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The Leftovers

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Cast

Network

Reviewer

Paul Asay

TV Series Review

We all know that it would be difficult if we were Left Behind. The Rapture, when God’s chosen are spirited away in the blink of an eye, would be pretty jarring for anyone with feet still planted on terra firma. Jarring, devastating and probably really confusing, too.
“I get the Pope,” says a bartender in The Leftovers. “But Gary f ing Busey? How does he make the cut?”
HBO’s maybe-maybe-not-supernatural mystery drama gives viewers a world wrapped in grief and uncertainty. It tells us that on Oct. 14 seven years ago, 2% of the world simply went poof. No one knows where they went or why or if they’re ever coming back. And while losing that small fraction of the global population is statistically small—140 million out of 7 billion wouldn’t even make a dent in restroom lines—everyone left is deeply impacted by the sudden disappearances. Some grieve for lost loved ones. But even those who didn’t lose someone directly through the sudden departure are still scarred.

Left Far, Far Behind

Take Kevin Garvey, chief of police for the small hamlet of Mapleton. He took over the position from his father, who snapped when it happened, running through the streets naked. Kevin’s wife, Laurie, departed in a wholly different way—first joining a cult whose members never speak and dress all in white. And though she quit the cult, she still left Kevin. Her departure left Kevin overwhelmed and in charge of their two teenage kids, not to mention having to manage an entire town in some manner of mourning. And even as he experiments with self-asphyxiation in the final season, some believe that Kevin is actually the second coming of Christ: “I’m not saying you are,” one tells him, “but the beard looks good on you.”
Kevin’s current girlfriend, Nora Durst, experienced the loss far more directly. Her husband, son and daughter all vanished that fateful Oct. 14, leaving her earth-bound and alone. Nora says she’s moved on now, but she’s lying. When her family left, they took a part of Nora with them. And nothing—not Kevin, not her job investigating supposed new departures, not her forced smiles or her steeled glare—can fill that ache inside.
Maybe we can understand that. Scientist are telling these “Leftovers” that the mass exodus is devoid of both explanation and meaning. Traditional religion argues there is meaning here—namely that, as the bartender says, those left behind didn’t quite make the cut. That makes these remainders either helpless victims to a cosmic glitch or damned bystanders to a heavenly miracle. But they must all live on, somehow, dealing with the pain and guilt, the perplexity and loneliness. They get up every day and pantomime life … all the while wondering whether they should.
“Hey, we’re still here,” Kevin tells a woman, raising a beer bottle in toast.
“We sure are,” the woman answers, clearly wishing she wasn’t.

A Tribulation of a Show

The world, burdened by what appears to be the biggest mystery of all time, seems at the brink of ripping apart—and is collectively acting out as a result. The Leftovers, in an effort to avoid the big questions or merely salve the pain, turn to whatever earthly comforts are available to them: sex, drugs and violence, primarily, all of which are on graphic display; obscene language is as bad as I’ve heard on television. Mapleton, and maybe the rest of the world too, seems like a bomb on a timer—and with each new day we see little explosions that could be leading to a great big boom.
Co-created by Lost maestro Damon Lindelof and novelist/screenwriter Tom Perrotta (who published his novel on which the series is based in 2011), this show explores a deeply intriguing premise that sends it careening from faith to obsession to science. But The Leftovers, like the world it shows us, is strange, mysterious and incredibly problematic. Mapleton is a sick, sad place, with all its messy symptoms recorded and then vomited up.

Episode Reviews

Leftovers: April 23, 2017

As the seventh anniversary of the Oct. 14 “sudden departure” approaches, Mapleton is awash in anticipation and anxiety. Some believe that new departures are underway. Nora investigates these cases with bitter zeal.

A man who spent five years in monkish silence, communing with his god on a makeshift tower, suffers a heart attack and falls off the tower (rather comically). His wife and others insist that he disappeared—claiming they saw it happen. “He proved himself to God and last night he got his reward,” she says. A shrine—complete with a painting of the bearded, unwashed man bearing wings and flying up to heaven—springs up. Nora ruins the shrine by posting a picture of the man’s dead, bloodied body (complete with autopsy stitches) on the painting.

Some believe that Kevin is the second coming of Jesus. Nora, now living with Kevin, jokes with him about his supposed divinity. She smooches him and says, “She did kiss the lips of Kevin, and lo it was good.” As she leaves on “business,” she tells him, “Try not to walk on too much water while I’m gone.” Meanwhile, in Australia, a handful of elderly women, seemingly “told” to find a police chief named Kevin, come across just such a Kevin in the outback—a very different Kevin than viewers have come to know in Mapleton. One lady believes he’s “the one,” and to prove it she ties him up and thrusts him underwater for two minutes—knowing that he’ll survive the test. He does not: When we see his gray, water-drenched face, the chief is clearly dead.

While some turn to God for understanding and comfort, others turn to science. Someone tells Nora that the “departures” were the result of the bombardment of a special kind of radiation—one replicated now by scientists and being offered to a select few left behind, including Nora. She listens to testimonials of those who have decided to undertake the journey. “I give my consent to go … wherever they went,” one says. “Amen.” Even though Nora says that those poor saps were likely simply vaporized, she seems to decide to accept the treatment.

Kevin asks Nora to have a baby with him. (She laughs.) Nora drinks a beer, and someone else offers to take her out for drinks. Kevin puts a plastic bag around his head and seals it with duct tape around his neck. When Nora walks in, he tries to explain, telling her that he always takes it off before he can asphyxiate. A policeman hits a kangaroo with his cruiser: He tells a subordinate to clean the “roo brains” off the front. Someone suffers a bloody nose. Someone talks about how he tried to literally crucify her husband, but only got “one nail in” before she was stopped. We hear how Nora broke her own arm on purpose with a car door.

Nora breaks a parking gate. Characters say the c-word once, the f-word 13 times and the s-word five times. We hear other profanities, including “a–,” “b–ch,” “h—,” “n—er” and a slang term for testicles. God’s name is misused four times, twice with “d–n,” and Jesus’ name is abused twice. A few characters smoke cigarettes.

Leftovers: 6-29-2014

“Pilot”

People speculate whether there’s a spiritual component to the big disappearing act. A scientist says no, “God sat this one out.” So now, three years later, Kevin and the mayor fight over how to handle the town’s affairs. He tries unsuccessfully (and violently) to get his wife to come back home, and his son to call him back. Cultists stage a protest during “Heroes Day,” when the missing are honored in Mapleton, their presence touching off a riot where folks are beaten, some severely. (We see lots of blood.) Jill intentionally smacks another girl in the face with her elbow, bloodying her nose. She and a friend pantomime suicide. Several dogs are gunned down; they tear apart a deer.

During a spin-the-smartphone game at a high school party, a guy lives up to a dare by allowing someone to burn his arm with a scorching-hot fork. When the phone flashes the prompt “choke,” Jill (after stripping down to her underwear) proceeds to clamp down on a guy’s throat to keep him from breathing while he masturbates. Also at the party, we see a guy give oral sex to a girl. Someone snorts coke off a girl’s stomach. Elsewhere, Kevin is seen having sex with a woman. We see nudity and graphic sexual movements/sounds at various times throughout the episode.

The cultists smoke constantly. Kevin gets drunk and then drives. Jill and a girlfriend get high with a shared marijuana joint. All unbleeped, the f-word is spit out nearly 30 times, the s-word 15 or so times and the c-word four times. We also hear “h‑‑‑,” “d‑‑n,” “d‑‑k” and “a‑‑.” Jesus’ name is repeatedly abused, as is God’s (most of the time with “d‑‑n”).

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Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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