The Leftovers (New HBO Series)

[SNIKT1950]

The best show on Television came back tonight with a superb season premiere.

Lindelof and Leder are on fire right out the door.

The ending with Nora raised alot of questions.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Wouldn't say it's the best show

 

[EVILFACE]

And what do you consider the best show?

 

[quadcent]

best show.....seriously?? I thought this show was cancelled long ago....

 

[SNIKT1950]

best show.....seriously?? I thought this show was cancelled long ago....

Sounds like you're not caught up.

 

[quadcent]

yeah I quit watching it long ago.

 

[YoNoSe]

I don't know if it's the best show on tv but it's about as close as you get to a pure vision from a creative team and it's ****ing brilliant. Cheers to HBO for giving them a wrapup season.

 

[hockeyflow33]

I heard an interview with Carrie Coon last week where she was saying that if this was not so highly rated by critics it never would have continued past season one because no one watches it. I was actually really surprised because as weird as this show is, I'm totally invested in the storyline and all the characters.

 

[YoNoSe]

I heard an interview with Carrie Coon last week where she was saying that if this was not so highly rated by critics it never would have continued past season one because no one watches it. I was actually really surprised because as weird as this show is, I'm totally invested in the storyline and all the characters.

In general I think audiences don't like ambiguity. THey came out of the gate saying the central "mystery" would not be answered so I think a lot of people never gave it a chance. Their loss.

 

[batfan08]

So, who here watched the finale?

 

[SNIKT1950]

So, who here watched the finale?

Amazing finale.

Lindelof and Perrotta delivered in spades. The ambiguity was beautiful and the resolutions poignant and heartfelt.

****, I'm gonna miss this masterpiece show.

 

[bruhkis]

I guess I wanted a little more

 

[SNIKT1950]

I love that we never got to see

Spoiler:

where they went. Nora's trek was to a parallel universe, not the place the departed were transported to.

Let the mystery be.

 

[bruhkis]

I love that we never got to see

Spoiler:

where they went. Nora's trek was to a parallel universe, not the place the departed were transported to.

Let the mystery be.

I guess when you put like that....I agree. It's just that I really disliked the main characters

 

[batfan08]

Spoiler:

See, I always felt like it was hard to like Nora. You could pity her, but she was a very cold person, even with her kids, and it's difficult to identify with her because she's so detached; so guarded, and that's what I loved about the finale. You know all the reasons why she is the way she is, and it's so satisfying to see her finally be happy. In many ways, I felt like her nude scene at the beginning was almost representative of that. It was her shedding that armor and embracing the unknown, and, in her case, the unknown wasn't just where her kids went or what was on the other side, it was a future; it was what a happy life where she didn't feel controlled by survivor's guilt with Kevin might look like.

What I love about it is, in that instance, it's such a simple explanation, and yet, ironically enough, it only raises more questions. Was it a parallel universe? Did that radiation that made them all disappear just change their vibrational frequency or something to cause them to exist on a different dimensional plane? It's almost like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits in terms of the construction of it as an idea. I didn't think I'd like this show, at first. Lindeloff has something of a cult of people who despise him and I almost passed on this show based on some of those preconceptions, but I didn't and I loved it, and it's such a cool show to talk about.

I love the almost paradoxical manner in which they build Kevin up as this messianic figure. His travels to the afterlife, his resurrections, The Book of Kevin; it all seems like it's working in service to this sort of epic, cosmic conclusion, and it brings us to what I think Religion was constructed to do, in many ways: his humanity. Everything about his journey acts as an examination of his humanity. The fact that, of each of the paths presented him, he picks the International Assassin; it's adventurous, it's dangerous; it's love, and it's fitting that he would need to open his heart to come to the realization that what was important wasn't the Guilty Remnant, or the Sudden Departure, but Nora. He needed her as much as she needed him, and I think, in some ways, that acts as a sort of critique of our relationships with Religion. Like Snikt and the theme song said, "Let the mystery be;" people get so caught up in the "why" of it all; in what comes next, that they forget that people are what's important. None of us know what comes next, maybe it's streets of gold, maybe it's darkness and dirt, but each of us, for better or worse, are given, at least, this life to work with, and I think that's what The Leftovers is all about, ultimately; finding someone or something to make this life just a little more tolerable, for however long you can. For Matt Jamison, it was his faith. For Tom, it was magic hugs, and for Kevin and Nora, it was each other.

