Jonathan Banks Turns Great Shows into Classic Television

New Mexico is much more beautiful with Mike Ehrmantraut in it.

I just want to take a minute to talk about how awesome of an actor Jonathan Banks is and has always been.

Jonathan Banks is new to me, the first place I saw him was on "Breaking Bad" as Mike Ehrmantraut. He was phenomenal on that show. He was the badass assistant that Gus Fring needed. He was the perfect hitman, bodyguard, money guy, basically, he was the jack of all trades, as long as it was shady. When Mike showed up in season four of "Breaking Bad", that's when that show went from great to a classic masterpiece. He really turned an already great show into absolute, must watch TV. He was so great and was almost as fun to watch as Gus. No one, and I'm including Walt and Gus and Jesse, was as good on that show as Mike was. He was awesome.

Now I'm a big fan of "Better Call Saul". I put season one in my top 5 shows of 2015, both on the podcast and on my blog. It's a really great show. I had my doubts, it was released so close to the end of "Breaking Bad", so how could they even come close to what they had with that show, but they have pulled it out. It doesn't hurt that Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould still produce and write a lot of the episodes and that the majority of the original actors appear as themselves on "Better Call Saul". That helps the show even more.

Bob Oedenkirk is the star of the show, but what makes shows like "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad" so great is the fact that any number of actors can have their moments. In "Breaking Bad", it wasn't always Bryan Cranston as Walt that made it great. There was also the afformentioned Gus and Jesse, but also Krysten Ritter as Jesse's junkie girlfriend or Walt's brother in law Hank, his thieving wife Marie, Walt's wife, Skyler and, of course Saul and Mike. They all had episodes that featured their characters in pivotal roles and some of the episodes that featured these people, like when Walt watches Jesse's girlfriend choke and die on her own vomit, were compelling as any Walt heavy episode. Same thing goes for "Better Call Saul". There is plenty of episodes that focus on Saul's brother Chuck, played expertly by Michael McKean, and his struggles with electronics and paranoia and the fact that Jimmy is still a crook. There is also the stuff that features Jimmy's, that was Saul's name before he became Saul Goodman, girlfriend/work buddy Kim. She's played a pivotal role in 2 of the first 5 episodes of season 2 already. There is also Howard, who is co owner and creator of the law firm that Chuck started and Jimmy could never get a real job at.

Every episode of "Better Call Saul" is great television ,but the best episodes, and I'm including the ones that are Jimmy centric, are the ones that focus on Mike. He is wonderfully brilliant on this show. The fact that we get to see him alive again, spoiler alert, is fantastic. And man does Jonathan Banks knock it out of the park with this role. He is so god damn good. He plays the same type of character that he did on "Breaking Bad", but on "Better Call Saul", we get to see what turned him into this shady back door bag man and body guard and hit man and con artist. The episode in season one of "BCS" where we learn why he left the police was one of the best, most heart wrenching 45 minutes of television I have ever witnessed. That episode is a masterpiece and it should be shown in film and TV schools because it needs to be studied by the future TV and movie writers. It is so, so great. Go back and watch that episode. You will cry and you will feel things you never thought a TV show could make it feel. It is a work of art.

This season on "BCS", it seems that they have taken a more forward approach to making Mike more of a main character and the show is so much better for doing that. Jonathan Banks as Mike is so soft spoken and calm, yet you can see the anger and violence that he has behind those eyes. He never gets to amped up or too crazy about anything or any situation he's thrown in. He always has the same look on his face and the same tone to his voice and he carries himself with the same demeanor. He's always calm, but you better not cross him, or he will make you pay. Take an episode earlier this season. The guy from Minnesota, that he was essentially a body guard for, shows up in a humongous bright yellow hummer to go do a drug deal and Mike calmly tells him that he will not get in that car that screams arrest me and that if this guy goes to the deal alone, he will pay some kind of consequence. The guy doesn't listen and his home eventually gets robbed and his treasured baseball card collection is stolen. Mike cleans everything up for this guy in the next episode, but he is not happy about it. He did it for the money. Then, there is last nights episode, where he helps get Tucco arrested. Tucco's assistant, Nacho, wants Tucco killed and asks Mike to do it, but Mike calmly explains how this is a terrible idea for everyone involved. Instead, he hatches a plan to get Tucco arrested where no one will suspect any foul play and it works to perfection.

Jonathan Banks is a excellent actor. I'm just upset that it took for me to watch "Breaking Bad" to realize this. He was great on that show and he has been the best thing about "Better Call Saul" and I love that show. Hopefully he gets awards or at least recognition for the awesome things that he is doing on TV. Jonathan Banks is a wonderful actor.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He forgets that Johnathan Banks taught a lot of young men about the biology of a young woman (thanks to Conan O'Brien for digging this gem up). Learn from Ty by following him on twitter @tykulik.

Ed note: We misspelled Jonathan Bank's name when the article was posted. Ty got it right, I was wrong. It has been corrected. Sorry

The SeedSing (half) Year in Pop Culture: The Top Five Television Shows of 2015

Find the nob and change the channel

Day three of my best of 2015 countdown will be my top five shows pf the year. All the shows are in their second, third or fourth season except for one of them. The shows don't have to necessarily be shows that premiered this year. Sometimes the second or third season of a show is the best. Take the US version of "The Office". That show peaked in year four but they went on to make five more seasons. The majority of my countdown is all comedy shows. That's what I prefer. Sure, there's one show that could be considered a dramedy, but I'm a comedy fan. No "Mad Men", which I loathed this final season. I also don't watch any of the superhero one hour shows, be they on Netflix or basic cable. So, don't expect what the majority has put as their best of 2015. Comedy takes a certain taste and most publications writers don't have that taste. On with the countdown.

