels and has no shortage of touching moments between a cast of characters that are developed well for their limited screen time. It's far from a perfect movie, or even a great one, but it's a good, entertaining conclusion to a series that really deserves one.

Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Seven: "Inflatable"

In which we meet the biggest sucker of them all, Jimmy's own father.

A couple episodes back, Chuck mentioned in a conversation with Kim that Jimmy had stolen about $14,000 from his father's store.  In tonight's cold open, we get a lot of extra context around that.

In a flashback scene, we see Jimmy "working" in his dad's store (reading a Playboy when he should be sweeping). Jimmy overhears a conversation between his dad at the cash register and some guy spinning a sob story to try to con Jimmy's father out of five dollars. While Jimmy's dad is all too eager to help the man in whatever way he can, Jimmy sees the situation for what it is and pleads with his dad to not give the guy a handout, as he's seen this happen plenty already. Of course, Jimmy's dad doesn't listen and winds up giving the guy ten dollars.

Jimmy's dad runs to find spark plugs to help with the con artist's car, leaving Jimmy alone with him. It's clear to the con artist that Jimmy doesn't trust him, so before departing he says, "There are wolves and sheep in this world, kid.  Wolves and sheep.  Figure out which one you're gonna be."

When Jimmy's dad comes back and realizes the con artist left, Jimmy gives his father a look of utter disdain. Left alone with the cash register, Jimmy steals the eight dollars the con artist used to purchase cigarettes, and we're to believe that this is Jimmy's first of many thefts from the store. At that moment, Jimmy's figured out which one he's gonna be.

The thing is, while Jimmy may have despised his father for being such an easy mark, it's easy to respect a man who would rather risk getting conned than refusing to help someone in need. And while we may admire Jimmy's street smarts, an honest person can't believe that him stealing money from his father is in any way justifiable. The scene makes it more understandable, but it's still just plain wrong. We know from Chuck's story that it's Jimmy who causes the real harm to the store, not random con men pilfering Lincolns and Hamiltons.

The post-credits portion of the episode opens with a truly tough scene to watch. Jimmy represents Mike in his meeting with the prosecutors to explain that Mike will no longer claim that the gun in his confrontation with Tuco Salamanca actually belonged to Tuco. Jimmy tries to make Mike feel better about the incident and even offers to not collect for his services. Mike isn't having any of it -- he doesn't want to feel tied to anyone. Honestly, other than his family, it really doesn't seem like Mike has it in him to give a damn about anyone.

From there, Jimmy sets out to quit his job at Davis & Main, though when Omar points out that his signing bonus would need to be paid back, his mission changes to "get fired without cause". Putting the "colorful" in "colorful lawyer", he dresses up in his outlandish suits and we get a montage of all the things he does to try to get canned:

1. Wearing aforementioned suits
2. Running a loud juicer in the office and exploding said juicer all over a couple associates
3. Screaming Spanglish at a guy who's vacuuming at night, when the guy is from Michigan and speaks English just fine, thank you very much
4. Repeatedly taking shits in the bathroom and not flushing, under the excuse of water preservation
5. Playing the bagpipes in his office

The bagpipes turn out to be the final straw and Cliff cans Jimmy.  Jimmy can't come up with a reason for his actions besides explaining that he's a square peg.  On his way out, Jimmy rips a soda can out of Erin's hand and throws it in the garbage. Awesome.

After quitting, Jimmy goes to meet with Kim and tries to get her to not only quit HHM, but drop her pursuit of the Schweikart job and become partners with Jimmy as a new practice. Jimmy tells Kim that she's too good for a lateral move and goes so far as to call Rich Schweikart "Howard Hamlin by a different name". Before Kim can get on board, she wants to know whether Jimmy is going to "play it straight" or in their new endeavor, or, in a very apt choice of words given the previous montage, whether Jimmy is going to "be colorful".  Jimmy can't lie to her for more than a few seconds, and Kim ultimately rejects the offer in what's a pretty strong scene for her character.

