Lost Over?

Caught HBO's new show The Leftovers.  It wasn't bad.  Certainly worth watching again--though it's far from clear where it's going.

The premise is simple.  On October 14th, in approximately the present, 2% of the world's population disappears.  Now it's three years later and everyone's still trying to get a handle on it. No one knows what happened to these people.  Scientists can't explain it.  Some religions claim it's a divine event, but there doesn't seem to be any pattern regarding the people who left.

Since Lost it seems every year there's another show about a community that has to face a mystifying and generally apocalyptic event.  But unlike, say, Under The Dome or Revolution or The Walking Dead, this is a different sort of apocalypse.  Life is different, but not that different.  Losing 140 million people in a poof is one of the biggest things that's ever happened, but it's still only 1 out of 50 people.  Many families are still intact, and all essential services and industries still exist.

So the question becomes how do you handle it. You can't act like nothing happened, but life has to go on, as well.

While we get news from the rest of the world (and even get to see names of some celebrities who left, including Jennifer Lopez, Shaquille O'Neal and Gary Busey), the show seems to be set in one small town. The main character is Chief of Police Kevin Garvey, who seems to be a basically good man trying his best to make things work in difficult times.  He lives with his teenage daughter, who's troubled but basically decent.  She goes to a wild teenage party where they play "spin the iPhone" and do wild teenage things, but she's more concerned with your basic teenage existential crisis, tough enough when you're not raised in an apocalyptic era.

The town plans a big celebration on the third anniversary of the Departure--"Heroes Day."  Garvey is opposed since he's worried a creepy cult that lives in a local cul de sac will disrupt the ceremony. (Like many basically decent heroes in such shows, Garvey threatens to be a wet blanket.)

This cult is known as the Guilty Remnant.  They dress in white, don't talk and smoke cigarettes (as a symbol that we should all give up and die?).  They're pretty peaceful, so I don't get why Garvey is so concerned,  They'll appear, hold up a sign, and that'll be that. It's the violent response they provoke that I don't get.

Then there's another cult living in a compound, though it's not clear how far away.  They've got a charismatic leader who's apparently able to "unburden" people.  This cult seems to be planning something big, though it's not clear what, or if violence will be involved.  One of the guys who shuttles people in and out, and lives at the compound, is Garvey's son.

Then, in the big reveal, we find out one of the main members of the Guilty Remnant is Garvey's wife.  So his whole family is still there, but scattered.

The show is created by Damon Lindelof--the man more responsible for Lost than anyone else--and Tom Perrotta, whose novel it's based on.  It features familiar faces such as Amy Brenneman, Justin Theroux and Liv Tyler, as well as relatively new ones, like Chris Zylka and Margaret Qualley.

While I'll keep watching, I fear that the show isn't interested in solving what happened to all these people.  Listen, Damon, I don't want another character study that tells us the central mystery doesn't matter.  I also fear it'll be too much about the sadness of the people left, and not what they do to move forward.  Though what can they do?  They don't know how to get their beloved back, or how to follow them.