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Thread: The Leftovers (Season 1)

  1. #26
    Producer Lucky's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    That opening scene was hard to watch. Obviously the point, but man.

    I have absolutely no idea where this show is going, and I kinda love that.
    Yeesh, no kidding. Trying not to sound too sadistic, but it oddly comforts me knowing I can still be shocked by fictional violence.

  2. #27
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I also want to know the story behind ATFEC. One of those letters is not like the others. What happened to the FBI?
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  3. #28
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    That opening scene was hard to watch. Obviously the point, but man.

    I have absolutely no idea where this show is going, and I kinda love that.
    Same here. My wife actually is dropping out after this episode because she doesn't see it going anywhere but I'm digging it.
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  4. #29
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Holy fuck what an episode.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  5. #30
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    That was one of the best episodes of television I've seen all year.
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  6. #31
    I haven't watched last night's episode ("Solace for Tired Feet") yet, but I just wanted to chime in and note that Carrie Coons is a fascinating actress. She has a very peculiar but captivating screen presence. She's also easily the most interesting performer on the show.

    As for the show more generally, which I only started watching recently, I expected something far worse given what I had been reading about people giving up after a few episodes and/or disliking it save for two episodes. Although, I'm not a big fan of the storyline involving Christine and Tom Garvey, as those characters are kind of grating and their performances aren't helping.

  7. #32
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Christine and Tom's story finally got interesting in the recent episode.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  8. #33
    Yeah, I agree. There was definitely a noticeable improvement. Part of the reason I dislike their storyline is because their behaviour is so profoundly stupid. That's surely deliberate, though. They're clearly establishing a dramatic contrast between unthinking devotion and the disillusionment that can follow. We got a very dramatic and devastating version of this when Tom visited the other couple. Tom also earned a little bit of good will when he smashed that phone, which hopefully means we will no longer see him demonstrating any reluctant obeisance (Christine, however, is obviously another story, and I'm actually not certain about how she'll react to the revelations of this latest episode).

    Also, the episode ended with a dangling cause that was highly redolent of Lost (the same could be said for a number of other details throughout the series -- this show is clearly different, but there are, naturally, a few similarities):

    []

  9. #34
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Yeah, people are tracking down that issue to comb through and they're already making up theories based on the articles perceived as clues. This show is most definitely LOST all over again.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  10. #35
    It's been renewed for a second season.

    Also, Michelle MacLaren directed the next episode (the title is "Cairo," which, it was pointed out to me, is also referenced as part of a headline on that National Geographic cover).

  11. #36
    I hear the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,
    Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;
    The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,
    The East her hidden joy before the morning break.
    The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,
    The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:
    O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,
    The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:
    Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat
    Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast.
    Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest.
    And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

    [
    ]

  12. #37
    Bark! Go away Russ's Avatar
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    I have to admit, I abandoned this series after 2 or 3 episodes, but have recently come back into the fold. It's gone from, "You're going to make me hate you, just like Lost" to must-see TV, and I'm actually looking forward to 10 pm Sunday nights again. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the last few episodes have been freaking fantastic.

    I hope this show doesn't squander it's potential.
    "We eventually managed to find them near Biskupin, where demonstrations of prehistoric farming are organized. These oxen couldn't be transported to anywhere else, so we had to built the entire studio around them. A scene that lasted twenty-something seconds took us a year and a half to prepare."

  13. #38
    Screenwriter Lazlo's Avatar
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    Nope, this show sucks. I'll ditto everything Andy Greenwald says in his article today.

    http://grantland.com/hollywood-prosp...isode-8-recap/
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  14. #39
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    I disagree. This show especially these last 4 episodes have been one of my favorite shows on television.
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  15. #40
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    Quote Quoting EyesWideOpen (view post)
    I disagree. This show especially these last 4 episodes have been one of my favorite shows on television.
    Ugh, why? It's so relentlessly grim and annoyingly obtuse. The only remotely good episode was Nora's trip to New York and even that had the beyond ridiculous scene of her hiring a sex worker to shoot her in the chest.

    No one in this world has moved on in three years. I know people who have suffered the unexpected loss of children and other family that are some of the brightest, sweetest, happiest people I know. The show is about a very narrow, unhealthy version of grief and has made no effort to break out of it.

    It's like Lindelof and Perrotta heard of the concept of grief and failed to consider that large groups of people would feature a wide variety of responses to tragedy.
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  16. #41
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Someone dying is not comparable to people vanishing in thin air. So saying that you know how people would respond when that happens is ridiculous.
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  17. #42
    Quote Quoting Lazlo (view post)
    Ugh, why? It's so relentlessly grim and annoyingly obtuse. The only remotely good episode was Nora's trip to New York and even that had the beyond ridiculous scene of her hiring a sex worker to shoot her in the chest.

    No one in this world has moved on in three years. I know people who have suffered the unexpected loss of children and other family that are some of the brightest, sweetest, happiest people I know. The show is about a very narrow, unhealthy version of grief and has made no effort to break out of it.

    It's like Lindelof and Perrotta heard of the concept of grief and failed to consider that large groups of people would feature a wide variety of responses to tragedy.
    There's no real world correlate for the kind of grief being addressed in this show, though. Of course, I realize that people draw connections between heightened representations and their own lives all the time, and that's obviously sensible. My point is that The Leftovers is not solely about loss, but also about a profound epistemological crisis.

