Is there much (more) known about where The Letovers Season 2 will go John?
Is there much (more) known about where The Letovers Season 2 will go John?
I 'tagged' you in a post with a few details earlier in the thread.
It'll be split between Mapleton, where the first season was set, and a fictional town in Texas which didn't lose anyone in the 'event', where a few of the main cast have moved. They've replaced the brilliant opening titles with a considerably shittier set and a disconcertingly meta theme song. One of the main characters is trying to get a book published about the events of the first season. Lindelof has talked about how he wanted to give the show a measure of self awareness and make it able to have some fun with itself, with the line he gave as an example being one character saying to another 'I have no idea if you're a part of their story or they're a part of yours', possibly the worst line of dialogue ever written.
That first thing intrigues me, but the rest of it sounds appalling. That said, the first season had absolutely no right working either, so fingers crossed. I'd have the first season down as the best thing I saw on TV last year, so assuming it doesn't just dive face first into a turd it should still be something worth watching, and if they tie things together as well as they did last year it could yet be amazing.
Been looking forward to that coming back. Will download and watch tomorrow evening hopefully.
Absolutely shite. And that fucking song.
The score had better be intact.
That can't be real.
It's like someone completely missed the point of the first season.
That's woeful enough without even considering how good the ones for series 1 were.
Missed this first time round.Originally Posted by John
Given I've already started it, I might break the rule and watch this week to week.
Leaving the twanging country guitar and 'holiday in Brighton' photo slideshow aside, listen to the lyrics to the song.
'I think I'll just let the mystery be.'
That's high grade self referential tossery.
That's Lindelof for you, the guy is a total hack.
Good at building things up to a point, but then has no idea what to do with it after that. Thank fuck he's been kicked off Prometheus.
Did you watch Lost John? I can't remember.
I did, but I don't think I posted about it much, if at all. I watched the whole thing on Netflix long after it was finished. You could tell he and his mate, who is currently involved in a crap remake, a crap vampire thing, and a crap show about the origins of Norman Bates, were just making it up as they went along. That was always the concern coming into a second season after the first was so clearly mapped out by the source material. I'm still holding out hope that having the writer of the original novel, so someone used to building stories from the ground up and not just flinging alphabet spaghetti at a wall, on board would keep things on track, but very little will surprise me at this point.
The thing that bothers me most about those titles is that I just don't see how they can possibly serve as the lead in to something as dark and contemplative as the first season was.
One interesting thing I've found out regarding the last season, and particularly the 'Baby Jesus' episode. That one felt like such lightweight filler because they snipped half the episode out and had to make up most of the episode with offcuts. Originally the prodigal son and his pregnant pal met a soldier whose family vanished as he was travelling back from a warzone, but Lindelof decided it felt too much like a guest star episode, and he didn't want those, so the whole thing was excised.
Did you watch it @John?
Not yet. I'm visiting my grandmother tonight so I'll watch it when I'm home. Expect a spoilered essay later.
Fuck it, I'll do it now and join you.
The Leftovers is back? I'm in. It was about 40% rubbish but quite refreshingly heavy and bleak.
Four minutes into the Leftovers and I'm
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Fuck off, Lindelof.
Yeah, that whole scene might as well have been replaced by his grinning testicle of a face.
I'll wait for John's spoilered essay, but it's right on the cusp of being total bollocks now I think. I'll give it a chance though.
Did it continue like that? I only got as far as where I thoughtToggle Spoilerso I watched no more. Did it come back to the present reality at all?
No that bit did finally end after about 10 minutes and we returned to the present. Why it was there is anyone's guess.
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I'll give it another go tonight. Oh an yes @John those titles are worse than shit.
Right, The Leftovers.
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I'll say it again. Those opening titles are fucking awful.
I'm tempted to leave it and just enjoy as a single season. Not just because Aimee's a goner.
I'd heard good things about season one of The Leftovers and was planning to watch it but I might not bother now.
Why? The first season is fucking brilliant. The best thing I watched last year.
Even if the second season ends up being turd, the first season wraps up such that you could treat it as a miniseries.
If it works like that then I might watch it. I was assuming it wouldn't wrap up and was going to become some sort of Lost style mess.
It might yet sprawl out into a shambles, since they're continuing with the same characters rather than becoming an anthology like True Detective, but the first season was based on a book and used the whole thing up so it has a proper conclusion.
What did you think, @Yevrah?
I didn't get past the first 10 minutes.
Not because it was that bad, just that that scene (reminding me of Lost so it did) brought back how excruciating it would be waiting week to week for this. I'll blitz the whole of season 2 in a weekend when it's done.
The opening credits are that bad though. Fuck me.
I suppose my posts will serve to let you know whether it's worth bothering or not then.
It's a yes for now.
I genuinely can't understand what they're up to with the opening titles. The first season had the best set of titles I think I've ever seen.
Yep, your posts got me into season 1 and despite having no clue as to why I kept watching at times, you were right and it was very good.
It's a shame that more people aren't watching it. There's certainly enough substance in it for a separate thread but I don't fancy posting essays to myself for the next ten weeks.
On that note, how did it even get a second season? It can't have done particularly well with the great unwashed?
