THE LEFTOVERS SEASON 3 PREMIERE!!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!

The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 1

"The Book of Kevin" 

After a whole year and a half and expanded efforts to get the people around me to watch this show that i love so very much, I finally got to see the premiere of the new season and it didn't disappoint! This is not a review of the entire show, it is just a review of the premiere, but, if you want the whole show, I have a review right here, so check it out. There will be spoilers all over this review. I would be sorry, but you don't care anyways! If at any point you're like "Oh, this sounds interesting" then that is your qeue to start season 1.

In preparation for the show, I attempted to watch all the trailers and everything. I would normally abstain from doing that, but, since nobody else watches the show, I figured I would be one of the few to give it the hype it deserved. I did see some reviews from the critics that got to see the first 7 of the total of 8 episodes this season and I wish I hadn't. It was only moments before I saw the episode start that I had a little bit of worry in my brain about whether or not it would live up to the master class season that came before it. All of this quickly changed when the opening scene showed a group of what LOOKED like pilgrims that are out and waiting for the next flood or other "world ending" event to take the worthy up to god. The whole scene is played without dialogue and a song playing over it that mirrors the premise of the show itself. 

After that, we see the demise of The Guilty Remnant. They get totally destroyed with a bomb! What!? I'll try to stay pretty vague about some spoilers (not counting that one I just said) to save some surprises. After that you get to see that the season takes place 3 years after the previous one, echoing the time jump in the first episode starting 3 years after the day of the Sudden Departure. With this, there are many questions as to what he characters have been up to since the last time we saw them.  Some characters are missing with their whereabouts unknown (by us) and some interesting combinations of couples start to form. One thing the episode does really well is that it is spent mostly reintroducing us to the characters we know and love and the "big threat" isn't something most of the characters are even worried about. 

The "big threat" as mentioned before is that of October 14th. According to Matt Jamison, the the priest in the show, something very big is going to happen on the 7th anniversary of the Sudden Departure. He says this because, in the Bible, the number 7 has a big significance, namely with the Rapture. Many go to assume that the world will end by a great flood. Matt also thinks that the only way to stop it is with the help of Kevin Garvey, the shows main protagonist. He believes Kevin is the answer so much that he even goes as far as to write a new book for the Bible known as this episodes namesake, "The Book of Kevin." It is Matt, John Murphy (Kevin's neighbor), and John's son, Micheal, that all believe that Kevin might just be the one to lead everyone to safety in the coming Apocalypse.  While you side with Kevin and believe that all of them are crazy, you can't argue that the things Kevin have accomplished are nothing more than spectacular and would cause many people to believe that he is some sort of savior. (The things he does I will not spoil.)

All in all, the premiere was absolutely bananas in the best type of way. As of the writing of this blog, I have seen the 2nd episode of this season and I can not wait to see what the characters do when they get into Australia.  I wish I could further explain and analyze, but this blog would be too long to read. If you haven't seen the Leftovers (I'm betting you haven't) I would highly suggest you look at the clips below and/or watch the show.   

Departure

I Don't Want to Kill Myself

You Aren't in Pain

Suicide

Classmate Blog Critique

 Where I Judge My Classmates

I wouldn't say its hard to say nice things PER SE, but I would say that it is less fun. I can tell you for sure that I can write a blog bashing something about twice as fast as I could praising it. It's all about finding the right words and making sure the review does the thing me (justice) and gives the accurate representation of said thing. That is why I decided that I wouldn't pick favorites! It's too mean! It's like saying the one classmate you picked is the best one and everyone else sucks. I decided I wouldn't pick ONE classmate, but FIVE. And I'm not reviewing their whole blogs either. I'm only reviewing one blog post per person and the blog post I pick is one I think best represents each person's writing style as a whole (and which one I liked the most (so yes there is bias in here.)) Without further ado, here are my favorite posts from five of my classmates:

ARRIVAL MOVIE REVIEW--Anna Kirksey

Here is the reason I very much like this review: I related to it. I know, that sounds like, "Oh, wow, you RELATED to something! How important!" Well, I didn't tell you to read this blog! But I liked that Anna started off with the first time she saw the movie Signs, and how it scared her as a kid. It's funny because I, too, got scared, except it was in my 7th grade history class and we were watching a movie for funzies and the scene where the alien walks past an alleyway made me audibly scream in class and also cemented aliens as my #1 all time greatest fear(That is a completely true fact. Not even kidding. Aliens are scary!)

