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Post by otherscott on Apr 19, 2017 12:42:49 GMT -8
In much the same way I did for Mad Men Season 7.5, I'm going to do little capsule mini-reviews for my new favourite show on the air, The Leftovers.
Season 3, Episode 1 - The Book of Kevin
What is Kevin's arc over the course of the show? What is it that Kevin most has to fight? I think The Leftovers makes such an interesting and subtle choice with their main character in the dark depression world, they have him battle his sanity. They have him, in the wake of a cataclysmic supernatural event, battle his grip on what is real and what is in his head, whether there are powers in the world that are making him special, that are bringing him back from the dead.
Each season it's different, in season 1 it was the dogs, and his fascination with Dean, the man who seemed to be speaking truth in a world of insanity. So when Dean returns to the show, when he starts preaching a furtherence of his original theories that Kevin was so on board with, Kevin sees his past self. He sees the struggle he had to maintain his grasp of reality. He sees that he was on the brink of losing his sanity.
And that's important moving forward, that's something Kevin is determined to fight. He has to be able to figure out what is in his head, and what is real. And for him right now, the big struggle is brought forward in exactly what Matt is saying. Did he really visit that hotel, is it real? Is he really unable to die? Or is this a return of the crazy Kevin, the Kevin who was shooting dogs believing that they were a symptom of the evil that existed in the world. And he wanted to burn that book he wants to be able to put any ideas that show his potential craziness behind him. But he can't. He can't just let it all go. He can't bring himself to accept the hotel doesn't exist, the fact he came back to life after being shot was just complete chance with the bullet missing all vital organs. We'll see if he comes to regret that, we'll see if he moves back down into the conspiracy theorist he has struggled so hard to keep himself away from going. To keep his sanity where his father could not.
The show focussed entirely on Kevin so I'm not going to bring up much with the other characters yet, stay tuned as the season progresses.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Apr 19, 2017 13:33:09 GMT -8
Wow, I was so worried that I'd never see Scott post here again.
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Post by filibanfi on Apr 25, 2017 13:05:11 GMT -8
I have only one thing to say about the season for the moment, which is that I'm already regretting having claimed this just one week ago: I'll just say I find unlikely for something else to top Legion this year - at least for me. Draw your conclusions. |
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 25, 2017 14:21:33 GMT -8
filibanfi -
How did you feel about the second season of The Leftovers? |
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Post by otherscott on Apr 27, 2017 5:55:41 GMT -8
Season 3, Episode 2 - That's Ridiculous
I know people hate the Guilty Remnant. And I get it, I really do. They were annoyingly awful and didn't talk and really couldn't carry any scenes they were on and were just generally infuriating. But there's something very interesting about the general idea behind the guilty remnant. The idea that when people are miserable, they can't stand to see others happy. They have this awful need to bring everyone down to their level.
I think there's a little bit of that with Nora. And it's not as sinister and I still love Nora dearly, but there's a degree to which her inability to let others have their faith and just let them believe in things that make them feel better about themselves that has that aspect to it. The degree to which she's insultingly dismissive of the Book of Kevin to people like John, her job in the DSD that is intended to crush people's beliefs that another departure happened and force them to live with more hard truths, and of course that moment in this episode where she puts a picture of the dead tower guy right in the middle of his Shrine of believers, crushing any hope they had in some sort of salvation coming.
But there's a method behind it. Nora cannot believe in anything supernatural herself. She fights the idea of a supernatural force in the same way Kevin fights his delusions, trying to put on a strong exterior shell and showing it off to hide the strong doubt within herself. Because if there is something real, if there is something supernatural that reigns over the earth, that being hates Nora. It had her parents die in a house fire when she was a child, it had her lose her entire adult family to the Departure, it had the one child she regained get taken away from her again. If there's something supernatural, it has cursed Nora. And Nora can't live with that, she can't believe that. So she fights that belief as hard as she can, and part of that is crushing the beliefs of those around her often in the most flippant and cruel ways. It's taking her internal struggles and lashing out, the same way the guilty remnant does.
Nora is by far the best and well acted character in this show, and that's saying something. I'm not sure I've ever seen a second episode of a season this good, and this is a top 5 episode of a series that has so many amazing episodes. Keep it coming The Leftovers, if you keep the season at this level you may yet go down as my favourite show of all time.
