Who could resist a homepage with the headline “Welcome Lawbreakers!” It’s BetterCallSaul.com, the gateway to the online world of antihero attorney Saul and the hilarious cyber-complement to the AMC TV series “Better Call Saul.”
The “Breaking Bad” prequel follows the misadventures of Saul, aka Jimmy McGill, the late Walter White’s criminal attorney — with emphasis on the criminal part.
The site is structured like a business website, with cheesy TV commercials, testimonials and the kind of garish graphics one would expect from an operation like Saul’s.
Calling the “not-toll-free” phone number listed on the site directs the caller to a recorded voicemail message from Saul himself: “Drug felonies, press 1. DUI, press 2.”
AMC’s own site has plenty of ways for viewers to fill in time between weekly episodes, too. One of the best is “Letters from Saul,” which are written in his voice by the series’ script writers and reveal more hilarious layers to this character. In one, he dodges a rent increase from his landlord with a not-so-subtle threat to turn her in as an animal hoarder.
Video extras include episode excerpts, behind-the-scenes features, trailers and previews.
Interactive features include Story Sync, which lets viewers interact with the show during the premiere broadcast of the latest episode, and the Alias Generator, where people who want to “disappear” can create a new ID. The latter has to be accessed through one’s Facebook account.
• ‘SCENES YOU’VE SEEN’
The Oscars are over, but there’s an amusing way to revisit award winners past. “Scenes You’ve Seen 2” is a short video that reconstructs scenes from Oscar-winning classics using stock film footage.
It will remind viewers of the “sweded” versions of films in “Be Kind Rewind,” in which video store clerks restore erased videotapes by filming their own versions of hit movies such as “Ghostbusters” and “RoboCop.”
The short Web video was made by Dissolve, a company that provides stock footage for video producers and filmmakers. The result is a clever ad for what video makers can do with Dissolve’s stock video archives.
There are 13 sets of clips, and visitors are challenged to guess what films they’re from. The first — “Theme Parks Fail” — is easy: a jeep, a toilet and a threatening dinosaur are shorthand for “Jurassic Park.” Other attractions include “Misbehaving Computer Derails Space Mission” and “Girl Pulled into Tornado of Symbolism.”
The original version of “Scenes You’ve Seen” re-creates blockbuster movies, including “The Hunger Games,” “Titanic” and “Psycho” in the same way.
They’re available on Dissolve’s YouTube channel and on Vimeo.
