"The Leftovers" (HBO series)

The focus on the show isn't on why this occurred but how people deal with the aftermath. I'm comfortable that not all questions have to be answered. You could say the same in life.

 

They really are throwing these "questions" right in the viewer's face to string 'em along IMO. Glad your happy with the show, but I have no interest on watching a show week after week devoted to showing how people deal with loss.

 

You're right they do certainly,mention it but I think that anyone facing the same situation would doso and i think forms part of the show as a result.

FYI, the novel doesn't bother to answer any of these questions either. Perhaps they will try and tackle it as sme point n the series but in my experience the answers are usually disappointing compared to the set up.

I'm currently watching it and we will see how it is resolved one way or the other. I have the feeling that if the show continues it will try and give some answers. I also feel we will never get that answer to The Walking Dead and it really doesn't matter to me as its not a mystery about what happened but that is used as a dramatic device to set up the series and conflicts.

 

could never get passed the first episode

 

I find myself thinking about the show several times a day and really looking forward to the next episode. So I'm in. I'm perfectly fine with the pace and the ambiguity and don't even really find the tone depressing. Yeah, people are dealing with loss, but I don't find it hard to watch.

 

I'm in, and while I do find the show, so far, to be quite dark in tone, that doesn't bother me. I thought the pace of the first show was better than the second (which was a little less intense), but as for the lack of answers so far, I'm not bothered.

 

Had a thought about the lady insurance adjuster who lost her whole family and is interviewing people before approving the life insurance payouts. She said the company is having the interviews done on video rather than having people fill out forms as the forms were too often filled out correctly. But I think she's doing the interviews that way because she's asking her own questions (probably along with the ones that insurance company wants) and trying to discern some pattern to explain how the disappeared were selected. 150 questions seems quite excessive, even for a strange situation like this, and it would explain some of the bizarre questions she is asking.

 

You think that guy could stick anymore snuff behind his lip. ~ I'm watching one more episode just to follow the actor playing the Police Chief/Sheriff. I don't want to get caught up in another show with a "merry-go-round", "hide and seek" plot line like we had to deal with watching True Detective. I need some answers and some clarity next episode.

 

I think you came for the wrong show. The overriding theme of the series so far (to me) seems to be how people deal with a world where major events happen without any answers or clarity. If one's response to that is "there are no answers here, just events I can't reconcile, I guess I'll drop out" then pick up your white suit and Lucky Strikes at the door, because what the GR is doing instead of trying to deal with the world as it is makes as much sense as anything else.

 

I've been watching bits and pieces of this.

Why is some of them don't talk?? they write down everything?

 

Last night's ep. was the best, so far.

 

I guess I am still unclear if there is an us-versus-them aspect to this show, or if the whole show is simply "this event happened, you will never know why, it isn't going to happen again, and the show is a character study in how people might react to something like that."

If it's supposed to be the former, then last night's episode was interesting on its own terms, but really did almost nothing to move the plot forward.

If it's supposed to be the latter, then last night's episode gave us depth on the priest.

I'm OK with either possibility, but would adjust my expectations if I knew it was the latter more than the former.

 

Haven't watched ep. 3 yet, but just wanted to mention I thought the plot point in ep. 2 about the Sheriff's bagel halves "disappearing" was great.

 

Same here.

 

This is exactly what the book is about. The only difference from your point is that it's not clear whether or not it would happen again.

 

I gotta say, that was a pretty darn good episode.

 

Well, we're up through three episodes now. Are you going to remind us weekly how you couldn't get past episode 1?

 

Gave it another shot last night.
Way too many characters and plots now going on.
Stick with one story and let it branch off too another one.
I'm Done, no leftovers for me.

 

Only if you ask nice.

 

One and two were okay, but nothing special.

I was stunned at how awesome episode three was. If that's the direction the show's going to take, count me in. I thought it was brilliant.

 

I wasn't going to watch this because of Damen's involvement. LOST was a fun ride but they killed it in the final season. Away this past week I streamed the first 2 episodes. More of the same. Wasn't very interested. But then the 3rd episode hooked me. Pretty awesome. And I love Eccleston. I like the way it slowly unravels like LOST and how the characters end up being connected. Or how they revisit scenes from a different point of view. I'm going to stick with it for a while.

 

I gave up after episode two.....I thought that the show was dreadful. I started to watch number three
(opened with the church scene, right?) and then bailed for good. But now.....might have to go back.

 

It was a good episode, but I don't think if you hated the first two this was so different or revelatory that you'd like it because of this episode. It focused on a character (the preacher) who was barely seen in the first few. Watch it, but I don't know that I'd expect something different. Its not as if some big part of the mystery was revealed or anything.

Any thoughts on the episode titles?

#1 was an untitled pilot.
#2 "Penguins One, Us Zero" - someone might have said something about Penguins somewhere, but I can't remember what.
#3 "Two Boats And A Helicopter" - I don't have any ideas, but they have to mean something.

 

I don't know the plans for the series in terms of the outcome but the novel left everything unexplained. It happened and we witnessed the emotional consequences of it. That's kind of the difference between a genre novel and a mainstream novel that uses the conventions of the genre. In the case of the former, we usually get a solid explanation whle the latter leaves things open.

 

I do t low about the second episode but the third may be here:

This is the story of a man who lived by a river.




One day it started to rain very hard, and the river began to flood. A boat came by to offer him a way off his flooded porch. "Don't worry about me," said the man as he sent the boat away. "God will save me."

Soon the man's first floor was covered in water and a second boat rode by: "Get in," the passengers called, "we can help you." Again came the stubborn man's refrain: "Don't worry — God will save me."

In a few short hours, the man's entire house was under water, save the chimney on which he, praying, perched. A helicopter appeared overhead and tossed down a rope, but, as with the two boats: "God will save me" and all that.

As his last chance of survival flew from sight, and the water swallowed his chimney stoop, the man of faith, accusingly, cried out to God, "I had faith in you! Why haven't you come through yet?" The skies opened up, and God called down, "What more do you want me to do? I sent you two boats and a helicopter!"

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/14/5893951/the-leftovers-third-episode-is-perfect-television