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HBO's "The Leftovers"


Khal-a-bunga

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Teaser #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGjWr0K85S8



Teaser #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3FeBDU1Io



Trailer #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shn1mPejr_4



Based on the Tom Perotta novel of the same name, The Leftovers takes place three years after a Rapture-like event occurs, with 2% of the population of the entire planet disappearing.



The show was created by Damon Lindelof (of Lost 'fame'), and the pilot was directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights). The author of the book will also act as executive producer. Liv Tyler is the only cast member whose work I'm all that familiar with, though a good friend of mine from high-school and college also has a fairly large role in the series.



Personally, I'm really looking forward to it. I didn't love how the final two (or so) seasons of Lost played out, but I don't harbor any vitriol for Lindelof over it. His film work hasn't exactly been stellar, either, but having read the novel this show is based on, I think the subject matter and the tone is something that will appeal to Lindelof's best sensibilities as a story-teller. Namely, the idea of faith, and how it can lead a person to better themselves or send them down the path of self-destruction.



If nothing else, Lost was a success because of the largely fantastic character work. Look at every Lost clone that appeared during the run of that show or after it ended, and it's clear that they all failed because they made the external mysteries the focal point, instead of the characters.



Here's a pretty good interview with Lindelof on the show:



http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/01/08/damon-lindelof-the-leftovers-hbo/





“In the first meeting that I had with HBO, when I was trying to woo them in to letting me come aboard because they already owned the material, they said, ‘How do you see this show, tonally?’ I said, ‘If Lost and Friday Night Lights had a baby and then that baby was severely neglected, that would be The Leftovers.’”




Thoughts?


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Intriguing I guess. This is certainly not a topic or premise that I would normally gravitate toward and the trailer didn't exactly grab hold of me. But I give every HBO show a chance and I suppose it's good that this isn't another crime show even though I really love when HBO does those. It's good to branch out and I hope they can pull off something original.


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Well, based on what I read in the novel, it's not a show that is about any specific religion, or even religion at all, which makes it all the more intriguing to me. For instance, in the book, the Pope disappears, but so does Gary Busey...



So I agree with both points: The topic isn't one that I would normally gravitate towards, but I like that this doesn't appear to be much like anything else on television (though I haven't watched Resurrection). The tone of the trailer and the teasers is what grabbed me. I'd be checking it out anyway, since I generally watch everything HBO puts out (and since I know someone involved with the show), but the atmosphere (or what can be gleaned of it from the footage) is what I'm most interested in. On that level, the trailer was vaguely reminiscent of the True Detective trailers HBO aired before that show premiered.


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Well, based on what I read in the novel, it's not a show that is about any specific religion, or even religion at all, which makes it all the more intriguing to me. For instance, in the book, the Pope disappears, but so does Gary Busey...

So I agree with both points: The topic isn't one that I would normally gravitate towards, but I like that this doesn't appear to be much like anything else on television (though I haven't watched Resurrection). The tone of the trailer and the teasers is what grabbed me. I'd be checking it out anyway, since I generally watch everything HBO puts out (and since I know someone involved with the show), but the atmosphere (or what can be gleaned of it from the footage) is what I'm most interested in. On that level, the trailer was vaguely reminiscent of the True Detective trailers HBO aired before that show premiered.

Good to know that the disappearances are completely random. I had guessed that the show might not be a 'solve the mystery' type deal where we get an explanation behind the event. I'd prefer that actually. Since I haven't seen Lost or Friday Night Lights, I was thinking it would be something along the lines of a more mature, zombie-less The Walking Dead. No need to try and classify it though. True Detective was fantastic and though I wasn't entirely satisfied with it's ending, I hope it represents a new trend with HBO.

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Don't you mean all but for 2% disappear? The OP makes it sound like only 98% of the Earth's population remains after a rapture-like event.

According to the information I have seen, 2 percent of the population disappears. 98 percent are left behind.

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I LOVED the book. I'm very cautiously optimistic about the series. There's a lot they could do with a setting like this but that can also be a negative. As the OP mentions, Damon Lindelof is involved and the only thing that saved LOST for me is that I cared more about the characters than about the mess that became the plot.