Meanwhile, Stacey shows Mike an expensive house that's well beyond her means. Mike knows that Stacey faked the bullet hole that led her to trying to convince Mike that her neighborhood was unsafe, but just how much is he willing to let Stacey take advantage of him? We know he loves Kaylee more than anything, but even he needs to be aware that continuing to deal with drug gangs for money won't be any good for her, right?

Finally, Kim nails her interview with Schweikart. We discover she's from a small town on the Kansas/Nebraska border. That explains the Kansas City Royals shirt, at least. On her way out, she accidentally calls Rich "Howard". It's a moment that's more than a mere verbal slip-up. When Kim lets the wrong name slip, we come to understand that she knows Jimmy was right; Schweikart and Hamlin are really no different to her at all, and she's looking for a way to get out completely.

Kim smokes a cigarette on the roof of the building and rips her Wexler McGill business card in half. She has her idea -- go out on her own with Jimmy, but operate separately.  That way, both lawyers can practice the way they want to. It seems like a pretty reasonable proposal, but something about the ripped business card gives Jimmy pause, and the show cuts to the end credits before he gives his answer.

Bullet Points

• "Omar, that whole, uh, letter of resignation thing....I didn't mean that. Not a word. I..I'm so incredibly stressed out...I'm stressed out the wazoo."

• "Hey Cliff, for what it's worth, I think you're a good guy." Cliff: "For what it's worth, I think you're an asshole."

• Apparently Omar has kids. His last scene with Jimmy really shows how little we knew him

• Two straight episodes with no Chuck!?!?!? He better be back next week.

Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Six: Bali Ha'i

Per usual, let's break down the opening scene. Jimmy's having trouble sleeping at 1:09 AM and heads on over to the TV, where he gets to witness some late night commercials.  In a true "Hey look! It's 2002!" moment, we're treated to a Chia Pet ad, and after a few more channel changes, Jimmy comes upon a commercial produced by Davis & Main for their services in the Sandpiper case. It uses the boring blue wavy background pattern that Jimmy had mocked with Omar a few episodes earlier when he was plotting his own commercial.

Understandably, this compounds the sleeplessness issue and he wanders over to the fridge, smells some Chinese food, decides its gross, and puts it back in there for some reason rather than pitching it. The fridge itself has pretty much nothing in it, which is indicative that Jimmy's not truly settled into this home or this life. After a few rousing rounds of basketball/soccer spinoffs with those wicker balls he joked about with Kim a couple episodes back, it's time to go. Jimmy heads back to the tiny bed in his back-room office at the salon and falls right asleep. Not too subtle with the symbolism here, are we, Vince?

Meanwhile, Mike is finding himself in a bit of a bind. He refused Hector Salamanca's offer of $5,000 to lie and get Tuco out of his jail sentence. Now, Hector's flunkies are swarming his personal life and trying to intimidate him at every turn. In typical Mike fashion, he discovers that there are intruders in his house using carbon paper that he hid under the doormat along with a quick inspection of the door and knob.

In an extremely tense scene crafted by silence and great use of shadows, Mike figures out where Salamanca's guys are hiding by process of elimination and tricks them by turning on the TV (and filling the silent house with the voice of Billy Mays; it's still 2002!) from far away and drawing them out of their hiding place with their backs to him. It's thrilling to watch, but this is classic Mike Ehrmantraut we've been watching for years.

Mike might have shaken off that encounter, but THE COUSINS ARE BACK! The mostly silent and murderous duo from Breaking Bad intimidates Mike from a rooftop when he's hanging out Kaylee by the hotel pool. That proves to be a little much, so he meets with Hector and agrees to say that the gun from the confrontation with Tuco was his after a ballsy negotiation of a $50,000 fee. Nacho comes by to give him the money and in a nice character moment for Mike, he returns $25,000 to Nacho in recognition that Tuco is soon going to be released. The nod Nacho gives in reply is telling -- there's a deepening mutual respect between the two.

