THE LEFTOVERS: HBO's nondenominational post-rapture series

*they = winners

Yeah after the Leftovers I honestly think she's my favourite actress right now.

bawling at the last ten minutes of this. nora's description was so perfect that i was amazed i hadn't thought of it. and even better once you've got your head around the truth (or otherwise) of it and there's a shitload to unpack there. i really liked the fact that it avoids seeming like a summing up episode, since those are generally so packed. it resolved almost everything but was really well paced, almost leisurely.

yea idk i recently watched all of this over afew wks. liked s1 the most, then s2, then s3; much preferred the sprawl of the larger cast; my fav ep was the rev matt going to atl city one; also found the recurring music & montages often cloying; still was all well acted & compelling mostly & glad i watched

yeah I can't stand the plinky-plonky max richter faux-profound nonsense.

*MAJOR SPOLIERS, DON'T READ IF YR CATCHING UP*

I understand Simon H's complaints upthread about not "seeing" any of Nora's other world adventures and, while I think this could possibly have worked, it would lend credence to the story by equating it to what Kevin went through in his other world but Kevin did (at least in his head) go through that world. Nora's story is beautiful but it's just a story. It's a story that in 2-3 minutes conjures up an amazing other world but it is a flawed construct. The world she describes is amazingly vivid in a few spare sentences. It's suggests McCarthy's The Road, to me. It's all too believable and perfect sensible until she tells you that she tracked down the man who built the machine and he knew how to do it so he built another one. He built another one in this world where 98% of the population were absent and the houses were falling down and covered in vines etc? Nora describes the vision she sees of her family being perfectly happy but in a globe consisting of 140 million (was it?) people that could not have been the dreamlike happy picture she paints of it. The people ther would not have happy families and wouldn't have the means to build world-switching devices.

Kevin believes Nora because he has lived his other world, so why would hers be any less true than his. But his WAS true. Her's is a well (but not meticulously) created construct. A lie she'd been rehearsing in her head in her years of solitude and not got quite right. It begs the question of what kind of future life Kevin and Nora are going to live together If Kevin wholly believes Nora's lie and Nora's.... well, she's Nora. Cynical and dismissive but in a very loveable way (thanks hugely to Carrie's skullfucking performance).

It's worth pointing out (and has not been mentioned on this thread, as far as I can tell) That David Burton (aka God on the boat) is played by the same actor who dragged a noose around kevin on the bridge in series two and is also the same actor who forced Kevin to sing his song in the other world to get back to his Miracle life. I don't know what that means but it's worth thinking about.

she tells you that she tracked down the man who built the machine and he knew how to do it so he built another one. - i meant to add here but we're supposedly in an alt-world where they don't have any planes because there are no pilots.

(sorry for that v rogue apostrophe)

I no longer had a problem w/ the not "seeing" after conferring w some other viewers btw lol

i meant to note that Simon. did you clock the God actor thing - I only did so after reading a thread on reddit.

I did, but only because I was watching along with some pretty hardcore nerds lol

iirc Hollywood ran out of character actors around that time so a lot of them had to play multiple roles on shows

he has a good look and few people would notice

liked s1 the most, then s2, then s3

Ha, I'm exactly the opposite. It gets much more well written, not to mention funnier, as it goes along imo.

I think my favourite season starts about halfway through 1 and extends to halfway through 2. Season 3 was definitely my least favourite.

I liked the ending of 3 and found it very moving but thought a lot of it was pretty crappy.

s2 >>> end of s3 >>> s1 >>> start of s3

why am i watching this show while high, it makes me feel stupid bc i'm on s2 e1 and WTF IS GOING ON

how can i have watched an entire season of a show and still not really get it. but s2e1 really is fucking weird tho right?? that can't just be me

justin theroux is so weird looking

it's like he's ~~too~~ good looking to be real. it makes me uncomfortable.

the cave woman scene??????????? what the actual fuck. is it supposed to be some parallel to nora taking on lily?? who is this weird new family with the psycho dad+pals, complicit wife and weird freak kids?? if 2% of the world's pop. departed, surely there'd be plenty of small towns that had no departures, i don't get why that makes miracle such a special place. and why was there a plexiglass thing over a big crack in the road??

If yr gonna post every time something weird happens in season two…

you aren't high. that's just s2. one of the greatest seasons of tv ever made. enjoy the trip.

too much s3 hate in the last round of posts

I dunno, I liked the show well enough but I don't think there was a single episode from the beginning of s2> that I wouldn't have criticised several aspects of.

relax & enjoy the ride, J <3

The finale, the orgy boat, the episode focused on the dad, and the one where Kevin and Nora have that fight in the hotel are all as good as Season two, but I just think that Season 2 had a kind of whimsy to it that was so unexpected it was intoxicating--it really felt like *anything* could happen (such possibilities!) but what did actually happen always felt like it was exactly what needed to happen, if that makes sense.

Season 2 also had what I view as the highlight of the entire run: Dead Patty having the time of her life mind-fucking Kevin.

^^^

also karaoke

Not-Evie showing up in the background on TV maybe the most unsettling image in the whole series

The s2 e1 was so fucking weird that I kept checking I was watching the right show bc there was literally NO FUCKING CONNECTION to the prior season until Garvey et al showed up

I want to commit to this show but I cannot deal with another Lost type of situation. Does the series finale have a satisfying close or am I gonna be pissed off?

The second-season theme song holds the answers.

prolly shouldn't dwell too much on the series finale, but it was among the best, imo.

As someone who didn't like the ending--or much of the third season--I can tell you I'm very much in the minority. The general response online and among people I know was that the ending was deeply moving.

honestly my biggest problem with the s3 is that I could have used a couple more episodes to spend more time with John and Erika, hell even the kids too

IT'S REALLY GOOD YOU SHOULD WATCH IT

if your problem with lost was that not every little mystery was explained, you may be disappointed.

if your problem with lost was that it continued to spin out inane "mysteries" well into the final act and then just gave up with a shrug, "hey guys nothing more to see here, move along" then The Leftovers is not that and if anything feels like an attempt to settle the karmic debt

Ok I’m gonna commit to it

But extremely expect me to shit up this thread with posts bc I only watch it at bedtime when I’m getting stoned to help me sleep

that’s what it’s for! we all have shitted it up in our own ways, now iits yr turn

jesus christ s2 e2

this thing with kevin wanting free of his family obligations, then regretting it, then getting the second chance he wanted it, only to start regretting it almost immediately... this isn't gonna be the central thing of the whole show, right? like, that's gonna turn out to be a really superficial reading of it, right?

wtf how has meg suddenly become the cult leader

why did she rape tommy

the GR had a total non-violence policy under patti, and now...??

does tommy have a mystical power or not?? laurie says it's a bullshit story they made up??

also: the researcher calling nora and telling her she's possessed by a demon?!?

i appreciated patti's snarky comments about how this 'magical negro' stuff was borderline racist

"Tell your mom Meg says 'Hello.'"

Liv Tyler did some great work on this show.

One the greatest, scariest moments of the whole series.

http://www.serialfreaks.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/71407-meg-2-1024x576.jpg

(I didn't totally understand why either--because she can?--which was part of why it was so scary.)

I really thought she was gonna light him on fire

that was the implication

she’s just so malicious in a way writers try to plot out but it seldom succeeds on screen

she's really good in it. the guy who plays tommy is good too and lovely looking.

I like all the young actors and characters a lot, which is v rare for a TV drama