#Big little reveal ideas full
#Big little reveal ideas series

#Big little reveal ideas full

There are those among you saying, 'You didn't have the full experience!' and I agree. So the tease, tease, tease of when we were going to see Gus wasn't relevant to my experience, and the slow reveal of the Los Pollos Hermanos sign, which would have delighted me at the time, had less punch. What, people had every reason to wonder, would this be like? But I knew what Gus was like when he came back I had already seen him on Saul. An example: There is a section that I found interminably drawn-out and a little bit boring, which I eventually realized was probably because back when it was airing, it was the lead-up to the introduction of Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), an iconic Breaking Bad character. Side note: When you are watching a show not in real time, sometimes you can also skip because you are immune to the kind of suspense they are using slow pacing to create, for reasons external to the story. I almost quit on Breaking Bad when they started dissolving bodies in the first couple of episodes. I find those parts of the story a little less fresh and even a little uncomfortably stereotypical sometimes, so I don't need to watch every showdown between two scary dudes, and I definitely don't need to watch every killing. I am not, as I have told Alan and others, particularly a cartel person. I embezzled back a little of my own time, in other words.

But here and there, where I knew what was happening and I was not going to enjoy it, as is often the case with brutal murders and certain kinds of slow burns, I did some skipping forward. Don't misunderstand, I watched the vast majority of the 45 episodes I had missed. It's hard to be a solo criminal - it's much easier with an accomplice.

the larger cartel didn't want him to get out on bail?' I was right, by the way, I just wanted to make sure I was right, because Alan (who also followed The Sopranos so faithfully) is candidly much better at keeping score on mafia/cartel/criminal-operation stuff than I am. So was attacked while carrying bail money because. An actual text from me to Alan: 'Okay this is what I mean when I say I lose track of who is doing what. Usually, this took the form of double-checking when I lost my confidence that I was understanding what's going on. A shout-out here to my great pal Alan Sepinwall, who has faithfully written about Saul in real time all along, and who was available for me to text with my questions. If you have ever watched an adaptation of a book you've already read, you've had a similar experience.Īnd remember, I never said I wasn't cheating. You snuffed out the surprises for yourself! To this I say that most of the surprises were already pre-snuffed, and I cannot tell you how much easier it is to keep up with the fine points and appreciate the execution when you know the basic outline.

#Big little reveal ideas series

I read - or I should say I skimmed - summaries of every episode of the entire series before I caught up. So in a way, my first con was leaked intelligence. Besides, it's been almost impossible to live in the pop-culture world (and the pop-culture social media timeline) without knowing quite a bit about what happens. And obviously, Breaking Bad's very existence gives you a lot of hints about certain things that are or are not going to happen. I knew about some big deaths, and I knew about the way the story was intersecting with the events of Breaking Bad. He would encourage it.įirst, it helped that I had already kept up, loosely, with the direction of the show.

I wanted to try to experience the finale with everybody else, but could I?Īnd then I remembered: It's a show about a con artist.

Certainly not undoable, but with a show that contains this many detailed machinations and business dealings and people plotting against each other, I felt doubt. It was a daunting idea trying to process a show as intricate as this in a way that would let me catch up quickly I was about 45 episodes behind and really wanted to catch up in about. But I was woefully behind on all but about the first half of the first season. I'd seen a bit of it here and there and knew how critically revered it was by people whose tastes are often similar to mine. I didn't feel the need to be in that world again, regardless of my admiration for the personnel.įast forward to the show's current tear toward its finale as it doles out the last six episodes of its sixth and final season. So when Better Call Saul premiered about a year and a half later as the prequel spin-off tale of Walt's corrupt lawyer - played so brilliantly by Bob Odenkirk - I didn't stay with it. I wrote about it quite a bit, but when it ended, I was relieved, as I said close to the end of its run. If you think about consistency, quality, freshness, direction, acting, everything - I could easily argue for it as my personal best show ever. (Caution: this piece contains Better Call Saul spoilers.)