Not even sure what I meant by the title—I’ve re-written portions of this about 7 times while it’s been in the queue, so here it finally is. Play Ball! That might have been a better title….

So I’m curious to see how grandpa Rossi manages the Cubbies. Pretty much the  same Cubbies from last year. Well not exactly the same. Hamel’s gone but then again, you were never quite sure what you were going to get. Strop’s gone to Cinci, but he’s been off ever since the first hamstring injury. Kinzler’s gone and he was the most consistent guy out of the pen last year. Still got Ryan, Wick and Wieck.

It’d be great if Hendricks had a banner year again, no reason why he shouldn’t. All Q needs to do is stay aggressive and consistent. Hopefully Lester can double down on workouts and really transform himself into the horse for one more year, go out on top. And Darvish… if he can hold onto that magic he grabbed the second half of last year, no one will be able to touch him.

I expect career years from both Contreras and Caratini this year. I expected Ross to do the smart thing and keep Anthony at lead off and let him have fun with it, but it looks like Bryant is going to be top of the order. Okay then. Javy– I never know what to expect from Javy. 

Russell’s gone, so if that dark cloud was causing discomfort, he’s no longer an excuse. Let’s hope Jay Hey gets another tiny bump in his average. Castellanos is gone. Also to the Reds. They were already beating the crap out of us, now they got arguably our best guy. When I say best guy, I’m talking bat and balls and energy. Poof, he’s gone. Time for Bote and Happ to step the hell up and have career years. Come ON already. 

Oh. And Schwarbs. You *kinda* promised us a legend back in ’16. You delivered the *start* of it in the World Series. We’ve now waited three additional years. I’m already fine if they trade you, because you haven’t been that impressive — which is why they’re also not getting as many bites. Come ON. 

Lot of people saying they’ve gotten fat and lazy over the past couple years– I just refer to it as complacent. Still same cause and effect. I think Ross can only be good for some of these guys. They’ve had all the tools they’ve needed for the past three years to get right back to the World Series, but they’ve just folded up faster each year.

Maybe less swagger and more professionalism and dedication. Maybe more smart baseball. 

The players are already saying Ross is great, everyone needs to be accountable, yada yada. Great. They’ve been saying all the right things since ’16 but not *doing* the right things. We’ll see. 

I look forward to seeing it. Whoops! No, it’ll be on Marquee network, which I won’t pay for. Like I say, I’ll look forward to hearing it on the radio, because the thing IS.

Spoilers ahead as always… but in a nutshell, the big reveal was that the Doctor is really an ancient being that predates the civilization of the Time Lords, is billions of years old, and is THE source of how Time Lords regenerate. She just doesn’t remember any of that. Anyway, on with the review….

I’m a man of my word. He answered some questions. Good for Chibs and good for us. I must say, even though Nutty McMaster is a fruit loop and a psychotic anarchist, he does think on his feet. Grabbing the Cyberium and building a Cyberman army that can regenerate using Gallifreyan corpses, basically immortal Cybermen…as far as power crazed, frothing mad dog plans go, it was fairly solid. And leaving the death particle for the Doctor to find was a win win for him. Either the Doctor would kill them all and in his mind, he wins, or she wimps out and he still wins. 

HOWEVER. While I applaud us getting answers, and the majority of the ep chugged along fairly well…… I mean, the ep had about as weak an ending as we’ve seen.

The Doctor getting saved by another age old cliche was ridiculous. “You go, Doctor, the cliched bomb simply can’t be armed by remote control! I will sacrifice my cliched self for YOU!” That was incredibly weak and we’ve seen it a million times. Surely there was a better, more original way for them to pull that off. Limitations of the Chib.

As far as the Doctor wimping out and not even pulling the trigger…..Here, it would have been a clean action. No one would have suffered except all the bad guys and her. The thing that stopped her was the Master saying she’d be like him? Come ON. Was she willing to sacrifice herself for the universe or not?  Sorry, that was very lame. Again, limitation of the Chib.

Regarding the reveal of the Timeless Child. At first, all these revelations basically amounted to a “so what?” So the Doctor’s got a secret past history. So what? I mean, why did this cause the Master to destroy Gallifrey? 

