Sneak Preview of THE LEFTOVERS: Grace Period is Over
Last night Dorin and I had the opportunity to see a theater preview of the pilot for The Leftovers, the new HBO series from Damon Lindelof and Tom Perotta premiering June 29. Based on Mr. Perotta’s 2011 novel of the same name, The Leftovers is about those that remain after a “rapture-like” event suddenly and mysteriously takes 2% of the human population. No one (yet) knows what happened or why. But it’s not a case of the good being taken while the bad are left… we hear on the news as well as from Matt Jamison (played by Christopher Eccelston) that people who have committed crimes like child abuse have disappeared.
How and why these people… dubbed “heroes” mainly because no one really knows what else to call them… disappeared is at the center of the story, but not because they are actively trying to figure out the mystery. No, the story really is about how those “leftover” are dealing, or not, with the disappearance.
We start with a scene you’ve seen many times if you’ve seen any promos for the show at all… on October 14, a young mother with her crying baby boy Sam. She is distracted, almost ignoring his wails, much to the chagrin of those around her. No, she just keeps doing laundry and talking on her phone. As if on automatic, she puts him in the back seat of the car and chatters away on her phone, eventually trying to quiet her son… until she looks back and he is gone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shn1mPejr_4
So since an innocent little baby was taken, it must be the good that are gone, right? Not so fast. Seconds later we see a shopping cart go across the parking lot while a small boy screams for his father who has also just disappeared. If it’s just the good, why would this small boy remain? What evil could he have done? Then a suddenly driverless car crashes into another… and it has begun.
But that’s not what we see next. No, the chaos and mystery is not for us, not yet at least. We jump forward 3 years to the day before the anniversary of the event, a day now referred to as “Heroes Day.” As the news recants the numbers taken (which one commentator refers to as a very small percentage yet the numbers seem to be uniform across the countries listed, around 1.5 million each) we see people getting on with their lives… sort of. The mayor and council planning the day of remembrance, the couple talking about wedding plans, the high schoolers making faces and living like there may be no tomorrow, the guilt-ridden and burdened adults looking for absolution, the “GR” (Guilty Remnants) trying to make people remember, and the chief of police trying to get on with his life the best he knows how… and not doing too well.
And then there’s Dean. And the dogs.
And that’s as much of the story as I’m going to say. It’s actually quite a lot, but it doesn’t really spoil anything. Like Mr. Lindelof’s Lost, the heart of the story is SEEING what the people do, experiencing with them the confusion, anxiety, uncertainty, boredom, and dread. And this is just the first episode, so the point is to intrigue you, to make you keep coming back for more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3aHP3lMl0
And it did. Both Dorin and I left the theater wanting to watch the next episode. We want answers. Why were some taken and others not? Why do the GRs wear white and smoke? Who is Wayne? And after three years, is it over, or will something else happen? (I know better with Damon… for each answer we get, two more will appear in its place!) But for now I can say that if you enjoy a quiet but daunting mystery that explores characters and their motivations, you should check it out. Justin Theroux does a fine job of balancing the responsibility of protecting the community as chief of police while trying to hold on to any sense of normalcy in his personal life. Liv Tyler, Ann Dowd, and Amy Brenneman say volumes even without saying much at all. Actually, the whole cast has me interested… for now.
So will you watch it? Let us know. And if you have HBO, maybe Dorin and I can come over to watch the rest of the series. And RIP Dudley.
