The Leftovers (Season 3)

[Russ]

Man, the third and final season looks like it's going to be insane! Can't wait!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKrptS0lZ38

[number8]

Man oh man, I'd missed this show so much. It's the absolute master of withholding information from its audience, because it does so without really emphasizing the mystery of what it's holding back in its presentation. It just hits you with a normalized view of the characters that feels right but you know from your understanding of what came before that something's off. Ugh, I love the way it throws me for a loop.

[Peng]

At first I found it hard to get back into its unique groove after a long time, but by the end of the pilot I was hooked again. Nothing quite like it on TV.

Also something along the line of "I'm not saying you're Jesus, but that beard looks good on you" makes me lol real hard.

[Peng]

Carrie Coon and Regina King jumping on a trampoline to Wu-Tang.gif



A Nora-centric episode with Carrie Coon being her phenomenal self and sharing a scene with Regina King is all I ever need from this show, really.

[Russ]

I don't know how they keep upping the bar, but tonight's Kevin Sr-centric episode, and indeed this entire season, was excellent. From the wacky cover version of Personal Jesus that played over the opening credits to the comedic tone of much of Kevin Sr's travails down insanity boulevard, with it all being framed in Mimi Leder's (and her DP's) stunning vistas of the Australian Outback, this was a quality episode that tied into several other narrative threads, all while providing all the emotional gravitas we have come to expect from a show of this caliber.

Scott Glenn and Lindsay Duncan both deserve acclaim for their performances: Scott shines in a monologue told to an Aboriginal wise man whom he had been searching for, and Duncan one-ups him in a brilliant realization of her own story of the departing, offset by Glenn's silent reaction shots. I don't know of any director that utilizes close-ups more effectively than Mimi Leder.

This is the best show currently on TV, and it's not even close.

[Peng]

Good episode, although Kevin's journey doesn't keep me as invested, apart from Scott Glenn. It's incredible though how Lindsay Duncan can gut-punch me with so little screentime.

[Russ]

Duncan was flat-out amazing. Peng, do you remember her from Black Mirror? (The National Anthem)

[Peng]

I didn't remember that at all (I think only the prime minister's performance looms large in my memory). I remember her as Birdman's theater critic and from 2013's Le-Weekend though (and a vague memory of her being in Sherlock).

[number8]

The majority of television watchers do not deserve to have a show this great available to them.

[Peng]

That was a Before Midnight-level hotel room fight. Kevin's story is intriguing but Nora's devastates me again, as usual. What a final shot!

[Russ]

What a final shot!

Nora and the sprinkler system? Yep, that one will go down in the annals. This really is shaping up to become about the most perfect three season series in the history of television (imho).

[Peng]

It looks familiar in a way that makes me wonder if it's a reference to any real famous painting or something. Can't place it.


http://i.imgur.com/MrDpcZG.gif

[Russ]

These two stunning clips from G'Day Melbourne just kill me:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9BdPxCyge4


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNz0D50EDw

Carrie Coon is simply amazing, but surprisingly, Justin Theroux is every bit her equal.

[Russ]

Heheh..lion sex cult..heheh

Love the Matt-centric episodes. The humor this season has been perfect.

[number8]

The Laurie episode might be the saddest episode this show has ever done and I think that's saying a lot.

[Russ]

The Laurie episode might be the saddest episode this show has ever done and I think that's saying a lot.

Indeed.

I swear, I am so in tune with this show that, by now, whenever I hear the beginning strains of one of Max Richer's variations of his Departure theme, I feel a Pavlovian response kicking in. I can literally feel my tear ducts start to swell up.

But, this show! Never ever have I witnessed sadness and grief portrayed so beautifully, and so meaningfully. And I love me some Carrie Coon, but goddamn Amy Brenneman was masterful in this last episode.

[Peng]

This may be the twin episode to last season's "International Assasin", but to me it feels like the weirdest 'greatest hits' episode to a series ever, and ultimately might be the very best of the season up there with last week's as a result. It's a mix of everything the show has ever done, from the first season's despairing brutality (that twin scene is almost-look-away disturbing), second's evolution of adding dark humor and bewildering surreality, to this third's purposeful, music-cue-perfected, unique own thing. It's uproariously funny, full of dream logic that almost tantalizingly matches up with the main storyline fully but not quite, profoundly sad with its weird but perfect matchup of songs and grief, and just so, so magnificent. "Now what?" I have no idea, but I trust we are in too good a hand that will refuse to deviate from its own path, and thus turn out to be very satisfying at least.

[Russ]

* thwap *

[number8]

I rewatched the Laurie episode right before watching this one and it's a weird double-feature of episodes that make you realize that even in its own distinct weirdness, this show can be so versatile in doing it.

[Russ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak4mIR45YDQ

[number8]

Man, this is some interview.

Why Sunday Night’s Episode of The Leftovers Was Inspired by Matt Zoller Seitz (http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/leftovers-episode-inspired-by-matt-zoller-seitz.html)

[Russ]

I don't think I've ever anticipated an episode of a TV series as much as I am Sunday's finale.


Hey, remember when Match Cut had polls to determine our favorite TV theme song? I retroactively change my vote to this:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLSH-81yT7s

[Peng]

Get hyped!

869950434844315650

[number8]

I'm so sad now, but wow, what a phenomenal final scene. Let me count the ways that it's great:

1) It focuses on Kevin and Nora and their love story, which is what the show boils down to, really.
2) It actually gives a satisfactory sci-fi answer to the departure for all the people still holding a grudge about Lost.
3) But because you don't actually see it happening, it still allows those of us who never expected one to let the mystery be. Let the debates reign on for decades.
4) In fact, it connects to Nora's actions in the episode, with her taking the beads from the goat and becoming the new scapegoat. The bravest girl in the world.
5) Thus completing Nora's entire arc for the whole show, from being someone whose purpose is to expose comforting lies about the departure in favor of the bitter truth, to someone who sees the great value of it.
6) It sticks to this season's motif of storytelling, where the point isn't the truth but the truth as needed by the listener.
7) It also sticks to the series' motif of using your grief and experience to make a connection with others.

Jesus, what a perfectly written final episode to a series.

[megladon8]

So I’m really liking this show (just started season 2), but what’s with all the teenagers?

Did the Departure only take the ugly and awkward kids?

Why does every single teen / early 20s person look like they just finished a magazine shoot?