| Author |
Message |
Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Monday, July 07, 2014 - 10:48 pm 
Kitt, the credits don't start at the very beginning. In episode 2, they started about 4 minutes into the episode, right after the scene when the Feds raided that camp in the desert where Brian, the cult leader/hugger guy, is staying.
Those credits were cool to watch...the figures are still shots of the people all wearing modern clothes and they are ascending to the light above...but the figures are drifting upwards and they are superimposed onto a texture that makes the image look hundreds of years old like the one on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
I don't take the opening credits literally as an explanation of what's happening on the show.(We already know there is a debate about the event and a lot of people do believe it was the rapture, but others do not.) I think the opening credits are probably more like the credits on American Horror Story....really creepy and cool, but the images we see in AHS's credits are never included in the story.
Dang, I was really wondering if the sheriff's bagels had actually vanished but I was glad he found them stuck in the toaster! After all, this show is complicated enough without adding raptured bagels! I mean really...bagels are Jewish!
I was also happy that his daughter asked "Who was that guy?" after the tobacco chewin', dog shootin' bald man left. I was half convinced that the Sheriff was just imagining him (like his deputies seem to be thinking) until that happened. His crazy daddy did imply that bald guy was someone who was "sent to help him", but then again, Daddy's living in the loony bin and he's arguing with people that aren't there, so he might not be all that reliable. But then again (again) maybe the people he's arguing are there!
<insert Twilight Zone music here>
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Monday, July 07, 2014 - 11:31 pm
So many questions!!! I will say the second episode was better then the first. The father might be crazy or he might be seeing the truth.
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Reenie
Member
06-24-2006
| Wednesday, July 09, 2014 - 12:43 pm
I am totally IN with this series! So many questions...
Why is the Chief's wife in the GR group?
I was also confused as to the opening credits, because it did seem like "The Rapture" as described by people who believe that it could happen. The first episode had the people disappear, no floating through clouds.
We will see...
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Wednesday, July 09, 2014 - 3:19 pm
I imagine in real life, if that many people vanished in that way, there would definitely be those who believed it was caused by aliens and other who would believe it was god causing the rapture....even though the word, "rapture" does not even appear anywhere in the bible. It's just a "theory" that people have come up with from their own interpretations of certain passages in the bible.
http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/a/whatisrapture.htm
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, July 14, 2014 - 11:23 pm
Delicious episode and outstanding work by Christopher Eccleston - those scenes in the casino and in the parking lot with the thug were real nail-biters! What fun he must have had filming the episode. I can really see this show having a nice, long run.
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Reenie
Member
06-24-2006
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 - 5:20 am
I'm with you Uncle Ricky! It was good to get to know Christopher Eccleston's character. Brought things into focus a bit.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 - 9:15 am
My dvr didn't record it! It doesn't look like it intends to record it next week either :|. It repeats this evening (and several other times) in case it's a DirecTV issue and not just me.
I'm glad you got the thread to the top of the TV page or I wouldn't have noticed I hadn't seen it this week!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 - 12:30 pm
You must not miss this eppy, Kitt - I couldn't believe how good it was! Reenie's totally right about how the focus was vastly improved. 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 - 12:57 pm
I think it is well made but so far it really does depress me and I realize how jarring all that smoking now looks and I grew up with ssmokers surrounding me and it was just part of life. I didn't like the smoke but knew better than to complain. At Christmas when we'd have a bunch of relatives staying over it was just accepted that the bathroom would be DEALDLY in the morning as they went in one by one to "do their chorse" as they euphemistically referred to teeth or denture care and the morning BM.. all mixed in with a heavy smoke haze in a Detroit home in the winter in the fifties where all that miasma of odor and fog was trapped.
And now, when I see it on this show.. ICK
I have watched each episode and it is still on my schedule, but I was just shaking my head with the casino thing and someone carrying all that cash outside and not just LOCKING the door of the car and driving to the bank or at least away from the casino. Frustrating. But I guess the smokers had to take over the church, huh.
Just my thoughts and now I'll read the pros and cons.
I was one who finally just stopped watching Lost after most of the seasons.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 - 1:56 pm
Ditto to everything Seamonkey just said.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 11:06 pm
I thought it was a good, self contained episode but... too soon to have a self contained episode! We barely know anything about any character and then we get a whole episode on someone we've hardly met?
I guess we understand his motives more for exposing bad guys on the disappeared list, and the Smokers getting the church was interesting for plot. And Christopher Eccleston was good of course but I want to know more what's going on with everyone.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Monday, July 28, 2014 - 12:32 am
Did anyone notice a week or two ago when there was a flashback of what appeared to be people attending church before the disappearances. I swear that one woman at the door greeting people was Patti - the woman now in charge of the cult. Did anyone else notice that because I wonder what her role might have been at the church.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Monday, July 28, 2014 - 9:11 am
I think you're right, I remember seeing her somewhere pre-event and thinking something, but what it was now escapes me, lol. Hopefully someone with a memory will help, because the HBO bio isn't much use either.