It's done well because she relates it to another time she saw a movie about aliens and one that is also similarly done when it comes to pacing and tone. By talking about her past experience it gives you a better idea of what her taste is and what she had in mind going into the film. As for the actual review, it's also done really well. When she lists off the critical reception of the film, it doesn't affect her from giving her thoughts on the movie and, had she not liked it, I don't think she would have let the reviews get in the way of expressing her opinion honestly. (I also love how she talked about the music affecting her in the film. Especially since the composer of that piece is also the composer of my favorite tv show, The Leftovers.)

BLACK MIRROR TV REVIEW--Jake Reynolds

The review made me watch the show. If that isn't any indication of what the review did, I don't know what would be. Jake's review of Black Mirror does a good job of talking about a show that doesn't have any one central plot. Even though the show has one big general theme, each episode follows different characters and different stories and it's hard to give anyone the, "What it's about," speech when it comes to these shows without confusing a person and turning them off to the show. Here, Jake does a good job of relating real world issues with issues in the show by asking the reader, "What if.." and then telling the reader, "You can see!" 

While the review is a good start, you had to be there in class when he explained the basic plot of a particular episode involving the British Prime Minister is faced with the difficult decision whether or not to fornicate with a pig on live television in order to save a member of the royal family. I heard that and instantly covered my ears, wanting to hear no more, and see for myself.

TECH CRITICISM: Game Consoles--Ariel Little

What is interesting about this article is that it isn't super complicated, it's short and to the point. She wondered what it was that made gamers choose certain consoles over other ones. I'm Playstation all the way, but I, too, am curious why someone would want an X-Box One or a Nintendo Wii (or, now, the Nintendo Switch (Which I understand even less.)) 

She gave good sources and a great graphic that allows you to see what consumers look for in different consoles and what some of the shortcomings for one console might be another console's greatest strength and it's all presented in a graphic that is readily available and doesn't make you click any links (I link my articles up the wazoo but I don't like clicking links on things I read. I know, strange.) 

CRITIQUING A MEDIA CRITIC: grav3yardgirl-- Angela Yandell

What I like about Angela's critique is that it's more than just, "Did she do the thing!? Did I like the thing!? BLEH!" She actually breaks down what the critic does, how the critic does it, how the critic is liked, and why people like the critic for what she does. She even goes as far as to break down the general outline of each of the critic's videos, giving a good idea of what you're going to get on any given episode. 

What I also like is that, even though she is "critiquing" she isn't telling you that you'll  like the critic because she's good at her job, she tells you right off the bat that this particular critic might be an acquired taste, if not a niche one ("niche" being 8 million subscribers). She talks about what she likes about the critic and why people that like her like her, never once telling you that you will like her for the same reasons or at all. The blog post, overall, gives a good idea of Angela's specific taste while also breaking it down for a person who has no idea what she's talking about from the get go. 

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA--Makaila Jordan

For starters, I like her interpretation of the topic. Instead of complaining or explaining the next weird thing some country that isn't us likes and why it's weird, she talks about a serious issue that's going on somewhere else and how it affects the people who live there. (Don't get me wrong, countries that aren't us like some weird things.)

Although the blog post is admittedly a downer, it isn't presented in a way that says, "It's sad! Look at it! Look how sad it is!" Instead, the post reports the news and gives little bias and just explains what it looks like on both sides of the story. I like reading new best when you can tell that the person giving it is being as neutral about it as possible while also not taking away from the weight of the situation, and Makaila does this very well.

EVERYTHING-Justice Seymour

Justice is the funniest writer I have ever had the pleasure of reading (if that makes sense.) He has the most insightful and completely correct opinions about all things film and tv. His love of The Leftovers also matches my own love for The Leftovers (Sundays at 9 on HBO.) And this is a joke. Did you really think I was going to be so pompous that I would critique my own work? Okay, fair point, but, still, I didn't! 