  18. #43
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    Quote Quoting Mitty - formerly known as Goofy20202 (view post)
    There's no real world correlate for the kind of grief being addressed in this show, though. Of course, I realize that people draw connections between heightened representations and their own lives all the time, and that's obviously sensible. My point is that The Leftovers is not solely about loss, but also about a profound epistemological crisis.
    If there's no real world correlate, how are we supposed to relate to what's going on? Grief is still grief, as much as they may want to ratchet it up. Three years is a long time and yet no character has moved on and no character has benefitted in any way from the departure. For example, no one gets a windfall inheritance from their departed parent, no character is relieved of an abusive relationship due to a departed partner. Everyone's grief is the same and therefore no one's grief is interesting.

    Another source of frustration is the characters knowing more than the audience and only in drips and drabs are we let in on anything. There's no one who serves as our way in to the world. Everyone is just an insufferable grump.
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  19. #44
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    Quote Quoting EyesWideOpen (view post)
    Someone dying is not comparable to people vanishing in thin air. So saying that you know how people would respond when that happens is ridiculous.
    Knowing why doesn't make it any easier to lose a son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, friend. Unexpected loss might as well be vanishing into thin air.
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  20. #45
    Quote Quoting Lazlo (view post)
    If there's no real world correlate, how are we supposed to relate to what's going on?
    Well, it's a show about characters negotiating between a recognizably human past and an unfathomably strange present. Also, the notion of taking a fantastical conceit and making it compelling and credible isn't novel.

    I liked Greenwald's article, even though our perspectives on the show do not really align. The show is operating on a decidedly heightened stage, which is motivated by the conceit. I guess this grants them a wide berth in terms of the kind of drama that can be mined, and this does indeed result in some heavy-handed aspects and misfires (I agree with Greenwald that the scene with Nora and the prostitute was probably a bad creative choice, but more charitably, it's an awkward moment buoyed by the spectacle of character and performance). However, this also grants the show an interesting quality, where, like the character of Dean, a sense of nascent definition and vagueness emerges as a kind of virtue. The show itself feels kind of mad, eerie, and arcane (i.e., on the last page, its lack of clear direction was noted as something positive). The resulting sense of emphatic possibility lends the proceedings an unnerving and peculiar energy. I realize these must sound like dubious compliments. In fact, I often disliked Lost for possessing those same qualities. It's coming across as less obnoxious here, though. We'll see how I feel later on.

    Also, the grandiloquence of certain characters (i.e., Patti) or their erratic tendencies (i.e., Kevin) are symptomatic of the internal and external disorder that is a key focus of The Leftovers. The world has been made unknowable, and selfhood seems to be undergoing a similar kind of evacuation (of any claim to coherence, intelligibility, control, etc.). Kevin's precarious mental state is a consequence of the Departure, but it's also a recapitulation of its effects (inexplicable absence), writ small and personal. I'm not entirely convinced that the more ostentatious narrative events necessarily means that the writers aren't offering us much in the way of credible or compelling human behaviour. Like the best of Lost, part of the pleasure of this show involves those moments where the pathos of character colludes with narrative intrigue or strangeness (i.e., an uncomprehending Kevin brought to tears as he comes to grips with his increasingly tenuous mental state, Nora and Matt's exchange in the third episode, Wayne and Nora, etc.).

    Three years is a long time and yet no character has moved on and no character has benefitted in any way from the departure. For example, no one gets a windfall inheritance from their departed parent, no character is relieved of an abusive relationship due to a departed partner. Everyone's grief is the same and therefore no one's grief is interesting.
    I do see your point. The lack of a broader range of reactions is probably due to the focus on the threat and allure of hysteria, violence, self-annhiliation, etc. They're focusing on characters who are especially sensitive to the ramifications of the Sudden Departure because this complements their elected thematic approach. It's still fairly early, though. I don't think that everyone's grief on the show is identical, but I do think that additional perspectives would be a welcome addition.

  21. #46
    Quote Quoting Lazlo (view post)
    Knowing why doesn't make it any easier to lose a son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, friend. Unexpected loss might as well be vanishing into thin air.
    Again, you seem to be eliding the way in which this show is about more than the general idea of unexpected loss. It obviously invites such comparisons and there's plenty of room here for broader considerations about the themes. In terms of the specificity of the text, however, it's dealing with a very particular epistemological crisis. The world no longer seems to yield to human understanding and control. The ensuing horror wouldn't be quite the same if the catalyst was familiar.

  22. #47
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Lazlo (view post)
    Knowing why doesn't make it any easier to lose a son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, friend. Unexpected loss might as well be vanishing into thin air.
    Something that happens thousands of times a day since the beginning of man happening to you is a lot different than something that has never happened before and is completely unexplainable.
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  23. #48
    Screenwriter Lazlo's Avatar
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    I suppose y'all are right, it's about more than just the average death. Nevertheless I find the show to be unpleasant to watch. *shrug* Enjoy your weekly dose of despair.
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  24. #49
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Lazlo (view post)
    I suppose y'all are right, it's about more than just the average death. Nevertheless I find the show to be unpleasant to watch. *shrug* Enjoy your weekly dose of despair.
    Understandable. I just found your original post dismissive where we had said we liked the show and you said "no it sucks". The show is obviously about depression but I don't find it unpleasant to watch I actually find it very entertaining and enjoy seeing where the show is going to go. But obviously it's not for everyone.
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  25. #50
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    Michelle MacLaren, man. That was an incredible episode. Might be my favorite of the season.

    I can watch this show for days.

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