Disclaimer: I will talk about plots and mention potential spoilers, so you’re being warned.
So I just finished watching all of The Leftovers over the last three weeks. Knee-jerk reactions:
- What the fuck did I just watch?
- Way more was unanswered than was answered
- If any show required a pallet cleanser afterwards, this is it
The thing is, I’m left in this weird position where I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the series as a whole. Initially, the show starts off pretty compelling and intriguing, an in spite of the cynical and droll nature of the subject matter, I was curious enough to continue watching the show, to see how it transpired. However, as the series progresses, the show jumps the shark when the cast uproots and moves to Texas, and then DJ Tanner wrestlings when the obvious HBO-mandated key players all go to fucking Australia of all places.
It also becomes abundantly clear that the show is actually going nowhere in terms of the original plot and mystery, but by the time I came to realize this, I was like 20 episodes in out of 28, and I figured I’ve come this far, may as well see the rest of it through.
And I wasn’t wrong. After watching the final episode, I felt cheated in that basically nothing is answered or solved, and how the show makes a Hail Mary of a try at trying to wrap up some loose ends with a single monologue. But at the same time, I kind of knew the ending would be, in my opinion, a total bomb and a stinker, and I would feel cheated, because I feel like 90% of storytelling usually ends up this way, because writing endings is the hardest thing in the world when it comes to storytelling.
The way the show wraps up, it just feels like HBO pulled the plug on the show after giving it two seasons to try and get somewhere, and when they didn’t and the ultimatum to wrap things up came up, the showrunners cobbled together a putrid final season that just does more wheel spinning that the rest of the series did. The Garvey children are written out entirely within the first two episodes, and then the series ends up concluding on another continent outright, after all the hullabaloo of starting in New York, then relocating in Miracle, Texas, the one place on earth spared from the incident.
It goes completely off the rails with repeated vignette episodes that spared the showrunners of any actual content creation while covering their bases to justify actions, behaviors and plot devices utilized within the later episodes’ convoluted stories.
I’m not going to pretend like I know the behind-the-scene politics, if actors are primadonnas, if writers are in contention with each other, or if production costs or timelines are preventative to creation. But the way The Leftovers transpired, I think I would actually have preferred if the show were cancelled and left completely unresolved, then the way they tried to wrap everything up.
I started writing this with an uncertainty on how I felt about the series as a whole, but I think as words have formulated, the opinion is pretty abundantly clear: The Leftovers was kind of a waste of time and a series not really worth having watched. I won’t take away from the first season, and even the second season was watchable. But by the time the third season came around, it really felt like behind-the-scenes factors pervaded into production and/or the sheer lack of source material left led to showrunners being clueless on how to wrap things up, kind of like in Dexter.
Parting thoughts
- Ann Dowd was easily the MVP of the show, and easily the most talented actor amongst the cast. This is made even more apparent considering her character doesn’t even speak in 90% of the first season and still steals the spotlight, and then steals another one once she actually starts.
- I love how Scott Glenn has grown into this typecast of always being a kooky sage that seems completely at home being dirty, filthy, addled or with some other handicap or ailment. Prior to The Leftovers, I remember him as the kooky wise man from Sucker Punch, and then being the kooky Stick from Daredevil.
- I don’t think anybody got the shaft in season three more than Margaret Qualley, who had a total of like three minutes of on-screen time. In fact, she was phased out pretty hard in season two, having her role reduced by nearly half, despite being a central character in the initial season. A real shame, considering the biological child of two mental fuck-up parents seems like a character that would have some plot potential.
Well, at least I can take solace in the fact that I’m now done with The Leftovers, and wipe my hands clean of feeling like I need to solder through any more of it. But for real, I could definitely use a pallet cleanser show to bring me back from the droll and head-fucking of The Leftovers. And to think people accuse shows like Vice Principals and 90 Day Fiancé of being just trash television; shit man, this is the kind of crap that will level me out after something like The Leftovers.
