Almost instantly, I was hooked on HBO’s The Leftovers.
The show’s premise was fascinating. What happened if two percent of the population had disappeared, all at the same time, due to an unexplained event? The approach was unique. It dealt solely with the remaining affected people and the pain and suffering of the characters, instead of trying to figure out the mystery of what caused the event. If you like your shows cheery and playful, The Leftovers is not for you.
The slow-burning, supernatural show deals with everything from religion, cults, loneliness and responsibility, but most importantly, family. The series followed the Garveys, ironically a family who hasn’t lost anybody in the departure but have drifted apart. By the end of the season one, the family is all brought back together.
Each episode is a gut punch in its own way, as the grief expressed feels way too real — led by the incomparable Carrie Coon, who can somehow make a scene where she pays to get shot (wearing a bulletproof vest) just to experience some raw and intense emotion, feel real instead of totally ridiculous.
Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek) brought the show to life with the author of the original novel, Tom Perrotta. I read the book to try to get an advantage on what was to come, but the show ended its triumphant first season wrapping up all the storylines from the source material.
This season underwent a mini-retooling. The show’s setting of Mapleton, N.Y. was changed, most of the supporting cast was replaced, and everything in season two is new material from Perrotta and Lindelof.
The opening of the first episode, “Axis Mundi,” is strange, bold and out of left field. It begins with a group of battered and dirty people lying in a cave. A pregnant woman emerges to take a piss when an earthquake occurs causing it to collapse, killing everyone. The woman gives birth instantly. Time passes, and the starved woman finds her way to a tree, puts her baby down on the ground and climbs it. She finds eggs and eats them, but discovers her baby is being attacked by a snake. She promptly beats the reptile to death but is bitten. The mother succumbs to her wounds, and the baby is picked up by another woman passing by.
(Image via VOX)
The scene is the biggest WTF of the episode. It feels like it’s straight out of Lindelof’s previous show, Lost. To start so bold, and so far off our developed story is crazy, but it works. It could all be a metaphor about the circle of life, or parallel the end of season one, where Nora finds a baby who isn’t hers. But the scene is setting up what’s to come.
Flash forward to present day, we’re introduced to the town of Miracle, Texas, and the Murphy family. Miracle has become a place of celebration, as the town suffered no departures following the event. People visit by the busload, just to pray and find solace as the town is sort of like the mini-Vatican.
The Murphys have a seemingly normal life, unlike the affected back in Mapleton. The dad, John, is a strict, no BS firefighter. The mom, Erika, is a nurse. The two twin teenagers both seem good, but are following two different paths, as Michael is devoted to religion while Evie likes to have fun.
The show does a great job to create the illusion that amidst all the previous pain and suffering in the world, Miracle is pretty normal for The Leftovers standards. That’s until John decides to burn down the house of a childhood friend, who may or may not be the city’s version of Father Wayne from season one. Visitors caught staying past curfew, without the needed wristbands, get tased and arrested.
Thirty-seven minutes into the episode, a familiar character, Father Jamison, shows up. He’s taking over as Reverend, as the old one is getting surgery. He’s also suggests to the Garveys to move to the city, following all the chaos and anarchy that took place in Mapleton, and they take him up on the offer.
(Image via Blackfilm)
The Garveys, without their son Tommy, move in next door to the Murphys, and are immediately invited to dinner with them, despite it being John’s birthday. John seemingly wants to gather as much information about his new neighbors as possible. The dinner goes poorly, as John awkwardly reveals he’s done time in prison for attempted murder and his birthday cake gets ruined by one of Evi’s epileptic outbreaks. Kevin and John’s awkward handshake caps off an unpleasant night, and the two will likely have more this season.
The episode ends how it started. An earthquake hits Miracle, which wakes the Murphys up. They find out their daughter Evi isn’t home, and go on the look for her. They find her car by the swimming hole, which has been drained due to the earthquake.
“Axis Mundi” was a fantastic way to start season two. The POV episode was bold, taking the audience’s attention away from our main characters for so long to introduce new ones, along with a new setting, and it completely worked. The Murphys were a totally believable family who, despite clearly having something more to hide, worked as main characters.
There are still plenty of questions left to be answered, like where are Tommy and his mother? Where are the Guilty Remnant? Why was the goat slaughtered in the restaurant? Who was the man on the outpost who got Michael to mail letters, and why? Who was the older man Michael met? Why did Erika dig up a box with a live bird in it? Why were Evi and her friend running naked through the forest? These obviously can’t be answered in one episode, and creates a nice uneasiness for things to come.
The show’s retooling, while bigger than I anticipated, worked in its favor. We’re introduced to a new intriguing city and characters, with plenty of mystery to be explained, yet still keep the best of the Mapleton. I expect The Leftovers to remain one of the premiere dramas on TV.
