TV Series: Under the Dome S2E01 & The Leftovers S1E01

While my top shows are giving me a hard time to wait for next fall/spring seasons, I have some favorite summer TV Series, that are actually good to watch. Last year, Under the Dome was adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name, which is one of my favorite works of him and after pretty impressive first season, it lands second more valuable one. As a huuuge fan of King, I could not wait for its premiere.

These days twitter was blown by new HBO mystery The Leftovers and since it's HBO, not porn, I decided to check it out. 

So, here are my thoughts on two recent premieres [heavy spoilers ahead]

First season ended with huge cliffhanger, when dark dome suddenly turned into white one. The darkness that drew whole Chester's Mill crazy and caused anarchy was ended just after Julia got rid of the magic stone and when city decided to execute Barbie for murder he did not commit. However, changes were not for good.

YES:

It seemed, writers/producers decided to undo some wrong decisions they've made in previous seasons. For instance, Barbie finally said out loud that Jim killed Dodee. It should have happened at least in the last episode. 

Linda dies - the only good cop and probably most likable character of the show is just dead and it feels good, because now Under the Dome is nobody-is-safe show. In fact, if "the dome" were real, anyone could die, including good ones.

It had a lot action. The thing happening to metal stuff because of magnetic fields created impressive scenes. 

New character was introduced  -the girl who appeared from lake and has some mysterious connection with the dome and dead Linda. Jim's brother knew something about her and probably even was waiting for her to come to the city. We still do not know who she's and what part she's going to play in survival of Chester's Mill.

NO:

I still can't figure out which direction creators are taking the plot of the show: it is now a battle between faith and science and none of them is mystic enough to hold me at the screen. I need something, that I felt during reading the book.

If we are going to have a love triangle between Barbi, Julia and Jim's younger brother, I'm gonna quit Under the Dome. The love stories are distracting and very cheap. 

King apparently can not write dialogues for screen, because he wrote this episode and it was not cool enough. 

So, all in all, Heads Will Roll was a decent season premiere, in the end, my overall impression was that I liked it. However, I hope for better episodes in the future, there is a lot room to improve.

I was introduced to HBO by Game of Thrones, however during past years it had made number of remarkable shows that can perfectly be its landmark series. This year, HBO released another potentially fantastic shot The Leftovers - story full of mystic and questions.

The episode opens with a mother losing her infant baby, who disappeared from the back seat of car while she was sitting in front. The same time, a young boy loses his dad, someone's dog disappeared, cars crash because there are no drivers. People panic. As it turns out, this is happening globally and millions of random humans just go somewhere as if they never existed.

Then three years passes and people go back to normal lives and we see suburban community of Mapleton, who also try to get along with this unexplained tragedy. But nothing is normal neither in lives of those families, nor in the society as a whole.

YES:
It is very mysterious. Not only disappearing people but everything happening after it - the silent citizens in whites, dog that actually came back and Kevin Garvey's - a sheriff with a job to keep safe those who stayed - night visions.

Episode is well built and acted, dialogues are smart and interesting and it has no loopholes. It succeed to show both people's personal dramas and whole mystery of these events.

It shows a lot potential. This plot can go anywhere writers wanna go. Most crucial part will be to choose right answer why those innocent citizens just vanished.

Liv Tyler is in the show and I've missed her on the screen. So, it's a good thing, right?

NO:
It has some signs of God v. Evil endless battles and I absolutely do not like it. If it has anything in common with religion, it's no longer an interesting secret.

In the middle of episode I thought it tried to expose too much about people's undisclosed pasts and it kind of confused me.

Deer scenes were not impressive. I've seen this animal in so many shows, for so many different reasons that I am getting bored and I even do not wonder what it means. So, get another one, please. Panda maybe?

In conclusion, The Leftovers has a lot potential and a lot to improve. Pilot was good enough to reschedule your TV agenda of Sunday evening for second episode.