I think I'm gonna watch The Leftovers for the fourth time
No television show has made me want to smoke a cigarette more than HBO's The Leftovers. And yes, that's having seen Mad Men and the first season of True Detective, programs that ceaselessly integrate burnin' one into their sexy and harrowing aesthetics, respectively. If you've seen The Leftovers, you might assume the urge comes from watching The Guilty Remnant, the show's mute, white-adorned cult, chain-smoke Marlboros to showcase devotion to their ambiguous quasi-theology. But that's not really it. In fact, watching incessant, procedural smoking en masse just kinda makes my head hurt.
Instead, it's the The Leftovers's prevailing hopelessness that gets my inertia pointed toward the gas station down the block. The exigence of the whole show – very much including its fuck-it-why-not pathos – is the Sudden Departure, the name given to the instantaneous disappearance of two percent of the world's population. It's like, if your whole family just vanishes into thin air – something that actually happens to Nora Durst (Carrie Coon) in the show – you might as well smoke 'em if you got 'em and go buy some if you don't.
Okay, so what, The Leftovers makes me want to burn a Parliament. Congrats, Spencer, a television show has become a secondary carcinogen! Obviously, it's so much more than that: the characters, the world-building, the audacious weirdness. I mean, it's Damon Lindelof, so of course it's all of those things, but it's him at his best – like if he started LOST with even a semblance of an idea for an ending in mind. But then again, the "we'll see where this goes" approach is part of what makes his work so good: it's simply impossible to predict.
As of late, however, Lindelof has had some source material to work with: The Leftovers is based on a Tom Perrotta novel, and his most recent major project, Watchmen, is, of course, a modern iteration of Alan Moore's magnum opus. I hesitate to call them "adaptations" because, if you've read Perrotta's book or Moore's graphic novel, you'll know that while Lindelof maintains the, let's say, "spirit" of the stories, his takes on them are unequivocally fresh. He toes the line of unrecognizability without actually crossing it, adding in the eccentricities and unpredictability he's known for while respecting the integrity of the art he's using as inspiration. He's exceptionally good at this, and I hope he continues to base future projects off of stories whose characters and worlds synergize with his sensibilities.
I told myself I wouldn't spoil anything here, as that would go directly against my years-long efforts of pestering anybody and everybody to watch The Leftovers. Some of you may be actively avoiding this post precisely because I've been perhaps a little overzealous in those attempts. And that's fine! I will NOT apologize for being passionate!
Anyway, check it out. Or don't. Either way, you'll be hearing from me.