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Post by filibanfi on Apr 29, 2017 9:37:00 GMT -8
How did you feel about the second season of The Leftovers? Oh, I found it great. It contained all the most positive elements of the first one - and I'm one of those weird guys who loved that, too - but completely changed structure, themes, and everything else, spectacularly succeeding in every single aspect. Also, it embraced much more original storylines, airing one of the most extraordinary hours of television of last year - even if Legion really changed the way I select thing as "weird" now. Still have to understand people's issues with the series, really. Anyway, really enjoying reading your thoughts, Scott - I particularly liked this week's episode ones. One thing I noted is how the show decides to completely reasset itself with new stories every year, just to slowly reveal everything and make us understand the characters are always the same, whatever situation might be put in front of them. I particularly recommend Sepinwall's take on "Don't Be Ridiculous" - it's probably the only show I completely agree with him, always. And yes, if the season continues like this, it will enter at least my Top Three of all time. It's just mind-blowingly good. |
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 29, 2017 14:43:30 GMT -8
I quite enjoyed the second season, but found the first season to be a mixed bag, because it waited too long to establish what the Guilty Remnant's psychological motivation was, so they mostly just came off as one-note and annoying antagonists, their interactions with main characters denied greater meaning. And I never, for a second, bought that Amy Brenneman's character would become a part of that group: to me, it dumbed her character down in a big way, thus rendering her with less dimension and agency. This was corrected by the second season, when she had broken away from the cult, and was trying to get other people out as well.
A friend of mine gave up on the show in the first season, complaining that it should explain why the Event occurred/what caused it. I don't really agree with that at all, because it isn't really the point of the show, and any explanation would (probably) ultimately be some shallow sci-fi exposition. The emphasis is on how people deal with grief and loss, not what caused it. It's like asking "What is the meaning of life?": no answer would ultimately prove satisfying, and it's better left to the imagination. Of course, I say all this knowing that the show may indeed provide an explanation for the Event in its closing hours, but I'm kind of hoping that doesn't prove to be the case. |
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 29, 2017 18:15:43 GMT -8
I would not be shocked if The Leftovers attempts to give an explanation for the Departure this season. But I presume it will be an "explanation" in the same way that the final season of That Other Lindelof Show explained the island.
(Except with less ensuing Twitter outrage.)
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Post by filibanfi on Apr 30, 2017 7:19:59 GMT -8
Oh, Lindelof already confirmed more than once that they are not giving an explanation to the Departure.
How funny is that Lost is the show everyone remembers being disappointed by for not giving answers, whereas this is the exact show I would be extremely perplexed and disappointed by if it achieved any real explanation?
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Post by otherscott on May 1, 2017 6:24:13 GMT -8
I don't think any answers are forthcoming, but if the writers felt they had a thematically and narratively satisfying way of delivering them, I wouldn't be opposed to it. This is true of any television show: it's not a matter of whether we get the answers we want, but rather that the decision to reveal or not reveal the answers, and consequently the answers we get, are in line with the shows thematic basis.
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Post by otherscott on May 3, 2017 7:56:10 GMT -8
Season 3, Episode 3 - Crazy Whitefella Thinking
There's always been a lot of connecting universal events and making yourself the centre of them in The Leftovers. Matt Jamison has possibly been the most guilty of this, where he connects thing he sees and forms a larger purpose out of it both for himself and the people around him. But this season is particularly focused on that. You have the potential coming of the Messiah, Kevin Garvey Jr, and this show is about him and the lives of the people he interacts with. This season is uniquely about religion, and realizing your purpose in the grand scheme of the universe and whether God, or whatever omnipotent being that may be out there has in store for you in particular. Even Nora falls into that thinking sometimes, about how she may be cursed by some universal force. It's connecting the universal and applying it to the person.
This is particularly significant in this episode. This is what Kevin Garvey Sr has built his Australian existence around, trying to stop the apocalypse. And it's very narcissistic thinking to believe it's on you that you have to prevent the Seven Year end of the world from occurring, but there's similar thinking all around the world we see. It's even there in superstition, people wearing a certain sweater and sitting in a certain spot because part of them believes it's their responsibility to make sure their favourite sports team wins. It's a natural inclination to feel you have a purpose, and to feel like that purpose is on a very grand scale.
