As a series opener, this episode a jam-packed, somewhat successful hour. Let’s get down into what Lindelof did and did not do well though. For one, Berg proved a great choice to sit behind the camera on this introduction to The Leftovers‘ world, doing much to sell Mapleton as a town on the edge, thick with tension and anger that’s primed to boil over into chaos. With him behind the camera, it’s also an atypically cold hour of television in its presentation – there’s a clinical detachment in some scenes that makes me wonder whether, now that Kevin has apparently “woken up,” things will get visually grimier in future episodes.
I’m digging Theroux’s portrayal of Kevin as a troubled antihero, someone with many flaws who is struggling (and often failing) to put the safety of Mapleton’s residents above his own shattered personal life and desire to figure out what’s going on around him. Qualley reminds me of Emma Roberts in Palo Alto – her treatment of Jill as a quietly disaffected youth filled with pain, longing and fear that she doesn’t even fully understand demonstrates an impressive range. It’s really too early to tell whether most of the other actors will do well in their roles. Brenneman, Gaston, Dowd, Zylka, Joseph, Tyler and Warren all appear to be doing solid work, but their characters aren’t in the pilot for long enough to really make much of an impression. Something tells me that will be a major problem for The Leftovers. The scale of the story that Lindelof wants to tell is epic, but he also needs to make time to flesh out the characters – otherwise, whatever paths their lives take will be meaningless.
Lindelof shoehorned in a handful of compelling mysteries here. Animals certainly seem to mean something on this show. We’ve got the dog (gunned down by the bald man, who is named Dean, according to press materials HBO sent me), the pack of wild dogs (discussed by Jill and friends at the party) and the deer (first seen frozen in the bushes, then run over in Kevin’s dream, then torn apart by the aforementioned wild dogs in real life). Apparently, the next episode is called “Penguin One, Us Zero,” which I can only pray doesn’t mean that Lindelof is back to his frustrating Arctic obsession that began with Lost‘s polar bears.
There’s the Sudden Departure itself, which could be religious but may also have been caused by another player (aliens, maybe?). I’m struck by the possibility that the writers needn’t ever explain the Departure – this is a show about the aftermath of an explicable event. Perhaps it will stay as unknown as it was in this pilot, and maybe that’s for the best. The Guilty Remnant and Wayne’s compound are other big question marks, though I’m more confident we’ll get answers about those soon.
One problem with The Leftovers that is evident early on is that it has a ceaselessly dour, depressing tone. Unlike Lost, which carried an air of adventure and mystery, The Leftovers is all about human suffering – the enigmas plaguing them are unquestionably second to their own pain and confusion. Hopefully future episodes will remove some of that and focus instead on guiding the characters towards uncovering answers to the strange things happening around them. Using the Police Chief as a protagonist is a smart move – no one else will be more exposed to the lawlessness of a world without logic, and no one else is better situated to untangle the mess of narrative threads at The Leftovers‘ center.
As I said previously, the music choices in The Leftovers really add to the aura, as does the eerie score. This episode featured “Retrograde” by James Blake, “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green and “Are You Satisfied” by Reignwolf, all surprisingly great picks for this show.
The pilot episode suffered from having to introduce so many characters, and that same problem may plague next week’s episode. The writing is so enigmatic that I have no doubt some people will have trouble simply identifying which characters are part of the Garvey clan, which isn’t great for an episode that’s meant to be hooking viewers. Outside of that, The Leftovers seems like a tantalizing addition to HBO’s lineup. I’ll be interested to uncover its mysteries week after week – until the polar bears show up, at least. Then, I’m probably done.
