So this is HBO's newest thing.



The first thing you'll discover about this show is that's it's really fucking weird. It's on it's sixth episode and it's had more "whoa, what the fuck" moments than nearly any other show I've seen in their entirety. It seems like it's trying to be as strange as it possibly can, but despite that (maybe partly because of it) it's also really good. I haven't seen anything like it, in terms of its premise and its execution.

The main character is Kevin Garvey, the chief of police in Mapleton, New York. The show has a few other characters its focused on as well, including his daughter. A couple characters have their own episodes and Garvey only appears for a few minutes.

The writing and directing is excellent, the acting is great and the premise is intriguing. The story takes place in Mapleton and most of the story has focused on the town with occasional glimpses of the outside world. In this world, society is fucked up, the government is fucked up, religion is fucked up and all the characters are fucked up. Which is pretty understandable, because three years before the story, 2% of the world population disappeared out of thin air, literally. Faced with no explanation on why or how, social and religious institutions are beginning to break down, the government is taking more liberties and a fuckton of cults have sprung up, centered around 'messiahs' who 'explain' what happened or offer a reprieve from confusion and grief.

All the main characters are a little (or a lot) crazy. Garvey is nearly incapable of emotional attachment and seems to try and avoid any kind of 'weakness'. He also has no problem telling people exactly what he thinks. He was my biggest gripe with the show, because he doesn't really act like a person. Eventually, I realized that was the point. He's emotionally crippled. His daughter is very much like him, in this way.

The show keeps you in the dark about almost everything, you know more than most the characters, but only a little. A lot of what is going on is open to interpretation.

Anyways, the show is good. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you check it out. If you have, share what you think.

On the sixth episode:

Spoiler

Norra is awesome. So far, she's my favorite character. I'm unsure now that apparently Wayne has hugged her grief away if I'll continue liking her, because she was just delightfully insane. After she said, "Fuck your daughter," I had to pause it and laugh my ass off.

I'm also curious as to whether people think the supernatural elements are actually supernatural and not just coincidences and brainwashing. Does Wayne actually hug pain away or is it just that people believe he has? I also wonder if the Departure will ever be explained. Aliens, God or something else entirely? I have a feeling that the person impersonating Norra wasn't crazy and she was right about the questionnaires being bullshit, but the fact that she broke the mirror gives me doubts about that.

 

Watching it and absolutely loving it. Don't really care for any of the Garvey's other than Kevin.

His daughter annoys me. Its like they're not sure what to do with her but at least her friend is interesting as well, so are the twins.

Still don't get what the guilty remnants is all about. Like what's their mission statement and what not.

Nora and her Brother(Eccleston being fantastic but with a weird accent that just quite doesn't sound american) have been the best part of the show because their episodes have been fantastic.

I wonder if the guy can really take away people's pain or is he just employing a very big form of psychology or something.

Also

Spoiler

It was basically confirmed when Nora was talking to her boss that yes, they are using the questions as a way to figure out what happened by seeing if a pattern emerges

 

Spoiler

Yes, but that's exactly what they would say and do if they wanted people to think they didn't know what happened to the Departed. Nora said herself she doesn't know what any of the stats are. The data could be fabricated to give the impression it was random, when in fact if you actually analyzed the questionnaires you could find a pattern.

Also, The Guilty Remnant's mission seems to remind people that we lost 2% of the population. Beyond that, I have no idea. They think life isn't worth living, so we should stop trying to be people? They think another Departure is imminent and so they are trying to cut ties? We don't really know much, but based on the fact that the Appleton chapter has a leader, the ATF(C) know about them, they were in New York City and they have a bunch of signs affirming their beliefs in the houses, they probably have a hierarchical structure and maybe you learn more as you move up.

I had assumed that Nora and her brother moved to America from Britain as children or teenagers and she lost her accent more easily. It actually didn't occur to me that the actor just wasn't good at American accents. xD

I like Garvey's daughter. She's very teenagery but not annoyingly. She loves her parents but inherited her Father's inability to express herself. She's kind of torn between lashing out and giving up, which is a really shitty place to be, but an interesting one to explore.

 

Still there's just something about her, maybe its the actress.

Also I liked that the guy who shoots dogs is real, although its weird how no one really commented on him running around shooting dogs in the forest in the middle of the night.

So what do you think happened to that two percent? Do you want to know or is it better not knowing?

I'd like to believe it was the rapture but then it doesn't make sense when even rapists are departed. So maybe its a scientific experiment gone wrong?

 

I'd prefer that the show never tells us, or it gives several explanations, each with evidence, all equally plausible. I think it would be pretty cool if the second season started with a second Departure, twice as many people departing. I'm more interested in how people are reacting to it than the thing itself, and a second one would make things even crazier and desperate. Fear of the unknown is one of the most powerful human instincts and if everyone was wondering "Will I be next?" and "Will we all depart eventually?" shit would go insane.

EDIT about the Garveys: I don't really like Kevin or his daughter as people. I don't think I'd get along with them very well. They are too insular and very afraid. However, I find them both to be interesting characters. Same with Nora, actually. I think the only person I could get along with is Garvey's son. He seems to be the most reasonable person, assuming he has seen a lot of evidence that Wayne is for real.

Spoiler

The GR don't speak and are pretty apathetic, so they couldn't/wouldn't tell anyone about him shooting the dogs. He could have hid their corpses or blamed them on the murderers. Or Garvey could have glossed over it because he knows they are rabid. Or his officers could have ignored it because they think he kills dogs. Which might actually be why that guy called the ATFC...

 

I wasn't all that impressed by the first ep, so I put it at the back of my to-watch list. Does it get better?

 

I wasn't greatly impressed by it either at the first episode, however, I did enjoy it. In my opinion, it does get a lot better. Especially in the third episode which follows the Reverend, but if you don't like that one, then our tastes are just very different, and you probably won't like the series.

 

I watched the first episode and for me anything that opens with some asshole randomly murdering a dog instantly loses me, how much better does it get?

 

So you watched the first episode of something, something you didn't personally like happened and then you decided because it happened the show isn't worth it.

No curiosity as to why dogs were being shot in the dead of night?

So the only thing I'll tell you is that, the murdering of the dog was not random. Since that's why you didn't continue watching, then you should continue knowing that.

Still, kind of a silly reason not to watch something.