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Reviews
Killing Eve (2018)
Interesting characters wasted in a poor story
Killing Eve is something so uncommon that it very much ticks many of the important boxes with flying colors, but fails spectacularily in one singular regard: story-telling.
It begins promising, hooking you with its character portrayal from the start and a clear promise of an engaging cat-and-mouse drama-thriller. Not before long, however, the decline sets in, and the story crashes into nothingness.
Weirdly, most characters are highly interesting, and this actually holds true from beginning to end. They are well-acted and in general well-directed. This is especially true for Jodie Comer's main role.
The issue is neither writing in all aspects. Dialogue is good., relations translate, humor is functioning and the series is full of interesting scenes.
But, the connective tissue between scenes and episodes just don't work. It is not episodic, with stand alone episodes, neither are we streamed in a common thread.
A tense scene - but what about the story?
A new interesting character - but what about the story?
A fun line - but what about the story?
It's a thriller without a functioning mystery. A drama without functioning character arcs.
The story always moves, but never progresses. We keep lifting our knees, yet only tread water.
The series is bad at starting a storyline and abysmal at ending them. Sadly to say, it's the very definition of a wasted opportunity.
Better Call Saul (2015)
Suberb drama with its own ID, glimpsing from the shadow of Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul is a prequel to one of the absolute greatest: Breaking Bad. Still it holds up on its own, creating its own ID while picking some of the esthetics and, sometimes also the tone, of its masterful predecessor. Any Breaking Bad lover will get their fair share of easter-eggs, which ultimatiely actually enhances the original show. Still, you can without problem watch and enjoy Better Call Saul without any prior knowledge. And you likely will!
The series absolute strenght is its nuanced and often fully fledged characters. Their actions are often motivated, grounded in established personality and situations. What is more is that they develop, are molded by the events of the show, giving the viewer a clear sense of progression.
Not only that, the story is well crafted, well told and not least well executed. Just like BB, Better Call Saul dares to take its time, in more ways than one. It does not rely of the frequent massive gestures, but build up --- carefully --- to its higher moments, making them all that more impactful. What is more is that it dares to stay in tension in scenes, and never cut away from the more difficult dramatic moments, like a lesser series would do. They reason for this is clearly the high performances of the actors, with the capabilities of carry such scenes.
Albeit "staying in the moment" is almost always to the show's benefit, it is also the reason for its (very small) weaknesses. When a story-line or character is not as engaging as the rest, we might stay there to long, feeling somewhat dragged. But this is in its absolute minority, where the general story is still highly engaging.
Even though we have some action and triller moments of drugs, crime and lawyering up, Better Call Saul is in its heart a relational story. And in that aspect it places among the absolute greats.
In the end, I find myself missing the characters and the world, but am also clearly satisfied in how it wrapped up.