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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 3, 2017 13:38:53 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. I second Quiara's sentiment.
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Post by otherscott on Sept 6, 2017 6:30:46 GMT -8
Thanks for the kind words guys, I haven't been watching a lot of TV lately so I haven't had a lot to contribute.
I'm always up for a discussion about The Leftovers though.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 25, 2017 20:53:30 GMT -8
So, I was watching the third season of The Leftovers, and I was really liking it so far.
And then I watched "It's a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World."
...
Damon Lindelof will be hearing from my lawyer.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 30, 2017 20:05:52 GMT -8
Okay, I'm going to do two posts on Season Three. First, a write-up about the season as a whole; then a more specific post about the series finale.
Overall, I really liked this season. It was well-written, it was poignant, and it was often very funny. Easily the show's best season, despite S2's significant peaks.
One major asset was the sharpening of focus.Season One featured a ton of useless secondary characters who barely left an impression, and mostly existed as sounding boards for the main characters' misery. Season Two gave us a more interesting setting and supporting cast in the town of Miracle, but still felt a little bloated in some casting respects.
Season Three, however, focuses almost exclusively on the show's five or six most essential characters, and gives each of them their own spotlight. (Well, except for John. Poor ol' John.) And they each feel distinct and special in their own way - there's no confusing "Crazy Whitefella Thinking" with "Certified." Each episode moves the story forward (the pace is good, helped by the fact that there are only eight episodes instead of ten) and helps draw these characters and their arcs to a close. Even when the season plays a fakeout card (as with the Evie reveal in "G'Day, Melbourne"), it feels earned, and not just like a cheat. It all ties in perfectly with where these characters have been, and where they're planning to end up.
Kevin spends much of the season wondering if he's going insane, and he and other characters periodically comment on how ridiculous their surroundings have become. (Don't get me started on the lion party boat.) The fact that these characters have chosen to live with the insanity, so long as it means getting the answers they need, is a sign of how much they've developed from their passive stances in Season One.
All in all, an impressive sendoff, and much, much better than the final season of Lindelof's other show. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
More detailed thoughts on the finale to come later.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 30, 2017 21:37:00 GMT -8
If anything, the pared-down characters and mythology made me acutely aware how many of those Season 1 (and, to a lesser degree, Season 2) story digressions were almost entirely disposable.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 31, 2017 7:21:43 GMT -8
I think Lindelof had completely different goals in mind with Season One. He was trying to adapt Perrotta's book, which somewhat restricted the stories he could tell, but he was also setting up a lot of side-plots that he assumed he could build on once the show moved beyond the novel. (Akin to his tendency on Lost to plant a bunch of seeds in the first two seasons and not return to the until Season Four or Five.)
But many viewers responded poorly to some of the story decisions in Leftovers Season One, so the show course-corrected.
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