 

[SNIKT1950]

Spoiler:

See, I always felt like it was hard to like Nora. You could pity her, but she was a very cold person, even with her kids, and it's difficult to identify with her because she's so detached; so guarded, and that's what I loved about the finale. You know all the reasons why she is the way she is, and it's so satisfying to see her finally be happy. In many ways, I felt like her nude scene at the beginning was almost representative of that. It was her shedding that armor and embracing the unknown, and, in her case, the unknown wasn't just where her kids went or what was on the other side, it was a future; it was what a happy life where she didn't feel controlled by survivor's guilt with Kevin might look like.

What I love about it is, in that instance, it's such a simple explanation, and yet, ironically enough, it only raises more questions. Was it a parallel universe? Did that radiation that made them all disappear just change their vibrational frequency or something to cause them to exist on a different dimensional plane? It's almost like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits in terms of the construction of it as an idea. I didn't think I'd like this show, at first. Lindeloff has something of a cult of people who despise him and I almost passed on this show based on some of those preconceptions, but I didn't and I loved it, and it's such a cool show to talk about.

I love the almost paradoxical manner in which they build Kevin up as this messianic figure. His travels to the afterlife, his resurrections, The Book of Kevin; it all seems like it's working in service to this sort of epic, cosmic conclusion, and it brings us to what I think Religion was constructed to do, in many ways: his humanity. Everything about his journey acts as an examination of his humanity. The fact that, of each of the paths presented him, he picks the International Assassin; it's adventurous, it's dangerous; it's love, and it's fitting that he would need to open his heart to come to the realization that what was important wasn't the Guilty Remnant, or the Sudden Departure, but Nora. He needed her as much as she needed him, and I think, in some ways, that acts as a sort of critique of our relationships with Religion. Like Snikt and the theme song said, "Let the mystery be;" people get so caught up in the "why" of it all; in what comes next, that they forget that people are what's important. None of us know what comes next, maybe it's streets of gold, maybe it's darkness and dirt, but each of us, for better or worse, are given, at least, this life to work with, and I think that's what The Leftovers is all about, ultimately; finding someone or something to make this life just a little more tolerable, for however long you can. For Matt Jamison, it was his faith. For Tom, it was magic hugs, and for Kevin and Nora, it was each other.

Yes, the end game wasn't a massive spectacle but rather a quiet realization of true happiness. The spectacle was getting there.

 

[SNIKT1950]

I guess when you put like that....I agree. It's just that I really disliked the main characters

You didn't like Kevin? I thought he was a brilliant choice for a reluctant messiah.

 

[bruhkis]

You didn't like Kevin? I thought he was a brilliant choice for a reluctant messiah.

That is true. I think I just didn't like Nora....lol. When he left her in the hotel, I was like about time he took charge and made a decision. He called her out about the kids

 

[SNIKT1950]

That is true. I think I just didn't like Nora....lol. When he left her in the hotel, I was like about time he took charge and made a decision. He called her out about the kids

Well, Nora represented the opposite of Kevin's ideology. Kevin was about moving forward. Nora was about looking back. In the end they switched places and it was Kevin who was stuck in the past while she moved on. She really was the yang to his ying.

 

[SNIKT1950]

Was it a parallel universe? Did that radiation that made them all disappear just change their vibrational frequency or something to cause them to exist on a different dimensional plane? It's almost like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits in terms of the construction of it as an idea.

She def traveled to a "mirror universe" and not the place The Departed went to. I was worried when she was telling Kevin the story that she was going to say she indeed crossed over to said destination for The Departed. I was happy it wasn't - because it let the mystery be.