The Leftovers—What the Hell was that? (Get it… the Hell reference, because the serie talks about…)

HBO's The Leftovers series review - No Spoilers

#TV_Series #HBO #The_Leftovers #Religion #Extremism #Awesome

Holy shit! (you see, I just did it again! Holy, because the series talks about...).

What was that?

You know, I always keep a shortlist of my 5 favorite things, like books, albums, musicians, TV series, movies... This one made the list so HARD!

First, I must say, it is hard to learn about this series nearly ten years after its release, but at least I didn't have to wait for the next season – Not that they have cheap cliffhangers (Damon Lindelof learned his lesson after Lost), but because IT'S AWESOME!

By the way, this series is based on a book (which I didn't read). It's just worth mentioning.

The premise of the series is quite simple: One day, 2% of the population simply vanish, puff, disappear in the thin air like a fart; And the ones leftover (get it) mourn their losses and try to find a way to cope with this "new world" where such miracles can happen. After the "Sudden Departure" the extremes become extremier (is that a word?). Some people will cope with Religion (Represented by the fanatic Christian, which I love how they are depicted in the second season, taking their regular hypocrisy to the max), Nihilism (Represented by fanatics Guilty Remnant, a white dresser mute folk who earn royalties from Marlboro and consider themselves "The Reminders" of the Departure ), Supernatural (Represented by the people who believe that the world is going to end, having hallucinations, and doing crazy stuff like shooting dogs on the street, and learning aborigine songs in Australia to stop the flood), and finally Everyone Else, who finds themselves in between these crazy people.

Think how a world like this would look like:

- Religion would become a science (Like doing experiments and even utilizing scientific method... seriously); after all, the Rapture was an event "predicted" on John's apocalypse;

- The constant conflict/recruitment involving the Guilty Remnant;

- People taking advantage of others' pain (like selling "miracle" hugs for 1000$, insurance, seeing future on handprints, holy water from a city/park called Miracle...).

Amid the chaos, we meet our heroes, and I cannot stress enough how well built 3-dimensional they are!

*It is good to mention that all of them tend to one of the ideologies, and even that at one point of the plot, they are part of the extreme, in the end, they are just trying to navigate this new world. Yeah, Laurie, I'm talking about you.*

The protagonist is obviously interesting. Kevin Garvey Jr. (Justin Theroux), the chief of police whose wife Laurie (Amy Brenneman) became part of the Guilty Remnant cult, his father Kevin (Scott Glenn, also known as Stick - the old chief of police - I love this guy!) is in an hospice hearing spirits, his daughter Jill (Margaret Qualley - Also know as Maid - Love her as well!) wants to fuck the world, and his foster son Tom (Chris Zylka) also joined a cult known as the hugger's club (ai ai!). Yes, Kevin’s life is fucked up, and he’s also Jesus… kinda. Anyway, Justin Theroux is a great actor. His performance is perfect, including the 99.991.275x he cries in the show.

But I don't want to talk about him. I want to talk about the really good stuff: the Women!

THEY ARE AWESOME!

I never saw best development of character in women. I wonder why Laurie or Nora aren't the main protagonists!

Laurie is a Psychiatrist who wants a dog, very confident in life, but loses the most precious thing during the Sudden Departure. Not able to cope with her reality, she gives up on her family and joins the Guilty Remnant. Years later, during the cult's largest demonstration, Laurie almost got her daughter, Jill, killed. Because of that (spoiler alert), she quits the GR and is left with nothing, trying to piece her life back together. Here is one character you will hate, love, hate again, say "what-a-fuck?" or “don’t you dare get in that water!”, and love much more. She is the smartest character in the plot, and in the end, you just wish her to be happy.

Patti Levin (Ann Dowd): She's the queen of the Guilty Remnant. She has one of the most twisted stories, and it's also the BEST BITCH! Due to a tough life (and a good Jeopardy game), she joins the GR after the Departure. She's the primary antagonist (later is Meg, Liv Tyler, who was surprisingly good as a villain), that later becomes a mentor and then an accomplice. Patti is a reminder that in the series, like in life, there's no good or evil, just grey. Remember that the GM is a bunch of mute white-dressed people, so you can imagine how good actress Ann must be by playing someone who doesn't speak. Ann Dowd, or Aunt Lydia for the dearests, is a hell of an actress!

I already mentioned Meg (Liv Tyler). She has an useless backstory (Seriously... the justification of her downfall is a bit crassssss), and besides Liv Tyler delivering a good performance, there's not too much on her character.

Erika Murphy (Regina King) is a doctor, married to a very fucked up man called John (an ex-con who shot his 3-day-resurrection-type-of-Jesus Father in Law). She loses her daughter in early season 2, and that's how the troubles begin. In Season 2, Erika and Nora are the highlights, both in performance and character development.

FYI: Regina King is Awesome!

Then, there's Nora (Carrie Coon)!

Oh, Nora. =)

She's the most astounding character in the show. In a split second, she lost her whole family (Cheat husband and two kids), a chance of apparently 1 in 128.000. Nora is a warrior, working in the Government-Insurance-of-the-Sudden-Departure kind of job that reminds her of her loss every day. She's by far the strongest character on the show!

I can't talk much about her without giving spoilers, but I can say that she delivers the best monolog in the last episode, explaining where the departed went. It is simply... so... intelligent (I take my hat to the writers on this dialog... really!).

Carrie, you are the best. I kept washing episode after episode just to know what would happen with Nora. She was not Jesus, but she was by far the best, thanks to your performance.

NOTE: I know there's a theory that Nora may be lying in the aforementioned dialog, but I don't want to live in a world where she's lying. As Nora keeps saying, she never lies (even though she omits... =P).

In short, watch it. It is available on Amazon Prime and HBO+.

My score is 8,5/10.

Which is to say a lot, considering that I'm the pickiest person in the world for series and movies (ask Paula or my brother André, and you will know how I screw up The Witcher for him).

Ah... Almost forgot. There's a Priest called Matt (Christopher Eccleston), Nora's brother, who is fucked all the time. His character is kind of a cliche (Like the Priest Damien Karras in The Exorcist – A man of God who struggles with his own faith). Matt has a fascinating redeem arc, but in a very different way than Kevin. To be fair, he's a fool. =P

But I like him. There are no bad characters in this series.

(Except for Jill's friends and Wayne The Huger – Those guys are useless).

That's all for now!