Channel Surfing: The Leftovers - "Pilot"

Carrie Coon

Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.
Despite it being two years ago, the apocalyptic predictions of 2012 have lingered on in pop culture more prominently than ever. Last year alone featured comedies blatantly featuring diabolically obvious titles like This is the End and The World's End. For some reason, stories about the world dying have become the new phenomenon with the only antidote being superheroes and big anthropomorphic robots. It seems like the world is doomed and it apparently is ripe with subject matter to produce content for the highly prestigious HBO network whose cinematic quality is unparalleled even by AMC or The Sundance Channel. Nobody comes close even in terms of influence.
So why would they invest in a show like The Leftovers involving the disappearance of 2% of the world's population? While it isn't directly an apocalyptic show, its origins have a placement within those confines. The opening scene in particularly perfectly encapsulates the uncertainty of the next 75 minutes and potential series. As a woman in preparing to leave a store with her crying infant, she turns around only to have her child disappear. Meanwhile, there are loose animals and empty cars crashing into each other. It is chaos and full of uncertainty that sets up The Leftovers universe rather nicely, at least in setting up a jarring, iconic depiction of this life.
The rest of the episode takes place three years later. With the question of "How do you move on?" lingering over everyone's head, there are some surprising differences that so far are subtle. If there is one issue with this pilot episode, it is the problem that a lot of HBO series with massive casts tend to have: no central focus. Where The Wire and Deadwood earned our trust after raising a lot of questions, The Leftovers does that on a grander scale that doesn't feel as grounded at first. We get access to police exploits, teenage orgies, and mental facilities. While it helps to establish atmosphere rather effectively, some moments feel like they meander for too long, often seeming incongruous to each other (the teenage orgy scene in particular).
The one piece of advice when approaching The Leftovers is that it takes patience to get through. Yes, there are arguably expendable parts to the pilot, but everything eventually begins to come together. Where the first 40 minutes set everything up, the last 35 are used effectively to establish social ramifications about this tragedy, including all the uncertainty, religious zealots, and desperation that people have alongside those that moved on. The last 35 minutes is what will sell you on the show, provided that the characters don't entirely repulse you. Like a well written intertwined narrative, it ties its themes together while leaving room for improvement. 
It is admittedly a challenging show and one that will likely leave many polarized. Along with moving at a snail's pace at points, the subject matter is dour and while there are occasional spurts of humor, it rarely peaks above bleakness. Characters like police officer Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux) are looking for their missing child. Everyone wants answers and there's no clear reading. Where Left Behind tied it into religion, this series has yet to take this approach, embracing any and all interpretations. Yes, there are some characters with religious undertones, but they exist in a universe populated by a fairly diverse cast that are all compelling in different ways.
Of course, many will likely feel burned solely because of the man behind this HBO series: Damon Lindelof. While I personally don't take offense to his credits, it could largely be due to my lack of familiarity with Lost, which fans notoriously hate him for. He is considered a writer whose subject matter is high concept without logical payoff. The Leftovers definitely falls into that camp, though with it being based off of the eponymous book by Tom Perrotta (who co-wrote this episode), there is a chance that things will exceed Lindelof's notoriety. With universal praise for the pilot, there's only speculation as to if the show can deliver.
For me, the show is very challenging and there are contradicting moments where I felt compelled and repulsed, even bored at points. Even if the ending was satisfactory in an enthralling way, it was a struggle to get into this show. Even if the opening remains one of the best Freshman series openings of 2014, there's no account for the bizarre teenage orgy scene that felt like a subpar version of Gia Coppola's Palo Alto. The universe is weird, but I am not entirely sure if I buy into everything just yet. It has me curious and now that the society is built, I wouldn't mind seeing where the show goes. Do I get the praise? Not exactly. However, this slow burn of a premiere definitely has me hopeful that HBO has made another obvious hit.
The Leftovers is an apocalyptic show unlike others. It isn't so much dealing with the religious subtext or even the cliche rundown city routines. Society is fine, even if the people are still somewhat distraught. If anything, the premiere feels very reminiscent of The Wire with more metaphors. We're introduced to so many people with some seeming totally arbitrary. Even then, there's traces of things to like about them if given time. Even if this comes nowhere close to being as good as David Simon's indisputable masterpiece, it at least has some striking imagery and potential at the premiere, provided that Lindelof doesn't get in the way of the subject matter.