The Leftovers, Peak TV, and the Art of the Single Episode

Mild spoilers for all three seasons of The Leftovers follow.

Everyone knows about “Peak TV” — the idea that there’s so much fantastic television currently airing that it’s almost a king’s ransom of options. With the dissolution of the mid-budget Hollywood film and the rise of streaming networks like Hulu and Amazon, the small screen has become the place for creators to tell compelling, character-driven stories.

One of the downsides (if that’s even the right word) to this is that there’s so many good shows that some inevitably fall through the cracks and don’t build a following they deserve. One such show is The Leftovers, Damon Lindelof’s latest opus about a group of people trying to rediscover normalcy after a rapture-like event causes two percent of the world’s population to vanish. It’s a mediation on grief that’s been hailed by many critics as a masterpiece. It’s also a perfect example of what “Peak TV” has lost — the single episode story.

Networks are constantly looking for the “next big thing” to pop on their service in order to keep the focus on them. Because of this, the heads of these stations and services are handing more creative freedom to the showrunners than ever before. With prestige dramas specifically this has yielded the season long story, or the “ten hour movie” approach. Over an entire season we may see a beautifully crafted story unfurl. More often than not, however, this means that the parts are lesser than the whole.

One example of this is the Marvel-Netflix television shows, such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Both do show the potential of “Peak TV”, offering a slower burn story that gets into the psyches of the heroes as they overcome their own demons to save the day. But after binging both shows, I couldn’t tell you any one episode that stands out. Moments, yes. Episodes, not so much.

This is where The Leftovers differentiates itself. Lindelof and his writers have told season-long stories over the three seasons they’ve produced — from protagonists Kevin Garvey and Nora Durst finding love together to the disappearance of several young girls in a rural Texas town to the impending seventh anniversary of “the Departure” and the looming doom that comes with it. But among these narratives comes character-centric episodes that tell a compelling beginning, middle, and end, even if it means sidelining major plotlines for an episode or two.

One episode that stands out as a great example of this from the most recent season was focused on the character of Laurie Garvey, titled “Certified”. The episode splits the narrative between two points in time, watching Laurie help other characters deal with the impending doom they’re all facing. The narrative does skip over a key plot point — Laurie’s husband and stepson finding Kevin in Australia — to keep the focus solely on her. Another prestige drama might have taken the elements of this episode and split them across several episodes to keep all eight episodes moving the seasonal story along. But by having Laurie act as the central focus here, we’re gifted with a compelling single chapter that delves into the mind of a woman still traumatized by “the Departure” instead of a small sliver of a season-long journey.

That’s to say nothing of the season two high point “International Assassin” that sidelined all other plots to watch Kevin enter the afterlife (or some version of it) to grapple with the demons he had been wrestling with throughout the season. Or the trilogy of episodes across all three seasons dealing with the trials Reverend Matt Jamison goes through to prove his faith to God. Taken out of context from the entire series, these episodes give viewers heart-wrenching stories that are as affecting as what is offered across multiple chapters.

Not all shows follow the “ten hour movie” approach. Atlanta is one such dramedy that, like The Leftovers, utilizes single episodes to tell whole stories instead of just being pieces. Game of Thrones is another — at least when massive battles are concerned. But when the cultural landscape is charted, too many shows have sacrificed the single episode. In our digital age of watching an entire season of a show in a weekend, the larger story has taken precedence over the smaller ones.

Dramas like Mr. Robot, This is Us, and Westworld have charted new territory for where television can go. The Leftovers should be the end point — telling compelling stories that both stretch across multiple episodes and fit inside one.