THE LEFTOVERS: HBO's nondenominational post-rapture series

yeah after i watch an episode i definitely needed a palate cleanser of something more upbeat to watch, and a few days' break before i watched another

that was a p good finale, I thought.

As little trust as i have in the creators here, i was waiting till the end of the season so that if there was A CLEVER TWIST i could just skip it

Nothing like that

that's what i was waiting to hear... but they left it open for season two with potential to fuck it up later?

Well yeah but really that's every show, isn't it?

This show is far more brazenly not about the plot or the "mystery" than most

I hear season 2 is all new cast and new global cataclysm to mope about

xp i suppose. really really hold a lot of enmity toward the lost team still, you know?

Mr Veg and I were bracing for full-Lindelof handwavey ending shenanigans and were pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn't really any of that.

k, will try.

I don't know, I really dug this show but the finale tipped me off that they didn't really know exactly what they were doing...the whole Wayne storyline was only compelling to the extent that it portended some connection to the vanishing, plus I assumed we'd get some backstory on him before they wrote him off.

Also, I get that the remainder people are devoted to fucking with people, but when it elevates logistically & elaborately like this—that they are smuggling lookalike dummies into people's homes, there needs to be some commensurate insight into their belief system or something beyond just "Duh we're making them remember" again. The acting is so good on this show but the emotional amplitude esp. in the finale seemed independent of the storyline.

just because they wrote him off doesn't mean we won't get back story imo -- this show goes hard w/ flashbacks, and it's a good portion of the storytelling

as for the commensurate insight into their belief system
for me, part of the 'appeal' of the Guilty Remnants is that they *are* so circumspect. And I feel like I know enough about how they roll through the exposition given piecemeal here and there to take this whole event as them somehow, idk, levelling up their presence in the town. and that they did it knowing that shit would go crazy.
like, it seems like part of their motivation is chaos-driven. how do we NOT allow status quo.
or the short version of all that is that I didn't mind that there was no big explanation.

they've done such a good job developing the key characters enough for me to engage with them and their journeys, where I don't mind that i'm not getting answers to the big crazy important questions that keep arising

Probably the best prism through which to view the show: http://www.vox.com/2014/9/7/6116687/leftovers-depression-hbo

That's true, and the backstory episode was my favorite of the season. I don't really want a big explanation, I would just to feel like the characters themselves know wtf is going on, and after the finale I have this sinking feeling that the GR circumspection (which yes is appealing) is just the writers' proxy cluelessness. For example, maybe I'm thick but I still can't square away why Patti would brutally murder one of her own (lady tied to tree)—that's not a big crazy question, it's just a mechanical plot thing that for me at least was insufficiently explained and comes off more like it was thrown at the wall for effect.

xpost vg

"I hear season 2 is all new cast and new global cataclysm to mope about"

what? or is that a True Detective joke?

meh this is just L O S T except with mysterious deer instead of mysterious polar bears

tbf the mysterious deer that wrecks houses is more like the mysterious boar that wrecks the camp than like the polar bears

fine fine but the flashbacks to LIFE BEFORE are exactly like the flashbacks to LIFE BEFORE

loved the nina at the beginning

ok finished this, was a good ending, not sure what in the world they will do with next season. focus on different people?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bZVUU3zbXk

new season makes Eccleston and Coon regulars while greatly shrinking the supporting cast. I'll be shocked if it's not considerably improved (and I liked s1 a lot)

i'm rewatching the first season right now, which i adore.

indications seem to be that this season will be less relentlessly bleak and more weird - basically going to a new town, one where not a single departure occurred

will there be less justin theroux hot cop

if so i will be deeply, deeply disappointed

gotta say tho i'm legit weirded out by the amount of smiling in the promo photos, it's SO WEIRD, HOW DOES JILL EVEN UNDERSTAND SMILING
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2015/07/LEF1tumblr_nsbu2pGjpm1qz8vumo1_540.jpg

xp he's still the lead!

he's not in the teaser, i am right to be concerned

fear not
http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA4LzAxL2JmL2xlZnRvdmVyczEuNGE1YjcuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJODUweDg1MD4KZQlqcGc/97ba84f3/383/leftovers-1.jpg

i don't think he's a cop anymore though

I think this show learned from all the mistakes of Lost, which is, just relish in the weird, there doesn't need to be an answer for everything, this is the situation, here is how people are dealing.

Yeah, though part of the point of season 1 was that everyone was incredibly depressed because there was no answer to what had happened... I think The Leftovers is very aware of the human need for answers. That's what makes the whole thing so depressing.

Also: I love this show, and it really made me think that Lindelof might be the smart one, and that he was just hamstrung on Lost. Then I saw Prometheus...

Yeah, Lost was a real cautionary tale in that respect. It insisted that everything would be explained but (a) lots of things weren't and (b) the explanations that were delivered were annoying. Maybe that was a pendulum swing away from Twin Peaks and now it's swung back. The fact that Lindelof himself is part of that swing just adds another layer to his endless psychodrama over the fallout from the Lost finale. I swear his therapist is sick of hearing about it. "Time to move on, Damon. It's OK. Everybody's mad at True Detective now."

It's just entertainment. On TV.

Yeah dont go crowning Lindelof over this. This is the exception that proves the rule. He's still not to be trusted in any way shape or form.

Plus this hasnt ended yet. Theres still plenty of time to Lindelof it.

also wasn't season one mostly adaptation while going forward its all original material? harder to fuck it up when you've got a blueprint.

re: season 1, the basic situation/plot/characters are the novel's, but the emotional tone and much of what happens to the characters is new stuff written by lindelof and perrota

iirc perotta is still around in the writer's room, and it could be he's a good influence on lindelof

also man oh man almost six years later and no one's over the freakin' contents of that church at the end of LOST, dizamn

I mean, I'm mostly kidding bc I understand how that ending was frustrating (it was w/e to me, not great but about as competently executed as could be expected given how much it had sprawled? disregarding, momentarily, the question of whether it should have sprawled like that in the first place)

overall though I think lindelof is one of the better forces for speculative fiction (in TV and lesser extent in film) we have, which might stem from the fact that we have so few but he's ambitious and versatile and devoted to character and weird atmosphere.

fp'd u for that tbh

i'm sayin, no chill to be had over that ish

I agree that Lindelof's strength is in sustaining a compelling mood/tone, and hopefully Perotta's influence will keep his other, more annoying tendencies in check.

full trailer http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/04/leftovers-season-2-trailer?hootPostID=2e93d452a3a05a5c7cbb2ff55d66de66

Showrunner Damon Lindelof has said the new season will have a stronger “narrative engine” compared to the more meditative first season.

hmmmmmm

narrative engine powered by polar bear pushing a wheel

we have to get to the cabin

is everyone returning for season 2? liv tyler?

they're getting rid of quite a few of the supporting cast but Liv is in the trailer