3 out of 5

Created by: Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta

covers season 1

Though buoyed by some very strong performances and a steady stream of effective moments, ‘The Leftovers’ suffers – perhaps fittingly – from a general sense of emptiness, of patchwork scenes strung together by purposeful quirk and trying-too-hard gee-whiz moments.  While HBO obviously made its presence as a source of quality television series known years ago with high-gloss, heavy dramas like Oz and Sopranos, I don’t think I was alone in feeling like the recent ‘True Detective’ – with its coating of darkness, and willingness to get weird – felt like a new experience for the station.  Not to suggest that the show was perfect, but it stood apart from the several-season serialized dramas that’d earned HBO its rep.  After TD ended and posters for ‘Leftovers’ started to pop up, the marketing style was similar enough to suggest that the station was aware of the audience it gained and was willing to try the Lynchian drama once more.  ‘Leftovers’ does stand on its own two feet – different creators, different writers, different story, different themes – but perhaps the ‘let’s try this again’ mentality allowed for the extra indulgences that are the show’s hindrance.  The premise is rife with possibilities: the ‘Rapture’ seemingly occurs, and 2% of the world’s population disappears.  We mainly stay focused on the remaining population of small (fictional) town Mapleton, New York, three years after the event, and instead of gearing the season toward discovering some explanation, episodes lean toward examining the effects of the disappearances on the titular leftovers – a term which we can obviously read into negatively as something undesirable.  Life does seem to be rough in Mapleton – sheriff Kevin (Theroux) is living under the shadow of the previous sheriff, his father (Scott Glenn), who’s now institutionalized, and can’t seem to control his teenage daughter, Jill, or contact his son, Tommy, who may have taken up with cult A – which worships the magical Wayne, a man who seems to be able to wish away one’s ills – or speak to his wife, Laurie (Brenneman), who’s taken up with cult B, the Guilty Remnants – a cult of silence and smoking which seeks to never let people forget about the Rapture in progressively more aggressive ways.  Reverend Matt (Eccleston) is struggling with his faith by trying to explain the Rapture in his own way, while also struggling with losing church members and the church itself.  And Nora (Carrie Coon) lost her whole family – 2 kids, a husband – during the event, and now works almost mindlessly for a government agency offering remuneration to those related to the Departed and, y’know, always carries a gun around.  As things go on, though, and as any good depressive drama will do, we’re shown that things were probably always this rough, it was just easier to ignore before.

Most of this is compelling.  Select episodes zero in on specific characters (Matt, Nora) for truly affecting studies, and watching things calmly spiral downward  – supported by believable, human acting by all involved – ropes us in and makes us care by sifting through the oddities to find elements with which we can all relate.  Which, I imagine, was part of the idea – using something radical to knock everyone on their ass so the show can get right to the muck flowing beneath the surface.  But: The Leftovers isn’t content with this.  It keeps wanting to be weird.  Odd phone calls, cryptic clues, frequent animal encounters accompanied by meaningful staredowns and music, lapses in memory, and the Guilty Remanants’ plans are purposefully left vague…  There is the very, very clear sense that this weirdness is spread on top of the show to justify everyone’s off-kilter behaviors.  This, in part, makes the flow occasionally feel disjointed, and more often makes some of the ‘reveals’ rather disappointing, and questionable as to their purpose in the big picture.  Is it a mystery show, or is it a character drama?  It’s truly the latter, but it wants to be the oddball and so keeps trying to be the former.

Without the high quality production and solid cast, ‘The Leftovers’ might have failed.  There’s not really an uninteresting moment, but only select pieces really sell the show.  Perhaps with one mystery element out of the way in season 1, season 2 will be able to narrow the focus even more and sorta nail down what our creators really want the show to be.