The Leftovers - Season 2

I know there was a short thread on season one on here, but my lazy search results came up with nothing--anyway, season 2 seems so different, that it doesn't feel wrong to give it its own thread.

Aside from myself and Auggie, who caught on to the brilliant of season one before I did, did anyone catch the premier? I was shocked by the complete change of direction in the opening credits (and while I like the visual metaphor, I will miss the brooding use of Richter's theme which I already knew because of a powerful Holocaust ballet I had seen use it years before, I kinda get the change,) and then that opening Kubrick-esque caveman scene. WTF. But I was drawn into the new characters and, despite my misgivings with Lindelof's Lost, I'm willing to see where this goes.

Original opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PTNHQND6MA

Updated On: 10/11/15 at 09:38 PM

I've watched this show since the beginning and I think it's fantastic! I HATE the new opening! I was so disappointed and actually checked twice to see if I watching the right show!

But, I guess a new season, full of new people and a new story, deserves its own. I cannot wait for tonight's episode. I have a theory about what is happening, but I'd like to wait before I share!

I enjoyed the opening very much. I think it says a lot. Although we continue to grow in knowledge, there is still so much we do not know.

Also... I just realized this now. The show is called "The Leftovers"!

Updated On: 10/11/15 at 04:12 PM

I am sorry Gaveston to be the bearer of bad news http://tvline.com/2015/09/28/justin-theroux-sweatpants-the-leftovers-season-2-jogging-scenes/

Le Sigh.

The 2nd season is very strong.

Grim or not its some of the best acting on TV right now, and I find the subject matter quite compelling. Ann Dowd is simply chilling.

AMAZING episode. I was kinda disappointed when I saw the preview and realized it would be based on those characters, but I think it was one of my favourite episodes ever. The Emmys have been ignoring this show(due to low ratings?) but Brennen earned one right there. ANd CHris Zylka has come a long way from his earlier attempts at acting when he first transitioned from modelling and was pretty wretched. I think I know which scene you are referencing, but out of curiousity... which scene are you referencing? :P

No more "commando jogging"? I thought that was the whole point of putting a show on HBO!

Maybe last year's scenes were Jennifer Aniston's revenge on Brad and Angelina, and Jenn figures her point has been made.

Last night's pace was very different, very deliberate in pace, and the focus a direct pick-up from episode 2 (yes?) I was so besotted with epi 3, I missed Brennan, which I never did last season. But they are moving slowly, letting us inside these people a scene at a time. And last night was solid. I find myself wondering if the wonderful Ann Dowd's presence will wear out its welcome. I was glad she had more substantive commentary last night rather than mere clever if prescience-loaded rejoinders. But epi 3 reminds me that we'll be getting glimpses of this next era from several perspectives. Regina King was terrific last night, too. Patience is required, but the show continues to hold.

Last night's episode (11/22) was the single biggest 'thud' I've felt in watching a serialized story in years. It was expertly played and directed, but nothing in this new turn connects for me. I'm tired of the blurry metaphysics in Kevin's plight, and the end of last week's episode sent off major alarm bells, so left field and so tonally at odds with the show's plotting (it seemed more "True Blood" to me, and in this case, not a compliment.) I have so enjoyed this second season, the new locale, the infusion of new characters and even the strong hints that partially explicate the nature of the 10/14 disappearances. But this struggle between Kevin and ghost/delusion Patti is just murky and overwrought. Both actors are playing the hell out of it, which to me only points up the problems with it.

SPOILER

Kevin's karmic destiny in limbo/purgatory felt cheesy. The multiple "deaths" of Patti I just didn't get. The use of the GR alternative universe scenario followed by the murder of baby Patti in the well (Ben Carson and Baby Hitler anyone?). I thought it was so over-extended and unsatisfying as story payoff. And the show's use of violence has always been focused and powerful, especially with the Shirley Jackson-like motifs in the GR. Last night, watching Kevin murder Patti twice was one too much. If I've missed stuff -- and I may be way off -- it's due to the "Lost" patina now ruining Perotta's initial conceit. The show was always strongest when grounded in the quotidian details of the aftermath of extreme, apocalyptic tragedy. Now we're dealing with baroque karma crap that just feels womped up, and without emotional investment. The previews promise a return to what the show best offers, but I was dismayed by just about everything last night.

You nailed it. Murky Nabucco. I've heard others report they loved Sunday night's show. I may end up in the minority here. Or maybe the next two will make last night's more of an outlier (thought it felt like somebody's idea of Meaningful Payoff). I've been very wrong before.

(I had to look up Songs from the Second Floor...)

Matt, I may be misreading you completely, so my apologies, but you said: "but I sort of wonder how far the series may be straying from its source material and why"

While season one already deviated in tone and in details from Tom Perrotta's novel, it essentially exhausted any material from the novel. So while Perrotta is still an exec producer, and from a recent interview still is story consultant, AND co-wrote three episodes this year (2, 6 and 10, the finale,) Damon Lindelof like last year is the showrunner--and, I get the feeling since this one is not based on novel material, has had more story control. So I'm not sure there's any source material to stray from (the novel, like I said, already was pretty different in tone than season one with, for example, MUCH more humour).

I know we've long been told not to expect answers (unlike Lost where we were repeatedly told that we would get answers,) but with the ratings remaining VERY low by HBO standards this season, I wonder if this is the last season if we'll have some sort of satisfying stop point.

My assessment was probably excessively harsh, as the episode will likely have stand-alone elements. And it's just my subjective taste, a little of that sort of limbo/dreamscape stuff -- once so beloved of Rod Serling -- goes a long way for me. I think it will be valuable to look at this piece of the puzzle after the season ends. Too much of this second edition has been really nuanced, compelling writing (and playing) to necessarily see this as a wrong turn. But I'm concerned that the whole re-use of Patti may suggest layers below where the show has been working. It's always been rock solid when dealing with a kind of gritty, reality-based view of the aftermath of an apocalypse. It's the grounding in daily domestic crises that has made the woo-woo elements so embraceable. When we get into karmic debt, multiple dream state assassinations, heavy (handed) biblical allusions, I'm just much less interested. The domestic drama's intersection with cosmic crises made it fresh. Once the cosmic stuff supercedes, we're in anything-goes (i.e. "Lost" ville.

Updated On: 11/25/15 at 10:06 AM