{"id":5266,"date":"2026-07-19T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T11:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5266"},"modified":"2026-07-19T11:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T11:37:27","slug":"hbos-the-leftovers-brought-fear-and-wonder-to-a-selective-end-times-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5266","title":{"rendered":"HBO\u2019s \u2018The Leftovers\u2019 brought fear and wonder to a selective end-times event"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>This week in Autopilot, a Globe series on great first television episodes:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><b>\u201cThe Leftovers\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><b>Episode: <\/b>\u201cPilot\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span><b>Pilot air date:<\/b> June 29, 2014, HBO<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><b>Stream it on:<\/b> HBO Max<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The best stories about supernatural occurrences are less concerned with the actual event than the human response. Belmont\u2019s Tom Perrotta understood this when he wrote \u201cThe Leftovers,\u201d his 2011 novel that follows the lives of residents in Mapleton, a small New York town, after 2 percent of the world\u2019s population disappears in a Rapture-like event. And Damon Lindelof understood it when he and Perrotta adapted the novel into a TV series that ran on HBO for three seasons, from 2014 to 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5264\">At Leader Bank Pavilion, Bob Dylan proves he\u2019s still painting his masterpiece<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>The pilot episode shows only a snippet of the mass vanishing, but that\u2019s enough to provide a chill. We don\u2019t see any bodies ascending or vaporizing, just the immediate aftermath: a mother, hysterically wondering how her infant son disappeared from her backseat; a suddenly driverless car, causing a violent traffic accident. From there we jump forward three years, as the town\u2019s denizens, including police chief Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), struggle with feelings of guilt, grief, trauma, rage, fear, and wonder at what their once-predictable world has become. <\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>Why did they get taken, and not us? What does this all portend? Such questions give rise to end-times cults, chiefly the Guilty Remnant, a nihilistic bunch that wears white jump suits, smokes cigarettes as a statement (not for the smooth taste), and claim Kevin\u2019s wife, Laurie (Amy Brenneman), as a member; and The Divine, led by the charismatic Holy Wayne (Paterson Joseph), whose followers claim he can \u201cunburden\u201c anyone with a simple hug. Meanwhile, packs of wild dogs run the streets, and teens, including Kevin\u2019s daughter, Jill (a breakout role for current star Margaret Qualley), indulge in party games that might make the \u201cEuphoria\u201d kids blush. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5262\">Father and daughter to unite on the Tanglewood stage<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe Leftovers\u201d was a slow-burning study of mass panic and hysteria, and the pilot set the table appropriately. Lindelof, coming off the cultural phenomenon of \u201cLost,\u201d had no trouble telling an open-ended story that preferred raising questions to providing answers. How stacked was the cast? We\u2019re at the end of the fourth paragraph here and just now mentioning the great Carrie Coon, who plays the grieving widow Nora Durst (admittedly a minor player in the pilot).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe Leftovers\u201d dared to set its eschatological problems in the realm of the everyday, where we all live. The pilot marked a gripping beginning to a series about what the end might mean. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5260\">Patricia Lockwood wins Gabe Hudson Prize for a dark, comic COVID-19 novel<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The adaptation of Tom Perrotta&#8217;s 2011 novel debuted in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>HBO\u2019s \u2018The Leftovers\u2019 brought fear and wonder to a selective end-times event - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5266\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HBO\u2019s \u2018The Leftovers\u2019 brought fear and wonder to a selective end-times event - 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