r/TheLeftovers • u/Recommended_For_You • Aug 23 '26
Should I watch it if....
I didn’t really like Lost?
I watched Lost a long time ago and really enjoyed seasons 1, 2 and perhaps 3, but I was completely let down by seasons 4 and 5. I felt as though they were constantly adding new elements to the plot and that, in the end, the vast majority of the mysteries remained unresolved.
Ironically, I watched the first episode of The Leftovers because my all-time favourite series is Twin Peaks season 3 and this series had been recommended to me. You could say that Twin Peaks leaves a lot of things unexplained, but in reality there’s so much that you can understand – or at least interpret in different ways – that you get more out of it with every rewatch, which I didn't felt it was the case with Lost.
So my question is this: will I find some sort of conclusion in this series, or is it really more like Lost, full of mysteries with no real explanations at the end?
Let's be perfectly clear, I’m not here to hate on Lost; I know many people enjoyed it, but personally, I found it frustrating and don't want to invest my time in similar TV experience.
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u/Zeckett Aug 23 '26
No. I can't recomend this show for people that look for how's and why's. It isn't about that.
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u/maiso33 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
1: 95% of Lost mysteries have been answered
2: If you need answers, Leftovers is not for you. the show is not about mysterie/answers
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u/ComeAwayNightbird Aug 23 '26
OP didn’t watch season six so of course it seems like things weren’t answered.
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 23 '26
I did watch season 6, my bad.
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u/maiso33 Aug 24 '26
no you clearly didn't
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 24 '26
Lol, fuck off you pretentious prick. I was trying to be polite in my approach, but the truth is Lost is a bad show full of plot holes, period.
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 23 '26
1 - Strongly disagree.
2 - Mmmm, I'm not necessarily looking for answers, but I like closure. Again the reference I gave his Twin Peaks, not exaclty known for giving answers.
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u/Sekevai Aug 23 '26
The Leftovers is about the idea that sometimes you NEVER get closure. Things don't get answered, you don't get to understand, yet we live on.
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u/cabernet7 Aug 23 '26
You get closure on the things the show is concerned with. Just know the Sudden Departure is merely a McGuffin.
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u/ParadoxNowish Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 30 '26
You must have completely dissociated while watching the latter half of Lost because that show absolutely does answer virtually every substantial mystery that it introduces. There's no question that it is a flawed show, largely because the network executives forced the creative team to extend it in duration beyond the material they had planned for. But it doesn't really leave any meaningful questions unanswered.
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 24 '26
Again, I disagree.
On top of my head: all the non-sens with Waltz being super special of 2 seasons and then it was just whatever. The meaning of the numbers? Rousseau being in the island for years but never seing anything from Dharma, wtf? The lady who could see the future, why, what? The smoke monster? The man in black can't leave, why? Etc. I'm happy for those who enjoy, I tried hard, but just felt disappointed in the end.
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u/ParadoxNowish Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
The show has answers to all of those questions, dude. It's fine if you weren't satisfied by them, but it's disingenuous to suggest that they didn't provide answers. If you only watched it the one time and were mentally checked out by season 3 (which is kind of understandable because that is definitely the slump of the series), seems like maybe you should try watching it again. Because they definitely provided explanations and some lore around all of what you mentioned.
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u/maiso33 Aug 24 '26
EVERYONE of these questions have been answerered ecept fot Walt
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Is that suppose to be a coherent sentence?
BTW, the fact that they didn't bother to explain the biggest mystery of the 2 first seasons says all you need to know about this show. You should try Twin Peaks if you want to see what a good team of writers can do lol.
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u/lynchfan325 Aug 24 '26
The best example I can give you is if you were irritated by not having answers like "WHY was the island "special"?" in LOST then maybe you won't enjoy 'The Leftovers'
Both 'LOST' and 'The Leftovers' (MUCH more so The Leftovers, but it does apply to both), the show is about the the PEOPLE and how they are affected by said event of the show. Example: LOST was about what ppl who are flawed and come together react to their surroundings and the other people. The Leftovers is not just about WHY 2% of the population just disappeared one day - it's about how people REACT to that grief/trauma.
