To the people who are trying to fill the gaping hole inside them, to those who have this extreme feeling of melancholy, and to anyone who always have the deepest thoughts at night... The Leftovers is for you. An immersive experience from start to finish. This show revolves around the people who are trying to adjust to the life after "The Sudden Departure", a rapture-like event in which millions of people vanished into thin air. This is not about trying to know what happened to the people who departed, instead it is a story about finding comfort with the unkown, recognizing one's feelings, and dealing with loss and despair. Soundtrack is very soothing. The emotional weight of plenty of sequences in the entire series gets amplified by its score. The way this show utilizes music is awe-inspiring. Absolutely brilliant. Sometimes, I listen to the soundtrack of this series just to feel something. Thank you, Max Ritcher for composing "November", "On the Nature of Daylight", "The Leftovers", "The Departure" and more. Watching this show in this trying times is so depressing yet comforting. It is unreal and hauntingly beautiful. Everything weaves smoothly and perfectly together. My favorite series of all time.

This season is a miracle. Besides a slight misstep in the third episode, it’s utter perfection through and through. Potentially the most engaged I’ve ever been with a show, not once feeling like taking a break or not clicking next episode. One of the strongest central plots and THE best atmosphere of any tv season are the reason for that. The mixture of the music, lighting, locations, and of course cinematography made for such a dreamlike and, for lack of a better word, gorgeous atmosphere. Episodes 6, 8, and 10 especially were just wow, its always hard to describe what good atmosphere is but this season just has it. This season shines most though in its characters. Kevin’s journey here is one of the greatest in media and I do not say that lightly. He had a ridiculous amount of peaks and three of the best scenes I have ever witnessed in the well scene, homeward bound, and 2x10’s ending. Theroux’s performance is one for the ages and this will go down as one of my favorite character primes (if it even is his prime). Unlike last season though, he isn’t the only draw. The side cast’s quality increased dramatically with the introduction of the Murphy family and the more appropriate and meaningful use of the side cast. Jill and Tom surprised me the most, especially the former. It’s a serious feat for me to go from rolling my eyes at the sight of them to loving them and immediately crying when I saw them in that masterpiece of a season finale. Nora & Matt also obviously shined with their respective POV episodes both being 10/10s, but I don’t think much elaboration needs to go there. As for the Murphy’s, originally I found them uninteresting and strange, but by the end I loved all except Evie and I believe their development and the unveiling of their backstories to be some of the most masterful in the medium. I didn’t realize it at the time, but episode 1 set up so many small mysteries and important ideas with them that slowly got revealed episoded by episode until eventually we know what makes them tick and can’t help but sympathize with them and their deeply tragic backstories. John especially is so fucking good, his dynamic with Kevin is PEAK and he was unbelievable in those last moments of the finale. All in all, I think it’s pretty clear this is one of my favorite seasons and arcs of all time. It moved me in a way only SFU and Mr. Robot have, and I’m never forgetting that first experience watching some of the episodes here, especially I Live Here Now which still has me in awe. And for the record I still am not counting episode 9 though it has grown on me a bit. 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐃 1.) I Live Here Now (T5) 2.) International Assassin (T20) 3.) A Most Powerful Adversary 4.) No Room at the Inn 5.) Lens 6.) Orange Sticker 7.) A Matter of Geography 8.) Axis Mundi 9.) Off Ramp 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐋 #5-7 Season 11/10

Amazing season! Definitely one of the best, most impressive and unique of all time. I will say that it is probably the most “more than the sum of its parts” season of this calibre I’ve ever seen, if I calculate my average rating for this season it’s a 7.8/10 (hmm I wonder what plot/character/eppy’s fault that is) which is lower than any other season I’ve given a 4.5 or above for quite easily, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still warrant its rating because as I’ve just said, art can be more or less than the sum of its parts and can only really be judged by how it shapes up as a whole rather than separating its individual parts. I was blown away by this season and feel extremely satisfied with it regardless of the issues that may hold it back, which I’ll