END OF JUDGEMENT

International Media

Anime: Attack on Titan Review
(Spoilers for Season One)

(You Won't Care)

I'm going to try and be fair to anime (namely because my brother likes anime and got mad at me for talking smack about him liking Supernatural and left a mean comment...Jerk) That being said, I don't like anime. It's just not for me! I watched Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z as a kid and also a bit of One Piece. I liked those anime because they were not too serious most of the time, not SUPER over the top when it didn't need to be, and also had characters I actually enjoyed. 

When I came home from college last summer, my brother wanted to show me the television show Attack on Titan. I told him that I didn't want to watch it because I don't like anime. To be fair, I had my brother watch The Leftovers when I came back for Christmas break, and it took him a little bit of time to get into it (but, by god, he DID get into it.) I told my brother that I didn't like many anime today because they are too serious, needlessly violent, and they yell a lot. He just looked at me and said:

JACOB: But Justice! This one is really good! 

He would deny it if I said this, but I definitely didn't try to hate it when I started it. I tried to have the openedest of open minds, and guess what? I hated it. OHHHHH Did I hate it so! It was literally everything I hated about anime!

Right off the bat, there is a little brat named Eren. He is a little kid who hates these things called Titans (think of the zombies from The Walking Dead, but really big and naked. But don't worry, they don't have genitals.) At first I thought he was only whiny because he was a kid, so I allowed it, but there is a time jump in the show and hes whiny in his late teens as well.

The supporting cast is better than the main character. There is a Mikasa, who is a friend of Eren and also has a mysterious past (until later in the season.) She's pretty much better than Eren in every way, shape, and form. I would much rather her be the lead of the show. Another character is Armin, Eren's best friend. He starts out a little bit of a coward in the beginning of the show, but, unlike Eren's character, it's not forced down your throat. Armin is the only real logical character in the series because he isn't a coward for coward's sake. He's always right! I would be scared of the Titans! I would be paralyzed by fear! There are more supporting characters, but these two are my favorites. 

Essentially, Eren and his friends join the military or police or whatever. This police force is meant to fight any and all Titans that come a knocking at their pre-Trump border walls, and it's been Eren's dream to join the force since he was a kid. (Which is only fueled more when a Titan eats his mother. I said spoilers.)

So, around episode five, the best thing happened. Essentially, it's the police cadets' first time defending against a Titan attack and they all sort of get their ass beat. Eren is mediocre at the job, Mikasa is surprisingly really good at it, and Armin is just sort of there because he is scared af. So scared in fact that, when a Titan goes up to Armin to kill him, he is paralyzed by fear and Eren comes in to save the day only to get chomped down by a Santa Claus looking mofo. Did you read that right? Eren DIES! I was mad that he died at the time only because I figured he'd stay dead and this show wasted my time trying to make me care about such an a**hole character that wasn't even going to be in the rest of the show, but the show got better with his absence! My favorite episodes are 5-8 because he isn't even there(or so you're led to believe.) He DOES come back and, even though what he turns out to be is an interesting turn for the story, the show was better balanced without his over the top whiny-ness.

To clarify: He "dies" and then magically, out of nowhere, this one Titan helps out the police force and starts fighting all the other Titans in a King Kong v.s Godzilla/Power Rangers sort of way. I liked this "Rogue Titan" because he looked sick as hell and also was a good sort of weapon the police force could use. I was getting into the show! It was great because the one character I hated was gone, the police force had a fighting chance, and the show was better balanced with it's characters. I actually CARED.

That is until the end of episode 8 when it turns out that Eren was the Rogue Titan. This made me mad. Around this time, Armin sort of starts manning up a bit. He still can't fight, but he is a great battle strategist. Mikasa was mad about Eren's death so she was killing Titans left and right. The show was just better! You understood the motivations, you could lock in with the characters. BUT THEN HE HAD TO COME BACK!? Him ending up becoming the very thing he hated and then using it to his advantage was a good thing to make me care about him a little bit, but I really didn't want him to come back. Granted, after "dying" and getting his teeth kicked in, he started to shut the eff up. He stopped screaming so much.

Speaking of screaming, I hate it in this show. There was one FULL EPISODE full of nothing but debate and screaming. The whole time it's Armin telling the rest of the police force that Eren isn't going to betray them and that he can be used to their advantage. This would have made a decent court scene or even just a talk in a room. But no, it is in some town square and the Commander and Armin are yelling at each other from like 100 feet away and they just have a 25 minute debate the whole time. That episode felt like a waste of my life force. 

