The Leftovers

I just watched all three season over a fortnight. Is it too late to talk about the Leftovers? What did Sup Forums think?

I thought season 1 was the best, I liked the way it toed the line between there being a divine plan and there being no meaning in anything. The spiritualism vs insanity aspects that became more prevalent in season 2 and 3 were still great, and it was probably the best direction for the show to take in my opinion.

>was the other world a real spiritual place or Kevin's near death fantasy?
>was Nora's story at the end true?
>what the fuck happened with Laurie in the last two episodes, she went scuba diving and then was okay at the end?
>was Matt a sympathetic character?

Overall I liked it more than LOST, which I similarly marathoned after it finished. It was tighter, and more refined.

A few of the musical covers annoyed the shit out of me though, and Where Is My Mind was already claimed by Fight Club so the constant reuse of it felt tacky, even if it was self aware.

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>was the other world a real spiritual place or Kevin's near death fantasy?
I think so because he could see Sunday's face and answer
>was Nora's story at the end true?
I like to think so but i can't find hint
>what the fuck happened with Laurie in the last two episodes, she went scuba diving and then was okay at the end?
I guess she decided not to suicid after the call of Jill.
>was Matt a sympathetic character?
Sometimes he was , sometimes he wasn't.

Season 1 was definitly the best but i also liked s3 because i felt there was a lot of comedic stuff in it and it was subtle.

i fucking hate Laurie. Holy shit i hate her

>and Where Is My Mind was already claimed by Fight Club so the constant reuse of it felt tacky,
why does it matter if it was "tacky"? it's still well utilized. The part where it seamlessly transitions from the piano version to the actual song was brilliant.

DUDE CHARACTERS LMAO

Also, in the second season, when Kevin reach the underworld and see Mickael grand pa as receptionist, he s not supposed to know he killed himself, so it adds to the credibility of the world

Worst show ever.

Are people really so dumb to not realize Nora was lying at the end?

Rewatch the last episode - every major story beat is based around a lie. The nun lies about knowing Kevin. Kevin lies about his past (multiple times). The nun lies about fucking that guy. Everyone is lying the entire episode, setting up for Nora's final monologue - a lie she tells mainly herself (but also Kevin) to put into words her final acceptance of her own past. It wipes the slate clean, and Kevin and Nora can finally start again.

Her lying was one of the predictions. The nun saying "Its a nicer story" pretty much nailed it, and the goat symbolism of taking of the sins.

Also the leftovers deserved to be next to the wire and the sopranos with GOAT HBO shows

Good thread.
Dunno about the rest of Sup Forums, but I personally loved it and rate it as one of my favorites.
What I love the most is that taste of absurdity that the show gives you for the whole three seasons, something that lets you think of every little situation that happens between characters (from the random things like a man driving in the middle of nowhere to set himself on fire, to the simple dialogues) and asks yourself if they are related somehow, and most of the times they are.
There's a lot of unexplained things in it, and I guess they were meant to be like it, and you're meant to make your own conclusions and ideas on it. I know it may sounds shit for a tv show, but I think it worked perfectly on The Leftovers. I actually always hoped to never have an explanation on the departure itself, because I didn't need one, what I needed was to see how the characters and the rest of the world would react to an event like this. And, not surprisingly, it brings to complete madness, because it's impossible to cope with something that absurd.
So about some of the most common questions
>did Nora lie at the end?
I'd like to think she didn't, but I doubt it. It looked like she was yelling "stop" in that scene.
>was Kevin's afterlife world all in his head?
Again, I'd like to think not. And the fact that he met people he couldn't know were dead makes me think that.

My biggest concern is how the fuck is Kevin's heart condition supposed to explain the way he "resuscitated" all those times? How does a heart condition stops your lungs from filling of water? How doesn't it make you suffocate when you're buried underground?

It's worth stating the balls that a show has to have a final episode like the Leftovers. It's almost unheard of. Imagine any other show anti-climaxing as hard as this did - literally skipping over the fallout from the dissolution of what the entire final 2 seasons were based around. It's brilliant and it works perfectly, we're given only what we need to be shown. People who wish the 7th episode was the last episode missed the point where the entire series was about Kevin and Nora.

The nun didn't lie to Nora about John or the birds. If she lied to her it was about the man that was descending the stairs and we can't be certain. She call nora out for being the liar in the scene. And after that scene we see Nora claiming the pearls (sins) and release them.

She lied to Nora about Kevin stopping by asking for her. She said she never saw Kevin before (she did)

The nun lied to John about Nora. She told the truth to nora.
A man passed by asking for her, showing a picture of her, i told him nothing but he knew i was lying.

Sorry, I've got it flipped - Nora lies to the nun in the opening scene. "Does the name Kevin mean anything to you?"