Finally, we come to the Kim storyline.  I'm no expert at courtroom speak, but Kim represents HHM at a hearing in front of a judge as she attempts to defend Sandpiper clients against bullying. She doesn't win, but her opponent's boss is impressed with her efforts and invites her to lunch to offer her a job. I found the timing of this very interesting. The job offer would have been most compelling to Kim before the events of last weeks episode in which Chuck found a way to bail Kim out of Howard's doghouse. I'm assuming it would have been easier for Kim to jump ship then, as it'd be a quick and easy way to get out of a bad situation. Now, it's a more interesting situation because Chuck has emerged as a mentor of sorts. Even though Howard's being cold to Kim, Chuck offers hope that she has a future at HHM.

Though Kim turns down the offer initially, she can't help but feel enticed by the freedom it presents. After another swindling of a rich guy with Jimmy at a bar, Jimmy has an honest talk with Kim about the opportunity and explains that it's a way for her to get what she wants, and Kim seems receptive to the idea. The closing scene, with Jimmy destroying that damn too-small cupholder in his corporate car, is pretty telling about the near-term future of Jimmy McGill. But what will Kim do?

Bullet Points

• Howard goes from completely and stonefacedly (that's a word, as of now) ignoring Kim on a long walk to the conference room to upbeat and animated upon seeing their Mesa clients. Another fine moment in the life of CorpLawBot v2.6 Beta.

• "We were just supposed to scare you." Mike: "Well try harder next time."

• The elephant in the room -- Nacho is not a character on Breaking Bad and he's clearly willing to cross Tuco Salamanca. Do his days feel numbered to you? Ahhhh the trouble with prequels.....

• Look, Kim Wexler is cool and all, but she's wearing a Kansas City Royals shirt (in New Mexico, even!). Go fuck yourself, Kim Wexler.

• No Chuck this week. A true crime!

Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Five: "Rebecca"

I said it last week and I'll say it again. This show knows how to deliver an opening scene. And once again, the cold open is the best part of the episode.

In a flashback, we're introduced to Rebecca, a woman with whom Chuck is romantically involved. Jimmy comes over for dinner and is meeting Rebecca for the first time. Despite Chuck's warning to Rebecca that Jimmy is coarse and unrefined, Jimmy is cordial and charming throughout most of the dinner. It's around the time Jimmy started at HHM and Jimmy begins to talk about his experiences in the mail room. He talks through most of the scene, but per usual, Chuck is what makes the scene interesting. 

Chuck seems genuinely proud of his brother when Jimmy talks about how he's coming along in the mail room and adjusting to his new job. However, once there's a prolonged silence at the dinner, Jimmy starts telling lawyer jokes that he's heard through the grapevine. Because the show has drawn Chuck so well to this point, we know exactly how he's going to react to the idea of Jimmy making jokes (harmless jokes, but jokes nonetheless) about his profession. A series of forced smiles and frustrated scowls washes across Chuck's face while Jimmy puts on his show and then the knife gets twisted when Rebecca delivers another zinger and joins in on the act. He's unable to absorb even the slightest of mockeries of what he does for a living, and he's doubly frustrated that his brother can win over people so easily when he quite obviously doesn't have the personality to do the same. One gets the sense that Chuck feels that interpersonal relations involve meticulous hard work and that instant connections with people is yet another one of Jimmy's "shortcuts" that he despises.

Anyway, now Jimmy apparently has a babysitter for him at the office, a girl by the name of Erin. The first encounter the two have is pretty symbolic of everything that there is to come. Jimmy put a soda can in the recycling bin in his office, which ::gasp:: is for paper only. Good thing Erin was there to notice it, rescue it, and point it out to Jimmy basically as the first thing she says to him. She then drops a 3,000 pound sack of "annoying" on Jimmy as she describes a laundry list of edits and minor problems with documents he prepared, even though Jimmy technically outranks her. Woof.

Though Jimmy gets his fair share of screen time, this episode is mostly the Kim Wexler show. She's still in Howard Hamlin's doghouse and she's desperately trying to work her way out of it. Jimmy shows up with the quintessentially Jimmy solution of suing HHM, which Kim quickly dismisses. Jimmy still thinks that Chuck is behind this mess, but thanks to that subtle moment in the previous episode, we know that this is Howard's beef, even if we don't fully get why.

