Rob joins me for a discussion of The Leftovers, up to the end of Season 3, Episode 3. If you’re following along, there will be spoilers based on how far we have gone, as there will be in the rest of these show notes. See here for Season 1.

We both think Season 2 was quite compelling, but the show has really declined as time has gone on. There’s a tension in that this is clearly a world where the supernatural exists, but a recurring theme is that people keep trying to find patterns in random events. Which is it? It seems to be a world of miracles but without larger purpose.

We also again go into this show being a kind of throwback to an earlier era. Things that seem to mostly not exist in this universe include Hispanics, gay people, Asians who aren’t girls in some black guy’s sex cult, political partisanship, non-Christian religions, geopolitical competition, and racial politics, or even racism.

My main complaint is that there hasn’t been much progression towards some kind of explanation regarding the central mystery of the show, nor many of the small ones for that matter. Rob agrees, but seems much less bothered by this. He informs me that there are only five episodes left, so we’ll see if we get to any sort of satisfying conclusion. It’s hard to see it, but I may be surprised. The show started out with a lot of promise and provoked some interesting questions, but now it’s repetitive, stagnant, and in a sense pointless. My interest in checking out the last few episodes is largely based on a belief that there’s no way it can go on like this.

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