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The Leftovers |OT| Left Behind With Damon Lindelof - Sundays 10/9c
- Thread starter TheOddOne
- Start date
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Gray Matter
Member
I'm with you in this.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
I don't know, just spitting out ideas. Although you got to remember we're looking at this from the PoV of Kevin, who isn't very stable. I would go as far as to say we are dealing with an unreliable narrator.
I don't think we're going to get to the point where the town is going to gun down the cult, but it could be Kevin setting himself up to do so.
I haven't watched this, but if the story of the TV show is bad because of the book then yes Lindelof deserves blame because A) he picked this story to adapt and B) he chose not to change the "badness" of it and make it a loose adaptation.
WyndhamPrice
Member
I'm intrigued and I'll watch the whole season.
I'm guessing the reviewers were so high on it because they got to see 3 episodes in a row and not just one pilot which was pure world building. We're in an era of TV now where it's a given that the majority of people going forward are going to be watching multiple episodes at once so a lot of newer programs are seemingly slower paced. This definitely felt a bit too slow to me, but it was also 70 minutes long.
This isn't a mystery show, it's a show about points of view and how circumstances change people. It's about the long and short term effects of grief and despair on a macro scale, without the overt genre trappings of something like The Walking Dead.
The smoking thing is a sign of the cult's solidarity. The sign in the Guilty Remnant kitchen said "We smoke to proclaim our faith." I'm sure the specifics will come to light down the road.
I'm guessing the reviewers were so high on it because they got to see 3 episodes in a row and not just one pilot which was pure world building. We're in an era of TV now where it's a given that the majority of people going forward are going to be watching multiple episodes at once so a lot of newer programs are seemingly slower paced. This definitely felt a bit too slow to me, but it was also 70 minutes long.
This isn't a mystery show, it's a show about points of view and how circumstances change people. It's about the long and short term effects of grief and despair on a macro scale, without the overt genre trappings of something like The Walking Dead.
The smoking thing is a sign of the cult's solidarity. The sign in the Guilty Remnant kitchen said "We smoke to proclaim our faith." I'm sure the specifics will come to light down the road.
I absolutely hated this.
A few scattershot points:
Don't think I want to watch a show that centers around "the battle of the cults".
I struggle to remember a single likeable character, and there were far too many moments I just laughed at the absurdity of it all.
Ooooh, they used the word cunt, and reminded us how badass that is, this must be on HBO!
The music choices were bizarre... I howled at the piano during the memorial riot. And why did that escalate so quickly? The police are horribly inept, if they can't keep the peace when Westboro lite shows up.
Animal spirits in dreams are Hannibal territory. Stay away, Leftovers.
A few scattershot points:
Don't think I want to watch a show that centers around "the battle of the cults".
I struggle to remember a single likeable character, and there were far too many moments I just laughed at the absurdity of it all.
Ooooh, they used the word cunt, and reminded us how badass that is, this must be on HBO!
The music choices were bizarre... I howled at the piano during the memorial riot. And why did that escalate so quickly? The police are horribly inept, if they can't keep the peace when Westboro lite shows up.
Animal spirits in dreams are Hannibal territory. Stay away, Leftovers.
Hey-ooooo.
...for some reason, that doesn't make it seem any less stupid.
The all white, the not talking, sleeping on mats, eating gruel, chain-smoking, aggressive pacifism...none of it feels real. It just feels piled on in order to make the group seem as mysterious as possible, but it feels so aimless...which is why so many of the Remnant scenes just came off unintentionally funny (We do this to proclaim our faith...well, what the fuck IS your faith?). If this show ever gets popular enough to warrant an SNL skit, I bet any kind of money that the cast goes IN on The Remnant's ridiculousness specifically. Like, even in a world where 2% of the population can just vanish off the face of the earth, I find it hard to believe that a group like this could just materialize.
They better have one hell of a backstory, because as of right now I'm just not buying it.
WyndhamPrice
Member
I guess I just don't understand getting worked up about an aspect of the pilot that has plenty of context for an introduction (it's existence is a reaction, one of many, to the incident that occurred 3 years ago, and it's at odds with the rest of society) and not giving the show the benefit of the doubt that the nature of its specifics will be discussed, especially with the Chief's wife being a member and Liv Tyler's character going to them at the end.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
I don't know, I guess I can buy into people going fucking insane when people literally vanish out of existence. We already have cults even without evidence of anything, imagine the shit that would spring up if an event like this happened.
It's the pilot, you can't expect to have everything explained instantly, and we just had a character enter as a newbie who will most likely show us how it operates and everything.
I guess I just simply love the idea of basically the world going to shit because everyone collectively lost their marbles. It's not an apocalypse of natural disaster, of disease, or war, just people literally losing grasp on reality over a relatively small amount of people going poof from an unknown cause.
