#tom perotta

[margaretqualleydaily]

Premiere of HBO's 'The Leftovers' Season 3

[mystephaniewilderuniverse]

The Truth is Out There

The Truth is Out There

In light of the current political climate, it’s hard to know what the word truth means. We hear conflicting stories about the “Wall” and the government shutdown, often from the same person, and yet scores of Americans believe whatever they are told no matter how contradictory the messages. As “truth” seems to be fluid and subjective, people find comfort in digging in their heels and believing…

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[thecomedybureau]

truInside Goes Into Story of How “Election” Almost Didn’t Get Made

Unquestionably one of the best films of the 90s, Election closed out the decade with a breakout performance from Reese Witherspoon and a great directorial showing from Alexander Payne.

TruTV’s truInside will explore the behind-the-scenes story of how improbably Election was to make despite being looked back as a brilliant satirical comedy that will probably hold up for decades to come.

Here’s a preview before tonight’s episode that airs at 10PM on TruTV.

[she-is-someone-blog]

A powerful sense of wholeness and well-being descended upon me as I pondered my reflection, as if life were an endless costume party, and I’d finally figured out a way to come as myself.

Joe College, Tom Perotta

[nerdettepodcast]

Comedian Rob Delaney, banned books and Josh Gondelman

Comedian Rob Delaney on being open about mental health without glorifying the 'tortured artist' trope, being a Twitter superstar and the most unexpectedly sexy thing about his marriage. A conversation about our favorite banned books. Plus homework from Josh Gondelman and your nerd confessions.

Nerdette Podcast is on: iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud

[christopherallen]

The Leftovers - Season One

I have no time in my life for people who only want escapism. I know some people who dropped out of The Leftovers because it was too depressing, but doesn't that seem a little stupid? It's unlikely Damon Lindelof, Tom Perotta and the cast and crew would devote their energies to something made only to bring misery, or HBO to pay for it. The series is a meditation on grief and hopelessness, but this is only its starting point. It's going somewhere, and the season finale confirms that ultimately, understanding and some form of happiness are meant for at least some of its characters.

What I've been struck by are the original ideas and the depth of characterization. Damon Lindelof is no stranger to symbols, portents and Macguffins, but here they are used as seasoning, enriching the stories but not overpowering them. More importantly, the characters have dimension and we see a surprising number of them experience change through these ten episodes, as they try to accustom themselves to this changed world and try to decide if they have any place in it, with Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon and Ann Dowd in particular doing Emmy-worthy work. Disturbing, challenging, even maddening at times, but soulful. There have been some missteps along the way, par for the course with an ambitious ensemble project, but it's a special show. While the departing Boardwalk Empire is more purely pleasurable and I'll miss it, there is very little capacity for surprise. I look forward to The Leftovers surprising and touching me next year.

[linnealurks]

How is "The Leftovers"?

I’ve watched all except the latest episode, and I’m liking it a lot. It had a slow start, and you have to put up with not quite knowing what’s going on sometimes. It helps if you’ve read the book, because then you’ll know that you’re not supposed to know why certain things happen, and the characters never find out either. I think some people approached it thinking we’re meant to put clues together and find out why all those people disappeared. We’re not.  There are some things that we *do* know in the book that are kind of hard to pick up from the show, too.

Some of the specific plot points are quite different from the book, and there are different relationships between some of the characters. For instance, CE’s character is a very minor one in the book, and none of his relatives appear. In the show, he has a wife, and Carrie Coon’s character is his sister. But the overall mood/tone/whatever is very similar. Not surprising, I guess, since the writer of the book is very involved with the show.

The acting is really really good. CE is great, of course, and so far there’s been one episode that centered around him. I was also really impressed with Carrie Coon in the episode that centered around her. Amy Brenneman and Ann Dowd are good too.  As members of the Guilty Remnant, they don’t speak, so they have to act with their eyes and faces a lot. I’m not quite as taken with Justin Theroux. but he’s okay.

It’s more violent than I would like, but not intolerably so. There tends to be something really violent toward the beginning of the episode, and then it subsides and we get long stretches of character development. I think so far every episode has had a well-done dream sequence, too.

Tl;dr: It’s worth watching.