But then it comes out that Gallifrey, all Time Lords, owing their existence to the Doctor, he just couldn’t cope with that “indignity”, and we come back to Nutty McMaster. He’s an unstable goober in the cereal bowl. I guess that stays true to this version of the Master. He gets upset, he just kills everyone. Not many ways to go with this character. He’s limited by his mania. 

The Cybermen in general, I still didn’t care about, but they served their purpose.

The excess humans, same. I just was curious about the Gaillfrey revelation and the whole Timeless Child thing. 

My wife and I were actively either telling Ryan to shut up or stay out in the open where the Cybermen could kill him. Graham was wonderful as always and Yaz is from Yorkshire, so that must explain her many limitations?

Does this retcon “ruin” Doctor Who? No. It does stick a nasty Chibnall earworm in our head but it can’t logically interfere with the past 57 years. It actually puts a whole new spotlight on Brain of Morbius though!

So on balance, I think there were more positives than negatives here. They didn’t even really leave us hanging. Hopefully the “fam” is gone for good. That’d be a huge victory. And the Doctor being thrown in prison — that was rather slap dash and unlikely but whatever– I’m perfectly happy with her locked up. You know she’ll get out, you know Nutty’s still alive. All in all, a decent enough ending. Certainly not magnificent or amazing (I wasn’t wrung out by any means or even emotional) but I think it was at least an acceptable finale over all. *Definitely* better than last series’.

But what is the aftermath for the rest of fandom? Has the Doctor’s secret past history set the internet on fire? Or does it matter? Did this finale salvage the Chibs era, or at least validate this season? Or, has Chibs just finally blown it, you considered this as absolutely the last straw and you’re walking away? How find ye?

I approach each episode of new era Doctor Who (Series 12 final ep tonight), as an amateur sociologist, one of a million critics, a 40 year fan, and a would be writer. 

Showrunner Chris Chibnall wasted half of Series 11 which served no one. Not the fans, the BBC, no one but himself, leaving some guest writers to add a tiny bit of characterization to the regular cast. He also threw one tiny line about “The Timeless Child” way back in S11.2, “Ghost Monument”, a horrible, dreary, 50 minute mistake. No other mentions or allusions to Chibnall’s grand plan. Evidently he *has* a grand plan, though. Yes, definitely.

In fact, after the show’s ratings continued a slide throughout all of S11, he may have been prompted by the BBC to speed things up a bit. Because of the 9 episodes of this 10 ep season so far, he’s spent 5 of them setting up prologues and precursors, not telling us anything but getting ready for the big finale! He’s brought back the Master who has big secrets THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING…….AND EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS A LIE! Gallifrey’s been destroyed by the Master, but why? WAIT FOR THE FINALE! Evidently there’s a whole other Doctor we never knew about! Who is she? What is she? Why is she? WAIT FOR THE FINALE! Are Time Lords the descendants of humans? WAIT FOR THE FINALE! Etc., etc. 

For context, of the 9 eps so far:

Skyfall part 1 – Good *set up* for

Spyfall pt 2 – a bunch of rehashed ideas from RTD and the Moff & more *set up* for the finale!

Orphan 55 – just a crap ep with endless preachy speeches hammered in over and over

Nicola Tesla’s Night of Terror – average but good ep!

Fugitive of the Judoon – very exciting ep that dazzles as a big *set up*!

Praxeus – bland ep with more messages, felt like a filler. (a filler in only a 10 ep series? eh.)

Can you hear me? – message show, told poorly, with added insults to everyone watching. Horrible. 

Haunting of Villa Diodati – not a bad *set up* story for the two part finale.

Ascension of the Cybermen – part one of the two part finale, naturally, a *set up* for pt 2.

To be clear, I’m used to Series long arcs that usually, mostly pay off in the end. In past seasons, showrunners Russel T Davies and Steven Moffat have done that, to varying degrees of success but at the same time, told many successful stand alone stories in the series leading up to it, with well developed Doctors and companions.