get into later on. First of all, I absolutely love the concept and setting of this season. The Garvey’s impulsively decide to move to a town named Jarden or “Miracle”, which is seen as special due to how nobody from it was lost to the departure. On a surface level this may seem like an odd idea and I was wondering how the show would pull such a unique idea off. In a show exploring the ways the world grows in the wake of the departure and how an individual group of people cope with it, wouldn’t a town that was “spared” from the departure contradict this as well as the vision of the series overall? Because of the way that it was written, not at all. While season 1 was an exploration of how people suffer, grieve and are torn apart due to the pain of the departure, season 2 takes a new thematic lens by exploring the newfound belief systems, ideologies and experiences that people make in its wake. The way different cast members respond to Miracle’s predicament and the overall worldbuilding is so well done and is arguably better at tackling the events of the departure in comparison to season 1 because of that. I also think the change of setting and general thematic focus also fixes some of the show's most intrinsic flaws from season 1, particularly due to how neatly the Garvey’s fit into this season’s concept in comparison to season 1. One potential issue I can imagine having with season 1 is that it didn’t really show how society as a whole coped with the departure due to its focus on more small-scale character work, whereas this season gets a great balance of both where we get a feel for how the world as a whole is moving on while still being small enough in scope to serve as a character study for its main cast. Another issue was that considering that season 1 was predominantly about seeing how people struggle thanks to the departure, having the main family of the show lose no one at all from it (excluding Laurie) feels like a waste and really makes it feel like the show’s main cast could have been selected better. In comparison the Garvey’s function in this season’s concept so much better, with all of them attempting to move on from their struggles by going to a town that will supposedly alleviate them from their struggles only for them to all fall apart in one way or another by the end of the season. It really reinforces that their problems can’t just disappear from attempting to move on without truly taking the time to heal, and it also begs the question of whether the departure and being affected by it was what damaged the cast and world as a whole, or if they were already broken to begin with. Aside from simply the setting and concept though, the storytelling here is also just fundamentally a lot better. I want to get to talking about some of the characters as quick as I can but I’ll just say that this is a far more cohesive and overall well structured season in comparison to season 1, largely thanks to how it further leans into the usage of single character focused POV eppys and utilises them in a far better way as well. In season 1 the single character focused eppys often felt like detours that were either just random or only added to the arc’s of individual characters without progressing the main plot of the season, and in comparison this season doesn’t do that at all. It manages to have practically every eppy of the season be focused on the perspective of a particular character (2x1 is John/The Murphy’s, 2x2 is Kevin/The Garvey’s, 2x3 is Laurie and Tom, 2x5 is Matt, 2x6 is Nora/Erika, 2x7 is Kevin, 2x8 is Kevin and 2x9 is Meg) while having all of those eppys play an important role in the season’s overall plot and vision, with all of these various strands and character arcs coalescing perfectly in 2x10. I remember in certain episodes such as 2x3 I felt like the show was merely trying to update Laurie and Tom’s arcs without being connected to the season’s main plot in Miracle in a way that would dilute the overall vision of the season, and yet once you see it all come together you just appreciate the whole journey so much more. Another very significant aspect of this season is the addition of the Murphy family, presented as a parallel of sorts to the Garvey’s with their slow burning conflict as both families try to maintain a sense of stability through their tribulations. They’re a pretty great addition to the cast that I appreciate a lot although I am a bit mixed on them overall. On one hand I love John, who is essentially framed as the voice of rational and non-spiritual belief for Miracle, believing that the way they were spared from the departure was a coincidence and desperately trying to shut down anyone who tries to influence the town by suggesting otherwise or representing other beliefs. However, with time it’s also clear that John’s bitterness towards Miracle isn’t as rational as it may seem, being largely driven by the ways he had