Fans Of The Leftovers Dress Up As The Guilty Remnant Outside Of HBO To Get The Show Renewed For Season 3

Well I gotta be honest. I’m a little disappointed. I dont want to be. I’ve been leading the Leftovers Bandwagon and I dont want to stop. But A) I didnt think that was a great finale, and B) It felt a hell of a lot like a series finale to me. There are some diehard nerds out there right now in front of HBO headquarters pretending to be the Guilty Remnant with “renew” signs and its patently ridiculous. I love the show as much as anybody but you couldnt pay me enough to stand out there like that. Dont you people have jobs? Go back to your shanties. I think you’re actually hurting the cause when only 6 idiots with some cigs show up to protest for the show’s life.

Anyway back to the show. I liked it. I enjoyed it. As per usual. But it disappointed in the sense I guess I had the bar raised too high. Things were building to a fever pitch and with the 75 minutes to work with, I expected one of the better episodes of TV I’ve ever seen. And it just wasnt that. I’ll admit that I’m probably negative and biased because I hate how much the show took a turn for the super natural. I loved when they teased it. I loved when some things were subtly unexplainable. But Kevin Garvey surviving an overdose and then 8 hours buried in the dirt was too far for me. Mary Jamison actually being temporarily resurrected to conceive her child and then being saved again after yet another earthquake – its all a little too far fetched for me. Which I realize sounds silly talking about a show like this. Its like when someone complains that Home Alone isnt realistic. But the thing about the Leftovers is it was always sneaky explainable. Not anymore with the past couple episodes. Now its just full blown fantasy world type of stuff, and I feel like that can always be polarizing. The sci fi nerd in me still loves that stuff. But I thought it was at its best when it toed the line and you were never really sure because it could go either way.

It seems some people felt let down with Meg’s big plan for Miracle. In some ways I was and in some ways I was not. I didnt need C4 explosions. I didnt mind that there was no bomb in the truck. Its very fitting how she used fear and intimidation to cause chaos and confusion. Its literally exactly what she did with the school bus and the fake grenade. Thats kind of always been the GR’s M.O. They use tactics like the fake dolls and in this case fake bombs to make people remember and mentally terrorize them more than anything. What I did mind was how the big plan to corrupt Jarden and break down the bridge and flood the streets was basically to walk past the guards. I mean that was a pretty sad effort on behalf of the cops of Miracle. I certainly didnt want the show to turn into an action hero movie of cops vs bad guys with guns and explosions but the GR and the Jarden misfits basically just walking into Miracle was pretty anticlimactic.

Meg was so evil and sinister in the episodes leading up to this finale I was expecting something diabolical. Some Benjamin Linus shit. And it was basically like “We’re all just gonna walk across the bridge. Not the brilliant plot I was expecting. But again, thats kind of how the GR operates. Minimalistic. Prey upon people’s weaknesses emotionally. I guess it fits. It just didnt make for particularly memorable TV. I guess that can be on purpose. Like showing how fragile and delicate everything was and how everyone needed just one person to lead the charge to being selfish and violent to get their way. But I dunno. Just seemed pretty plain to me.

And then we come to the final scenes. Kevin Garvey with a hole blown in his stomach, back in his purgatory hotel. That final scene after returning from his karaoke song felt so Lost-esque to me I cant help but think this was a series finale. One last final earthquake and Kevin walks into his house to see all of his family – from Jill and Nora to Tom and Laurie – and Nora tells him he’s home. I was waiting for the camera to pan to Hurley and Kate. Felt exactly like Jack walking into the church and seeing everyone from the Island as he bleeds out. I dont know if thats just me being lazy or if Lindelof really does continue to do things the same, but that had a very Lost feel to it. And very final. Kevin Garvey finally at home – after putting on that Mapleton uniform again, kind of accepting his fate of who he is and what kind of man he is – surrounded by every one of his loved ones. I wouldnt really call it a “they’re all dead!” sort of scenario, but it certainly felt like it was curtains for Kevin Garvey to me.

I dont really know where the show goes from here. Miracle is overrun. We’ve broken down all the magical, mystical barriers that once made the show so confusing yet intriguing. The final scene in the house seems to lend some sort of closure to Kevin Garvey’s torment. I was REALLY hoping they were going to pan through his whole family and then end with Patti saying “Hello Keh-vun” and just cut to black. Like nope, it didnt work, the struggle still continues and the world is still a fucked up place. But they really seemed to end on a very positive, final note after laying it on pretty thick that the main character might be dead for a show that may not get renewed. Seems to feel very series finale-ish to me.

All I will say is this – I stopped doing Leftovers blogs for a while for the same reason the show might get cancelled. Nobody watches the show, so recap blogs arent exactly pageviews gold mines. Writing like 10 billion words a week for a show that the masses dont watch seemed impractical. The way I’m sure it seems silly to create a TV that nobody is watching. But theres a small, rabid fan base of this show that is worth satisfying. Every day Monday I get a lot of tweets asking for recaps and trying to discuss the show. I get more emails and engagement about this show than any of the other topics I write about. This was just a couple hours of today:

And I dont even know what the fuck I’m talking about with this show. I fired them back up because I realized although its a small fan base its one thats important. Point is, sometimes its worth doing something well that a small but worthwhile group of people can appreciate. I hope they see it through, and since its a premium channel and a name like Lindelof, I still hold out hope that they will. But when you hear that Law and Order reruns are beating Sunday night primetime HBO in the ratings, you almost cant blame the network if they just say “We know this is awesome, but they just cant handle it.” The Leftovers is like Marty McFly playing Johnny B. Goode at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance. Its leaves most people confused and turned off and the writers and HBO have gotta just be like “I guess you guys are not ready for that yet.” Go back to your dumb ass fucking zombie show you idiots.