14 October 2011 2% of the world’s population suddenly vanished without a trace. This is later called “the Sudden Departure”. The people who have gone are “Departed” and the rest “Leftovers”.
This is the basis of this three season series. Not the investigation of what happened, but how the lives of the “Leftovers” fare. Some families lost one member, other people lost their entire families and since noone has ever figured out what happened and where everybody went, there is no closure for most people.
“The Leftovers” is a drama, sometimes pretty heavy showing peoples’ deep grief. Of course there are some main characters. This is mostly Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), police officer, his daughter and wife and the siblings Matt Jamison and Nora Durst. Another familiar face that we meet is that of Liv Taylor.
The first season is mostly around a group who tries to prevent people from forgetting what happened. A weird sect-like group dressing all white with brute manners of making their point.
In the second season we find ourselves in a small village from which nobody departed and it became a popular place for hippies and other people, especially around anniversaries of “the Departure”. Then also here children disappear. Or did they? Characters from the first season overlap.
In the last season is stranger than the other two and more focus goes to Kevin Garvey. Much more than he cares for himself.
“The Leftovers” is an alright series. To me, by and far not the 8.3 of IMDb.com. The story is well written with all kinds of references that make only sense later. Even though there are not too many episodes, some still feel as ‘fillers’ and the psychological need of some characters is sometimes overdone.
Not bad, not great.