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Jasper
Moderator
09-14-2000
| Monday, July 28, 2014 - 10:09 pm
I could have done without the graphic nature of the stoning. imo it was too much. I'm not squeamish but I had to look away.
I think I'm done with this show not just because of that, I'm just really not enjoying it and I don't care about any of the characters. Maybe I just don't get it.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Monday, July 28, 2014 - 10:17 pm
Just seen this week's episode and I couldn't watch that either. It's all taken a turn for the very disturbing. And I still don't see any rhyme or reason in the cult being such bas____ds.
I guess we're to presume the bodies over the road last week were cult members being shipped off to be incinerated. ????
It was the woman they killed, Gladys I think, who was in front of the church and not Patti. The pastor guy confirmed it as well.
The trailer for next week seems to show a whole new group of people?!
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - 3:49 pm
"I guess we're to presume the bodies over the road last week were cult members being shipped off to be incinerated. ???? "
Last week those "bodies" in the road were fake bodies made to resemble loved ones who had vanished. While they were checking out the "bodies" the soldier from the bus made the comment, "Careful there, Tommy. Some sad idiot paid a <bleeping> fortune just to bury that thing". Then they showed a close up of the label on one of them. It was being shpped from a compnay called "Loved Ones" to a funeral parlor in Salt Lake City.
It gave me the impression that a new industry arose "post departure" that will duplicate a loved one's body so that the family can dispose of it however they want by having a funeral, cremation, or some kind of memorial service where they can say "good bye" and hopefully find closure.
I don't know why the GRs are so arrogant and obnoxious either, but I think that's one element that will be explained or revealed at some point. They are just people and something made them decide to join that crazy religious cult. There have been cults in real life as crazy as than this one and they still found people to sign up. Right off the bat, I think of the Heaven's Gate cult who killed themselves and then they discovered that many of the men had previosuly been voluntarily been castrated.
I see a lot of characters on this show reacting in very inexplicable ways to something inexplicable. It still has me riveted even though I agree that it's often sad and confusing. People live through similar losses all the time - through war or disease or natural disasters. The main difference here is that the situation is not explained so these characters have that extra burden of not knowing what happened to carry on their shoulders as they try to get on with their lives.
I couldn't stop watching The Leftovers if I tried!
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - 4:54 pm
Oh I missed all that... about the bodies being fake! Must have fallen asleep and missed a few minutes! Thanks.
I like the human stories such as the daughter immediately assuming her mother had died when the dad cop came to her class, but I am having such trouble with the cult. I know crazy and awful cults exist, but I think it's partly the Judging Amy woman and Liv Tyler, I have "known" them in other characters and liked them so much I'm just having trouble making the leap to their new characters opting to be involved in such a thing.
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - 7:48 pm
Did you watch Private Practice? Amy Brenneman (the Judging Amy woman) was on it and she morphed from a nice character into the most unlikeable characters I ever saw on a series. I finally gave up on that show a season or so before it was finally canceled.
My point is just that I guess I'm just used to Amy Brenneman playing a very unlikeable, selfish person. I do wonder if she'll ever utter a single word in this series.
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Reenie
Member
06-24-2006
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 6:27 am
I watched Amy Brenneman on Private Practice, and towards the end of the series could not watch her on the show!!! Her character was so annoying, and I'm finding her annoying again here. Why would she run out to the minister guy blowing her whistle like a crazy person? Ecclecston was great in the scene. He was trying to reach out to them about their murdered member.
The trouble I'm having with this series, is that I have no idea what this cigarette smoking group is all about. Not even an inkling.
The stoning scene was awful and I had to turn away.
I don't want to go down the rabbit hole with this series if they aren't going to give us any kind of clues as to what's happening, but I will watch again.
But, now that I think of it, I went down the rabbit hole with LOST, right to the very end. LOL
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 8:06 am
Yes, she was horrible in Private Practice. I guess I blocked that out of my mind as I still see her as Judging Amy!
Must be weird casting for the show, "I've got a great part of you but you won't be able to speak." "Ever?" "Ever."
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Jasper
Moderator
09-14-2000
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 8:11 am
With the whistle blowing, i took it almost like she was screaming at him. All her rage and frustration she didn't verbalize on the trip with Patti she was putting out through her whistle.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 8:29 am
But why take it out on someone who is trying to be nice? It's a bit like a teenager I suppose. If they're depressed and hating the world they just seem to want to scream "you just don't understand" even at people who do, or might, if they gave them a chance.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 3:08 pm
Kitt, here's a profile of Brenneman that mentions that exact "I've got a great part for you but you won't be able to speak" scenario:
http://nypost.com/2014/06/26/amy-brennemans-quiet-return-to-tv-in-the-leftovers/
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 5:05 pm
She seems more concerned with not wearing make up than not speaking. Thanks for the link!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 5:10 pm
You're welcome. I agree: that's funny about her concerns about the make-up!
And in catching up with the season premiere of "Masters of Sex" (on Showtime), I noticed that the actress who plays the Boss Lady on "Leftovers" also plays Michael Sheen's mother on "Masters of Sex." She's excellent in both shows!
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