If you, like me, watched The Leftovers this season and enjoyed its full creative flowering into quite simply the best show on television, then you’re likely elated to hear that HBO has officially renewed the series to return for one more season. While the Damon Lindelof drama drew critical raves this year for its slightly retooled and brilliantly creative run, the show lost a significant amount of viewers in between the first and second seasons, meaning it was really a toss up whether HBO would renew the show. Honestly, I figured I would have to be satisfied with the Season 2 finale acting as the series finale, so this news comes as a wonderful surprise.
Lindelof returns to act as showrunner for the show’s third and final season alongside Tom Perrotta, the author whose novel served as the source material for the series in the first place. However, as Season 1 ran through the entire plot of the book, folks were curious how Lindelof and Perrotta would be extending the story in the show’s second season. As it turns out, Lindelof drew inspiration from The Wire and dropped half the cast, moving some core characters to an entirely new location: Jarden, Texas. The result was honestly one of the most creatively thrilling and ambitious runs of television in years, with Lindelof seemingly throwing caution to the wind and diving head first into some seriously bold storytelling choices.
The only problem now is Lindelof and his team have to follow up that stellar Season 2 run, but since they really found the show’s footing this year, I look forward to seeing them continue to build on this incredibly solid foundation.
In a statement, Lindelof praised the support of HBO and added that he’s eager to tell the final chapter in the Leftovers story:
“I have never, ever experienced the level of creative support and trust that I have received from HBO during the last two seasons of THE LEFTOVERS,” says Damon Lindelof. “Tom, myself and our incredible team of writers and producers put tremendous care into designing those seasons as novels unto themselves…with beginnings, middles and ends. As we finished our most recent season, it became clear to us that the series as a whole was following the same model…and with our beginning and middle complete, the most exciting thing for us as storytellers would be to bring THE LEFTOVERS to a definitive end. And by ‘definitive,’ we mean ‘wildly ambiguous but hopefully mega-emotional,’ as all things related to this show are destined to be.
On behalf of our incredible crew and superb cast, we are all tremendously grateful that HBO is giving us an opportunity to conclude the show on our own terms…an opportunity like this one rarely comes along, and we have every intention of living up to it. One more thing. We are blessed by the unwavering support of our fans and the incredibly powerful voice of the critical community. We feel absolutely privileged to heat up one last helping of leftovers.”
It’s unclear which of the core cast members will be returning in the third season, but I’d be surprised if we didn’t see at least Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Christopher Eccleston, and of course Liv Tyler, who showed colors we’d never seen before this season. In post-mortem interviews Lindelof also teased that he wasn’t done telling the story of the show’s new characters, so we may not have seen the last of Regina King or Kevin Carroll.
What do you think, folks? Were you as big a fan of Season 2 as I was? Are you excited or nervous for a third season? Sound off in the comments below, and click here for a full database of all the shows that have been renewed or cancelled.