Chibs is doing nothing more than playing for time. He’s tap dancing and hiding most of his stuff behind the curtain. He’s hoping the pleasing fireworks he’s setting off amaze and entertain enough that you don’t notice he’s saying nothing, showing nothing, stalling….stalling, until he gets to tonight’s finale. This means he’s going to have to deliver *something*. He’s already said we’ll get *some* answers– which is good, and hey, maybe that’ll be enough! But some things will be continued in S13, which is another measly ten eps that won’t be shown until autumn 2021 at the very earliest. 

What I would like, would be a bit of closure on something, but maybe *without* Chibs just stealing more ideas from Davies and Moffat and other past Who adventures again to tell his story, albeit it in a lesser fashion. He doesn’t even copy well, he just copies. 

There’s still a spark of hope that he might pull it off. According to Chibs, it will leave us emotional, wrung out, open mouthed and in need of a stiff drink. 

Well, going by his history, those are the effects of a typical Chibs written episode. But will it be any good?

Anything’s possible. Good, bad or ugly, I can’t look away yet. 

When my wife convinced me to do a blog, I thought that I should do an entry each day for one year. That’s 365 days to you and me.  I figured that during that time period, I should be able to get everything out. Every story, confession, theory, experience, you name it. Although that’s not entirely true. There are a few things I’ll keep to myself that are none of your beeswax. 

“Beeswax”. Ha! I’m old. 

But Leap Year Day adds a 366th day X factor to the proceedings. After all the past complaining about how my mother never tells me anything about her past life (you’ll see), I shouldn’t hold back, so fair enough kids, everything must go. Let’s make Leap Year Day memorable.

Okay, here are two bits for Leap Year Day. A rather mild remembrance and then a confession.

One:  In junior high (?) one time I was accosted by this one older kid who I think may have been nuts. While it was mostly my pride that was hurt, in future, it did give me a greater hatred for bullies and caused me to really go nuclear on a couple kids that bullied some other victims after that. When *I* was bullied, I was slow to react at all, or get mad, because usually I was just totally mystified as to why anyone would want to pick on me of all people. But I guess there’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to it. Really, this was small potatoes, as it only happened a couple times. 

Two:  Way back in the early ’90’s, I got a D.U.I. A stupid act that–had it been worse, or if anyone had gotten hurt or killed, it could have easily destroyed my life. *That* terrified me. Still does. Never been angrier with myself. Color me far luckier than I deserve to be. True, this was almost 30 years ago but it doesn’t make it any less egregious. In fact, several years ago, I was called up for jury duty and they were determining who was to serve on a case regarding a guy who got a DUI and whatever else was involved. 

The judge asked if there was anyone who felt they couldn’t be impartial about the case. I raised my hand told them that years earlier, I’d gotten a DUI. The prosecution and defense both started scribbling on their pads, while the judge commented “So you feel you’d be sympathetic toward the defendant?” 

“Sympathetic? No.” I said “It was stupid and unacceptable when *I* did it. I’m certainly not going to go any easier on some stranger, especially if someone was hurt.” More frantic scribbling on paper. They excused me from duty. 

Interesting that the judge naturally assumed I’d side with the other DUI guy. 

Okay, got that off my chest. Anyway, that’s my Leap Year day post, with another gander at how my mind works. You can consider this a bonus or #366, whatever works for you.

Leap Year.

 

One of the nice things about a million cable channels and various streaming services is that those entities, combined with a DVR which searches out programs, means you can usually find most anything, especially old tv shows. Case in point, Columbo. Peter Falk played the disheveled detective from 1968 to 2003. 35 years! 

The formula of the show was simple: we see someone orchestrate and commit the would be perfect murder. Unfortunately for them, Lieutenant Columbo has been assigned to the case. Columbo has two things going for him. His rumpled, disorganized appearance constantly makes the killers underestimate him and he’s a very thorough, methodical, inquisitive, persistent and intelligent detective. Columbo would examine each and every detail very closely, pulling on various threads, asking all sorts of questions, usually making a pain in the ass of himself until uncovering the murderer and the evidence he needed to put that person away. And when he knew someone did it but couldn’t *prove* it, he’d often set a trap the killer would fall into, incriminating themselves. I mean, a number of times, the killer really did think of everything, but was too clever or arrogant for their own good and got tripped up by the scruffy sleuth. 

