When 2% of the world’s population abruptly disappears without explanation, the world struggles to come to terms with what happened. Three years later, the HBO drama series, 'The Leftovers', is the story of the people who didn’t make the cut.
Based on the bestselling novel by Tom Perrotta, 'The Leftovers' follows Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), a father of two and the chief of police in a small New York suburb, as he tries to maintain some semblance of normalcy when the notion no longer applies. Created by 'Lost' co-creator Damon Lindelof and acclaimed novelist Tom Perrotta, the series is executive produced by Lindelof, Perrotta and 'Friday Night Lights' executive producers Peter Berg and Sarah Aubrey. Lindelof serves as the series showrunner.
What we know before we even watch the episode is 'The Leftovers' is basically about a small town in New York called Mapleton. After re-reading the book I can tell you that the creators remained very faithful to the source material, which is a good thing because the novel is very well written and the characters are deep, complex and fun. Two percent of the world's population has vanished into thin air on a day everyone has labelled as the 'Sudden Departure'. For those of you who think this is not a lot of people it's approximately 140,000,000; almost half of the population of the United States. We get a glimpse of the actual event, but the story mainly takes place three years later and follows the lives of a small family in Mapleton as they try to cope with the aftermath of this unexplainable event.
The pilot episode is very good and I can't wait for everyone to watch it and read your reactions. One thing I know everyone will love is the music selection in the episode is amazing. There are parts that made me laugh and there are sad parts as well. The acting is incredible and the creators/writers did a very good job with the pilot. This isn't a cliffhanger type show, but I guarantee you will not be able to wait to watch the next episode. I'm excited for the first season of The Leftovers and feels just right at HBO.
I don't want to give to much away in this preview, but if you have any questions I would be glad to answer them in the comments section. If not, then I hope you will read my full review next week after the episode airs this Sunday night on HBO.
