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[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Watchmen, “See How They Fly.” Read at your own risk!]
If you’re already clamoring for more Watchmen after that excellent first season came to an end on Sunday night, we’ve got some bad news. Damon Lindelof has indicated that a second season of Watchmen is not imminent, even though there’s plenty of fan interest in seeing what happens next now that Angela Abar (Regina King) has presumably absorbed Dr. Manhattan’s essence with that egg. Lindelof isn’t ruling out a Season 2 altogether, but the showrunner says he simply doesn’t have an idea worth pursuing for it (yet). However, there is one thing you can watch right now that might adequately fill the void you’re feeling: The Leftovers.
Lindelof’s other high-concept adaptation for HBO was just as dizzying and glorious as Watchmen, albeit for very different reasons. A take on Tom Perotta’s book of the same name, The Leftovers was set in a world where 2% of the global population had disappeared at once, and there was no clear rhyme or reason as to why it happened. The point of The Leftovers was not to determine what actually happened to those millions of people who vanished, but to examine the desperate factions and cults of personality that would arise in the wake of such a terrible quandary. The result was a beautiful show that dared to explore the infinite and still, as the Season 2 theme song put it, “let the mystery be.”
Like Watchmen, The Leftovers is the story of a global phenomenon told through the lens of a few unique characters. The Leftovers doesn’t have masked vigilantes — or make the same scathing statements on the perniciousness of racism in America that made Watchmen so powerful — but the series does still have a lot in common with Watchmen when it comes to Lindelof’s signature show stylings.
Just as Watchmen asks viewers for patience as it builds a mystery that weaves together scattered journeys through time and space, The Leftovers expects its audience to play passenger and enjoy a ride that starts in one place (both physically and emotionally) and ends somewhere completely different. It takes time for The Leftovers to get where it’s going — with a few exhilarating and otherworldly stops along the way — but audiences can trust that it does get there. Both shows are deliberate with every plot point and eccentricity, and they build to grand payoffs in the end.
Watchmen and The Leftovers also share a refusal to adhere to traditional hero tropes. Watchmen both humanizes its crime-fighters and interrogates their motives. The series asks whether the world is really better off with a select few wielding such a large share of power — and if so, who is worthy? The show presents even its most sympathetic characters with the kind of conflicts that make their status as “good guys” increasingly nebulous.
The same can be said of The Leftovers, which constantly calls into question the righteousness and rightness of its central characters and pairs whatever moral strengths they may have right alongside their blemishes. There’s a family man and firefighter who burns down the houses of his enemies and a priest who gets blood on his hands. Without spoiling anything, the third season of The Leftovers delves into the concept of the messiah complex with a charming level of cynicism.
Justin Theroux, The Leftovers
Watchmen and The Leftovers can also share, at times, a deeply dreadful atmosphere. In both series, the whole world is just one misstep away from complete self-destruction, and the people who believe they are meant to stop that destruction are often imbalanced, unreliable, and as scared as anyone else. In Watchmen Episode 5, the young Wade Tillman (played by Philip Labes in flashback and Tim Blake Nelson in the present) walks among the carnage from the giant squid attack and screams, “What happened?” His state of utter confusion and hopeless amid the chaos could have easily fit into one of The Leftovers‘ foundational moments in the aftermath of the Sudden Departure. If you can look past the smattering of sea creatures, the moment provides a preview of the prevailing mood of The Leftovers‘ first season. That might not sound very fun, and it’s often not. Like Watchmen, The Leftovers can be intense and disorienting.
At the same time, though, both series earn quite a few laughs along the way. With Watchmen, the humor comes in throwaway gags like Laurie’s (Jean Smart) giant blue dildo and Lube Man. On The Leftovers, flights of fancy come in the form of a deadpan investigation into the kidnapping of a local nativity’s baby Jesus, a spirited Wu Tang-tracked trampoline session, and even a lion-themed sex boat. There’s an elegance to the randomness of the subplots in both Watchmen and The Leftovers. More importantly, those moments of outlandishness help to cut through the denseness of the material.
The Leftovers ran for three seasons on HBO and was a critical favorite, even if it was rarely an awards season contender. The series also inspired some intense fan devotion — viewers campaigning for a third season gathered at HBO’s HQ in the all-white costumes of the Guilty Remnant, a cult that arose in response to the Departure. However, viewership of The Leftovers was anemic at best during its run, so chances are good that there are a lot of Watchmen fans who have yet to experience The Leftovers.
Following the controversy around Lindelof’s Lost‘s finale, which many fans saw as infuriating and incomplete, audiences may have been hesitant about how Lindelof would handle wrapping up his next dramas. However, like Watchmen, The Leftovers has a method to its madness right up to the very last scene. New viewers can go in assured that the ending will not leave them hanging. At the same time, The Leftovers still allows for — and even encourages — viewers to choose what they believe, while providing ample support for multiple interpretations.
Put simply, if you liked what you saw with Watchmen, it’s essentially a more concentrated version of The Leftovers with a superhero bent. And if I still haven’t sold you on The Leftovers with this drumbeat just yet, well, consider this: The show also boasts another exhilarating performance by the one and only Regina King. So once you’ve made your peace with the fact that Watchmen Season 2 might not ever come, queue up The Leftovers to enjoy another of Lindelof’s surreal small-screen experiences — or, if you’ve already seen it, just watch it again.
Watchmen and The Leftovers are both available on HBO.
(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.)
Carrie Coon and Justin Theroux, The Leftovers
Source : TVGuide