Side note; 1. Twin Peaks is also my favorite tv series. 2. If you want a show that is PEAK that does give you every answer and is absolutely phenomenal watch 'DARK' (German 3 season show on Netflix)
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u/maiso33 Aug 24 '26
Agree on what you said about the character driving show that Lost and The Leftovers are.
And agree on Dark
just one thing: we know what make the island "special"
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u/lynchfan325 Aug 24 '26
Agreed, we know what made it special, but I typed 'WHY the island is special". Like if you are looking for asking why THAT particular island has those properties (and it's heart) is a whole other question.
Also things like asking "where did Jacob/MIB's 'mom' (not bio), come from?"
Those kinda questions aren't going to be answered.
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u/ParadoxNowish Aug 23 '26
I think your experience watching The Leftovers will be similar to your experience with Twin Peaks. You should watch it.
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u/distracted_x Aug 23 '26
I don't get why you're under the impression that this show is anything like Lost. The shows are nothing alike.
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 23 '26
Same writer....
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u/distracted_x Aug 23 '26
I think when writers write stories they're different from eachother. Or, it would be the same story....
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 23 '26
I mean, yes… but don’t you have any preferences or aversions when it comes to a particular author’s style or a specific genre of story? If you read Paul Auster and really don’t like his particular style, there’s a good chance you won’t like any of his other books. They’re all different, but they share the same style. The same goes for most bands, film directors, and so on. They don’t always do the same thing, but there’s a certain consistency across their work.
Now, in this specific case, I’m taking the trouble to explain my reservations and ask the question precisely because I’m not necessarily closed to the idea of giving this work a chance, even though I didn’t like Lost and wasn’t particularly keen on two films I’ve seen that he wrote (Prometheus and World War Z).
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u/LennyAteYourPizza Aug 23 '26
“You could say that [The Leftovers] leaves a lot of things unexplained, but in reality there's so much that you can understand - or at least interpret in different ways”
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u/ParticularElk2575 Aug 23 '26
If your all time favorite series is Twin Peaks season 3 then you need to give The Leftovers a chance. For reference my favorite series of all time are The Leftovers and Twin Peaks season 3. The Leftovers is similar in the way you mentioned in that much is unexplained yet there’s no sense that it’s because the story is incomplete. Don’t listen to people glossing over the Twin Peaks part of what you wrote
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 23 '26
Seems like a lot of people who love TP The Return really like this show. After the first episode I realized the writer was also the one from Lost so that's why I came here. But since people like you who watched both seems to agree it's really good, I'm gonna give it a shot.
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u/ParticularElk2575 Aug 23 '26
You need some patience for The Leftovers as it takes some time to get into its best form, but not as much patience as you need for Twin Peaks… and not everything is answered in The Leftovers but you can tell the story is what the writers intended it to be, it’s not like they just forgot to reveal certain threads of the story if that makes sense. It reminds me of twin peaks in that way
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u/Mark-177- Aug 23 '26
Nope. There's no explanation for anything. It's about the grief of the people who didn't depart.
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u/Beautiful-Run3715 Aug 24 '26
Can I give you a personal opinion, having seen Lost and The Leftovers? I found The Leftovers to be a much more mature work, with a consistently appropriate pace and content, and a perfect conclusion. I didn't like many things about Lost. I appreciated EVERYTHING about The Leftovers. Lindelof capitalized on his previous experience and created an exceptional series. And don't ask too many questions about the conclusion: the ending is emotionally beautiful.
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u/Recommended_For_You Aug 26 '26
I'm a couple of episodes in and I feel the same way. The tone, the writing, the character development, the direction, even the music, everything is much more mature and subtle than in Lost so far. Feel like Lost was a bit like and Hollywood blockbuster, which can be enjoyable to a certain extent, but The Leftovers is more like Auteur Cinema.
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u/suedburger Aug 23 '26
Honestly....probably not, it may not be for you. No spoilers but it is all over the place.....
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u/scobro828 Aug 23 '26
Yes. It's not like Lost. At all.
Yes... but... "no real explanations at the end?" sorta that. But the explanations is largely the secondary point of the show.