THE LEFTOVERS: HBO's nondenominational post-rapture series

thinking the same tbh

I’m considering watching this after reading rave reaviews but is it all dark/sad or are there some lighter touches ?
We might not want to get into too heavy stuff at the moment...

just started watching this. the stoning scene in season 1 is one of the most visceral things I've ever seen on TV

The first few episodes and other parts of the first season are pretty dark (and in some parts, edgy in a slightly cruel and silly way). But the show gets funnier and warmer as the seasons go on, and there are some Lost-like mysteries to keep you distracted (with much better resolutions). All three seasons are terrific in different ways. The stoning mentioned above is the (pretty horrible) cutoff point, and after that, nasty things still happen occasionally, but without the sadism. Not sure if that sounds like a good writeup, but this was prob my favourite show of the past 5+ years alongside Better Call Saul & Halt and Catch Fire.

The first season, for the most part, is very somber. Kevin has a line midway, something he texts to his daughter, that's maybe the funniest line in all three seasons, but that's about it. Lots of humour is S2, courtesy Patti. I don't remember S3 as well, although Matt has an episode-ending line on a cruise ship that was great.

And of course Meg has a horrifyingly funny line to Tommy (S2, I think) that is one of the show's greatest.

Holy Wayne or whatever his name is was funny in s1

Scott Glenn, too...maybe more humour than I first indicated.

I was a iffy on the Holy Wayne subplot both times I watched. I understand its importance symbolically (at least the questions it raises), but I was always impatient whenever they cut back to that story. In my COVID analogy, Holy Wayne is hydroxychloroquine.

Couldn't handle Holy Wayne because I couldn't get his Peep Show character out of my mind.

re: funny lines, s1 also has Carrie Coon's "oh, fuck your daughter!"

season 1 is a step below 2 and 3, doesn't really kick into high gear until the nora episode.

still the best show ever, tho

That’s what made holy Wayne so funny is that they cast Johnson from peep show and he played it in almost exactly the same way

yeah i haven't watched s1 in a while, but i remember the atmosphere being oppressively sad. there were also a lot of moments in the first season when a character tearfully recited a bible verse while max richter's score did the heavy lifting. s2 and s3 reached another level because they kept the intense feeling, but left the sanctimony behind.

holy wayne felt like he was transported in from another show, but not necessarily in a bad way

the show was more absurd than funny, with a bunch patently ridiculous situations played straight

Hum OK we'll give it a try, I guess.
Thanks all !

definitely watch

The seriousness of S1 bothered me too the first time, but the second time it didn't at all, probably because I viewed it through the prism of right now. One thing I really loved--the first time was different; hard to recall, but I think I felt more frustrated--was the litany of MacGuffins, which I won't detail here in deference to AIXTC. I remember how, first time, with every one them I thought, "Ah, that must be the key."

yeah my only advice for watching S1 is dont try to figure it out - just float along with it down the river

I think this show does everything Lost probably wanted to do, but succeeded

agree

i remember being struck by the nihilism of season 1 and frequently asking myself "why am i watching this?" and yet continuing to watch because it was such powerful, well-made television. in seasons 2 & 3, the series really found its voice and its humanity. i'm sure i've said this elsewhere in this thread, but my favorite tv series ever, period.

first season was p average. hoping it kicks up a gear in the next

Oh it does

Season 1 is brutally depressing. Can’t imagine watching it right now.

I'm predicting that S1 gives a good picture of where the world will be in another 18 months: divided into people who are still vigilantly following every bit of COVID news (the town's "Heroes Day," more or less), those who are bored and want to move on (Kevin), and weird outliers who push back hard (far from perfect, but I felt like there was an analogy between the Guilty Remnants and all these protesters).

Yeah we nearly didn't carry on after season 1 - good premise and lots of great ideas and performances floating around, but it's so oppressively miserable. Season 2, right from the revamped credits, is such a breath of fresh air! Still at heart a weighty, serious story, but painted in tones of irony and black absurdism rather than stifling angst. 2 & 3 really are excellent, and you could maaaybe get away with skipping 1 (my memory might be being too harsh to it through).

Another good gag in the first series is to do with the disappearing celebs which has a great payoff in s2

idk why but the mention of the s2 credits reminded me of that

odd tonal shift in season 2

fwiw I watched this whole series and wouldn't really say I liked it. It's ambitiously weird and sometimes compelling, Carrie Coon is excellent, but everything is always amped up so much. It never really gelled with me. Also hate hate hate that "let the avocadies be" song

yes you definitely need to be down for, or ideally in pursuit of, up-to-11 emotions at all times

Don't read this unless you're finished.