I'm writing this review around the time that season 2 will come out. My brother will probably watch it (and want me to watch it with him.) I don't want to see it because I hate it, but, if my brother does have me watch it, hopefully it will get better. In the meantime, watch The Leftovers. Final season premieres Easter Sunday on HBO. 

Social Media

Social Media (and Why I #H8 It)

There was one reason why I got a Facebook. I can tell you the exact year I got one. It was in 2010. Some time in the Spring/Summer time. I had just seen The Social Network. If this were the review of what is tied for my 3rd favorite film of all time, I would say that it is a masterpiece that makes anyone who watches it 3% smarter just from the first scene alone. But, unfortunately, this is not a review of the amazing motion picture. These are my thoughts on the website the film is about and social media in general. 

I used to be a constant Facebook user. I would post regularly and I would look at it for hours upon hours on long, boring summer days. Flash forward to the present day and I loathe Facebook and social media in general. (I know it is the bandwagon idea to hate on Facebook. I know this. But the cliche, overused ideas are cliche and overused for a reason. Sometimes, it's just true.)

Facebook wasn't the most special thing back in it's heyday. You just look at your friends post about their day or their ideas or just boring, run of the mill, life stuff and it was all well and good. (Granted, I started my Facebook in middle school, and middleschoolers don't have many things going on other than "I just beat that level in Resident Evil 4!" or some mundane thing like that.) Now it's turned to nothing but people sharing posts of video recipes, generic political puff pieces, or "challenges" that get in your face in the hopes of you liking or sharing some poor sap's status. 

Many social media sites have their own flaws as well. Snapchat is nothing but filtered selfies and videos of either partying or doing absolutely nothing whatsoever. (Granted I am a college student who follows other college students so the content probably shouldn't be unexpected) Instagram is attempting to be the same thing as Snapchat (and it is sucking at it.) Twitter is my favorite of all social media sites because, if someone is going to say something incredibly stupid, it is at least 140 characters or less. 

I just don't know what happened. I don't even hate Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram (okay, maybe Instagram), I just hate that, whenever I log on, I just scroll through nothing but unimportant or uninformed stuff for 30 minutes to an hour every day. I'm all for giving everyone a voice and allowing to be heard but did we really need to know that you were #feelinglikemyself when you got your #starbucks and that you are getting #whitegirlwasted tonight with you and your buddies all posed with a raging #nonoword ton of puppy dog, black and white sepia filters? (You don't look cute. You look like a domesticated animal....literally). Are your thoughts about the clickbaity title of an article (because you were "too busy" to read the actual article itself) really so important that you have to share it to everyone?

                         

One day, I wrote an article titled "How I Feel About Donald Trump and Today's America" on OdeysseyOnline and I shared it on my Facebook feed. The article was one of my most viewed articles I had written on the site. It wasn't even about Donald Trump (It was about my favorite TV show The Leftovers). I am aware that political news is what's "in" right now (shouldn't it always be? Why do I care about which celebrity might be secretly gay?) So I made a clickbaity title in the hopes that more people would read about my favorite tv show. And it worked! (and I got many angry messages.)

I understand the appeal to social media, but, if I didn't need it for my classes and distributing my written works, I wouldn't use a social media account. We are getting a little too nosy about other people's business and I think it should stop. I don't care about most people's lives on social media and I don't really care about the things they share (they can SOMETIMES be funny (but it usually isn't.))

Critiquing a Media Critic

Grace Randolph

I tend to dislike trying to "critique" a critic. Especially about film or television. With something like food, if you like the food, then it's whatever because you like it and it gives you energy, so it doesn't really matter. You tend to listen to video game reviews because video games are REALLY expensive and if you spend 50-60 bucks on a bad game, you just have to live with it. With movies and tv its harder. If a critic doesn't give an accurate representation of a film while giving their ideas about the film, then their audience may walk into a movie and 1) waste their money seeing the film, 2) fund something bad and basically telling Hollywood "Yes, more of THAT please!", or 3) don't get a movie that DESERVES people's butt's in seats but doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Film is subjective, however, so one can not blame a critic for not liking a movie you like. I accept this fact with most movie reviewers, so I tend to watch more than one to make up my own mind of whether or not I want to see a movie. The usual outlier is Grace Randolph.

