HBO&#039;s The Leftovers

Eliot Borenstein

doi:10.5771/9781666947588

Summary

This book unpacks and analyzes the central themes of sacrifice, melancholy, apocalypticism, and the nature of family and home in HBO’s The Leftovers to demonstrate the key role it played in the development of early twenty-first-century television. Eliot Borenstein argues that the story of The Leftovers is the most sustained exploration of loss ever to appear on American television and subverts the expectations of viewers who look to prestige dramas as puzzles to solve by providing no clear answers the mysteries most central to the show’s plot. Instead, Borenstein posits, the series endeavors to provide more nuanced and realistic portrayals of the melancholy that occurs when people’s lives are unmoored, leavening an inherently depressing experience with absurdity and moments of grace.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-66694-757-1
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-4758-8
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 152
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Introduction No access
Chapter 1: The Lessons of Lost, or, Serialization and Its Discontents No access Pages 1 - 6
Chapter 2: Suburban Rapture: From Book to Series No access Pages 7 - 14
Chapter 3: Melancholy, Baby No access Pages 15 - 30
Chapter 4: The Shaman of Melancholia No access Pages 31 - 44
Chapter 5: No Child Left Behind No access Pages 45 - 62
Chapter 6: Giving Up Baby No access Pages 63 - 82
Chapter 7: Killing the Apocalypse No access Pages 83 - 102
Chapter 8: The Wrong Kevin No access Pages 103 - 114
Chapter 9: Letting the Mystery Be No access Pages 115 - 128
Conclusion No access Pages 129 - 132
Appendix No access Pages 133 - 134
Bibliography No access Pages 135 - 144
Index No access Pages 145 - 150
About the Author No access Pages 151 - 152