HBO The Leftovers

[Jordan Catalano]

I can imagine them flinging feces at each other.

[Roscoe]

Well, that second episode was a disappointment. The relationship between the two teen girls is right out of AMERICAN BEAUTY, with the dark-haired actress showing signs of profound Kristen Stewart Imitation Disorder.

Lots of danger signs here that the show is going to devolve into petty easy Look How GRIM We're Being!! gimmickry. They seem to be ladling on the Apocalyptic Collapse Of Society stuff rather heavily, rather like Cuaron's brilliant film of CHILDREN OF MEN to which this series seems more than casually indebted. I'll give it one more shot and that'll be it, despite Justin Theroux's incredible hotness.

[Jane2]

well, I gave it another chance but now I'm done. Grim and dismal. so is Game of Thrones, but that show is interesting.

[Roscoe]

And THE LEFTOVERS is such a good, low-key, small scale book, too. I can recommend it highly.

[BobbyBubbi]

Anyone still watching?

[GavestonPS]

Yes, but I'm not sure why. Is this what it was like to watch LOST week after week?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I got caught up this weekend, and I find the show more compelling than I did the book. I don't know if it's because I have a better understanding of the Guilty Remnant and stuff, or that since I know where the book went, I'm able to sit back and not wonder too much about the bigger picture (because if there's a bigger picture, it's going to be an invention of the show, as there wasn't in the book) but I like it much better than I would have expected to.

[Roscoe]

I did watch the third episode, the one centering on the priest, and liked it a good deal. It's becoming pretty clear that I'm going to have to jettison my feelings for the novel if I'm going to continue watching the show -- the storytelling and atmosphere are significantly different, and only time will tell if that turns out to be a positive thing or not.

[James885]

I'm not sure how I feel about this show. For me, the episodes are very inconsistent; last week's episode centering on the priest was great, but I thought this week's episode was a letdown. I'll probably give it one or two more episodes before I quit.

[ErikJ972]

"I'm able to sit back and not wonder too much about the bigger picture (because if there's a bigger picture, it's going to be an invention of the show, as there wasn't in the book)"
I think that's the problem with Lindelhof. He's great at setting up stories where you wait to find out what the "bigger picture" is. But then he never tells you.
If that's the case with the source material for The Leftovers maybe this should have been made into a movie or mini series instead of an open ended series. Because if you raise all of these questions and never answer them people are bound to be disappointed.
I loved the episode that focused on the priest btw. Didn't see last weeks yet.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Because if you raise all of these questions and never answer them people are bound to be disappointed.

That was pretty much my exact problem with the book.

[darquegk]

It's been confirmed, at least so far, that we will never know exactly what caused the event. What has not been confirmed is whether or not further supernatural events will take place, or if that was just a freak happening.

I almost wish it were an adaptation instead of Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God." The central conceit is the same, but backwards. Instead of taking place in a scientific, secular world where a sudden quasi-Rapture takes place, "Hell is the Absence of God" takes place in a world without faith, a world where there is only one religion, everyone accepts that it is true, and you either side with the arbitrary, capricious and inscrutable God and try to go to heaven, which is unimaginable paradise, or reject him and choose Hell, which is exactly like the real world but better in most ways.

The story even focuses on a similar character, a man whose wife was blown to bits during a manifestation of an angel. He struggles to understand why it occurred, see if there is a higher purpose, and figure out what the nature of existence and faith is in a world where God definitely and undeniably exists, but is apathetic and possibly even malicious.

The novella has a rather dark ending that walks the line between satire and just punch in the gut.

[BobbyBubbi]

I just finished the book.

I liked the book's episodic structure, but didn't really find anything about Perrotta's prose to be very new, beautiful, exciting or even interesting.

I get what you are saying Phyllis, the text grounds you more whereas the show makes you play the guessing game.

While I liked the themes of grief and humanities need to carry on after death (or utter disappearance in this case) and understand that the major dramatic question of the piece is not 'what happened to everyone?' but rather what happens to those left behind trying to answer that very same question; it would have been nice to at least be given SOME idea of what happened to the departed or pointed in some direction, whether religious or scientific.

Not even bothering to take a stab at it, with a dramatic event so large, feels a tad lazy.

But I get it, he's trying to leave it up to your imagination and not play god. I respect that.

