Mary Lea

Odenkirk is a fantastic actor, and carries the role of unexpected badass with his usual pizzazz. I totally believed in him as an action hero, which was surprising. Genius casting. I can't really put my finger on what makes this so good - I mean the plot is ridiculous, the violence way over the top... but then you've got the character's gleeful urge to chaos, the immortal line 'give me back the kittykat bracelet', the fight scene on the bus, the *second* time he gets on the bus, the character-insight 'I might have overcompensated,' the guy who played Doc Brown in Back to the Future being over the top awesome. You have the Russian mob because, well, why not? And the pacing is perfect not just for an action film, but for comedy too. The whole thing is just fun. And Odenkirk doesn't just act it for laughs, there's pathos in there too. I don't want to overanalyse it, but go have fun. They sure did.

Couldn't watch the full series and have no intention of watching the next. There's dark comedy and bleak examinations of grief - then there's this miserable concoction. I speak as someone who was widowed in their thirties, so have some insight into what the character is supposed to be going through. If I had reacted even for a moment like this man I should have - rightly - lost all my family and friends. There is no excuse for anyone to be as hideously unkind and self-centred as this man, and I don't want to watch someone using their bereavement as a golden ticket allowing them to treat everybody else like trash. He is not the only person who lost his wife, but you don't see his brother-in-law indulging in explosions of despair, even though losing a close sibling is as traumatic as losing a spouse. I think that character's interior life was forgotten by the author because he's only interested in the character he portrays. And the character he portrays commits murder as though that's a normal reaction to grief. It's not. Anyway, the whole joke seems to be 'my wife is dead so I can treat everyone with contempt, with no real consequences, because I am the only one that matters.' Foul language, threats, bullying and contempt of others are not natural reactions to grief. The whole world ends up grieving our dead. At some stage we all lose loved ones; we don't all act like dicks. By the time he got to the line 'don't waste it on food' I decided there was no upside to watching it. It made me feel like a worse human being, just indulging that level of darkness. If it hadn't been for the dog I would have given up in the first episode. I watched on because I was watching with someone else, but we both came to the same conclusion about the time we realised the 'hero' was completely morally bankrupt and an unrepentant murderer. A horrible mess, and I have no idea why it is so popular. Maybe people secretly fantasise about treating their neighbours abusively and getting away with it. If so, that is a depressing insight. One of the nastiest shows I have ever (part) seen. So nasty that if I ever see the author I shall feel compelled to quietly cross the street and avoid him. Quite frankly, it's not just bad, shallow, self-indulgent writing - banging on one off key note over and over again - it shows a world view so repulsive I can only describe it as wicked.