At number five I have "Better Call Saul", the dramedy of the group. I was very skeptical of this show when I first heard about it. I thought the writers of "Breaking Bad" did an excellent job of tying up the story of Saul Goodman, so why make a prequel type show for him? I began to get on board when I saw that Vince Gilligan and the majority of the "Breaking Bad" writers were hired to write the series. Then I watched and I couldn't look away from the TV. This was a show when it was on, I was focused. No cell phones or computers to look at, "Better Call Saul" needed my undivided attention. The show has many characters but make no mistake, this is Bob Oedenkirk's show, he's the star. And he does a damn fine job as the title character. We meet him as Jimmy McGill, his name before he became a "criminal" lawyer and he's a schlubby, down on his luck kind of guy. He lives in his brothers shadow, played excellently by Michael McKean. His brother has a melt down and won't leave the house, so Jimmy tries to take up the slack. There's a ton of great episodes in the first season. Jimmy becomes a lawyer for the elderly, he gets some skateboarders involved in a hit and run scam and he even helps a family launder thousands of dollars. You can see early on that he is a shady person. The best episode, by far, of the first season was when we get Mike Ehrmantraut(Johnathan Banks) back story. We all remember Mike from "Breaking Bad" and this episode lets us see why he does what he does on both shows. It's an incredibly moving and powerful episode. It's one of the finest 44 minutes TV has had on in quite a while. "Better Call Saul" goes into season two in February and if it's half as good as season one, we will have a mega hit on our hands.

My number four show is "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp". This show was perfect in every sense. I love that all the original actors from the cult hit "Wet Hot American Summer" recreate their roles. They've all aged the 10 or so years since the movie, but they're actually playing younger versions in this series. The fact that it was on Netflix was awesome because I watched the whole thing in one day. I loved this show. I also like that they brought in new actors like Kristin Wiig, Chris Pine, Jordan Peele and Jason Schwatzman. They were all great. Jon Benjamin as the camp counselor that becomes the can of talking vegetables was hilarious. This show was great in every possible way. Paul Rudd shines once again and Michael Showalter was just as hilarious. My favorite episode was when Elizabeth Banks, who's a reporter at a magazine, poses as a teenager to get a story on how real teenagers act. All she has to do to look like a teenager you ask, pull her hair into a side ponytail. Hilarious. I hope they do more episodes because this show was just what the fans of the movie needed.

My number three show is "Last Man on Earth". When we left the first season, Phil(Will Forte) and Carol(Kristin Schaal) were on the move from Tucson. We picked up this season with them trying to find a new place to live. Nothing was as good as Tucson so they went back to find it completely abandoned. We come to find out that every else moved to Malibu. When Phil and Carol end up in Malibu, that's when all the hilarity starts. First of all, we get a cameo from Will Ferrell. He doesn't say one word and is spooked to death by Carol, literally. Everything else that ensues is great. Phil, who is now going by his original name, Tandy, is put in stocks and has an electric dog collar on until they find it fit for him to live with everyone again. Carol is her usual upbeat self, even when the worst things are going on around them. Todd(Mel Rodriguez) and Melissa(January Jones) break up. The other Phil(Boris Kodjoe) professes his undying love for Carol, but finds out he's impregnated Erica(Cleopatra Coleman). And Gail(Mary Steenburgen) is deeply distraught by the fact that her lover, Ferrell, was scared to death. There's a lot going on this season and the season finale was very heavy, but this show was pretty damn funny all season long.

My number two show is "Review". This show is the weirdest, most innovative thing I've seen on TV ever. Andy Daly plays Forrest McNeil, a guy that reviews everyday life. Not movies or TV or music, just life situations much to his and the people he loves demise. This season saw him start a cult and lose the cult to his girlfriend. The girlfriend he got in an earlier episode was from a review that was to sleep with a teacher. He gets his first girlfriend locked up for stealing pills from a hospital on the first episode of the season. He now lives with his dad and he got both his dad's home and summer home destroyed this season. He also tries to get the perfect body, but becomes addicted to steroids. Everything is so hilariously messy and the best episode was when he had to review, "killing someone". He doesn't want to, obviously, but he accidentally kills a man that he was in a fight with earlier in the episode. This leads to him going to jail and reviewing life experiences from jail. He says that the producers of the show are not who he thinks they are and that they want him to struggle and lose everyone he loves. He even has a chance to get back together with his ex wife, but that blows up in his face as well. "Review" is an excellent show and I love that Andy Daly finally has a project that suits his comedy to perfection.

Coming in at number one is "Nathan For You". What else is there to say about this show that I haven't already said. He's made man caves in women's clothing shops, he's walked a tight rope to make someone else famous, he made a play that was literally just people sitting at a bar smoking cigarettes and talking about absolutely nothing. He did so many crazy things this season. The best for me was the outerwear that supported Holocaust history and the fitness craze, The Movement, that he started. The Holocaust thing was absurd, upsetting and hilarious. The setup he had, with a rabbi's blessing, in that store was downright appalling, but he found a way to make it funny. He's also earned over 300,000 dollars for Holocaust awareness due to his new line of jackets and hats. The fitness craze episode was just bizarre. He convinced a body builder type guy to be the spokes person for losing weight and gaining muscle by only lifting and moving boxes. The episode as a whole is one of the most cringe worthy, yet laugh out loud funny things on TV all year. I'm currently reading the book that a ghost writer wrote, who Nathan Fielder hired off of Craigslist, wrote in two days. "Nathan For You" is by far the best show on TV and I cannot wait to see how he tops himself in season four.

So there you have my top five TV shows of the year. Come back tomorrow for the best podcast episodes, in my opinion, for 2015.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is building muscle mass by moving Christmas presents from one house to another. Learn all about his secret by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.