The Leftovers is a rather conflicting series. For those who don't immediately connect, there is a sense of isolation as the emotions overpower the story and fill the frames with metaphors. From the 90 minute pilot where everything came out roaring in an indistinguishable fashion, the only thing that was immediately clear was that people disappeared and that there were dogs symbolizing the missing. From there, things became more murky. The show continued to mix metaphors with depression and the results weren't always perfect. While it produced great episodes like "Two Boats and a Helicopter," it does also take its time getting to the rewarding parts. In the end, The Leftovers is a series that asks a lot from its audience, even if that doesn't necessarily pay off.
To preface, I am one of those who did not catch onto the appeal of The Leftovers' deeper emotional core. The one benefit is that it always felt like it was engaging n something, even if I didn't care what it was asking me to understand. It doesn't help that I didn't care for Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux) or his family nor The Guilty Remnants or the suicidal nature of many characters. It was bleak, but when introducing a cast of this magnitude, it is impossible to immediately grasp connectivity. As it stands, Matt Jamison's (Christopher Eccleston) primarily solo episode remains my favorite of the batch not because it chose to present a new side of the story, but because it felt personalized. Yes, Kevin was the protagonist, but he wasn't interesting. The people around him were, at least those who cared to talk. To focus on him took away a lot of merit. Then again, his daughter Jill Garvey (Margaret Qualley) was even less interesting, as the teenage audience in the story had very little to do besides live life.
It is painful to say any negative thing about this series solely because of how it started and continually showed flashes of brilliance throughout. In terms of opening shots, The Leftovers immediately set itself apart from every other HBO pilot by dropping us into the moment when it happened. The moment when people mysteriously disappeared. There was that immediate confusion, fear, and dread that compelled the viewer to watch as a car drove down the street without a driver and a screaming baby was nowhere to be seen. It was a powerful shot that unfortunately was never matched. In the finale, the emotional impact was instead replaced by orchestration and music blaring over images of frustrated individuals. It was meant to create an artistic quality, but instead it felt pretentious to somebody who didn't care.
Again, this is a universe full of amazing moments. "Guest" is another almost flawless episode that works because of its ability to explore its emotional core while constructing something greater in the world. The plot of the episode is simple. Nora Durst (Carrie Coon) discovers that there is a clone of her and the repercussions impact the entire series. It is small reveals like this that add weight. There's drama, sure, but it builds the world and helps the audience to understand how exactly this world operates. Other times, the magic is a little more heavy handed and episodes like "B.J. and the A.C." end up trying to apply religious symbolism to very asinine things. The series has always felt conflicted notably because it never feels like it can settle on one thing. This is the issue of large ensemble casts.
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| Christopher Eccleston |
In a bizarre move, it does feel like the series eventually dived into shrinking the focus. With representation of the police force, the elderly, the silent ones, and the teenagers, there was never any way that it would all pay off. For many episodes, it felt like supporting characters were forgotten and made them feel useless in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, Kevin's story is somehow interesting when paired with his loony father (Scott Glenn) and chose to spoke philosophy. What was the point of all of this mystery and the feeling of being in a rut three years after a major incident? Frankly, it does feel like the society is taking it a little too hard. They need to have a little fun now and then, even if The Guilty Remnants who wish us never to forget keep stealing stuff and replacing relatives with stuffed figures.
There was also mysteries mixed in that weren't going to be answered. Writer Damon Lindelof is notoriously reliable for botching endings. Considering that the finale exceeds the ending of Tom Perrotta's eponymous book, it is only expected that the former Lost writer is going to mess up something if not careful. The charm of the series is that it doesn't need to solve the problem, even if it is something that logically we want to know. Curiosity is inherent in our genes. However, as "The Prodigal Son Returns" proves, the payoff is more in the emotions and the community coming to terms with issues. While the images were striking, the series unfortunately developed a sense of melodramatic and placed music underneath the scenes to add impact. Instead, they just feel really corny.
The issue is that I find The Leftovers to be overrated by critics and HBO's standards. True Detective succeeds far more often as the Freshman series with a dark, philosophical core. I don't find every beat to be full of insight nor do I find the mysteries to be all that exciting. The characters thankfully are engaging enough to make each episode worthwhile. On the flip side, I don't think that the series is all that awful. Yes, I don't connect with the beats nor do I care about Kevin's goals, but the world is particularly weird and given that it hasn't fallen into Omega Man or Left Behind territory yet is a little comforting. There's a lot that was explored that I feel has enriched me, yet there's also a lot of disconnect. The series is simply good with moments of great ambition. With that said, I look forward to seeing where it goes next with the potential of it getting possibly better.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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