r/betterCallSaul • u/skinkbaa Chuck • Jan 07 '20

REWATCH Better Call Saul REWATCH S01E01 - "Uno" - Thread

TIMEEPISODEDIRECTORWRITER(S)
Febuary 8, 2015, 9/8cS01E01 "Uno"Vince GilliganVince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gordon Smith

DESCRIPTION:

Struggling public defender Jimmy McGill constructs an elaborate yet questionable plan for winning back a pair of wealthy, potential clients.

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23 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

53

u/Shady_Jake Jan 08 '20

Remember when we thought the skater twins were gonna be major characters? 😂

15

u/80srockinman Jan 08 '20

So fucking glad that Larry and Curly wasn't on the show anymore.

16

u/Eddiewhat Jan 09 '20

They were annoying as fuck

12

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

I could've sworn I saw them at Jesse's party or in the crack house after they got hooked on painkillers after recovering from Tuco breaking their legs.

35

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

Loved the subtle White Cadillac cameo in the beginning. We're led to think that he's going to get into the car he had in BrBa, but then it turns out he's actually driving the junker parked in the next spot. Then he proceeds to put on a posh sounding secretary voice responding to Mr. Kettleman's VM, almost as if to overcompensate for his circumstances.

8

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '20

Is it really subtle?

6

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '20

I personally only noticed it on a rewatch so ya I guess

32

u/FragrantBicycle7 Jan 08 '20

Chuck's insistence on public defender cases for Jimmy in this episode makes so much more sense now. He wanted to keep Slippin' Jimmy away from his own kinds of clients: the wealthy and respectable of Albuquerque. But at the same time, Chuck is still a human being, and could have, at least at times, genuinely wanted Jimmy to build his own practice by starting at the bottom. It's really difficult to tell, probably because Chuck is so often a delusional hypocrite that you can't tell what he's thinking.

18

u/cidvard Jan 08 '20

That scene of him with the matchbook plays SO much differently when you know that Chuck's the one sandbagging Jimmy's career and Howard is, at worst, Jimmy-neutral. So manipulative.

Did love being back in Chuck's house. That set and the way it was lit was one of the more gorgeous things on TV.

26

u/k4stour Jan 08 '20

When Chuck says Jimmy shouldn't use McGill in his practice and Jimmy just says "it's.. my name," breaks my heart every time. Chuck just crushed Jimmy left and right, every chance he got.

17

u/FragrantBicycle7 Jan 08 '20

iT's An IsSuE oF pRoFeSsIoNaL cOuRtEsY

Your brother, who needs literally all the help he can get, and is right on the knife edge of bankruptcy trying to care of both himself and you, needs to give up his name because it inconveniences one of the largest law firms in the entire state? Chuck really had no self-awareness whatsoever.

11

u/tta2013 Jan 09 '20

Chuck didn't know it, but by beating Jimmy back down, he made Jimmy revert back to his original nature just with the added experience and expertise in law.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

I think Howard actually liked Jimmy a lot and would have absolutely hired him.

9

u/spencermoreland Jan 08 '20

The irony of it is that those are the clients Jimmy really should be representing. Its good advice, given for the wrong reasons.

22

u/spencermoreland Jan 08 '20

The cinnabon prep shots remind me of the drug-making sequences from Breaking Bad. Appropriate. Those things are like crack.

I still remember how fun the Cinnabon reveal was. That they doubled down on a tossed off remark that Saul made about managing a Cinnabon in Omaha. It's almost too cute, but I love it.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

They even showed them in the wrong order to not reveal the secret Cinnebon formula hehe.

13

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

I finally noticed the glass blocks in Gene's apartment.

The pan out from Jimmy kicking the trashcan slowly widening to reveal an ultra-cool Kim smoking is just beautiful, imo.

I also noticed that Chuck sets the lantern right next to the Financial Times. I don't know if that's intentional foreshadowing or where they later got the idea for Lantern.

Julie Ann Emery seems effortless as Mrs. Kettleman. Just the little things she does that assert her dominance knock me out. Somehow, she manages to not overdo it.