Nobody's getting worked up, but the group as its been presented just doesn't make a whole lot of sense, even in an initial "eh, we don't know much about them, but I'm intrigued enough to want to learn more" sort of way. They have a basic purpose (We exist to remember those taken), but their faith and practices feel arbitrary when you zoom in.
But hey, at least they have that basic premise going for them. I don't know what the hell was up with that other cult...
Vire
Member
No character in the show act in believable or understandable ways. Particularly Jill, you get your father's car, find a dead dog in the trunk and don't call him to question what the hell that was about? You just immediately decide to bury him?
The chain smoking cult are nothing short of laughably cheesy and the maudlin piano music that seems to creep its way into every scene is beyond tiresome.
This show is just bad.
WyndhamPrice
Member
Have you ever been a teenager in a dysfunctional household? Logical reasoning doesn't really come into play a lot of the time. Emotions, you know.
Her story was the thing that worked the least for me during the whole thing (I really don't like "rebellious/angsty teen" archetypes/plots) but the dog thing I could understand. Not driving the car back was just an extra "fuck you, dad, you dumb drunk cop" and she pressed him about it the next day when he tried to give her shit about not coming home.
"Context" for this group is hammered over our head with the big-ass poster hanging on the wall of one of their cigarette dens. You know the one, with "Guilty Remnant" trademarked under whatever shitty bumper-sticker philosophical phrase was used. I wonder if those can be bought at Pottery Barn in this world?
There is no reason this Heaven's Gate knockoff should be drawing in the people they have. I'm totally with Royalan on this.
Yeah this felt like an NBC show or something. Not at all something I'd have expected from HBO. I'm vaguely intrigued but I feel like I'd rather read the book than bother with the show at all. Overall just a disjointed and boring premiere. Setting up a show doesn't have to be boring and this one certainly was.
Why does she hang out with the shit-brigade, crying while jacking off a Step-Up reject, when the Charisma Twins (who would spend their night burying a dead dog) are just outside the party? I had no respect for this waste of a human being.
BigJonsson
Member
Uhhh, clearly all the people went
Lost spoiler, so don't click on it
I'll continue to watch since I have a PVR with lots of space
back to the island
Lost spoiler, so don't click on it
I'll continue to watch since I have a PVR with lots of space
Sectorseven
Member
She's OK. Looks like a Kristen Stewart clone.
I'm not sure which was miscast, the cop father or the son, but the father doesn't look old enough to have a kid that age.
dead souls
Member
Wow. Talk about damning with faint praise.
HBO is an absolute mess in the drama department right now. If it wasn't for their comedies I would seriously consider dropping the channel.
The world's ending, man! The youth are lost!
RaGNaRoK 2k5
Banned
It's all about the characters brah
David H Wong
Banned
A lot of bad pilots do turn into good shows later but yeah I'm not hopeful here. Lots of unpleasant characters and the "arbitrarily withhold information from the viewer as a form of building suspense" that made us hate Lost. That's when you know a show has no good ideas - when their tool for making you keep watching is, "WOW ISN'T THIS WEIRD AND RANDOM I BET YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE DEAL IS HERE WELL TUNE IN NEXT WEEK."
Supermanisdead
Member
the party game stuff was wack. like some out-of-touch adult's vision of a bleak reality where ~kids are soooo bad they even burn themselves just to feel alive ya know~
the rest of the episode was pretty interesting, i thought. i'm really digging the black prophet dude and the main character's son. i'm going to stick with it just to see the fallout of whatever he thinks is coming.
the rest of the episode was pretty interesting, i thought. i'm really digging the black prophet dude and the main character's son. i'm going to stick with it just to see the fallout of whatever he thinks is coming.
BadAss2961
Member
Ha... I was expecting people to go apeshit over this pilot. Surprised by the reaction.
Thought it was really good, and it has the awesome black dude from The Beach.
Thought it was really good, and it has the awesome black dude from The Beach.
Same here. Must be a lot of short attention span types in here. I was very much intrigued. Then again, I never wwatched Lost, so I'm not coming in to this butt hurt.
brianjones
Member
ridiculous
YOU CANNOT KILL OUR FUCKING DOGS
big misfire for hbo.. this feels like it should be on cbs next to under the dome or some shit
Me too. I genuinely enjoyed the pilot.
David H Wong
Banned
There you have it - this show appeals to the type of person who uses the word "butthurt."
That actually makes me feel pretty good about not liking it.
I... kinda liked it? The plot's a little silly if you look at it, but I was digging the tone at times. I dunno, I'll watch more, see where it goes.