By and large, the scripts were usually top notch and during the show’s heyday in the 1970’s, it boasted the likes of writers like Steven Bochco among others. They had many top stars of the day coming in to play the murderers, like Robert Conrad, William Shatner, Lee Grant, Robert Culp and many more. Mind you, not all of them were winners. “Last salute to the Commodore” was a bizarre, meandering tale of some old sea captain being killed. Directed by the very strange and unpredictable Patrick McGoohan, what made this episode really stand out was the obvious day drinking exhibited by some of the cast during shooting. It got to the point that when everyone was gathered to expose the murderer, several cast members playing extra detectives had to verbally drag the proceedings along while Falk was stumbling amongst the decorative driftwood. My take: Falk, McGoohan and the writer were shit-faced and only with the greatest assistance by added cast members, were they able to get this one in the can. But this was the anomaly. Usually, Columbo ranked among the best written tv around and it had the Emmys to prove it.

It was also part of the regular rotation of the Sunday Mystery movie, a brilliant collection of shows that took turns each week during the season. Columbo shared the time slot with McMillan and Wife, starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James and McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver. This would mean that in any season, they’d only have to produce 8 TV movies a year for each franchise and the format was initially very popular. 

After doing the pilot in 1968, the bulk of Columbo’s episodes came in the 1970’s through 45 TV movies in seven seasons, 1971 through 1978, but lived on with another four entries for an 8th season in 1989, another six for a 9th season in 1990, and then a string of 14 specials comprising a 10th season from 1990 to 2003. 

In these later seasons, yes there were a couple clunkers and in a *few* cases, it seemed like the best he could get the murderers on was circumstantial evidence that any decent lawyer could make go away. Still, by and large, always a treat, seeing Columbo running through his process, taking down these arrogant killers who often made that one, tiny mistake that eventually does them in. 

The detective himself was a pile of quirks and idiosyncrasies which formed the character. He’d show up to murder scenes in the wee hours of the morning, obviously having been pulled straight out of bed and only half awake, asking for coffee, sometimes with a hard boiled egg or two in his pocket so he could grab a quick bite while he ambled around. He’d sometimes bring his basset hound with him, leaving the mutt in his car while he visited the scene. He usually had a cigar going at all times, had various notes and other paperwork stuffed into his trench coat or other pockets. He was unkempt at the best of times and drove around a dilapidated 1960 Peugeot. He was literally a mess at all times and the murderers always took him for granted, until he nabbed them.

Thanks to the Hallmark Mystery channel, I’m currently in the home stretch of watching the last 6 eps from the show’s run. I’m curious to see how the quality holds up as far as the writing goes. The last six stretch out over a final decade, ’94 to ’03 and Falk was in his early 70’s by the end. Evidently, he was so good, the force never let the man retire! Sadly, the great man passed in 2011.

Falk had great range and a great career in movies (It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Great Race, Anzio, The In-Laws, The Princess Bride) and tv but he was best known as the lovable, rumpled detective. 

Two extra bits:

1. Although we never saw his wife in the show, she was always mentioned. But somebody did eventually do a show called “Mrs. Columbo” starring Kate Mulgrew, who was completely wrong for the part, being absolutely nothing like Columbo had described her over the years, along with her being half his age. Thankfully, the show didn’t last long and was pretty much forgotten. 
2. We never officially knew his first name, as he never gave it. However, waaaaaay back in the first season, (episode three, “Dead Weight”), in one scene, he flashes his badge and if you look closely at the ID, you can see his signature, and that his first name was

Buckle up–I’m going with the flow on this one.

Pretty much anytime I see a heartfelt father and son moment on tv or in the movies, odds are, there’ll be waterworks at some level. It could even be an old man and a boy as in grandfather/grandson. Same cause and effect. Emotion. It doesn’t take a brainiac to figure out that I react that way because of the bizarre/nonexistent relationship I had with my father. What could have been and should have been but wasn’t. 

I’d once heard that your relationship with God mirrors your relationship with your father. But I’m an agnostic, so I kind of keep an open mind. Perhaps you might think I’d be an atheist since dad left or was booted out when I was two and never met him, but no, it gets weird. 

He was around. 