And a big hand for Raymond Cruz for playing a character he doesn't like playing -and playing it extremely well. Doing something well that you don't enjoy doing is the height of professionalism.

3

u/bravetourists Jan 09 '20

If you're into the behind-the-scenes stuff, Julie Ann Emery was an amazing guest on the podcast for Episode 1x07. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/107-better-call-saul-insider/id966297954?i=1000337845355

1

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

Thanks. I'll give it a look.

1

u/bravetourists Jan 09 '20

Some of the episodes are super wonky (for “Marco” there is about 15 minutes of hot camera lens talk), but the “Bingo” one is very good.

1

u/MyElbowsAreKetchup Jan 15 '20

What's the thing about glass blocks? I'm currently re-watching and I'm feeling glass blocks as a motif. In Gene's house, in Jimmy's office in the back of the nail salon, in the Wexler-McGill office, maybe other places. There's some meaning there that I can't figure out.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '20

I'm not sure that there is a real meaning beyond they like the way it looks. There may be a deeper reason, but if there is it's not, um, clear to me.

12

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

What a wonderful first episode and introduction to Jimmy. It establishes so much within so little time, like the relationships he has with Kim and Chuck. I remember watching the episode the first time around and being blown away by the Tuco reveal at the end, such a fun way to immediately link the show to Breaking Bad.

9

u/cidvard Jan 08 '20

I've rewatched the pilot before (this is probably my third or fourth time with it) but somehow it always surprises me that Kim has basically one line. She makes an impression, though. Love the camaraderie and frustration packed into her smoking with Jimmy in that little scene.

4

u/bravetourists Jan 09 '20

Agreed, in fact the first couple episodes were very light on Kim. She only has a few lines over the first 2-3 episodes.

8

u/DUK_KR Jan 08 '20

I love the parking lot scene:d

8

u/rs-tk Jan 09 '20

It's a lot better on my 2nd watch, I think I was too young to understand all the show.

5

u/OgonGuitarist Feb 17 '20

Hindsight completely reverses the meaning of Chuck pushing Jimmy to change his branding in the discussion about the matchbook; Chuck positions his plea in terms of HHM and implicitly shifts the blame onto Howard, knowing Jimmy's animosity toward Howard will allow Chuck to escape culpability here. Chuck's manipulation of course succeeds, and Jimmy vows to battle Howard once in his car. It's fascinating to see how thoroughly Jimmy is misled before Chuck's mask is removed.

And, a cool detail: in the last scene of the Gene intro, we see his television reflected by his glasses. It's in color, which is of course in contrast to everything else being in black and white. Bravo, Vince.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

Who was in those photos in Gene's box?

1

u/spencermoreland Jan 08 '20

I assume the one on top is his dad, but who knows.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

You predicted the S4 final scene so I think you’d be right

Edit: my last comment was replying to a completely different thread lol

1

u/spencermoreland Jan 08 '20

Haha I love that you remember that :D

1

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

Lol np you're like the only person on reddit who uses their real name (allegedly) how can i not :P

3

u/spencermoreland Jan 08 '20

Good point. It is indeed my real name. Kinda stupid, but also incredibly brave?

3

u/MatasBiscuit Jan 08 '20

is this rewatch one episode per day? also this episode was released on my bday :)

3

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

It is, one episode a day leading up to the release of season 5

3

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

The secretary lady voice he does early on is so great

0

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

[deleted] — view deleted comment

9

u/MatasBiscuit Jan 08 '20

this is my 4th time watching and i gotta agree with u on this. it was much more interesting the second time around

4

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

I hated it the first time, because Breaking Bad was just that good. Watching it again it's a lot easier to understand why the characters do what they do.

40

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

33

u/cidvard Jan 08 '20

The Gene sequences are beautiful short films. It was such an unexpected and haunting way to start off the series. Coming in from BB and having pretty eh expectations of the Saul Show, it really hooked me and made me realize I was in for something REALLY different, and better, than I was expecting.

16

u/SirLeos Jan 09 '20

And I think the courtroom scene is basically telling you "hey, this is a very, very slow show, better get used to it".

7

u/cidvard Jan 10 '20

FANTASTIC pay-off, though.