Currently watching on Netflix

I started watching the first season on The Flash on Netflix. It’s brighter and warmer than Arrow, and it loves being based off a comic book. People with superpowers! A telepathic gorilla! Cool special effects! Time travel!

It doesn’t feel like mind-blowing television, but it manages to make me cry every now and then. Barry’s relationships with the West family – Joe as father and guardian, Iris as best friend and unknown love, act not quite as moral guides, but as reassurance and reminders of what’s important to Barry and why he uses his powers.

What makes this show compelling is Tom Cavanaugh as scientist Harrison Wells. He is the one that sets the show in motion. He built the particle accelerator yet caused it to malfunction, ensuring that Barry was struck with lightning and imbued with powers. While he can be nurturing and caring to Barry, the show makes it very clear that Wells is ruthless and pragmatic when he wants to be. Cavanaugh is wonderful in showing these various dimensions to Wells, especially as the season progresses.

Better Call Saul is a prequel series to Breaking Bad, focusing on criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. We know from Breaking Bad that Saul Goodman is an incredibly talented, if morally flexible, lawyer. We know his fate is tragic – on the run as a fugitive, hiding as a Cinnabon manager in Nebraska. The first season is finally out on Netflix and we discover that Saul Goodman was originally Jimmy McGill, former con man, now earnest lawyer.

The show begins six years earlier from the events of Breaking Bad. Jimmy McGill isn`t living the good life as a lawyer with a law firm. His office and bedroom is in a room in a nail salon basement. He works hard, but he needs is something big and good to break his way. He can hustle like a con man, but he`s trying to stay on the straight path for those he loves, his brother Chuck and his friend/confidant Kim.

Better Call Saul reminds me of Bojack Horseman. It’s a funny show, and an earnest one. But you know it will find a way to rip your heart out. Jimmy will inevitably turn into Saul. He will be betrayed. The universe will punish him. Maybe Jimmy can fight it. Maybe Jimmy is submerged instead of completely transformed. Maybe he is fighting his true nature. Is Jimmy a good man? Was he ever?

I cannot simply watch one episode of 30 Rock. I somehow end up watching 3 or more at one sitting. I marvel at the dialogue, how it easily captures the character’s essence and manages to move the plot forward. It’s still funny. I love it so much.