mercoledì 21 ottobre 2015

The Leftovers - the must watch genial tormented TV series

I don't usually write about TV series, but I had to say something about this one: The Leftovers. Given that I have only seen the first season, I will talk about that. 
I felt the urge to say something about this TV drama, as soon as I finished watching the last episode of the first season.
All those doubts, feelings, and unexpressed emotions I have been feeling for a while were just there. Right in front of me while the TV was transmitting the images of the Guilty Remnants burning. 
When I watched the first episode, I hated it. Hated it. I hated it so much I couldn't stop watching until I loved it in a way you love things that hurt you. It was like the pain and irritation of what it was expressed by the characters, was so deep and profound, I found it indulgentI didn't get any of it, but I could feel it was moving something inside me, until I watched the episode 1x05 and I started to understand, to change my point of view on so many things I gave for granted. 
Gladys was illuminating. Not only I got the Guilty Remnants, but I thought that in all that calm chaos, they were the only ones thinking straight. When you deprive yourself of everything and concentrate on something, you can only get closer to your spiritual self.
I love the way a religious man like Reverend Matt Jamison (excellently portrayed by Christopher Eccleston) is so weak and scared, but still having his faith in the Bible and the strength it could derive from believing and letting all the resistance goes in favor of the Divine comprehension. 
I haven't seen season 2 yet, so probably everything I am saying is going to be screwed with new characters and a new plotline, just as it happened with Extant, but I hope not. The message behind this series is too important to lose it. The Leftovers is a genius show, so twisted and consuming that it perfectly matches with the uncertainties and fears we are facing right now with our future as humanity.
The scientists say we are too many, the planet is overpopulated, the resources are ending and our extinction is near. In this time of fear and deep uncertainty, all of our belief systems are collapsing under the weight of an apocalyptic future and this generation is facing one of the most difficult times of the human era.  
The Leftovers is crystal clear (an oxymoron for the co-creator of Lost), but it is what it is. Only when something big happens, you are ready to go back to religion, family, a group to join, faith, and mysticism. 
We all feel that something is about to happen, the Maya calendar said it would have happened in 2012, but it didn't. Many scientists like Gregg Braden are telling us that our conscience is shifting, feeling the arrival of a new era, where cooperation of intentions could really change reality in something better, or maybe just something that feels safer. 
Not knowing, after all, is the worst: should we buy a house if the world is ending? Should we invest if the financial market is so dangerous? Who knows? Really: who knows?
The hope for an optimistic future faded away when the internet led us out of our ignorance to make us face the ugly truth: everything is not all right. So who is left, the generation who is fully living these times, is facing a tremendous dilemma: should we ignore all the signals that something is wrong, or should we just stop pretending and take action? Do we need some Guilty Remnants to help us remember?
The Leftovers is the mirror of our times and it's so painful you want to hate it, but in the end, you love it because those disturbing thoughts are the same you had for all your life: who am I? What should I believe in? What's next? Where I come from and where I will go then? 
Maybe we all dream for a Wayne to take all the pain away, or maybe we can let our uncertainties and sufferings be our greatest teachers. 

After all, not knowing is all we have sometimes, even when is driving you crazy. Knowing is the end of the journey, and you rather keep walking in the dark, led by the feeble light of a consumed cigarette. 



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