Pilot

After hearing a lot of good stuff about this show, I decided to finally start watching it. I haven't read the novel it's based on, but I am a fan of co-creator Damon Lindelof's previous series "Lost". I didn't quite know what to expect from this pilot episode, but after watching it I was suitably impressed and definitely interested in continuing with this show.

Unlike "Lost", which had an explosive first episode that really hit the ground running and left the audience gasping for more, "The Leftovers" is very different. This first episode is deliberately paced and meditative, with far more focus going to the characters rather than the story. The focus on character was always my favourite part of "Lost", so it's pleasing to see that Lindelof is giving an even stronger focus to character in this show.

Despite having a high-concept premise (the sudden disappearance of 2% of the world's population), the premise doesn't drive this episode. The premise forces the characters into action, and it's the characters who make this episode so intriguing and it's the characters who I'm most interested to learn more about, not the mystery.

Overall, "The Leftovers" begins with a solid pilot episode that has a lot of potential and drew me enough to make me want to keep watching this show. That's what a pilot episode is meant to do. Unlike "Lost", this show doesn't hit its stride in the first episode, so I imagine it will take a few more episodes for me to decide if this show is as good as many people claim. But, on the basis of the first episode, I'm intrigued in what this show has to offer.

An intising first episode! Not to many characters , but enough to make it interesting! The story is intense and plot driven, Damon Lindenhoff is teriffic ever since Lost ! Good acting from the main, especially Carrie!

Some pilots immediately announce a series with clarity and conviction, establishing a distinctive voice from the outset and signaling to viewers why the journey will be worth taking. The pilot of "The Leftovers" exemplifies this, radiating a remarkable confidence from its creators. Rather than prioritizing the mechanics of its premise, it directs its attention to the emotional and psychological terrain of those left behind. This decision-radical for a series marketed as a mystery-emerges as its greatest strength, inaugurating a journey that is at once compelling, immersive, and profoundly human.

At its core, the pilot of "The Leftovers" is less concerned with spectacle than with grief, faith, and the impossible search for meaning in the aftermath of mass disappearance. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta construct a world defined not by answers but by ache, where suburban barbecues, high school parties, and police patrols unfold beneath the unspoken question of how to move forward when everything has irrevocably shifted. Rather than offering resolution, the series roots itself in uncertainty itself-an audacious thematic foundation for what promises to be one of television's most emotionally resonant dramas. The fragile world gains its force through performance. Justin Theroux delivers a remarkable turn as police chief Kevin Garvey, a man unraveling under the weight of duty, doubt, and buried pain. His blend of weariness and simmering rage anchors the narrative, grounding its high-concept premise in recognizable human desperation. Surrounding him, Amy Brenneman (Laurie), Ann Dowd (Patti), and Liv Tyler (Meg) imbue their roles with quiet intensity, hinting at submerged conflicts and suggesting the expansive potential of the ensemble. As a pilot, the episode succeeds not by asking "what happened?" but by reframing the question entirely: "what now?" In introducing the cult-like Guilty Remnant, the fractured Garvey family, and a town clinging to the illusion of normalcy, it establishes threads ripe for profound exploration. The mystery is not external but internal-how do people reconstruct identity when certainty vanishes overnight? The series offers no easy answer, but in posing the question so insistently, it suggests one may yet be found, if only through the act of searching.

The pilot of "The Leftovers" is anything but light television-somber, bruising, and deliberately unsettling. Yet it is profoundly compelling, establishing a narrative and emotional landscape unlike anything else in the medium. As an introduction, it offers no easy answers; instead, it compels viewers to dwell in discomfort. In doing so, it delivers one of the most powerful and arresting opening chapters in recent television history.

When I watched this pilot for the first time, I was confused and not really hooked to watch more. There are too many loose ends and I wasn't sure where the whole plot would lead to.

I already watched the whole season and a couple of weeks ago, I started to re-watch season 1. The pilot is still pretty unsatisfying, but now I understand more and I also have an idea why HBO created this episode like this.

The music is fantastic, by the way. It stays with you and is beautifully crafted. The acting is superb. The cinematography as well.

It's a decent season opener for people who re-watch the series... and a rather confusing and unsatisfying pilot for people who watch "The Leftovers" for the very first time.

I already feel like rewatching this. The way it's constructed is mysterious, intriguing and beautiful.

Doesn't feel like any other show I've seen.

Can't wait to see where the series goes from here.