Tragedy struck when a global disaster caused 140 million of the population to vanish in an inexpiable manner. Now, a group of people living in Mapleton, New York deal with the tragic event and wonder what happened three years ago.
The maudlin cadences doubtless cast a spell. However, to approach the cult acclaim of Lost The Leftovers needs to shake off the torpor and give audiences something to cling onto.
So with visions of Lost still too recent, here we go yet again. But after reading The Leftovers and being immensely satisfied with it, I'm not inclined at all to embark on what looks to be a very meandering journey towards who knows what or where.
Grim it sounds and grim it is, but in choosing to focus on the kind of survival stories that no one signs up for but that to some extent eventually shape us all, it can be unexpectedly eloquent about love and loss.
While The Leftovers is in almost every particular better than the immensely popular The Walking Dead, it also has none of that show's cathartic, zombie-killing release.
The Leftovers has a lot in the way of compelling storytelling to offer, but unfortunately it's brought down by about as much that feels like it's doing nothing more than getting in the way.
I've watched few TV shows that make you so thoughtful. Lindelof and Perrotta make you think about the universe and whether our sense of daily purpose is too often diverted away from those who matter most.