Grace Randolph is a movie reviewer for the channel Beyond the Trailer, a channel I regret to have a link to. I don't know what it is about Grace...But I hate her. Actually, that's a lie.  I know exactly what my problems are. Firstly, she spends the first 3rd of her review on talking about a film's PR path and controversies behind the scenes before the review so that, when she rips on a movie, she can use it as an excuse for why the movie failed in certain spots. I really, REALLY did not want to watch any of her reviews in preparation for this blog post. I decided to pull up her review of Guardians of the Galaxy (currently my favorite movie of all time) and the review had me steaming. Keep in mind, I had not seen the review before. I already knew she wouldn't like it, however, because she seems to have the opposite reactions I do when it comes to film. I don't really want to talk more about what she thought about Guardians of the Galaxy because it just makes me mad. I will link a legit review here.

I also don't enjoy her bias. She is the biggest DC fanboy (fangirl?(fanperson)) I have ever run across on the internet. The DCEU (The name of the Warnar Bros./DC cinematic universe) has had a string of bad films the last year or so, and she really scratches at anything to make her review sound positive. I hate this because it is an inaccurate depiction of the films and, if people pay for it, studios don't know they did anything wrong (or pretend they don't know, at least.) She even went as far to accuse Disney/Marvel for paying off movie critics to say movies like Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad were bad movies! The most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! She also pissed a lot of people off.

I also just don't like her view on films. She trash talks directors and actors with unfounded evidence. She doesn't know what makes a good film. She doesn't appreciate the things I, or many movie critics for that matter, appreciate in film as an art. She recently did a trailer reaction to Baby Driver, which I thought was amazing, and talked about it like it was nothing! Nothing! I don't respect this critic and I wish I had written a blog about someone I liked because now I'm going to be in a grumpy mood the rest of the afternoon.Don't see a film based on Grace's reviews. Visit Chris Stuckmann, Jeremy Jahns, John Flickster, Schomoes Know, or Pretty Much It if you want accurate depictions of film. Also, don't take any of their words for it, take what they say, draw your own conclusions, and see a film for yourself to see what you think about it.

Movie Review

Swiss Army Man

I’ve learned recently that I am into “magical realism.” A phrase which here means that everything is realistic except for a select few instances, and those few instances aren’t seen as super out of the ordinary except for when they are. If that seems like a mouthful, just think “everything but THAT thing” or if that awkward “elephant in the room” was not so much awkward but more “just there”. Anyways, whether it's The Leftovers or ,this film, Swiss Army Man, magical realism is a rich source for understanding how to explain complex feelings and emotions while also delivering an interesting story with interesting characters.

I first heard of Swiss Army Man on the nerdist podcast with Daniel Radcliffe. He talked about this small film he’d been working on that was going through the festival circuit and he really hoped someone would pick it up and distributed. The second time I heard of the film was when it went to the Sundance Film Festival and large amounts of people walked out of the film due to a corpse farting, non stop, in the film (the corpse being played by Harry Potter himself.) After hearing this news, I decided I would check out the trailer, and I was very much intrigued.

Let me start off by saying that I like seeing divisive films. Sometimes I end up on the side that doesn’t care for a certain film all that much, but I know that I tried and that makes all the difference. In the case of Swiss Army Man, however, I feel bad for the people that decided to not give the film a chance. I feel bad for them because it was their type of thinking that the film was trying to abolish in some way. (To be explained further in the blog.) Instead of breaking the film up into cast, set design, music, etc, I have elected to break it into 2 parts: Technical and Thematic. There is rich territory for both and trying to delve into everything is a much longer blog.

TECHNICAL

Technically, this film looks amazing. There have been many movies about people trapped on islands, and you can tell that the filmmakers rely on the beauty of the island to make a good looking shot. The Daniels (the two directors named Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan) didn’t just rely on the beautiful scenery. The way the colors react to each other and how light moves through spaces is pure candy to look at. It also makes the film look like a dream, but a dream that you didn’t know was a dream until you wake up (making the film look as magically realistic as the story.)

