‘The Leftovers’ Recap: Trying to Explain What Cannot Be Explained

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Emily Yahr

Lucy Warburton, the mayor, and Kevin Garvey, the police chief, on the series premiere of “The Leftovers.”

HBO’s new series “The Leftovers,” as you may have heard, is quite the bleak drama. The premiere picks up three years after 2 percent of the world’s population — 140 million people — evaporated into thin air for no rhyme or reason. The show begins to deftly illustrate the many ways the horrifying event affects the citizens of Mapleton, a small town in New York. In short, no one is doing very well. The characters don’t talk a lot about about the confusion surrounding the Sudden Departure, so the audience has to fill in the blanks. After years of research, they have absolutely no idea what happened. Congress is not pleased. Every talking head feels differently about the reasons behind Oct. 14.  It’s all a very weird, sad world, and we know it gets only more twisted from there. [link]

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