I was really pumped for the last season, but halfway through you can see the trajectory of the rest of the show and it got boring. There was no antagonist. In season 1 you had Laurie and the GR. Season 2 had John and the GR. Season 3 the main antagonist was fucking Australia. Kinda weak in my opinion.
As to whether or not Nora's story at the end is true, I believe it. They foreshadowed the scientific explanation a lot for it to just be a fabrication. Nora has always been excruciatingly honest. She had nothing to gain through purposefully deceiving Kevin. in that episode or the one before it she specifically says that she never lies. The writing and the characters in the show were always top notch so it's weird to imagine they'd end the series with zero answers and also by invalidating a character completely.
here's how I see the science of the show
> a new dimension is created
> 2% of people go there
> departures are based on location
> Kevin and Kevin are crazy (so was dog man)
> Kevin Jr suffers brain damage when he "dies" in season 2
> cures him of his Patty problem
> Wayne was full of shit
> that scientist figures out how to cross to the other side
> Nora goes
> Nora returns
> Nora tells Kevin the truth because the writers aren't hacks

reminder the entire nora story in the last episode was constructed intentionally to keep people talking. There's equal amounts of foreshadowing for her to be lying and telling the truth. Meaning the only way you can make a decision one way or the other is to ignore something.

People like you who believe Nora are fundamentally missing one of the key themes of the show - that everyone has to live without answers or proof of anything. Nora didn't go to the other side. She lied to Kevin.

The fact that there are such gaping plot
holes in Nora's story is testament to this. She just found the first scientist who made the machine to get across? Ok. Then she made him make another machine to go back, uh alright. So he made it, for whatever reason? Sure ok. Then she went back. Why wouldn't everyone go back? Wouldn't this solve everything? This was intentionally put in the story to create holes, not to mention how improbable the story is, but the entire episode is based around lies. There's literally no reason to believe that Nora is telling the truth, other than the face value of the conversation.

The show was about how people seek answers through mumbo jumbo and magic and religion.
> Mattes God
> Handprint guy's Predictions
> Guilty Remnant's nihilism
> Kevin and Kevin's hallucinations
All examples of people believing they had a link to something super natural. The show is using these to draw parallels with how we explain our world. Then the show was like "Naw naw naw, pic related."

You're getting caught up on the how and why of what Nora saw on the other side. You say why, I say why not.

>the entire series was about Kevin and Nora
this is literally wrong up until the last half of season 3, and even then, its only one factor. Also, the ending was hardly what I would call ballsy. They went for the ambiguous ending, which felt more like a copout than anything else. Ambiguous endings like the sopranos worked because the final moments of that show perfectly encapsulated what the show was ultimately about. The leftovers started as a fascinating portrayal of multiple characters dealing with loss and the unknown in a variety of ways and ended with a generic love conquers all story between just two characters. The show never even hinted at the idea that Nora and Kevin were "destined for each other" until the last episode

The leftovers was on track to be a GOAT hbo show, but it shit the bed at the end

season 1 > season 2 >>>>>>>>>>>> season 3

>season 1 fags

Opinion discarded, pleb has been filtered. back to GoT you go

>And the fact that he met people he couldn't know were dead makes me think that.
He has at least seen or heard of all of the people that have crossed over into the other place, but I think it's real. Such a fucking tease with Mary in the hotel and Kevin never getting to interact with her to confirm it when she returns.

>My biggest concern is how the fuck is Kevin's heart condition supposed to explain the way he "resuscitated" all those times? How does a heart condition stops your lungs from filling of water? How doesn't it make you suffocate when you're buried underground?
This is why I think it all happened. Kevin survived five situations where he should have died - four times through events that don't make any sense (he'd been dead for hours after a few of the events and an entire river drained to save him). Plus, as another user said, a lot of small things connect, moreso if the viewer takes the other world literally - Kevin Snr speaks to his son in the other world and later explains that he was having a drug-fuelled spiritual experience, for example.

That was something I meant to include in the OP - the whole meta aspect of "how do these characters respond to something they don't understand or can't explain" works so much better than it does in LOST, because LOST was being obtuse to feed it's viewers, whereas it perfectly thematically connects in The Leftovers.

The birds are the last thing we see too, so that's evidence that some of the ambiguities through the episode might be truths
>series about people who will never find a clear and confirmed explanation doesn't end with a clear and confirmed explanation
>this is a bad thing
S1>S2=S3

swap mad mang and the wire

>nihilism
>super natural

...

you should get crucified for even mentioning trash like the leftovers with the sopranos in one breath. fucking disgusting pleb.

It was a spiritual successor to LOST: some interesting ideas, nice themes, cinematography, acting and lots of potential but in the end there was little meaning to any of it.

>paying $30 000 just to use this
based

youtube.com/watch?v=BJimphw07kw

Might have been some poor word choice, but they wanted to impose that nihilism because of the 14th. I don't think they explained their motivations very well, but it felt like it was because of some sort of interpretation of what happened and why