Warner Bros Television
So The Leftovers is a weird show. The conceit is sort of an inverse Left Behind: one day 2% of the entire world population suddenly disappears. And all the drama in the aftermath is ridiculous, but the show focuses on a few specific characters to see how they were impacted. The first season is loosely based on the book of the same name by Tom Perrotta, who also writes many episodes of the show. But the second season is all brand new material.
We focus on a new setting, the town of “Miracle”, rebranded because nobody departed from the town. It has become a kind of holy site and national park, attracting tourists and people from around the world. Our old friends from last season, the super attractive Kevin, played by Justin Theroux (former police chief whose wife left him to join the cultish Guilty Remnant, a group with odd motives and a vow of silence), and super attractive Nora, played by Carrie Coon, who lost her entire family during the event.
The second season plays around with time, teasing us at first with mainly showing us the new characters, a family in Miracle: father John the fireman (Kevin Carroll), mother Erika the doctor (Regina King), son Michael and daughter Evie. We also see Kevin, Nora and company show up, although how that happens isn’t revealed until later. The first episode starts the second season with a bang, when after an earthquake three local girls have disappeared.
There’s your hook for the season.
A bunch of things pop up here and there as we go through, like the new leader of the Guilty Remnant, Meg (Liv Tyler), and her mysterious new plan, Kevin’s hallucinations (or are they?) of Patti, the horrible backstory of Michael, and the mysterious nature of Matt Jamison’s wife’s illness. Matt (played by Christopher Eccleston) is Nora’s brother, so everyone’s converging on Miracle.
The second season is incredibly strong. It starts with a catchy new theme song that’s both evocative and lively, a fascinating new set of characters, and an immediate mystery. A great way to kick things off. Throughout the ten episodes of season two, the drama builds as we see flashbacks to how things got to where they are. Mysteries are explained, but some remain unclear. Personally, I liked that, because it’s boring when everything is explained.
The nature of the Event is never scientifically explained, and according to the creators of the show, it never will be. So it must by necessity be all about the characters and how they’re dealing with it. And it’s a very well crafted, highly tense season of television. I liked the first season just fine, but the second season was an improvement in just about every way. The show is also killer in terms of acting, with some career high performances from Liv Tyler and Regina King.
Some of the specific weird stuff may prove too much for some viewers, but it worked pretty well for me. In general I got to a point where I mainly asked: Man, what happens next? Luckily, there will indeed be a season three, so we’ll find out then.
Unfortunately as season two ended, those prospects for a third season were iffy at best and the Blu-ray was announced a short time after the season ended. It wasn’t until after the release date had been scheduled that HBO finally booked a third season, but instead of waiting to release the video closer to the third season premiere, as is traditional with television shows on home video, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment stuck to the release date, which gave them absolutely no time to include any extras on the set as they had with the first season. This is as bare bones as you can get for a complete season.
On the plus side, the 1080p image quality is stellar as usual with Warner Bros. releases. The image is sharp enough to see the texture of materials and the pores in the actors’ faces, colors are vibrant and blacks are deep. There is nothing to complain about in this department. The audio is also of the highest quality, featuring a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that fully immerses the viewer into the program. Voices are clear and centered and the surrounds fill the room with music or make you feel part of a crowd. Again, nothing at all to complain about … unless you want to know more about the changes that took place with the series from season one to two. The Blu-ray also comes with a Digital HD version of the season.
As Blu-rays go, The Leftovers: The Complete Second Season is a success in audio/video presentation, but a fail for bonus material. Hopefully with a third, and final, season ahead, Warner Bros. will see fit to load up the final home video release with a boatload of extras.
HBO
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