He sometimes visited his brother, my uncle, and his family in Worth. And *I* quite often visited that family after mom and I moved close by. See, my mom and I *had* lived with my grandparents in Oak Lawn after my folks split up, so I in effect had three parents from age two through ten. BUT, we had to move to Worth after my grandpa retired and my grandparents moved away to Florida. 10 year old me was very angry that two of my three parents were leaving me and I even defaced an expensive table in protest. Point was, I was always over there at my cousins house, but he would visit the family as well, so there had to be a concerted effort to keep he and I apart. (?) But it gets weirder. 

A few years later, there was a big party (graduation?) for my older cousin, I guess. I don’t remember the purpose of the get together, only that both my father and I were there. Quite often probably only feet apart. He was right there. I could go up and hug him if I wanted to but I didn’t. He was a stranger. He was there with his then girlfriend or wife. She sat near my mother and they probably chatted over lunch. Damn near everyone at the party had to be aware that Dick Lundeen’s kid was Right. Over. There. No one said anything about it (that I heard, anyway). I steadfastly avoided him for couple of hours. It wasn’t a big house or a big yard and if I brushed past him at any point or came into direct physical contact when moving about, I have no memory of it. 

The last time I saw him, he was leaving the party with his wife, ambling down the sidewalk. His one leg was badly bowed outward as he walked. I later found out he once had a broken leg and didn’t let it heal properly. If you’re wondering why he never approached me at the party, I later found out that –allegedly– his brain was so addled with booze, instead of realizing I was a teenager, he somehow still thought I was an infant, the same age as when he left. I don’t even know if that was true or just some bullshit to maybe try and make me feel “better” about him ignoring me. No idea. 

Years later, my uncle died and my father was probably at the wake the same time as I was. I have this recollection (or was it a dream) of my cousin pointing out my father to me, as if to say, here’s your chance. Go to him. But I didn’t. Did he know I was there? Did he still think I was an infant? Did he care? I don’t know. I’ll never know because I never made the attempt. Neither did he. Maybe that’s on me because at that point, I believe I was an adult by then, at least 21.

A couple years later, the phone rings. It’s my mom telling me that she thought I should know that my father was on his death bed. The guy who left when I was two, the guy I never heard much of anything about– nothing good anyway– the guy who never wanted to connect with me, the guy I didn’t know, was on his death bed. I responded to my mom that I never really met the guy so what am I supposed to think or care? “Well,” she said, “I thought you should know he’s not expected to make it through the night.” And that’s how we left it. 

Couple years later, Vic gives me condolences that my father died. I said he died years ago. Turns out that he got better, mom forgot to tell me. So he died again. No idea how or why or where. 30 years go by. When I was diagnosed with cancer and the docs wanted to know family history, I never knew of any history, although it eventually came out that my uncle had lymphoma. As for my father, total mystery as usual. All we found out was that he had moved to Washington state but no idea about the cause of death, as his wife didn’t give any details when she called my aunt. 

Oh, and we have no idea if my father had any other kids, so no clue on any other sisters or brothers. 

So, yeah. The only other tidbits I knew about him:

He was a drunk

He used to work over at that US 30 drag-strip place

He once punched a cop

And I believe I have covered the entirety of my relationship with my father. 

Probably a rather informative piece of the puzzle that is me. 

In the meantime, I’d like to *think* I’m a decent dad. Acceptable at the very least. 

I would say better than my dad was anyway, though admittedly, that bar was set incredibly low. 

Sorry — felt like putting a photo up.

Sooooo many times, me and my brethren at the ***** ****** (sorry, top secret) have ranked the Marvel movies and with each film that’s come out, the list gets crazier and bulkier. Since I love lists — although I’m finding maybe not quite as much as I used to– I figured I’d put up my MCU list, but pepper in a ton of other superhero films to see where they compare when inserted into the competition. Many will disagree but no one agrees totally with anyone else’s list anyway. I’ll just say many factors came into play but this is my list. the non- MCU films are signified by an asterisk because. Oh, and if I missed one or two, I really don’t care because it either doesn’t belong on the list or would rank low on the list anyway, or maybe it’s a different genre other than superhero yada yada yada. The list is big enough and I had to go back in like a dozen times. Here goes:

