"Pilot" - The Leftovers - 1x01

After three consecutive monster episodes from Game of Thrones, and an incredible Mad Men finale, some time between the spring finales and summer premiers was more than welcome.  This spring had some excellent television, and not the least of which was Fargo, a ten part anthology format series.  The only reason I didn't write about Fargo was because a third show on top of Game of Thrones and Mad Men would've simply been too much.

A few weeks ago I alluded to HBO's The Leftovers, coming to us from Lost co-showrunner Damon Lindelof.  We saw these intense trailers and it certainly looked better than the other drama happening this summer.   

I'm unclear if this is a one and done season, or if this is story is going to extend to an unknown number of seasons.  I've seen it written up both as being picked up for a "first" season and being a ten part adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel.  Personally, I am rooting for the latter.  Fargo and True Detective will likely battle it out in the Internets for best show of the year in 2014.  While the anthology/mini-series format is not inherently better than a regular season to season run,  I'd like to see us spared the angst of viewers and the grief directed toward Lindelof a long term story would inevitably bring about when it doesn't perfectly align with viewers expectations of what should happen and when.  HBO tends to renew series shortly after the season premiere, so maybe we will get some news soon.

My own expectations are not that this will reach Fargo or True Detecive level, but that it will be placed in that tier of good-but-not-quite-great series with Boardwalk Empire, Sons of Anarchy and Homeland*. One big question about the series will be how much it the mythology plays a part in the show, versus the character's relationships with one another in response to the big event.  It's possible the 'Why?' plays a very minor part on the show compared to each characters reaction and their new view and status of life.  For all the mythologizing that Lost did, they still carried forward a great repertoire of characters and, for the most part, did not sacrifice their development for the sake of mythology

* The top tier includes Game of Thrones, Justified, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which I'll continue to include until we reach the one year mark of the series ending.  True Detective and Fargo gain special guest and probationary status in this tier.

Episode One
Friends-esque title: "The One Where People Disappear and No Clues Exist Three Years Later as to Why So They Commemorate Heroes Day for the Lost Which Causes a Kerfuffle with the Local Cult"

The episode takes measures to show that those who disappeared are not necessarily better or worse than those who were left behind, which makes it all the more puzzling.  One was a child abuser.  One was simply a jerk.

We'll get more into the nitty gritty of the themes of the show and the dynamics between the characters, but per usual, it's tough to do that with any substance after just 75 minutes.  So we'll take a page from the True Detective posts and pose some questions that will hopefully be answered this season.

Questions

1. Why and how did these people disappear?
2. Why did these particular people disappear?
3. Where is Mapleton?
4. Was Mapleton especially hard hit?  
5. It seems like they are missing more than 2 percent based on the reactions.
6. It would also help explain the next question
7. Why is the cult in Mapleton, and not elsewhere?
8. Why does the cult choose smoking as a reminder?
9. What is the cult's end game?
10. Who is Wayne and why does he merit all this money, security and reverence?
11. What did Wayne do for the congressman?
12. Why does Wayne want the girl protected?
13. What is the grace period?
14. What else has the cult done to piss off the town, besides stalk and be creepy?
15. Why did Liv  Tyler change her mind?
16. What does the dream with the pig in the hood of the car mean?
17. Why did those people jump off the building in the son's flashback?
18. What has happened with the dogs?
19. Who is the guy shooting dogs and what does he know about them?
20. What is the symbolism with the deer and why does that image seem so familiar to me?
1. Is it Hannibal I'm thinking of?
21. Why did the deer tear up the Garvey kitchen?
22. And how did Kevin know to suspect the deer?

Leftovers - haha

• Director Peter Berg gets a cameo at the gate of Wayne's compound
• Did you say Peter Berg?  Does that explain the high school kids played by those looking like they check the 25-30 box?
• One more on FNL - Buddy Garrity!
• The party looked like something the local news reports on as "the new dangerous thing kids are doing...and why you should be worried"
• The app does not appear to be real.  But should not take long before someone creates such an app.
• Pilots often take a big twist...an ostensibly main character is killed, someone is revealed to be not who they seem, blah blah blah.  That Kevin's wife was not taken and is in fact a cult member was pretty well telegraphed and only gets a 4 or 5/10.  
• The more interesting thing is that the Garvey family has been completely upended despite none of its four members having been taken. 
• Pilots also carry a heavy burden of exposition that can rarely be avoided.  So I don't like to give grief for a necessary evil.  I appreciated Kevin and the mayor's exchange, with her "Don't you think I already know this?" response to Kevin's expository rambling.
• The term "maintain the peace" is used more than once, and while not completely foreign to us, it is a phrase not often heard.
• The show opens with the protagonist witnessing the apparent needless murder of a dog, then ends with him emptying his clip into a whole pack of them.  We have different feelings at each point, though it is essentially the same act.
• Spent the whole episode thinking, "Wow, she sure does look a lot like Liv Tyler"
• Jill has a whole American Beauty thing going on.
• No one stands or recites the pledge, but....prayer in school?  It's a Post-10/14 World.