And that's what connects Grace to Kevin Sr. We have two people who are very similarly confused and distraught by the events of their lives, and they are both looking for purpose. We have Kevin who believes he's found his purpose, to save the world because he believes that HE is the messiah, and Grace who's lost her entire family and is looking for anything to show her that God still cares about her and hasn't cast her off. And you can see that in Kevin, you can see that he feels the sense of being lost in Grace that he was himself when he first came to Australia, and he believes he has the way to fix it.
The unfortunate thing is, as Grace's story shows, is acting out of a misguided and assumed faith is the way that horrific accidents happen, and I'm fairly certain that's what the story with Kevin is leading us towards.
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Post by otherscott on May 12, 2017 11:28:43 GMT -8
Season 3, Episode 4 - "G'day Melbourne"
One of the main reasons that a partner is valuable is that they can be a hand of support when you need it. It can be someone who can put away anything selfish and solely focus on getting you better. And a lot of the time when people fall out of love or split, it's because they are no longer able to do that for one another. Very few couples survive the loss of a child for instance. Part of the reason is that they remind each other of the child they have, but another big part of the reason is that they are both struggling so much with it and are so ill equipped to help the other deal, especially if the struggle is in different ways.
And too this point Kevin and Nora have been okay for one another. Nora was there for Kevin when he was really struggling with his illness in seeing Patti, give or take chaining him to a bed and leaving for a short time, and Kevin was just as likely there for Nora when she gave away Lily. They weren't perfect and that comes to a head here, but they were the adequate support each other needed. That ends here, because in the matter of a few hours they both get a ton of crap piled on them at the same time and they both need to be selfish and deal with it and both need the support of the other. Instead they get the exact opposite. Nora is struggling with her desire to try this insane scheme to "leave the world" and take the tiniest chance to be with her husband and children even if the most likely scenario is she just gets incinerated, and gets told that she should go in a fit of rage.
Kevin is suddenly struggling with potential mental illness again, and talks to the one person who can help him most in Laurie. Instead of his partner supporting that he gets told off for going to his ex-wife instead of his current girlfriend.
I'm not saying things weren't rocky for Kevin and Nora going into this episode, but it was exasperated here. There's two damaged people who need a lot of support a lot of the time, and when you need support and you can't deal with life you are just ill equipped to provide that support to someone else. And that's what happens here, they both try to fall backwards into each others arms simultaneously and as a result they both end up hitting the floor. I'm not ruling out they can't get back together, but at this point they both need someone who can help them, not someone struggling with their own crap as they circle into a pit of self-destruction.
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Post by warandpeaches on Sept 2, 2017 13:00:32 GMT -8
Hi Scott. Odi et Amo from the old CT. Hope you are still around these parts; I always appreciated your insight.
I watched The Leftovers about a month ago; since then I have watched it once more with a friend, and am in the process of watching it a third time with another friend. Suffice it to say that its mark on me is indelible.
I'd love to discuss the show more once this watch-through is finished, perhaps in the hopes of producing some more substantial writing. In the meantime here is a ranking of my 10 favorite scenes:
3x06: On the boat
3x08: Of course I believe you.
2x08: The well
3x06: Because if he doesn't, the ball's going to go on the field, and there would be fucking chaos.
1x06: Do you want to feel this way? -nods- No.
2x06: What were the last words they said to you, to your recollection?
3x06: The last supper
1x09: Departure montage
1x08: O vanity of sleep, hope, dream, endless desire...
2x10: You're home.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 2, 2017 17:00:26 GMT -8
I haven't watched Season Three of The Leftovers yet, but I plan to before the end of the year. As someone who thought the first two seasons were merely okay, I don't know how much Season Three will change my opinion. But who knows, maybe it'll finally give me a reason to love the show the way its fans do.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Sept 3, 2017 12:07:46 GMT -8
Hi Scott. Odi et Amo from the old CT. Hope you are still around these parts; I always appreciated your insight. The feeling is mutual!! Please stick around. |
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