A coworker's take on The Leftovers changed my whole view of it

I watched The Leftovers when it first aired and thought it was just sad people being sad for three seasons. Then last Tuesday my coworker Dave from the paint aisle said he binged it over a weekend and called it 'the most hopeful show ever made.' I nearly laughed in his face. But he explained that the whole point isn't the disappearance, it's how people find their own weird ways to keep living, like Nora's lie at the end or Kevin's constant resets. That hit different because I realized I was so stuck on the mystery I missed the actual story. Now I'm rewatching it and I've caught stuff like the way the Guilty Remnant scenes are framed that I completely ignored. Has anyone else had a show completely flip for them after someone explained it from a different angle?

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wade87122d ago

Did you catch how the music cues are actually mocking the characters sometimes, like the upbeat songs playing during the worst moments? That was the flip for me, once Dave pointed it out I realized the show is laughing at its own misery in this weird, loving way. It's not about the sadness itself, it's about how the show refuses to take that sadness seriously, which makes the hopeful parts land way harder.