"The Leftovers" (HBO series)

I liked the show. It wasn't a concrete finale that took everything at face value. Carrie and Justin brought enormous shading to their performances. What I find most amazing is the series went on for three years tackling the same themes as the novel and staying largely true to the spirit of those themes.

Unlike some folks I don't expect everything to be answered and this was well plotted out unlike "Lost" where they seemed to make it up as it was going along (although Lindeloff and Cuse managed to, largely, tie that together however the Jonas we're questions for more perplexing and an issue for me)

 

I had always assumed that there were two realities that the departed were separated into, the 2% in one, the 98% in the other. No big surprise there. At least we got something akin to an explanation as to what happened to the 2%. I spent the majority of the finale assuming that what we were watching was the 2% reality. I guess that was the writers' intention. I thought the Kevin we were seeing was the "twin brother" from the previous episode and that somehow there were two Kevins, one in each reality. Again, that was probably the writers' intention. I had assumed that in the 2% reality, Kevin was telling the truth when he told Nora that they had only met once at the high school and that Nora wasn't aware that there were two Kevins.

I was under the impression that Laurie had committed suicide by drowning herself a few episodes back. Apparently, I was mistaken about that as well.

 

Was I blow away the finale, no, however it was satisfying enough and fitting. Speaking of fit, Carrie Coon...

 

My thought as well. That seemed like bad logic when she told the story.

 

Pretty sure Nora said the inventor was one of the first to use the machine. I don't think the show's "plot" holds up to too much logical scrutiny. It's much better for its themes and as an allegory.

 

I have a new TV show coming out next season. I plan on introducing one mystery after another and never answering any of them over the next 7 seasons. I am also going to leave the series finale open ended so you can try and rationalize why you wasted seven years watching it. I expect many Emmy Awards.

 

I think Nora's was a lie as well. Kevin was willing to accept hers whereas she wasn't able to accept his.
That's why she seemed surprised and relieved he believed her. Because as Laurie said, she really wanted to be with him.

 

It was 14, not 2 percent.

I am very happy with the finale, really enjoyed the whole series. Looking forward to revisiting each season again.

 

I wound up not caring whether it was a lie or not. All I was left with was utter frustration that I invested so much time into a series that didn't go anywhere in terms of the 'build up' (if we can call it that) over the course of 7 episodes. Just weak, in my opinion.

 

It's 2%. Not 14%, Look it up.

The Leftovers starts three years after a global event called the "Sudden Departure", the inexplicable, simultaneous disappearance of 140 million people, 2% of the world's population, on October 14, 2011.[8] Following that event, mainstream religions declined, and a number of cults emerged, most notably the Guilty Remnant.[9]

 

Okay, sorry I was misremembering. That's correct.

As to another point: I prefer to not think Nora was lying.

As for wasting time: I myself didn't think so. The source material didn't explain or wrap things up so I didn't expect tidy tight bows especially considering who was involved. They dished out just the type of entertainment I looked for. This and Better Call Saul are my top two series of the last three years.

Interestingly enough at the beginning of the first season I suffered the second great personal loss since the death of my wife (lost my mother almost exactly seven years after losing my first wife to lymphoma and MDS) and during the last months of my Mom's illness reconnected with the old friend (hadn't seen her for 33 years) that is now my wife. Love has gotten me through into a new better existence. This may color how I have experienced this show.

 

Can you ruin Prometheus and Star Trek too please?

 

been done....it was called 'lost".

 

I have a slightly different take on this. Nora fights for the right to be vaporized so she can be with her kids again. But at the last moment she chooses to stay here, in her own private anguished hell. Fast forward... Kevin visits her out of nowhere. They've never dated. Just talked. Once. In high school. Is Kevin having another delusion? She decides to go with it, just like Laurie advised. Kevin was just telling a story to help himself cope. But Nora has a story too. She DID go through with it. And she discovers... that it was she that disappeared. Her husband and kids are alive. And happy. So... She came back. But I think, this is Nora's delusion. It's the story she had to tell herself to help deal with the pain and loss of her family. I think Kevin found peace long ago. But Nora was still looking for it. But she found it. Finally. When Kevin found her. Again.

Random thoughts...

Season 2 theme song. I enjoyed that.

That person fossil looked awesome.

Nora and Matt talking on the beach made me sad.

I am claustrophobic. No way I'm getting in that pod. I actually squirmed when it started filling with liquid.

There is a difference between a mistake... and sin. When Kevin looks at old Nora at the wedding I got sad again. I am such a bitch.

I am NOT climbing a steep hill to free a goat stuck to a fence with its beads.

I think I was more attached to this show, and it's characters than i knew. I will remember this series, and its weird season 3, fondly.

 

like it or not, there is no disputing that carrie coon deserves an emmy nomination in the least, if not an emmy win....talk about acting with the face and eyes, wow!

well done finale, a little ambiguous, but better than what cuse and lindoff gave us with 'lost' for sure.

 

So they took an entire episode to set up

Spoiler: spoiler

Lori's suicide, only to reveal she's not dead?

LINDELOF!!

 

Just for the record, I never felt prompted to imagine that Laurie killed herself. She just wanted to be scuba diving when whatever was going to happen or not happen on the anniversary went down. At peace, alone, embracing and swimming in the flood or not flood of water, despair, or hope.

L.

 

Spoiler

You're assuming it's a given they're not all dead in the finale. I'm not saying they are, but it's one among three possibilities.

 

I just see Bender moving his fist with his wrist when you wrote that!

 

i'm not trying to pick a fight here, but i feel like you guys are missing the entire point of the show. from the song choice used during the opening credits in all of season two to the writers themselves saying the show is at it's core, a love story; it wasn't about a mystery. they weren't ever going to give us answers to the mystery. they were very up front about that for the beginning.

 

The notes were there from before, earlier in the episode they showed Nora/Sara removing the notes from the birds when they had returned and placing them in the bucket.