The Leftovers

While there may still be doubts about the sustainability of The Leftovers, it clearly seems to be moving in a positive direction creatively even as the show’s overall tone grows more pessimistic.

An uneven yet at times emotionally engrossing series that hasn't quite figured out an appropriate or clear tone to dramatize this mystifying meditation on loss, sustained grief and tested, twisted faith.

There's deliberate and there's plodding. This is plodding. Indeed, the jittery camera work and abrupt flashbacks almost take it from plodding to stumbling.... The acting styles differ greatly, yet none of the capable regulars hits a false note, whether playing subdued rage or over-the-top fervor.

We don’t get enough of a sense of the characters’ ordinary emotional lives, which means we can’t easily bond with them; we only see their feverish flares of anger and their smoldering discontent as the episodes run forward. If we could spend a few subtle minutes with a character such as Kevin, look into his eyes and feel his sorrow, the show would have a more honest emotional potency.

None of the performances so far are enough to override or ameliorate all the concoctions and detours of the TV version.

In the end, you may not be able to escape the feeling that the material, worthy and well-presented though it may be, is being forced into a format for which it's unsuited.

What keeps the show interesting beyond Perrotta’s set-up is the cast.... It’s a program designed to come at its theme from a number of angles--religious, familial, societal, etc.--but the multi-voiced approach leads to a lack of consistency at its core.

With The Leftovers, we know very little and care less and less as the story slouches along.

Despite a big-name cast that includes Amy Brenneman and Liv Tyler, at times feels like less than the sum of its parts. At least initially, the series is driven largely by its tone (Max Richter’s score is especially helpful in that regard), and it’s bound to make people think, which is by itself something of an accomplishment.

Some of the bolder horror-movie devices admittedly hint at the development of a richer series.... But those thematics aren't allowed to consistently breathe, primarily because the characters too often function as obvious shorthand placeholders for viewer projection.

The lack of a coherent storyline, even in a piece dedicated to exploring the lack of coherence in the world, makes The Leftovers a frustrating challenge.

Despite the silky quality of its production, The Leftovers is a pretty grim and suffocating proposition.