The Daily Stream: The Leftovers Is A Profound, Phenomenal Exploration Of Life's Mysteries
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Film: "The Leftovers"
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max
The Pitch: Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta's metaphysical drama begins with a hell of a premise: One day, suddenly, 2% of the world's population disappears. The Sudden Departure, as it's called, is neither a clear-cut rapture event nor an easily explainable scientific one, but it is profoundly traumatizing. That trauma, which is both global and extremely personal, is the starting point from which one of the best TV shows of the 21st century builds.
Perrotta's novel serves as the series' starting point, and the first season follows two families in Mapleton, New York (led by Justin Theroux's haunted police chief, Kevin Garvey) as they navigate their grief and aimlessness three years after the Departure. It's as bleak as it sounds, but also supremely engrossing, increasingly strange, and, as the show grows beyond the boundaries of its original setting — subsequent seasons take place in Texas and Australia — shockingly emotional. Along the way, the series is anchored by Lindelof's gutsy writing, killer supporting performances from Ann Dowd, Regina King, and others, and deeply moving music by Max Richter.
The quasi-magical drama includes such surreal elements as silent, white-clad cult members, feral dogs, radioactive machines, and miracle towns. It's also extremely internal, grappling often and earnestly with the parts of the human experience that we can't put a name to. To call "The Leftovers" a successful and shattering meditation on life, death, and the human condition would be to undersell the many truly bonkers plot elements that make it more than a philosophical exercise, but it's also the truth.
Why it's essential viewing
The series bears all the best signatures of co-creator Damon Lindelof, whose ambitious works often tackle metaphysical questions through specific, heartfelt, character-driven stories. Here, the saga starts with Kevin, a man whose life was upended by the Sudden Departure. From the very beginning, Kevin is the show's scared and skeptical line between the real and the otherworldly, and as "The Leftovers" reconfigures its tethers to reality across the course of its 28 episodes, Theroux's anguished character guides us through.
The story spirals outwards from Kevin, capturing the effects of the Departure on his wife, Laurie (Amy Brenneman), who joins the chain-smoking, wordless cult The Guilty Remnant, his son Tommy (Chris Zylka), who becomes entangled with a prophet named Holy Wayne, and his daughter Jill (Margaret Qualley in her breakout role). There's also Nora (Carrie Coon), a fellow Mapleton resident whose entire family disappeared in the Departure, and her brother Matt (Christopher Eccleston), a zealous reverend whose plights multiply each season.
"The Leftovers" is a story of faith, but it's also one of mystery. The show's folksy theme song asks us to "let the mystery be," and means it; despite its intriguing premise, "The Leftovers" is much less concerned with how the Departure happened than it is with what it means for each person who's left behind. How do you live in a world that makes no sense? How do you move on from a global event that throws your own understanding of the universe into complete disorder? Needless to say, "The Leftovers" is an even more brutal — and at times — healing watch post-2020 than it was during its initial run. The show doesn't have all the answers, but it makes the act of asking the questions feel necessary and beautiful.