Kim's next step is to lay out a bunch of post-it notes with a bunch of old connections as she reaches for whatever strings she can pull to bring in new business for HHM. She paces across parking lots, stairwells, and empty conference rooms only to receive countless rejections in montage format across two different musically-enhanced scenes. One could criticize Better Call Saul for dragging out these scenes, but it's really the only way to properly capture the frustration Kim's going through, which is necessary for the payoff. She gets a call back from Paige, an acquaintance from Mesa Bank, that finally leads to a meeting. Kim's shriek of pure jubilation in the parking lot is a truly triumphant moment.

Unfortunately, that moment of happiness is very short-lived. Howard and Kim meet with Paige and another rep from Mesa and it's very obviously a success. After the meeting, the two congratulate each other on a job well-done, but there's an obvious coldness to Howard, who doesn't even attempt to make eye contact with Kim until he walks away. Kim asks Howard if she should begin considering a list of associates to put on the client, but then Howard delivers the most painful line of the season so far.

"I'll put Francis on that. You've got enough on your plate in doc review."

Ouch.

Howard and Chuck meet at Chuck's place to discuss the new business and the details are fleshed out further. Howard credits Kim for the score and Chuck asks whether Kim's out of the doghouse, to which Howard replies with a flat, "We'll see." The guy can't even be straight to his partner about what he's done.

In response to what he's heard, Chuck tracks down Kim at the office and has some coffee with her. Chuck reminisces about his dad, for whom he has a great deal of admiration. As it turns out, according to Chuck, Jimmy stole $14,000 from his dad's store, which led to the score going under. As Chuck explains it, Jimmy's not a bad person, but he can't help himself from being who he is. He leaves the room telling Kim that he'll talk to Howard to see if he can get Kim out of her current situation and congratulates her on the new client. It's a clear attempt to become a mentor of sorts for Kim, but probably more important to Chuck is finally being able to win over someone Jimmy loves, similar to what Jimmy did to Rebecca in the cold open.

Bulllet Points

• I'm convinced now -- Chuck is the best character on the show. 

• Chuck's attempt at lawyer humor falls flat with Rebecca: "What do you call 25 attorneys buried up to their necks in cement? Not enough cement!"  Jimmy could have delivered that well. When Chuck says it, it just sounds dark and creepy.

• I was dying when Jimmy was telling the story of when he started at HHM and he licked all those envelopes before realizing that there was a sponge for that. On one of my first days ever on my first job out of college, I was asked by a guy a year ahead of me who was showing me the ropes to mail out approximately 100 benefit statements to pension plan participants. I trucked on through the painstakingly slow process of licking all the envelopes to seal them up, and when I was nearly finished, the guy who asked me to mail them came by my desk and asked me what the hell I was doing. He pointed out that there's an envelope sealer in the production room and that he only wanted me to take the envelopes there and have the production team handle it. I never got out from under that story as long as I worked there. Long story short, I feel your pain, Jimmy.

• Ugh, Kim calling all these old acquaintances is pretty much my worst nightmare. Not only is small talk entirely dreadful, but the idea of being all-too-aware that you're going into the exchange needing the other person to do something for you while having little recent friendship capital to lean on? Awful. It's the equivalent of the situation faced by all those people you vaguely knew who took commission-based financial product sales jobs in their 20s and called everyone they knew to "make a connection" or "set up a meeting" to discuss products to sell. The person on the other end of the line now needs to find a way to say "no" in the least disappointing way possible, and you're the asshole who put them in that awkward spot.
• "You don't save me. I save me." You go, Kim Wexler.

• Helloooooooo Hector Salamanca! I miss your bell. Maybe up your bribe from $5,000 next time.

Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Four: Gloves Off

The neverending rage of Tuco Salamanca......

