While we’re going to have to wait all the way until 2018 for more “Westworld,” HBO will provide lots of stuff for our brains to chew on next year, including the final, eight-episode season of “The Leftovers.” The post-apocalyptic drama sees Damon Lindelof taking viewers into a world where 2% of the population has vanished, leaving the survivors unmoored and facing new questions about their existence. The series has certainly gone down some intriguing paths with its premise, but the time is coming to answer the big questions. And likely still wary of the slings and arrows he took for how “Lost” wrapped up, Lindelof is well aware that he will have to deliver a satisfying resolution.
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“It’s a very careful storytelling process because you don’t want to frustrate the audience,” Lindelof told EW. “It’s one thing to say, ‘I’m giving you this box with a present inside and you’re never going to open it’ — who’s going to accept that gift? We’re constantly trying to modulate and fulfill the promises we’ve made. And it’s not enough to say that all we care about is the characters and not the mythology. But I do think with ‘The Leftovers’ the word ‘mythology’ doesn’t necessarily apply the way it does to ‘Lost’ or’ Westworld‘ or ‘Stranger Things‘ or ‘True Detective.’ Those shows have clearly defined mythologies. We don’t want to frustrate the audience but ‘The Leftovers’ plays by its own set of rules and will continue to do so.”
And in a sense Lindelof is right. “The Leftovers” does have its fantastical elements, but at the end of the day, it’s about characters, and their concerns tend to trump the stranger things happening around them.
“The Leftovers” will say farewell next year. Check out the first look below.