Moved onto S2. I've talked about ghost Patty lots in this thread, but her first line ("What the fuck was that?" after they let Kevin walk after he turns himself in) and her last line ("Uh-oh") in the second episode are both series' highlights.

holy wayne's scene in the final episode of season 1 was intense

we've done season 2 now. definitely an improvement on the first but not sure I quite understand all the hosannas. do enjoy how overwrought everything is all the time though, and the relationship between kevin and nora is genuinely kinda moving

season 2 also actually funny in places

justin theroux really levels up his performance in the second series too, kinda has to given his character's pretty incredible storyline

Has anyone read the novel? I'm wondering if it's all there in the novel, or if, when they got to the second season, they had to start adding stuff just for the series. When a TV series goes on the air, they have no way of knowing if they're going to be around for a second season.

My wife read the novel. It’s only the first season and there’s less there. That affected my watching if the series, she told me in the beginning that the book offers no explanations.

That's what I suspected--which to me makes the second season even more impressive, that they had to create that from scratch. I assume Tom Perrotta continued to stay involved in the second and third seasons.

Perotta did stay on and is heavily credited.

Great scene at the end of S2, E5 (the one where Matt and Mary are locked out of Miracle): Matt headed back to the encampment with the kid, explaining to John that yes, Mary did wake up, and that if he makes it back to town again, he'll sit down with John and have a talk. The contrast between Matt's restored assurance and John's anger/befuddlement is memorable. (I'm sure there are, in addition, specific biblical analogies that are lost on me...I get the crucifixion part--I'm not that much of a pagan.)

"the one where Matt and Mary are locked out of Miracle"--and if that doesn't jog your memory, the Bellamy Brothers episode.

Anyone rewatching or watching S2 onwards, definitely check Reza Aslan’s recaps & explainer pieces he wrote for Vulture at the time

He gives great insight into the religious/spiritual angles of the show (he was an adviser for s2 and s3)

This is the first one he did for s2e1
https://www.vulture.com/2015/10/leftovers-mysteries-religion-reza-aslan.html

Behind a paywall, but I'll use that Google trick to access it. Found the next episode--rocks through the window, the fundraiser, Freddie Rumsen, Simon & Garfunkel--very absorbing.

I've mentioned how you can see imperfect but clear pandemic parallels in The Leftovers. I'm surprised there hasn't been a Miracle pop up the past month in the news--a city or town that COVID has completely passed by. My own town feels a little like that--two positives and holding for two months--but I don't see a caravan of people flocking here, and nobody's slitting any goats yet in the town square.

When Kevin asks Patti "What do you want me to do?" and she launches into her Egyptian story, that has to be the funniest thing in the whole series. I burst out laughing knowing what was coming.

Found the next episode--rocks through the window, the fundraiser, Freddie Rumsen, Simon & Garfunkel--very absorbing.

This was the first episode when it explicitly occured to be me how delighted and fascinated I was by this show.

Here's the Egyptian thing I referred to above--obviously, don't watch if you haven't already seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LRQEzVaNw8

The look on Kevin's face as he takes this all in brings me to tears of laughter. Unfortunately, the poster cut the clip before the punchline: Patti bursts out laughing and says "How the fuck should I know what you're supposed to do?"

Finished S2 last night. I'll stand by my admiration for S1, not a favourite on this thread--I didn't mind the extreme somberness at all this time, and still give it a slight edge. But I loved S2, too, more than the first time; everything just fit together. Meg dancing with Tommy at that roadside bar was great--maybe the only time Meg transforms into a humane, open person in the entire first two seasons, and wow, Liv Tyler was so beautiful for those 10 minutes. (Obviously she always is, but I think they photographed her with a hard edge the rest of the time.)

Now, the hard part: S3, almost none of which I remember, and which I really didn't care for the first time (a few moments, yes).

s3 rules! too short, tho

Finished S3--I'll get some thoughts down later. I had to laugh at this, though (from a piece on CNN's site this morning), having been talking about COVID parallels I kept finding second time around.

Boosting markets' optimism Tuesday, US biotechnology company Novavax (NVAX) announced that it is starting a human trial for a Covid-19 vaccine candidate in Australia.

Kevin stepping up to save the world one more time.