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According to the information I have seen, 2 percent of the population disappears. 98 percent are left behind.

This is correct, and I think the first teaser does a good job of contextualizing what 2% means in a world with several billion people. Look at how much hysteria and media coverage there was over something like the Malaysian airlines incident, then try to imagine that approximately 140 million people simply randomly disappeared, and you can imagine the kind of effect it would have on society, even at 'just 2%'. We're talking about the single greatest event (in a sense) in the history of mankind.

I LOVED the book. I'm very cautiously optimistic about the series. There's a lot they could do with a setting like this but that can also be a negative. As the OP mentions, Damon Lindelof is involved and the only thing that saved LOST for me is that I cared more about the characters than about the mess that became the plot.

Funnily enough, this is probably my least favorite book of Perotta's (I've also read Little Children, Election, and The Abstinence Teacher), but mainly because I felt it was too short. It didn't end so much as meander to a resolution. That isn't always a bad thing, but I think a lot more could have been done with the concept.

As far as Lindelof goes, though, I always try to keep in mind that he wrote some incredible episodes of television. He contributed to the pilot of Lost, obviously, but he also wrote (or co-wrote with Carlton Cuse) every other premiere and finale episode, as well as The 23rd Psalm, The Brig, The Constant, and The Life & Death of Jeremy Bentham. Then again, he also wrote Across the Sea...

In any case, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

@ Triskele

It's fairly random. People of all walks of life are taken. In the book, it becomes known as the Sudden Departure.

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Triskele, on 06 May 2014 - 7:05 PM, said:

My apologies. I think perhaps I don't understand this rapture thing. Is it like the righteous 2% move on while the 98% of us with horns and whippy tails stay behind?

No, I am sorry. I didn't mean that it was a religious thing. That is just the amount of people who disappear. I haven't read the books so I don't know what the reason is for why they went away. Sorry for the confusion!
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HBO has never let me down.

Especially with seasons 4 and 5 of Deadwood.

Man, that show seemed to have so much potential. Dialogue, surf-noir thing,...but it just didn't go anywhere. Still, I maintain to this day that I was still kind of curious about where Milch was going with it.

I thought about trying to rewatch that show to see if it made any sort sense at all upon a rewatch but I just can't bring myself to do it.

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I read the book last year. The whole point is that the people just vanish, and no one really knows why, although there are several theories. It's about how the people still there cope with it. I'm not sure how the dramatic demands of a television series can handle the theme well, but we'll see.

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I read the book last year. The whole point is that the people just vanish, and no one really knows why, although there are several theories. It's about how the people still there cope with it. I'm not sure how the dramatic demands of a television series can handle the theme well, but we'll see.

One of the things I see as a great positive is that Christopher Eccleston is playing the priest. How the priest dealt with the vanishings was one of the most interesting parts of the book. They scored a very good actor for that role.

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It's funny how time changes your perspective on things. If you'd told me 6 years ago the showrunner and chief cowriter of "lost" was doing his own show on HBO I'd have been as excited as when I found out GOT was being greenlit. Now I've seen how "lost" ended and I have zero faith in the guy, A film, I'd tolerate as that's going to be 2-8 hours of investment but to sit through potentially 60+ hours of mystery etc and find they pulled a lot of it out their ass.


Basically there's too much about the set up to this show that suggests it could be like "lost". I think if the central aspect of the show wasn't about people mysteriously disappearing I'd have been cool and less hesitant though.



I also have to admit that the trailer didn't feel very HBO to me, more like it was trying to be HBO (I think everyone can spot the HBO checklist in terms of sex). The acting/dialogue doesn't seem great in the clips either but I'll give that the benefit of the doubt until I see a full episode.



Ecclestone and Tyler are a big plus for the show and Lindelof can write interesting characters. Maybe the books know how to end the series and Lindelof won't make up his own ending?



I'll give the pilot a try, it's not like I want it to be bad - if anything I want it to work as it may bring HBO a step closer to trying a full on sci-fi show,


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