Five-O

Mike: "I broke my boy".

Better Call Saul so far has been amazing and it's episodes have been great, until I sawed Five-o which I think is one of the best episode of this season so far and possibly in TV history.

Jonathan Banks was just perfect in this episode. He broke my heart with his excellent performance and he also reminds us why we loved Mike in Breaking Bad. I heard from critics and pretty much everyone that Jonathan Banks might win a Emmy or a Golden Globe because of this episode and I will be so over the moon if he dose win, because he actually give a groundbreaking and the best TV performance of the year. Most actors nominated or probably win don't really break any new grounds when it comes to they performance, well to me it didn't wow me, but this performance right here is just a masterpiece of acting.

We got shows like The Walking Dead which is on right now as I'm speaking but every Monday I'm not normally looking forward to Walking Dead that much to be honest, but I'm always looking forward to Better Call Saul. Why you may ask? because the show has such intelligent and brilliant writing that glues me into the screen and get's me interested every week.

I'm not going to say anything else about this episode, just watch it it's amazing.

Greetings from Lithuania.

So, the 5 and the 6 episodes of "Better Call Saul" moves a story a bit further but not to much.

5 episode was good, but really nothing special. Acting, writing, pacing and directing were solid as usual.

However 6th episode was superb. Simply the best episode of the series so far, it lets the background story of Mike, how he ended up in Albuquerque and the story behind him is sad and tragic. I won't going to go into details, but it's a superbly paced, written and acted by Jonathan Banks. This episode truly captures the spirit of "Breaking Bad" and show life as it is.

Overall, 8/10 for 5th episode, and 10/10 for 6th.

I have covered in previous reviews the contribution Joss Whedon is considered to have made to the modern TV drama (the "long arc") but watching this incredible episode I could help but think that Gilligan and Gould need acknowledgement too.

We already know (Breaking Bad) that their key theme is human foibles. This episode, which seems at first glance to break almost every rule of episodic TV (the star is barely doing a cameo?) is a tour de force not only for Banks' acting but also for way the viewer is hooked off the top and just cannot walk away.

Incredible TV.

And notice how all the episodes for the season end in "O" -- showing off maybe, but they earned the right.

((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

This episode reminds me of the surprising and well deserved letter Sir Anthony Hopkins wrote to Alan Cranston after binge viewing Breaking Bad. As a refresher I will quote how it began and highly suggest Goggling the remainder:

"Dear Mister Cranston.

I wanted to write you this email - so I am contacting you through Jeremy Barber - I take it we are both represented by UTA . Great agency.

I've just finished a marathon of watching "BREAKING BAD" - from episode one of the First Season - to the last eight episodes of the final Season. A total of two weeks (addictive) viewing.

I have never watched anything like it. Brilliant!

Your performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen - ever.

I know there is so much smoke blowing and sickening bullshit in this business, and I've sort of lost belief in anything really.

But this work of yours is spectacular - absolutely stunning..." .

While later in the letter Anthony Hopkins tributes others including Jonathan Banks, it seems he could now easily be inspired to followup his praise with another about Jonathan's portrayal of Michael.

We have all loved Mikes impenetrable stoic character in BB and certainly delighted to see him back for further study in these earlier adventures of the ever entertaining Saul. But, I highly doubt anyone foresaw this further depth of Gilligan and Goulds character construction talents and impeccable story-line placement of them.

As it all came together in production, I would guess even they were blown away at these understandably rare final results.

When it comes to writing and actor portrayal on a level this transcendent it is no longer about intellectual definition, dissection, or description; but sheer personal delight that registers as indelible ink on ones private soul.

Only in an amazingly stupid alternate universes could one possibly not hear these words next winter; "..and the Emmy goes to.. Jonathan Banks."

Mike Ehemantraut returns (actually he goes back in time) to his earliest appearance. In "Breaking Bad," he was already the cool foundation of Gus's drug empire. Here we meet the Philadelphia cop whose son was gunned down by his own kind. Mike is damaged by this and has done something (but we don't know what it is). He visits the widowed daughter-in-law who makes him tell the story. Saul has suddenly been embedded in the criminal world we saw in "Breaking Bad." Mike's character is so sound and so taciturn that he is hard to like, but we can't take our eyes off him. I thought after the last episode this was that actor playing a different character. I apologize for my stupidity.