Why HBO Should Not Let 'The Leftovers' Depart

by Jason St. Amand National News Editor Saturday December 5, 2015

As "Looking," the dramedy that centered on three gay friends navigating their lives in San Francisco, wrapped up its second season earlier this year, e-murmurings surfaced, claiming HBO would cancel the show even though it received critical praise. Though ratings were low (the highest viewed episode of Season 2 only brought in 324,000 people), HBO tends to care more about the buzz surrounding their programming. Nevertheless, the network did pull the plug but promised a TV movie to cap off the series.

Unfortunately, "The Leftovers" is in the same boat: This Sunday, the mystical mystery show will air its season two finale. HBO execs have remained tight-lipped on its fate. While critics and fans on social media lit up over the last nine Sunday nights to gush about how much they love "The Leftovers," the ratings have been down, leaving some diehard fans praying for a miracle, even if they don't live in Jarden.

That may be a little dramatic. "Looking" barely cracked the 300,000 mark where as "The Leftovers" hasn't dipped under 519,000 viewers. Still, Season 2 is a step down from last year, which easily brought in nearly 1.5 million viewers an episode, despite being panned by a number of critics.

While "Looking" was met with great reviews in its second season (it was a definite improvement from Season 1), the kind of response the second season of "The Leftovers" got this year has been phenomenal, easily making it one of the best shows of the year, if not the best show of 2015.

But this wasn't always the case - critics were harsh last year when "The Leftovers" premiered, many arguing the show was too over the top and too depressing to enjoy on an entertainment level. TV critic Andy Greenwald wrote for Grantland at the time: "As a project, 'The Leftovers' doesn't have much interest in more traditional television tropes..." He later said the series as gross as the Guilty Remnant's second hand smoke.

Critics like Greenwald ditched their initial feelings, donned a white shirt and pants, and picked up a pack of menthols: Almost all reviews of the latest installment of "The Leftovers" have been extremely positive. That's due in part to the show's hard reboot - a feat few shows have been able to accomplish. The start of Season 2 found the show's central characters, the Garvey family, fleeing the fictional upstate New York town of Mapleton, for the fictional holy land of Jarden, Texas. Jarden was not impacted by the events of October 14, also known as the "Sudden Departure," where 140 million people (2% of the world's population) suddenly vanished into thin air. The quaint Texas town didn't lose one person - its entire 9,261 citizens stayed put.



Jarden became a religious mecca of sorts since the global event, sparking thousands of people to make pilgrimages the town's now-federal-government-approved national park Miracle. On the outskirts of Jarden, hundreds live in a shantytown in hopes to one day make into the promise land.



It's a daring move, but showrunner Daniel Lindelof, the co-creator of "Lost," exceeded expectations. Season 1 ended with Mapleton in flames, after the town's residents turned on the national cult created in the wake of the Sudden Departure, the Guilty Remnant, and burned down the group's neighborhood. That also happened to be where the show's source material - the 2011 novel of the same name written by Tom Perrotta - ended. Fans new to expect something totally different in Season 2.

Right from the get-go Season 2 of "The Leftovers" felt like a new show: It's "2001"-esque opening featuring a pregnant cavewoman giving birth by herself after her tribe suddenly dies in their sleep. She is spared - but why? This is the whole setup for the second season. The show's theme song is also changed: Instead of the somber classical music that played over images of the cast as a fresco painting, we get a chipper folk song about letting "the mystery be" - an important statement Lindelof hammers hard on Season 2.



Lindelof and co. also totally change how audiences have come to understand story structure. The showrunner and his team are concise, tight and focused storytellers and play with traditional expectations by beautifully cutting back-and-forth between the past and present to tell a seamless and compelling narrative.



Not only is "The Leftovers" visually striking but the cast is also absolutely on another planet. Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Ann Dowd, Regina King, Amy Brenneman. Christopher Eccleston and Kevin Carroll have put on other-level performances, which will undoubtedly earn some of them Emmy nods next year.

With loss and the way we cope with a sudden tragedy the crux of "The Leftovers" the cast has an unbelievable talent when it comes to handle the subtle nuances of sadness. The tiny tics in King's role as Erika Murphy, a doctor who goes toe-to-toe with the amazing Carrie Coon, who plays Nora Durst.

With all these elements added together, "The Leftovers" turns into a truly remarkable show in its second installment. Like "Mr. Robot," which was also daring in its artistic choices and featured a stellar cast, I have no idea where "The Leftovers" will go in its finale. Furthermore, I have no clue what a third season, if approved by HBO, would look like. Will the Garvey family stay in Jarden? Are we heading to Australia next year? It's possible "The Leftovers" won't even be about Kevin Garvey - there's a chance Season 3 will center on the Murphy family.



These questions are what make "The Leftovers" so exciting and fresh to watch. Anything can happen and not in that crazy Ryan Murphy way. While other shows in the past spent episodes upon episodes of solving their own mysteries, the greats, like "Twin Peaks" and "Lost," rarely went there. "The Leftovers" is doing the same thing, taking advice from its own theme song and letting "the mystery be."



Let's hope HBO execs don't get too caught up in their mystery, and tell fans Sunday we'll be seeing more of "The Leftovers" in 2016.