Winter Soldier

Infinity War

Endgame 

Civil War

Avengers

Captain America: The First Avenger

*Incredibles

*Superman 1 and 2

*Spider-man 2

Dark Knight

Ironman 

*Spider-man 1

Deadpool

GOTG 1

GOTG 2

Deadpool 2

Batman ’89

Spider-man: Homecoming 

*X-men 2

*X-men DOFP

Iron man 3

Ant-man

Incredible Hulk

*X-men First Class

Iron man 2

*Watchmen

*Batman ’66

Ragnarok 

*Logan

Dr. Strange

*Wonder Woman

*Fantastic Four 2005

Wolverine: Origins

Far From Home

Ant-man and the Wasp

Age of Ultron

*FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer

*The Wolverine

*Incredibles 2

Dark World

*X-men the Last Stand

*Man of Steel

*Dark Knight Rises

*Batman Returns

Thor 

*X-men

*BVS

*Justice League

*Green Lantern

*X-men Apocalypse

Captain Marvel

Black Panther

*Spider-man 3

*Fantastic Four -Corman

*Aquaman

*Superman 3

*Batman Forever

*Amazing Spider-man

*Amazing Spider-man 2

*Fantastic Four 2015

*Batman and Robin

*Superman IV: the Quest for Peace

*The Spirit

My thanks to Sheena McNeil for taking time to review M&M, here’s The Link…

http://sequentialtart.com/reports.php?ID=11716&issue=2020-02-24

Not bad.

Another well done…. well actually another well done set up story. It’s very different from doing just A Good Story, which has a beginning, a middle and an end. 

Anyway, I think, pretty much top to bottom, that was a solid Doctor Who episode. Did my jaw drop and did it keep me on the edge of my seat? No, but it did keep me interested and I thought for once, the TARDIS crew    acquitted themselves pretty well. And honestly, since this is the *fifth* set up episode out of a ten ep series, with no pay offs yet to be tendered, there’s only so much of it that’s *eligible* for critique. The most important elements to me, as always is the Doctor and companions in relation to the story. This particular story being yet another prelude, I have to focus more on the TARDIS crew. But as for what this story *did* give us…

I mean, last human colony, desperate times, desperate measures, thousands of dead Cybermen, thousands of dormant Cybermen, the lone Cyberman, the crew gets separated, basically a lot of urgency to grease the tracks and move things along quickly getting ready for next week. Then Gallifrey shows up and so does Nutty McMaster uttering cliches. 

On to the crew: 

Ryan. Since he’s leaving the show, I thought for sure he was a dead man early on when he bumbled right when he should have bumbled left. Then he was found by the Doctor and was basically Yaz for the rest of the ep, just decorating the corner being useless. 

Yaz and Graham. This may have been the best acting I’ve seen from Gil so far and this was a rare instance where Chibs seemed to not do too badly with character interaction, at least on the escape ship anyway. And Graham was even getting hit on, which, since subtlety is never Chib’s strong suit, we might get a Leela/Andred pairing here next week. Heck, we might SEE Leela and Andred next week! 

The Doctor. I have to give credit where credit’s due here. The Doctor has often been a careless jerk when it comes to the “fam” and in a burst of self realization, she owned up this week and admitted it, *finally* doing what she should have done last week and told them to get the hell out of there. Way way way too late of course but, eh. I can’t even say better late than never because they’re all in horrific danger now. But over all, aside from her small, wacky asides, Jodie’s best when she’s intense and the threat levels this week kept her very Doctorish in a good way. 

And Brandon. When the ep began, and I started to watch this kid grow up, I thought oh man, this was going to be a tear jerking, heart string pulling, emotional one two punch… but no, I never did get attached to him and then he got old and somehow, his dad putting him in the conversion chair wasn’t even that powerful a moment. More of a head scratcher. We have car commercials that reduce me to tears in under 60 seconds when they show kids growing up and moving away (since I have kids) but here…. nothing. Maybe they’ll pay that off next week, along with Gallifrey, the Master, Doc Martin, the Cyberium plan, the Timeless Child and how everything we know is a lie and how this changes everything. 