I'm going to watch the rest of it once the Mrs heads to bed. I'm no good at the essays but I enjoy yours @John.
I have no idea. As I said on the old board, viewership was low even for HBO and critical opinion was divided. It wasn't a Breaking Bad, where nobody was watching for three years but it had awards recognition and critics were wanking over it from day one so it made sense to keep it going. If I had to guess I'd say it was renewed on the basis that the people who did stick with it were all proselytising wankers like me, and they hoped word of mouth might grow the audience. If viewing figures remain the same and it gets a third run I'll be baffled, so hopefully they construct an ending as strong and conclusive as that of the first.
I get the impression it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek. The song is called "Let the Mystery Be". Obviously the first season titles were a lot better though.
I actually thought the opener was really interesting. I'm intrigued again, at the very least. I got an almost Twin Peaks vibe from all the weirdness in it.
We talked about that earlier in the thread. It's very obviously a meta touch, it's just a fucking terrible one on a show absolutely ill equipped to start poking fun at itself. That they've had to bin a stonking set of titles for it makes me hate it more.
Ah, apologies. Missed that.
My only really gripe with the premiere was the people from season one turning up. It was all a bit "Look! It's us, from last season!". Eccleston in particular. What's the deal with his wife? I can't remember how it ended with her last season. They felt sort of unnecessary. I'm sure it will come together though. I actually have quite a bit of faith, way more than I thought I would have. I like how it continues to not give a fuck about the mystery behind the initial disappearing, and just ploughs on with all the weird shit that has followed it.
Where have I seen the new main guy before? The fire chief? It's doing my fucking head in. I skimmed his IMDB page but nothing jumps out.
He probably looks a lot like someone you've seen before. I get that quite a lot with Ron Livingston and Kyle Chandler.
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Fargo is back soon too, so the next couple of months could be seriously good for television.
Regarding the season one characters turning up, in that first episode they just felt a bit tacked on and not really necessary to the story anymore. Like they were thrown back into it just to draw a line back to the first season.He probably looks a lot like someone you've seen before. I get that quite a lot with Ron Livingston and Kyle Chandler.
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Fargo is back soon too, so the next couple of months could be seriously good for television.
But, after watching the second episode (also excellent), I'm much happier with it all and how they fit in. Honestly, I think it's been a really strong start. The second episode was even stronger than the first IMO. My faith is fully restored. It's still looking like the most interesting and original thing on television.
Did I miss your review of The Leftovers episode 2 @John?
You didn't. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to watch it last Monday, and I haven't been able to sit down and properly watch and ruminate on it since. I plan on watching episodes two and three over the next couple of hours, and I'll either post about two or wait until they're both done before posting, depending on how much there is to say about two.
I've just stuck it on now and I'm almost immediately confronted by that fucking atrocious intro sequence. If this season winds up being as good as the first I might have to spend a couple of hours splicing the original intro into these episodes, because I'm not dealing with that lilting shit on any subsequent viewings.
The Leftovers episode two. I might split this and previous posts on the show into their own thread, since there's definitely enough material for discussion, if not people with whom to discuss it, to sustain a separate thread.
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Still every bit as original, daring, and interesting as it was last year, and while I have my reservations that it'll stay that way I wasn't entirely convinced after two episodes last year either.
They seem to have realised that they were a bit overzealous with the quite stunning theme music last year, but they've corrected for that by cutting it back to about one minute per episode and bringing in a load of pre-existing tracks instead, which isn't an improvement.
Count me in the for Leftovers thread if you go that route John.
Excellent again this week. Based on the characters it was exploring this episode I initially thought I wouldn't like it as much as the first couple but it was as good, if not better, than the first two.
Episode three. Fuck me that was grim. How fucking good is Amy Brenneman?
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I think I'm all in now. All of the stuff that sounded worrying at the outset has been dealt with well.
It was very bleak. She is doing a great job with the material. This might sound daft because she's obviously a professional actress, but I thought the addition of dialogue to the character might ruin it. She's nailing it though. The scene with the book publisher was brilliant.
Good comparison with Matt losing his church. It had that element of hope, that everything is going to be OK, only for everything to come crumbling down again. Especially with the women she "rehabilitated" only for her to off her entire family. Christ, that was grim. You never really escape from that lot it seems. Lori claims to have but she's obviously massively fucked up.
I wonder if the stories will all converge again at some point (Kevin and family are in a totally different part of the country now I guess) or whether they'll just exist separately. I can't see Kevin and/or the daughter wanting anything to do with Lori again.
Is Meg the new head honcho in the GR or something then? I can't remember where they left her story at the end of season one.
Looks like I'm going to have to get back into this again then.
You really should. No spoiler tags from this point on though, so catch up or get out. You really don't want to know what's coming before it does.
I've only skim read it and don't think I've had anything spoiled so far - reminds me of posting in the breaking bad thread while I was powering through the show itself to catch up.
It's my choice to be in here so I'd never request that people use spoiler tags - that'd be a right cunt's trick and is a shit way to run a thread of this type.
Just watched episode two, and I'm really not entirely sure what the fuck is going on, but I'll presume it'll be much like all of Lindelof's previous work in that all (or some, at least) will become clear. The scene setting is very good. Now for episode three.
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