Vince Gilligan is an artistic master of the cold open. We see Mike walking through a dark house, drop an envelope of money on the table and head on over to the fridge to get a beer. He puts a bag of frozen vegetables on half of his face, which the camera hides from view. Eventually we get to see just how badly he got messed up and it's not pretty.  It's an easy conclusion that he wound up taking the job from Nacho that was referenced at the end of the last episode, but what we don't know is that this is a sort of "flash-forward" scene for what's to come in "Gloves Off".

Meanwhile, Jimmy's getting reprimanded for his commercial by his bosses. I understand why they'd be mad because he went behind his back, but the reason that Cliff provides puzzles me.  He says that the commercial is damaging to the reputation of the firm and I genuinely don't understand how.  It was aired one time during a TV show watched by mostly elderly folks. Maybe he's warning against future decision-making in the same vein which could have worse reputational consequences, but I really didn't get this explanation.

Further confusing is the punishment that Kim receives for not bringing the commercial to Howard Hamlin's attention. Jimmy very logically argues that she shouldn't be getting punished for something he did at another firm. Plus, she didn't even know that Davis & Main didn't approve the commercial, so there was no reason for her to believe there was any wrongdoing.  Another very puzzling scene.

Jimmy confronts Chuck about Kim's predicament and Chuck denies involvement. This actually lines up with what we see when Kim departs the conference room with Chuck and Howard, as Chuck asks Howard, "What do you plan to do?" It's an interesting touch because we've expected Chuck to play the villain at this point and it lets the viewer know that this decision is likely in Howard's court. Jimmy tries to convince Chuck to do something about it by proposing quitting the law in exchange for bailing out Kim, and Chuck correctly points out that this would be extortion and a felony. Chuck may not treat Jimmy with the love a brother should have, but it's clear from this scene that he hasn't acted the way he has just to be a dick. He's got too much respect for the law to either be okay with Jimmy practicing it or making a Jimmy-like deal to stop Jimmy from doing that ever again. Mike and Jimmy are obviously the two best-drawn characters on the show, but Chuck is giving them a run for their money.

Meanwhile, Nacho explains that the "job" he has for Mike is for him to kill his partner, Tuco, because he's a total nutjob, why else? Nacho's elaborate plan seems too leaky for Mike, so Mike suggests sniping Tuco from a distance after he exits a meeting. He goes to procure a gun from a private arms dealer, but when he doesn't find anything to his liking, he seemingly changes his mind on the spot about his plan for Tuco.

Mike explains to Nacho that killing Tuco would compound the problem, not solve it and that getting him arrested would be a much better course of action. The explanation he gives is that Tuco's family would ultimately figure out what happened and come back on Nacho. What remains confusing to me is why Mike needed to see the arms dealer to figure this out. Any thoughts?

The plan Mike hatches is brilliant and well-considered, but absolutely painful. He provokes Tuco into beating the shit out of him in front of the cops, but to do so he needs to bank on Tuco acting predictably (not so tough) and getting the cops to show up at the absolutely perfect moment (pretty tough). Everything Mike pulls works to great effect, from wiping hand prints off of the payphone to flashing his cash as he purchases chicken from the diner to the final "that's all you got" that really earns him some facial damage. Nacho asks him after the incident why he went through so much trouble and monetary sacrifice to avoid pulling the trigger. Why indeed?  Perhaps the answer lies in something Mike said to Tuco, referring at the time to trying to go through insurance to resolve a car accident. "I offered to do this the right way. If you can't accept that, I can't help you."

Bullet Points

• Mike drinks PBR. Mike is the fucking man.

• Another nice touch from the cold open -- Mike is holding the boxing gloves that Tuco wore around his neck as a souvenir from the fight.

• The opening credits show a shot of cell phones in a drawer, which is a reference to the protocol people use before getting in a room with Chuck. I haven't really paid that much attention to these but have they always been this plot-related? They've seen kind of random to me in the past.

• We are still breaking up Mike and Jimmy storylines week by week. When's everything going to connect?

• Hmmm...I wonder just what Jimmy's going to do with that second chance of his?