For the first several season of Better Call Saul my biggest problem with it was that the Mike storyline was just a lot of stuff I could have guessed happened based on what we see in BB, that it was very well acted, written, and directed, but ultimately added nothing to the broader story and was trading a lot on my excitement to see stuff I recognized.
The same is kind of true of El Camino, I had assumed jesse probably fled to Alaska. A lot of people I know thought he probably ended up in jail, driving a stolen car being hunted by cops, which I guess is logically true but absolutely not what the tone of the final scene is implying.
But the difference is I liked Jesse much more than Mike and was more excited to see things turn out alright for him.
Me have teenage son who got very into both series, and he described Breaking Bad as being divided into "Jimmy Show and Mike Show," where Mike Show essentially fan service to keep people paying attention to slower but more interesting Jimmy Show.
It same trick as Inglourious Basterds, in which Tarantino make foreign-language arthouse film but kept audiences (and presumably studio) interested by running it side-by-side with Brad Pitt Killing Natzees.
Sep 7, 2022·edited Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Tobias
I appreciate this take on El Camino, a movie that perhaps was not necessary at the time but now seems like an indelible little sector of the Gilliganverse. There’s always a certain strangeness in seeing television properties jump to the big screen, at least for me. Star Trek and Sesame Street are prime examples. (Yes, I'm old.) The jump from lo-res 4:3 soundstages to widescreen worlds made these old friends look like they were suddenly living in a different, more tangible version of reality -- almost like they had literally stepped out of the television. Breaking Bad was already cinematic in its way, so that effect wasn’t as pronounced, but it was still a cognitive shift to sit in a movie theater watching Jesse do his thing. There was an exciting sense that we were somehow outside the box and off the map, exploring regions we never imagined seeing. (The feeling is heightened by how different Todd looks here in the flashbacks, which I sort of square by telling myself how large Todd looms in Jesse’s memory.)
But I do, in retrospect, feel that El Camino was an important story to tell. Breaking Bad always seemed to exhibit compassion for Jesse, even in his most self-destructive periods, and always took his pain seriously. In Breaking Bad, he was under the thumb of a malignant abuser. In El Camino, the abuser is out of the way and we get to see the recovery process begin. It’s cathartic in a way that even the scream at the end of Breaking Bad is not.
Amazing write-up of a very curious project. I feel like the scene where Todd sings “Share the Night Together” is a key moment for the convergence thing — it’s not BIG, but it’s undeniably more movie-ish, and lasts longer than even some of the leisurely moments from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” (Paradoxically, all the “This Is Your Life” flashbacks feel more old-school TV than anything in “Bad.”)
To be honest, I think El Camino was necessary, due to the fact that the final 8-episode stretch really didn't do right by Jesse's character. Having to cram around 13 hours of plot into 8 episodes led to a whole lot of rushed storytelling (particularly after 'Ozymandias') which left Jesse at the end with nothing to do and no real arc. In that regard, El Camino was a required corrective that helped complete Jesse's storyline.
For the first several season of Better Call Saul my biggest problem with it was that the Mike storyline was just a lot of stuff I could have guessed happened based on what we see in BB, that it was very well acted, written, and directed, but ultimately added nothing to the broader story and was trading a lot on my excitement to see stuff I recognized.
The same is kind of true of El Camino, I had assumed jesse probably fled to Alaska. A lot of people I know thought he probably ended up in jail, driving a stolen car being hunted by cops, which I guess is logically true but absolutely not what the tone of the final scene is implying.
But the difference is I liked Jesse much more than Mike and was more excited to see things turn out alright for him.
Me have teenage son who got very into both series, and he described Breaking Bad as being divided into "Jimmy Show and Mike Show," where Mike Show essentially fan service to keep people paying attention to slower but more interesting Jimmy Show.
It same trick as Inglourious Basterds, in which Tarantino make foreign-language arthouse film but kept audiences (and presumably studio) interested by running it side-by-side with Brad Pitt Killing Natzees.
I appreciate this take on El Camino, a movie that perhaps was not necessary at the time but now seems like an indelible little sector of the Gilliganverse. There’s always a certain strangeness in seeing television properties jump to the big screen, at least for me. Star Trek and Sesame Street are prime examples. (Yes, I'm old.) The jump from lo-res 4:3 soundstages to widescreen worlds made these old friends look like they were suddenly living in a different, more tangible version of reality -- almost like they had literally stepped out of the television. Breaking Bad was already cinematic in its way, so that effect wasn’t as pronounced, but it was still a cognitive shift to sit in a movie theater watching Jesse do his thing. There was an exciting sense that we were somehow outside the box and off the map, exploring regions we never imagined seeing. (The feeling is heightened by how different Todd looks here in the flashbacks, which I sort of square by telling myself how large Todd looms in Jesse’s memory.)
But I do, in retrospect, feel that El Camino was an important story to tell. Breaking Bad always seemed to exhibit compassion for Jesse, even in his most self-destructive periods, and always took his pain seriously. In Breaking Bad, he was under the thumb of a malignant abuser. In El Camino, the abuser is out of the way and we get to see the recovery process begin. It’s cathartic in a way that even the scream at the end of Breaking Bad is not.
Amazing write-up of a very curious project. I feel like the scene where Todd sings “Share the Night Together” is a key moment for the convergence thing — it’s not BIG, but it’s undeniably more movie-ish, and lasts longer than even some of the leisurely moments from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” (Paradoxically, all the “This Is Your Life” flashbacks feel more old-school TV than anything in “Bad.”)
"There’s an extended rant I’ll spare you for now about how the Marvel Cinematic Universe is killing the movies by turning them into television..."
Well sign me the F up. You can be sure that it'll be appointment reading for me as soon as it pops up in the substack feed.
(Excellent article - besides featuring above quote - of course.)
To be honest, I think El Camino was necessary, due to the fact that the final 8-episode stretch really didn't do right by Jesse's character. Having to cram around 13 hours of plot into 8 episodes led to a whole lot of rushed storytelling (particularly after 'Ozymandias') which left Jesse at the end with nothing to do and no real arc. In that regard, El Camino was a required corrective that helped complete Jesse's storyline.