8 Years Later, This HBO Drama With a 91% Rotten Tomatoes Score Is the Show ‘Lost’ Tried to Be

The conversation about the best television shows of all time can go on forever, with many naming shows from Seinfeld to Breaking Bad to The Sopranos to The Wire to The Office to the sci-fi phenomenon that was Lost, which ran on ABC for six seasons from 2004 to 2010 and was created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof. Lost was acclaimed for its intriguing mysteries and stellar ensemble cast, and the show certainly paved the way for modern hit series such as Severance, Yellowjackets, and Westworld, just to name a few.

There’s no doubt that Lost is one of the most revolutionary shows of all time, but Lindelof has also been very candid that the series was originally meant to run for four seasons, but instead went on for six due to its massive popularity. This extension led to some storylines being stretched out far past how they were intended, causing the overall narrative to be somewhat less focused. In the wake of Lost‘s much-discussed series finale, however, Lindelof proved what a finite creative vision could accomplish in his HBO drama The Leftovers.

What Is ‘The Leftovers’ About?

The Leftovers was co-created by Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, who authored the original novel from which the series is adapted, and centers around how people deal with 2% of the population randomly disappearing in what is hailed as the “Sudden Departure.” The story mainly follows Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), a police chief in the town of Mapleton, New York, as he attempts to keep his life together after his wife, Laurie (Amy Brenneman), leaves him and his daughter Jill (Margaret Qualley) to join a cult named the Guilty Remnant. The series also features Nora Durst (Carrie Coon), a woman who loses both her husband and children in the Sudden Departure.

The Leftovers, tonally, feels like a spiritual successor to Lost, but with a more fine-tuned narrative. The series ran for three seasons, from 2014 to 2017, and consists of only 28 episodes compared to the whopping 121 of Lost. Despite being a much shorter show, The Leftovers fleshes out its ensemble in a much deeper way by focusing on character first and mystery second, an inverse of how Lost was approached. Of course, in the end, Lost proved more to be about the characters’ journeys than ever figuring out the island’s true mysteries, but The Leftovers begins by letting the audience know this specific story is about experiencing a worldwide traumatic event through the eyes of a handful of perspectives.

It’s Time To Admit ‘The Leftovers’ Is Better Than ‘Lost’

Both shows explore the human condition, especially when it comes to grief, love, and how people explore spirituality and religion in different ways, but The Leftovers delivers more emotional, gut-punching storytelling rather than relying on mystery boxes. That’s not to say The Leftovers has an air of impenetrable mystery; the HBO series has an extremely strange and deeply dark aura that envelopes the entire plot. It challenges the viewer to sit in the discomfort of loss and the bleak nature of what the real world can sometimes offer. That may be a hard pill for some to swallow, but the series only excels because of it. The Leftovers doesn’t need mind-bending twists and countless cliffhangers when it has well-written dialogue delivered by world-class actors to carry it.

Even both finales feel very ambiguous in their own way, but all in all, The Leftovers delivers what Lost always sought to do with a more pinpoint precision. It’s a much more concise and condensed story, not just because of the difference in length, but in the way the series is structured. Season 1 revolves around the initial impact and how people navigate their “new normal” after the Sudden Departure, while Season 2 follows a journey of new beginnings, as the main characters seek new purpose in life by way of community. The final season, however, showcases the series’ biggest takeaway — the future is always uncertain, but the connections made with people are what truly make life special.

Much like most of Lost‘s island mysteries that go fairly unexplained, a greater explanation for The Leftovers‘ Sudden Departure is also very much left up to viewer interpretation. But The Leftovers doesn’t suffer from complicated lore added too late in the series — its vision is clear from the start. Even after a current viewing (or rewatch) of Lost, it’s evident that The Leftovers is the series Lindelof wanted Lost to be. A lot of media is used for escapism, especially when the real world can be very trying, but there is still a place in the zeitgeist for projects that challenge viewers to look inward. While The Leftovers may be nowhere near the hit that Lost was, it remains one of the most interesting shows ever made.

The Leftovers is available to stream on HBO Max.

The Leftovers

Release Date

2014 – 2017-00-00

Showrunner

Damon Lindelof

Writers

Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta