THE LEFTOVERS: HBO's nondenominational post-rapture series

zing

There is an alternative. One can read the book, which I can attest with 100% certainly actually has an ending.

i watched it and I was really surprised by how much I like it!

i'm a sucker for peter berg, he makes me feel all the feels, idk. i like that no-one was standing around blurting exposition like a lot of pilots. just enough backstory to want to know more, everyone's fucked up just enough to want to see it get worse/better

also theroux is hott :)

This was good. Maybe it will start sucking later on. But maybe not!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10454229_10152158254685079_4782378481178547287_o.jpg

lol

telling myself that having a book with a written ending might guard against lindelof lindelofing this thing up

to which mr veg said "a book is just a thing he gets names out of"

:(

i'm a sucker for peter berg, he makes me feel all the feels, idk.

--set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl)

always wondered who bought all those tickets to BATTLESHIP...

AND PROUD OF IT

actually i saw it for free lol

Yeah, not bad. Not great, but not bad. Lead actress is Whoah nelly hotness. Theroux maybe overacting a bit. White clothes people creepy.

join a cult, chainsmoke

Pilot is ok, disconcerting American Beauty vibe will hopefully wear off.

Went to bed halfway through, it seemed all kinds of turgid.

This shit is no better than Under The Dome, it has been a watershed moment for me in that I have happily/apathetically watched tons of garbage series' over the last couple of years. But this one has lead me to an epiphany event hereafter I can't even switch off any more and accept shit like this as background ambience when I am on the exercise bike.

Every reviewer has pointed to episode 3 being far better than the first two, so I'll check that one out. And I liked the first few episodes, though the American Beauty vibe is pretty annoying.

That seems to be a thing for prestige U.S. cable: the first two or three episodes are often kinda eh. Which would be more tolerable if they weren't 10 or 13 ep seasons. Not a lot of room for slack.

Better than network, though, where the first one or two seasons often suck before a show hits its stride.

xpost No way is this as bad as "Undet the Dome"

so bad i can't even spell it

Yeah, tv-series are tough to get up and running, almost no series arrive fully formed. Don't think that is so weird, really, everybody - from the actors to the writing room - has to figure out what kind of show they are making. But I don't think these two episodes have been as boring and unfocused as for example Deadwood, it's just that the third episode is supposed to be really good.

wtf man first season of deadwood is magnificent

Had to try three times to get through... But once it clicked I loved it.

Sorry, completely off-topic.

Hey Frederik, sorry if this is an impertinent question. Are you a film student? Not trying to be an arse here, just asking a question out of genuine curiosity.

"Deadwood," one of my favorite shows of all time, I recall starts out strong enough, but I felt most confident recommending people stick it out at least to the shocking death (ep 4) and then certainly to the Kristen Bell episodes (7 and 8). I told folks, basically, even if you don't like it, or don't like it that much, just wait.

Hell, I need to rewatch "Deadwood."

I re-watched series 3 recently and enjoyed it more than the first time, it is a brilliant series and I still wish there was something as good as it now.

I don't think these two episodes have been as boring and unfocused as for example Deadwood, it's just that the third episode is supposed to be really good.

― Frederik B, Wednesday, July 9, 2014

no matter how many times I read this I can't get it to make sense. is it just that deadwood shits on this vague muddle from such a great height that the turds haven't even landed yet?

i mean don't get me wrong imma keep watching and i'll be happy if it gets more focused and/or interesting because hey "THE ICE STORM meets LOST but with mystery bagels instead of polar bears" sounds pretty good to me...

lol mystery bagels

i am going to put $10 on that being "lindelof flair"

Hey Frederik, sorry if this is an impertinent question. Are you a film student? Not trying to be an arse here, just asking a question out of genuine curiosity.

― festival of labour (xelab), 10. juli 2014 03:05 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nope, way off. Cultural studies. ;) And I'm done.

If there is an ending set for this, which should be a requisite for a Lindelof series, plus the fact that it's based on a book, how many seasons are we taking? Don't the writers have to have that planned out like, before the show starts? I mean that's one of the reasons true detective was so satisfying. A set end.