Basically, we’ve been seeing trailers, prologues, appetizers and previews all series. Next week, Chibs will have to give us the main event, main course, you name it. Because if next week is just another set up stringing us along for next season, I’m not going to be happy. 

Finally, theory corner. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thinking that perhaps a sizable chunk of human civilization went through that gateway, the other side of which will turn out to be billions of years ago on what would one day be known as Gallifrey, and it’ll turn out that Time Lords are descended from humans. 

I gotta say, yes, that *would* change everything and I would absolutely love it. If true, it’d be the biggest, ballsiest, gutsiest move maybe ever. 

I wonder if Chibs is the one who actually thought of it? 

Sunday sees the premiere of Better Call Saul season 5. It’s about time. It’s been a year and a half since season 4. It’s been a slow boil, watching the tortuous process of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) transforming into Saul Goodman. It hasn’t been easy because we know what’s coming and what Jimmy becomes. 

With Walt, we looked on in fascination as he became Heisenberg, unlocking the anger, brilliance, danger and arrogance that existed within for decades. Turning Mr. chips into Scarface.

When we met Saul in season two of Breaking Bad, he was a sleaze ball criminal lawyer. Entertaining as all hell and you had to love him but he was a sleaze ball. Seeing how he started out, his circumstances, how hard he worked to get his law degree, pass the bar, all to be sabotaged by his brother Chuck, one big bag of disingenuous, patronizing, duplicitous ugliness with issues, who treated Jimmy horribly. And all while Jimmy was basically his care giver for years. Thanks to Chuck, the system got stacked against Jimmy and the end result was, that to actually survive and get his head above water, Jimmy gamed the system. He utilized the tricks from his earlier life as “Slippin’ Jimmy”, back when he was a scam artist as a kid. Playing by the rules over the years just kept ending up with Jimmy getting kicked in the face, so, never being one to really ever get mad, Jimmy got even. He went back to what he liked, what was comfortable, what he was GOOD at, gettin’ one over on the man, thumbing his nose at authority, workin’ the angles. He truly became Saul Goodman.

Oh, and then there’s the whole other half of this show. Mike. Over the last four seasons/40 episodes, we’ve seen how the ex cop and parking attendant, played by Jonathan Banks signed on with Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) as a hired gun. 

So far, the only familiar guests we’ve seen have primarily been from the Salamanca family, with Hector, Tuco and the twins checking in along the way, as the story lines of Jimmy, Mike and Gus all continue down the path toward the events of Breaking Bad. 

According to the trailer on AMC, as season five begins, it seems that Saul is truly open for business and Mike is going to be entrenched in his position with Gus. Plus, it looks like a certain DEA agent we know and love will be making a guest appearance this year.

But as events funnel toward their inevitable conclusion, we must recognize the one sacrificial lamb, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seahorn). She’d been Jimmy’s friend, confidante, associate, advocate, partner and lover. As far as we can tell, by the time we meet Saul in BB, she doesn’t seem to be in his life any more, so that scenario may be resolved this season. It seemed to me like they were little more than friends with benefits when it came to their intimate relationship. I never sensed any chemistry there. Now whether that’s by design, because of quirks in their character’s natures or the actors simply don’t have that type of chemistry, I can’t say for sure but with this show and these producers, they usually always do things for a reason. Them ending their relationship would definitely be severing the last tie to the existence of Jimmy McGill. 

Lastly, AMC does have a reputation for stringing out finales. They worked with Vince Gilligan to take Breaking Bad ‘s fifth season and instead of doing 13 eps, they broke it up into two shorter 8 ep seasons. Mind you, this worked beautifully, even though it was an agonizing year’s wait for those last 8 eps. AMC also tried that with Mad men and kinda screwed the pooch, but that’s a different blog post.

With BCS, up until now, each season had been 10 eps but this one is allegedly 8. This leads me to believe that there will be a sixth and final season that might also be 8 eps. Considering the opening scene at the start of each season so far has been black and white flash forward sequences, it seems as though the producers might be giving us two series finales. One ending with Walt walking in the door and maybe the other in present day/flash forward. I have no idea but I trust the gang.

It’s going to be a very interesting season…..