(In other words, yes of course I’m joining, all hail that majestic sex lion!) Are you joining the cult of Fraser, Caroline?Ĭaroline Framke: I'm surprised you would say his name lest you become him, Todd. "It's a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World" is a grand, silly, sad episode of television, which is to say it's an episode of The Leftovers. I realize as I'm writing this that this is the point where our editor will go, "Can you explain a little of this just a tad bit more?" but I'm not sure I can. And it happens against the backdrop of sex lions and a murder at sea. The episode contains what might be the entire series' most naked moment of questioning God and wondering why God would do, well, anything that makes humanity suffer.
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This is to say that "It's a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World" (great title, btw) is the show following up last week's epic emotion with a story that constantly teeters on the brink of farce yet somehow doesn't tip over. That goes for the rest of the episode as well. You can tell that The Leftovers’ writers have really thought about how one man could launch a nuclear missile, and then come up with a sequence that shows their ideas off with panache. (Okay, by a rogue Frenchman, but it's still one of the country’s bombs.) The opening sequence with this explosion is a great one, a little bit silly, a little bit scary, and brimming with creativity. The reasoning is less important than the result - he's on the boat, with the lion Fraser and lots of scantily clad people and a man who claims to be God (who is played by the great stage actor Bill Camp, so he very well might be).Īlso, this episode starts with a nuclear weapon being detonated. I'm speaking, of course, of Matt Jamison, who's off to Australia because something something End of Days have to help Kevin something. What's even better is that this episode tosses The Leftovers’ most stubborn, most faithful character into the midst of its big orgy, in hopes that he might have an epiphany, and then he kinda does. Isn't that why we watch this show? For its endless number of ways to show us how people handled the Departure really, really poorly? Todd VanDerWerff: I suppose when I thought about what the final season of The Leftovers might contain, "an orgy at sea with a sex-lion cult" was not on the list, but, then, I'd like to meet the person whose list it was on.
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This week, critic at large Todd VanDerWerff and staff writer Caroline Framke got together to talk about "It's a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World," the season’s fifth episode. Every week, Vox Culture i s diving into an episode of HBO’s The Leftovers, which is currently airing its third and final season.