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Reacting to Societal Shocks
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Reacting to Societal Shocks

Review of The Leftovers: Season 1, with Rob Henderson
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Rob Henderson joins me to discuss Season 1 of The Leftovers, an HBO series that ran for three seasons between 2014-2017.

Our conversation revolves around two main themes. First, whether this is a Christian show, or maybe as Christian a show as you can expect from HBO. We discuss subtle pro-life propaganda, and how it portrays family life. Second, we connect the plot of The Leftovers to what happened in the aftermath of covid-19. Like in the pandemic, in this show a substantial part of the population is no longer with us, and we talk about the similarities and differences between this fictional universe and actual events.

The Leftovers, Episode 1: The nuanced theology of HBO's new show - Vox
Teen, or “teen”, girls

It’s an interesting question what would happen if 2% of the population just vanished. I frankly don’t know how society would behave. It seems plausible to me that we’d see something like what happens in this show, where people have a day of remembrance for their missing “heroes” and otherwise go on with their lives. Or I could imagine mass panic and political and social instability. This is what makes the show interesting.

Other topics include:

  • The portrayal of small town America

  • Racial tropes used in the construction of the Holy Wayne character

  • The Lolita storyline, and how it has disappeared from popular culture

  • Age gaps between men and women, the lack of them here, and how much better Kevin Garvey looks than his wife

Expect a future podcast to go through Season 3, Episode 3, and then another to finish off the series.

Discussion about this podcast

Richard Hanania's Newsletter
The H&H Podcast
Connected to the Richard Hanania Substack. Discussions with Chris Nicholson on war, Rob Henderson on movies, TV shows, and culture, and more.