Well, in this case, I think a set ending would work against the feel of the series. Kinda like with Walking Dead. It's supposed to be a never-ending nightmare.

L O S T had a set end, and where did that get us?

So did people see last nights episode? It was... something.

"Lead actress is Whoah nelly hotness" who is this then? Liv Tyler?

last night was great.

andie mcdowell's daughter

andie mcdowell isn't on the show but I guess you're talking about the teenager

oh she actually is andie mcdowell's daughter, I see

ep was indeed something. no mystery bagels, just mysterious ways. nice and tight. felt like an old twilight zone or something.

That is the second time Eccleston has played a character who finds a large stash of money and takes it into a casino to put it all on red. Referring to the episode of Jimmy McGovern's Accused from a few years back.

Is this worth watching? It's difficult to tell from this thread.

it's difficult to tell from the first 3 episodes of a show! i would say 'yes,' though, i'm sticking with it to see what happens.

seems like so far the worst thing anyone has to say about the show is that Lindeloff is involved

I liked the pilot a lot; haven't checked the next two episodes yet.

Well, some of the dialogue is too Lindeloffian in the sense of being clichéed and overwritten. But I'm okay with that. I've come to the conclusion that the third episode was brilliant.

It was the only episode I have liked so far, Ecclestone is always at his best playing broken, desperate characters.

ecclestone-centric episode is amazing, the others have been good. preview of entire series makes it look like some fucking crazy shit eventually happens.

Watched the first three of these today and although the third was much better than the first two, that didn't imply by any means they were bad. I'll keep watching, for sure. The release of information has been just about right to build intrigue without giving it all away, and there definitely aren't too many plot threads.

When the two teenage girls were following Ecclescake's sister I got a massive Twin Peaks vibe off it.

It's not the show I hoped for. It's definitely a let down, but on the other hand there is something about this show. Something about its atmosphere, the way it feels and the mood it conjures that I really like. The soundtrack is amazing.

Show is good but not enough to justify an hbo subscription. Also something off in Theroux's performance. It's almost comic somehow and seems out of tune with the other characters.

theroux's character is facepalmingly bad at almost everything in life.

the whole 'arg my shirts are missing' -- dude, go buy some fucking shirts jfc

"The soundtrack is amazing."

That Max Richter score is incredibly beautiful.

All you have to do is step into this little pod here...

What I wrote three years ago about S3:

THE LEFTOVERS: HBO's nondenominational post-rapture series

Removed from high expectations, it did improve a lot. I don't like it better than the first two seasons. My favourite episode remains E8 in the first season (life just before the departure), and the single scene I find most moving would be Kevin singing "Homeward Bound" in S2, not Nora's monologue at the end. But it didn't seem nearly as arbitrary (if that's the right word) this time--it held together and meshed with the first two seasons.

I think I was really thrown by the two most out-there episodes the first time, the Kevin Sr. episode and the one on the cruise ship. I can now see (especially with the first) how some of the reviews I've been sampling experienced them as tour-de-forces. The two things I did love initially--that wild Aboriginal music ("Rain Dance," an obvious tribute to the Guess Who) and Matt's episode-closing line aboard the ship ("That was the guy I was telling you about")--were as great as ever. I appreciated the humour more in Kevin Sr.'s episode (loved "Are you kidding me?" when he gets hit with the dart), and the he-says-he's-god subplot aboard the ship, that felt more meaningful this time, not just a clever joke.

I'm normally an against-interpretation kind of person, but ultimately it all felt very much like Six Feet Under from a different angle: carpe diem, because you never know when it will all end. You can't miss that in Six Feet Under, where you have all those freak accidents to start each episode. With The Leftovers, it's three seasons of false leads and fake prophets and self-serving explanations. I really liked Nora's description of the other side: all the departures wondering where 98% of the world has gone.

Was really glad they returned to familiar opening-them music for the last two episodes. Except for the one hip-hop song, those rotating opening themes in S3 were pretty bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhPENXCcK9A

Couldn't find it on Soulseek, so I downloaded the video and converted it to an mp3.

The alternate world where 98% of people disappeared sounds pretty cool.

pvmic