Another Miracle or Homeward Bound

Somewhat surprisingly, HBO has renewed The Leftovers for a third and final season.  The show was not well-rated, and viewership was down significantly in its second season. But this is subscriber-based HBO, and if a show is critically appreciated, or has an intense fan base, that might be enough.

Even as it is, it's clear HBO isn't in love with the show, so much as giving it enough money to send it off properly.  Perhaps they hope to work with producer Damon Lindelof again.  Here's what he said:

I have never, ever experienced the level of creative support and trust that I have received from HBO during the last two seasons of The Leftovers.  [Other executive producer] Tom [Perrotta], myself and our incredible team of writers and producers put tremendous care into designing those seasons as novels unto themselves…with beginnings, middles and ends. As we finished our most recent season, it became clear to us that the series as a whole was following the same model…and with our beginning and middle complete, the most exciting thing for us as storytellers would be to bring The Leftovers to a definitive end. And by ‘definitive,’ we mean ‘wildly ambiguous but hopefully mega-emotional,’ as all things related to this show are destined to be.

For those who had any hope that the show would solve the central mystery--why 2% of all people vanished from the Earth--that "wildly ambiguous" pretty much let's us know he won't.  But come on, can't you throw us a bone?  You don't have to explain everything, but point toward some clue as to what happened?  I don't mind it being emotional, but feelings don't always trump plot.

This news is not as big as, say, a new season of Community, but it's nice to hear.  Actually, I was quite prepared to say goodbye, and so, I'm guessing was Lindelof.  The show went out of its way to cap everything off in the final scene of season two--as ambiguous yet emotional as you could want.  There's really no way to guess where they'll go next.  You can't even say for sure if they'll keep the same characters.  And that's the way fans want it.