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The Leftovers (2014)
A wild goose chase at best...
I watched the first episode of The Leftovers, somewhat aghast at the lack of meaning of events. I later played then skipped through episode after episode I became increasingly sure the writer didn't know what he was doing. I was appalled that the underlying question is never explained. But I soon became aware that it is never explained because it doesn't make coherent sense in the first place. The writers are passing this off as riddle after riddle, but the real riddle is his/their inability to construct a satisfying plot.
I won't go into the particulars of the show except to say that it is not the fault of the actors that the protagonist has very little to recommend himself and the other characters seem alien to any form of normal human life here on earth. Of the reviewers, many people complain of the senselessness of this show. They want to know how ordinary people could possibly act out in the way these characters do prompted by the original maguffin (thank you, Hitchcock) of a group of people suddenly disappearing off the face of the earth. In the other group, many people have protested that they like 'being kept in the dark' as if this is a riddle or puzzle that they are prepared to live with. But then, the question must be asked, for how long? Must there not be some light at the end of a dark tunnel other than the oncoming train? In the PRO camp, there doesn't seem to be anyone who really gets it that the only mystery here is caused by bad writers who haven't got a clue.
What is The Leftovers really about? A plot like this only 'works' when there is a complete back story that makes sense somewhere if only in the mind of the writer that the viewer will one day either figure out or have revealed. This is the 'art' of suspense writing. Keeping things back that might otherwise be revealed can have only one reason other than to keep an audience in suspense. That would be that the writer himself doesn't know the answers.
The events of The Leftovers' are all over the place, and ostensibly hinge on the original motivating event of some people evaporating into thin air. But on further examination it is the plot that evaporates. It turns out to be nothing more than a series of episodes stringing wild events together as in: 'and then this happened' and 'and then that happened' making no satisfying sense even in terms of the (poorly) imagined world of the story. In effect, this is not a 'story' because there IS no plot. As to the long awaited resolution, the SOLVING of the mystery, ANY conclusion to a story like this can only be a let- down. There is no reveal, no clever secret to tie up all these frayed threads. If we are still somehow (bravely or stupidly) watching to the end, we are left with the sad discovery that we have been fooled, conned, cheated while the writer has amused himself and made a shed load of money in the process.
When a writer doesn't know what he is doing, the audience, sadly, is screwed. Anyone who sticks with this show to the bitter end is led up the garden path chasing the proverbial wild goose until all they are left with is the purposelessness of the emotional wringer they have been put through trying to make sense of the senseless, along with some goose feathers and a hollow egg or two.
Partners in Crime (2015)
Embarrassing
This Partners in Crime script is so slow, tedious and forced in every way - it is painful. It is hard to believe this level of drivel of the BBC. The dialogue is neither the way people speak now nor how they spoke then and the character of Tommy, while he should be a slightly diffident Englishman of the period, is so backward he seems to have got a serious case of Asperger's. There isn't anything much better to say about Jessica Raine's Tuppence. She is supposed to be a bit zany and charming, not completely off her head and as graceless as a baboon in a miniature shop. She is not attractive as a person, and manages no appealing qualities, coming across as too grating and out of place with her surroundings however stylish her hats. In any case, the two leads have absolutely NO chemistry between them as they bumble through scene after scene and one wonders how they ever might have married or if they did, how they manage to stay that way. I normally love period pieces like this and will cut them quite a bit of slack if they have some wit about them. But this out of the way piece is actually embarrassing to watch and Agatha Christie, who wrote wonderful stories that invited you to suspend disbelief for a time with great style is, I fear, with episode 3, turning once again in her grave.