There are a number of “gags” (tricks to make something impossible look real) in the film and it truly makes you scratch your head and think, “How did they do that?” The budget of this film is only 3 million dollars, which is far from that of a blockbuster. That being said, it’s not like I can’t see how they could do it with “only” 3 million dollars, but I definitely don’t understand how they did the things they did (like snapping a giant log with Radcliffe’s arm or having Paul Dano ride Radcliffe like a jet ski in the middle of the ocean) and making it look real. You definitely can’t tell what tricks they used to make everything seem in camera.

The music is another beast entirely. The music (by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell) is amazing and often uses the voices of the main stars to make up the score. This is used to explain what the characters are thinking in the moment without having to tell the audience outright while also not having the actors have to act it out. While I can see another person calling it “lazy” I see it as a good way to introduce dramatic irony, allowing us to know what’s going on in a character’s head and what that character does to contradict what he thinks.

THEMATIC

What I like best about this film is it’s themes. It takes the concept of farting and uses it as a metaphor for emotions. I understand how that kind of sounds dumb, but it is actually quite brilliant. The film also begs the question “How would you explain life to a dead guy?” This is what is most interesting to me. In the film, Radcliffe asks just about a million questions about sex, love, feelings, and why you can’t do certain things around other people. Radcliffe’s character is even named Manny, as if to symbolize man (which sounds really pretentious.)

Hank (Paul Dano) is seen attempting to kill himself in the beginning of the film and it is only with Manny that he learns to appreciate the things he has and what he is able to do with the life that he once saw as worthless and led him to run away and get lost on an island in the first place. By explaining life to a dead person, you can truly understand all the things you get to do that is great. And in the link above you also get the side of a dead person who, since the worst has already happened to them, doesn’t see the point of going into a society without a 100% guarantee that you get to be happy living life the way you want it.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

This is definitely a movie that everyone who ever wondered “What’s the point” should see. I can watch it 1000 times and still find something new or some other appreciation for life. The director’s intent with this film is to make you laugh at the first fart and cry for the last one. For me, it worked with flying colors. I will link below to more explanations for the film, some reviews, some more music excerpts because I think they are also worth checking out.

Music: Intro, Cotton Eye Joe, Montage, Cave Ballad

Reviews and Analysis: PrettyMuchIt, Swiss Army Man Explained

Augmented Reality

Imagine this: You're sitting on the couch watching a movie. It's dim, but not dark. You're alone. Or so you think. You hear a noise! It sounds like it's coming from the kitchen. You walk over to the kitchen and see a giant scary alien monster drinking your milk! You make your hand into a gun shape, point at the alien, and make a "Pow!" noise with your mouth. The alien falls down dead, and disappears. You take off your AR headset, and go back to watching TV. You sitting on the couch and running around the house with your fingers pointed and making gun noises was real. The alien in your kitchen, however, was not. 

Augmented Reality is like Virtual Reality except, unlike VR where it lets you play around in a world created by someone else, it allows you to interact with things that don't exist, but are in your own world. For example, Photoshop. You know how, in Photoshop, you have layers of all the things you added to enhance a photograph? Well, AR just layers things on top of the world that already exists in real time. This allows you to interact with digital things in the real world.

Remember Pokemon Go? That is AR. You can catch Pokemon in your living room, down the street, etc. The game uses actual locations in the real world and just plants Pokemon in it. 

Pokemon Go really got the conversations about what AR can really do. While most people are still backing the VR horse, I personally see it as a stepping stone to the real prize. Augmented Reality can allow you to experience a new sense of wonder. If you are playing a video game, it's cool and all, but it's just you pressing buttons and staring at the TV. What if the video game world was your backyard and your controller was your hands?

Augmented Reality is meant to bring back everyone's social nature. It allows us to continue experiencing the world for what it is instead of giving us more excuses to stay inside and never leaving to do anything while being glued to someone else's dream. 

While writing this blog, I thought I was going to have to talk about all the possibilities of AR, but it turns out there is this tech guy named Meron Gribetz and he had a Ted Talk about the things AR can and will allow you to do. I was so stunned about what his team has already accomplished, it blew anything I thought you could do with it out of the water.