Review of Smoke

I can just imagine the writer's room for this episode. So Chuck has just died and of course instead of having the eulogy scene which is one of the most clichéd scenes ever they tell his eulogy over a phone call. What a creative and clever way of getting around the cliché. The Coen brothers would be proud. The brilliance of that scene is that it serves a second purpose. It shows us that Jimmy is uninterested in hearing about his brothers successful legal life as was highlighted by Howard, the fact that he puts down the phone once Howard starts talking about Chuck's charitable contributions shows us that Jimmy really does not want to hear anything good about his brother. He knows it's all fake and that Chuck was never truly a good person. The main thing we learn from this episode or at least are reminded of is how Jimmy has lost any feelings of love towards his older brother. He flat out did not care at all that he had burned to death in a house fire. We see this during the funeral. Jimmy just looks bored more than anything else as he shakes the hands of people offering their condolences. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this episode that cements the feeling of indifference towards his brother's death comes at the end. Jimmy gets the idea from Howard that his death was probably a suicide rather than an accident and it was triggered by the insurance debacle which was in fact a revenge act by Jimmy. Creative directing by Vince Gilligan shows us to our shock that Jimmy is happy with himself for having been responsible for Chuck's suicide. What's more, he's happy with letting Howard feel responsible for it. To conclude, all I can say is that despite the unlikableness of Chuck, for Jimmy to be proud of himself for getting one over on Chuck so to speak and having his revenge ploy lead to his suicide leaves a lot to be desired about Jimmy's character. His actions at the end of the last season were honourable and made me really like Jimmy but now after this, his character took a massive turn for the worse. Part of what makes this such a good show is that Jimmy is an imperfect character and his actions make us unsure how to feel about him. Perhaps as the season goes on the essence of his character will take a more concrete shape one way or the other.