To me the odd pace and the cinematography of Vince Gilligan shows are part of the draw.
Like a lot of his shows feel like they’re meant to convey a peak into the beauty of niche monotony. It can definitely be difficult if not impossible to keep that entertaining while stretching out over several seasons.
When it’s done right, it kind of disarms you/hooks into your sense of empathy and reels you in. It’s more than just slice of life where you’re watching as part of the audience. You get to momentarily slip into the perspective of a stranger by feeling what they’re feeling.
For example, always feeling a bit out of place among your elite peers at a prestigious law firm. Convinced that no matter how hard you try or how successful you are, somehow they just know you’re not like them. And you’re not exactly wrong.
Finding yourself looking forward most to moments when you slip away from the job you fought so hard to land, for a quick a smoke break where you can finally let your guard down and just breathe and let it all out with the only other person who really gets it.
Or, finding yourself looking back at the end of your career as a dirty cop with deep sorrow and regret for all the things you did while knowing it was the wrong thing to do. Yet always choosing to take the easy way for your own sake. Then trying to start over new, by picking what feels like the safest most routine job you can find as a parking attendant, just trying to break good.
Even the little peaks into the lives of side characters tend to give little brief glimpses in their shoes.
There’s a throw away scene in the first episode of Pluribus before the aliens begin to take over that stuck with me. It shows a big group of industry scientists pipetting in synchronization while they toil away in a huge lab.
No lines, the characters are all extras, and it’s such a niche scene, but it also perfectly conveys the kind of hive mind flow that tends to become a normal tendency for all humans when you’re working together, and also foreshadows the entire plot of the show.
Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Maybe it’s just me, but they could have had an entire episode where Kim paces around a parking garage, smoking cigarettes and waiting for a phone call and I’d still watch to the end.