“The Leftovers is not for everyone!” Damon Lindelof assumes
The formidable HBO series of the 2010s was “difficult”, and it was done on purpose.
Some notes of overwhelming music of Max Richter And right away, we are plunged back into the meanders of The Leftovers (2014-2017).
Certainly one of the most beautiful, most moving and successful series in television history.
And according to Damon Lindelofit is because she never tried to put everyone in agreement. Invited this weekend at the ATX TV Festival for a special conference around the cult series of HBO, the co-creator admits that The Leftovers is not an “accessible” series. And that is precisely what made its strength.
“One of the things that makes this series so special is that it is not for everyone. We are so often asked to make our work accessible to the greatest number as possible. But here, the intention was different.”
With its dark starting point – 2 % of the world’s population disappears without explanation – The Leftovers deliberately chose the path of pain, impossible mourning and unresolved mystery.
Lindelof specifies, however, that the series has “never tried to exclude people voluntarily”. But the ambition, shared with the rest of the team and the casting, was to offer “Something difficult, which requires a real emotional commitment”.
It goes even further, by evoking season 1 as a kind of endurance test for the spectator: “The first season, in a way, it’s as if we said: ‘Stop watching, brothel!'” He gives as an example the episode “Gladys”, where a character is stoned to death – a shocking scene, but which, according to him, served a much wider point. Then comparing The Leftovers has Lostits previous creation, Lindelof underlines a blatant contrast: “In Lostat the beginning, a dog licks the face of a character. In The Leftoversa dog gets shot on the street … “
For the scriptwriter, the drama on Kevin Garvey, a Christian figure in essence, was designed as “A series on overcoming suffering“. Logic that she is not easy to look at.
Since then, the creator has continued to explore ambitious narrative territories, with Watchmen or more recently MRS. Davisand he is currently working on Lanterna series to come in the DC Comics universe. But despite all these experiences, he affirms it bluntly: The Leftovers stay “The series closest to my heart”.
