Anyone else watching this? Every year, HBO casts its net, looking for the next big show. With both True Blood and Boardwalk Empire in their final seasons, they're looking for something to follow Game of Thrones next year. The Leftovers is one of those shows. Created/produced by Damon Lindelof, of LOST fame/infamy, depending on your POV. Based on some book I've never heard of or read.
Premise: 2% of the world's population just suddenly up and disappears one day, the show is basically about the aftermath of that mystery.
Cast: Some guy who's dating Jennifer Aniston as the main lead playing the Chief of Police, Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy), his wife who has left to join some sort of movement called the Guilty Remnant, Chris Eccleston (Dr. Who), a Reverand, Liv Tyler (from everything), a potential applicant to the GR, some young actresses who play the main lead's teenage daughter and her friend.
Some details: It seems, so far, 4 episodes in, there's roughly 3 or 4 factions of people: 1) the normal grieving people, some of whom are slowly going insane with the weight of this mysterious disappearance, including the main character. 2) The nihilists, who wear all white, smoke, don't talk, and believe everything has become futile. Amy Brenneman, a fairly well accomplished actress in her own right, is part of this group, and has not yet said a word in 4 episodes despite being in all of them. 3) The traditional religious cult, with a twist - the cult leader actually seems to be able to heal people. Plus he has a harem of Asian girls which "fuels" his healing. What?!? It's a mystery drama, very much like LOST, with very interwoven characters, etc. So far not sure I could tell you what the plot has been, except that 3 years has passed since the disappearance, and, according to the healer cult leader character Wayne, things are coming to a head in re: what happened to the people who disappeared.
My opinions so far: Don't know what to feel about this show. I'm wary of the Lindelof brand, and any unexplained mysteries this show may have to offer. The characters seem compelling, but something about the world feels a bit bland. LOST took place on this gorgeous island which seemed to breathe terror and mystery, this show takes place in some suburb and follows around the chief of police as the main character. It makes the world feel a little bland, but maybe that's a thematic thing. I really like Chris Eccleston's character - he plays a preacher who goes against the prevailing view that the event was soime sort of Rapture, and that the Departures were somehow heroic victims - mainly because one disappeared from his car, hit his car head on, and made his wife a vegetable. So he digs up all these sins and crimes of the Departures to show they were just ordinary, or even bad people, in the name of "The Truth." The cult side of the show (mainly shown through the Chief's son whose run off to join the cult) is a bit weird, mysterious, but might be totally de rigeure cult storyline. Already one of the Asian girls is pregnant with the healer's kid and needs to be protected from the Feds who want to shut him down.
Some pictures of the cast:
Justin Theroux (The Chief):
Amy Brenneman (Laurie):
Chris Eccleston (the Reverand):