That being said, has the show been picked up for a second season?

[Auggie27]

I just got caught up. Episodes 5 and 6 are startling for different reasons, #6 by far the best of the series, in my estimation. Carrie Coon is extraordinary in this almost stand-alone episode, and B'way World fans will enjoy seeing Billy Magnasson in a small but critical role.

The show has frustrated me, but I've never given up on its overall effectiveness, not entirely. Even when individual episodes are not entirely satisfying -- and Episode 4 about the stolen Baby Jesus doll qualifies -- something is happening to engage and dig deeper. This is an ambitious piece for television because it offers so little immediate payoff. The story's exploration of grief is really the take-away, moment by moment and cumulatively. People looking for "Lost" or "Under the Dome"-like shocks and revelations are probably mystified and angry.

I'm willing to go almost anywhere they take me. Sometimes, into the abyss. In Episode 5, the horror evoked Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (appropriately) and Matthew Shepard's tragedy (maybe thematically relevant). It was ugly, but the violence -- which I have little stomach for in general -- seemed entirely earned.

I'm hanging in.

[BobbyBubbi]

That last scene with Patti Levin (played by Ann Dowd) was probably the best acting on TV all summer!

I can see awards coming her way!

[JerseyGirl2]

I am really enjoying the show in a frustrated way.

[CATSNYrevival]

We got to see Max Carver's butt I'm not frustrated.

[Auggie27]

Ann Dowd will surely receive an Emmy nomination. That episode, #8, another brilliant stand-alone, was dangerous, frightening and heartbreaking. Theroux, whose performance has been harder to gauge, was awfully effective with Dowd.

[BobbyBubbi]

^^ It really was. She made him better.

I'm surprised they killed her off so soon although we don't /really/ know for sure if she's really dead or not since the show lives in the 'in between.'

She reminded me of a young Kathy Bates in Misery. Brilliance. I can't say I love the show or its premise, but I definitely RESPECT it. Solid writing, great acting and it's compelling.

[StockardFan]

I read the book so long ago I can't really remember that many details. I have all of the episodes on my DVR but haven't watched yet.

[Auggie27]

Down definitely has a Bates/Margo Martindale quality. Yet she's her own unique artist, so centered and laser-like in her focus. The character began very one-dimensional, the mute nature of the GR an obvious liability. But they skillfully revealed more and more. She was really fascinating in the coffee shop scene in #5, after the death of Gladys. One of my favorite scenes on the series so far.

I am riveted to the show even as I'm frustrated by some of its obliqueness and frankly grim patina of despair. The Christmas show with the missing Jesus in the town manager was beautifully written and played, but it made me want to turn it off throughout, for mysterious reasons. It has a push/pull impact, unlike almost anything I've watched. I believe its undercurrents work almost subliminally. When it starts, I almost dread what I might find. I believe that trapped in that dread is exactly where the creative team wants us to be.

[broadway86]

This is such a fantastic show. Each episode (minus, perhaps, the second one) has been bold and revealing and disorienting. The ensemble is one of the strongest on TV, particularly Theroux, Dowd (RIP Patti), Coon, and Eccleston. Each of them, Emmy-worthy.

[lovepuppy]

Supposedly in Ep. 9 we learn more about why Laurie is doing what she's doing with the GR. That's what Amy Brenneman said on "The View" a couple of months ago. Guess that will be this coming weekend.

[Auggie27]

Well that will be satisfying. Laurie's detachment from her own family is one of the story's maddening secrets, and learning why she's such a die-hard zealot -- and her zealotry has deepened, noted in the moment with the whistle in episode -- will help us understand Kevin.

It's compelling casting, since Theroux and Brenneman are a strange match, not an obvious couple. I wonder who was chosen first.

[GavestonPS]

Ann Dowd has been brilliant on numerous episodes of the LAW AND ORDER franchise. She also plays Dr. Masters' mother on MASTERS OF SEX on SHOWTIME.

Let's hope her character died because Dowd had to go back to her "day job" on the other show.

[GavestonPS]

Will ya'll indulge one stupid question?

I am right that the "departed" simply disappeared, yes? The opening credits with the painting of a traditional "Rapture" where bodies float toward a light in the heavens puzzles me. I keep thinking I misunderstood Episode 1.