personally been hurt and traumatised by people from it causing him to cloud his judgement. The conclusion to his arc in this season with him having to confront his ideologies and accept that there are unexplainable aspects to the world, something that’s further capitalised upon in season 3 so far, is something I really appreciated. [SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH] Then there’s Erika who’s not a crazy good character but has some nice conflict with John and is a great foil/parallel to Nora, Michael who’s nothing special but still isn’t bad by any means, but my one real problem with the Murphy’s is Evie. It’s nothing that ruins the season for me, but I really wish her and her motives had been explored far more. The whole reveal that she was actually working for the GR and didn’t depart really doesn’t have any explanation or as much weight as it possibly could have because she’s given like zero characterisation in 2x1 so we have no idea why or what motivated her to join them, making her decision as well as her overall inclusion in the season very arbitrary and like a bit of a plot device. You sort of just have to suspend your disbelief a little and assume that she did it for some reason without really knowing why, which isn’t a huge deal but I think there was a lot of neglected potential here. I’ve heard many theorise that Virgil molested her but since there’s nothing that outright implies this and makes it a believable interpretation I really don’t think this adds anything to her character, obviously I have no issue with leaving some things open to interpretation but if Virgil really did that it’s such a necessary piece of information to get across in order to help us understand Evie’s character, to add some depth to her and her motives and to help us connect with her arc but they just don’t do any of that at all. It’s a minor critique but still. [SPOILERS ABOVE] Back to positives though, holy fuck Kevin is so fucking phenomenal in this season it’s actually insane. Every second he was on screen I was engaged and so thoroughly impressed for so many reasons. The depiction of Kevin’s psyche and general disposition thanks to the writing, directing, etc in season 1 was already great but they truly levelled things up here and cut out all the minor things that may not have been working (for example, some of the slightly abstruse dream sequences). The addition of his dynamic with Patti was genius and is genuinely one of the greatest, most constantly entertaining dynamics I’ve seen in my life, not only is it constantly entertaining and riveting in a way that only a few other dynamics I’ve seen such as Price and Whiterose manage to match but also a fantastic example of when slightly more on the nose and obvious writing can be beneficial thanks to how their dialogue makes Kevin as a character easier to understand. This is all without mentioning Kevin’s journey to both see Patti as a person whilst overcoming her which is an incredible arc, not to mention how the stuff that happens to Kevin in eppys such as 2x8 and 2x10 is some of the greatest, most unique character exploration I’ve seen in my life. I kind of wish Kevin and Nora had been developed a lot more in this season but that’s my only critique, oh and Matt’s implementation in this season was so much better than in season 1 too he was great here as well. With all of this being said this should be a 5 star season for me and all of the stuff in Miracle is all-timer material without a doubt, but as I said before, this season is undoubtedly more than the sum of its parts and this is largely in part due to one particular character and plot… You guessed it my least favourite character of all time Meg. God fucking damn I hope this bitch dies the most slow and excruciating death of all time because she sucks so bad and I hate her so deeply. I thought she was weak although admittedly not as awful as Tom in season 1 and it’s insane how much worse she got, so much worse in fact that her awfulness made Tom grow on me because of how Meg showed me just how truly bad the characters in this show can get. I don’t wanna relay all the critiques I provided in my 2x9 review but yeah she’s fucking garbage and Tom still is too as 2x3 was also a bit of a low point for me (although largely due to Meg’s fucking existence once again). 2x1 is also a pretty heavily flawed opener too but whatever. Anyways I still love this season a lot thank you The Leftovers you’re a pretty cool show honestly!!! 🥇Kevin 🥈Matt (used way better than in S1 + 2x5 is a masterpiece) 🥉Patti 🎖️Nora (wish she had more to do and that her dynamic with Kevin was developed more but still a goat) 🎖️John 🥇International Assassin (top 10 of all time as of right now) 🥈I Live Here Now (top 60 of all time as of right now) 🥉No Room At The Inn 🎖️A Most Powerful Adversary 🎖️Lens Honourable mention for being the worst eppy ever written: Ten Thirteen