True Detective
Game of Thrones
True Blood (final season)
The Newsroom (final shortened season)
Boardwalk Empire (final season)
Veep
Silicon Valley
The Comeback
Getting On
Looking
Girls
New originals:
The Brink (half hour dark comedy about a geopolitical crisis)
Togetherness (half hour from the Duplass brothers)
Jonah from Tonga (more of that Summer Heights High stuff)
Utopia (remake of a BBC show from David Fincher)
Ballers (half hour comedy with The Rock)
That's everything I'm aware of with series commitments.
True Detective
Game of Thrones
True Blood (final season)
The Newsroom (final shortened season)
Boardwalk Empire (final season)
Veep
Silicon Valley
The Comeback
Getting On
Looking
Girls
New originals:
The Brink (half hour dark comedy about a geopolitical crisis)
Togetherness (half hour from the Duplass brothers)
Jonah from Tonga (more of that Summer Heights High stuff)
Utopia (remake of a BBC show from David Fincher)
Ballers (half hour comedy with The Rock)
That's everything I'm aware of with series commitments.
Steelyuhas
Member
Hmm, I found it interesting. A bit of an oddly structured pilot, despite running 72 minutes it took its sweet time establishing some of the characters and plot lines. Hell, it took us about 60 minutes to find out Garvey's total family situation.
I'm in.
I'm in.
I liked it.
I'm wondering if there would be all this brouhaha about it if Lindelof's name wasn't advertised so hard on it. Like, give it a break, already guys.
Obviously there were a couple of weird things in the pilot but let's see if they smooth out from there, because otherwise it seemed pretty strong to me.
I'm wondering if there would be all this brouhaha about it if Lindelof's name wasn't advertised so hard on it. Like, give it a break, already guys.
Obviously there were a couple of weird things in the pilot but let's see if they smooth out from there, because otherwise it seemed pretty strong to me.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
When that guy dove into the pool, I noticed that he didn't have a penis. I freeze framed and rewinded the scene over and over again, and there was definitely no penis.
Did his penis get raptured or something?
memles, next time you talk to Lindelof can you ask him about that for me?
Penny Dreadful brah. Season is over so you can binge it.
Did his penis get raptured or something?
memles, next time you talk to Lindelof can you ask him about that for me?
Penny Dreadful brah. Season is over so you can binge it.
Yo real talk, that happened and I thought "finally with the dong thanks HBO" but then I thought about it and went back to check.
The fuck.
I love how the people who liked the pilot can't go into more detail on the strengths of the episode other than "I liked it, bro" and even admit that the episode had problems. But the people who can actually admit that they thought the episode was bad and actually go into detail on the perceived flaws and stacked questions are just "butthurt" and "lol Lindelof hate."
It's like you guys are just bookmarking praise now so you can come back and gloat if the show ever actually gets good.
It's like you guys are just bookmarking praise now so you can come back and gloat if the show ever actually gets good.
Tokubetsu
Member
Yes because some people just can't be bad at articulating their thoughts.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Am I crazy or was Parking Lot Mom just uncredited? I can't find it anywhere in IMDB. I know I recognized the actress.
Then they should work at it.
Like, I'm genuinely intrigued by why some you really liked the pilot so much, since I really didn't find much redeeming about it (The camera shamelessly loves Justin Theroux's body, and I love the camera for loving Justin Theroux's body. I also like the mayor character, but that's about it). I'd honestly drop it if so many critics didn't swear that it gets better.
But it seems like people can drum up more words to trash people who weren't captured by the pilot than they can to describe why they liked it in the first place.
Maddocks
Member
I view moving forward as the characters changing and actually doing something other then,"We still here guyz, suckz huh!?" never asking questions just shrugging their shoulders at the situation.
Episode 1 actually did that for the main character. In the beginning of the episode he stopped when he seen the dog, scared of what it might do, but didn't outright do anything. At the end of the episode he killed the dogs, he didn't want to do it but he knew he had to do it. His daughter even said earlier that her dad would never kill a dog. So that was good, that's moving forward. His son also did the same. Before he was happy and smiling and just doing whatever, but at the end it showed that he is frustrated with life.
I'm watching the show knowing nothing. Absolutely zero. All I know of the show was what was shown in promos for it. I never watched Lost so I don't know about all this "Lindelof is going to Lindelof" I didn't even know it was a book till someone pointed it out. I just want things to progress, episode 1-2 is always the world building and character intro episodes, that's why I usually give shows 3 episodes.
Vert boil
Member
TheOddOne strikes again.
Two percent just seems like an absurd number.
Aimee: Thumbs up
Jill: Hanging, Chocking
Stop wasting your breath
Natalie Gold. Her role was only "Young Mother".
Outdoor Miner
Member
I'm with you. I thought it was a good intro to the world and it's characters. Dunno wtf ppl were expecting truthfully.
Confirmed: Im a terrible human being.
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