Review - The Leftovers: Season 2

The second season of The Leftovers was a complete triumph, as perfect a season as i think can be created. 

I really enjoyed season one but season two was a complete surprise with how they changed up everything that season one built up to. They moved the whole cast to Texas and introduced us to a whole new family, The Murphy's that we focused on for a nearly a whole episode until we saw our regular cast.

Season 2 starts with a pregnant cavewoman coming out of her cave when an earthquake hits and destroys the cave, the woman gives birth and tries to survive outside, until she collapses and starts to die while a snake comes for her baby. A ridiculous opening to the season, but amazingly by the end of the season it completely makes sense.

The best episodes of the first season were the ones were they focused on certain characters like "Two Boats and A Helicopter" or "Guest" and with Season 2 they focused on different characters every episode which was a brilliant move and shows that they listen to what the audience wants. This type of focus on characters made us really understand them a lot better, with some characters that were hated by the audience like Laurie, finally becoming likable, which i never thought would happen. It also helped introduce the new characters very well, like John Murphy, an angry man who doesn't believe any of the miracles in his town are coming true and actively seeks out the people who do, this character could of easily been a one note character, but throughout the season they develop his character and by the finale you feel sorry for the man. They also played with time very well, with the second episode, "A Matter of Geography" beginning before the events of the first episode "Axis Mundi" without making things confusing and creating a cohesive story, unlike the last few seasons of The Walking Dead were they've been playing with time in episodes but just doesn't work. The change of location to Jarden, Texas also added to the mystery of the departure, that is the through line throughout the series, because in Jarden, no one departed, which added a whole new mystery to the bigger question surrounding the series.

Matt (Christopher Eccleston)

Speaking of questions, my favourite thing by far about the show are the small mysteries happening around Jarden all season, in the first few episodes we see a woman dressed in a wedding dress doing normal household chores, we see a man living on a pillar and another man who walks around town slaughtering lambs and everyone in town is fine with these crazy things happening around them and unlike other shows the answers to the questions all make sense and have great payoff.

Just like last season the performances are stunning, with Kevin (Justin Theroux) stepping his game up from season one with a truly heartbreaking thanks to the horrible events that happen through the season with Patti mocking him in his mind, which led to the incredible episode "International Assassin" which was a season highlight and one of the best episodes of television that i've seen this year.  Nora (Carrie Coon) was just as captivating as last season and has one of the season's best scenes with her and Erika (Regina King) having a breathtaking conversation, Christopher Eccleston also got to stretch his muscles during his focused episode "No Room At The Inn" which was another standout episodes of the season.
 

Kevin (Justin Theroux)

With so many plots, characters and open mysteries running around in this season, i was worried the finale would disappoint and of course it doesn't, the season finale "I Live Here Now" is one of the greatest episodes of television i've ever seen, it manages to fulfill everything that the season has set up in ways i couldn't imagine, it was a truly brilliant episode of TV.
I really didn't have any negatives for this season, i found that Chris Zylka's character, Tommy, was hard to understand with some of his motivations with his actions and i feel like they didn't make sense. Other than that i honestly have no negatives for this season. 

Season 2 of The Leftovers, was perfection, brilliant writing, acting and directing, a couldn't of asked for a better season, thanks to Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, hopefully the third and final season can capture this magic again.

10/10

What did you think of the second season of The Leftovers?
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