HBO's The Leftovers is the best TV show you're not watching

If you left The Leftovers after its mirthless first season, please, come back

Justin Theroux and Amy Brenneman in The Leftovers.
(Image credit: HBO/Van Redin)

Some of 2015's buzziest dramas stumbled when they were expected to soar. True Detective followed up a thrilling first season with a turgid retread. Game of Thrones tested viewers' patience with an uncomfortable rape scene. The Walking Dead "killed" a fan favorite character just long enough to convince people he had actually died before bringing him back to life.

Defying the trend is HBO's The Leftovers, whose second season has delivered one extraordinary episode after another. Among those who care about quality television, The Leftovers should be a weekly conversation starter and a top-tier Emmy contender. Instead, the show teeters on the precipice of cancellation, regularly drawing fewer than 700,000 same-day viewers — or less than a quarter of what True Detective attracted for its season two premiere.

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Mark Lieberman is a reporter for the Current Newspapers, a print weekly in Washington, D.C. His writing about arts and culture has appeared in The Week, Paste, Slant and DCist.