‘The Leftovers’ season 2: Damon Lindelof on change in setting

There is not a whole lot of news out there brewing about the second season of HBO’s “The Leftovers,” other than that the series is making a major shift. Some actors are not returning, and even in terms of the setting we are seeing everything shift over from New York (where it took place for the entirety of the first season) over to Texas. This is a very big change, but could it actually be one that this particular series needs?

We do think that the show needed to do something. It’s intriguing in a way that Damon Lindelof is one of the architects behind the incredibly-optimistic “Tomorrowland” in theaters this weekend, and yet he is also one of the people responsible for one of TV’s most unrelentingly depressing shows. While the “Lost” co-creator is not exactly saying that season 2 will be present, he did tell the Daily Beast in a new interview (primarily promoting the upcoming movie) a little bit about the reason for the change:

“We shot the first season in New York and we’re shooting the second season in Austin, Texas. Most people sign up for a second season of television and they say it’s going to be the same people that I know and love in the same place that I found them last year. But some of the television that I love, The Wire for example, was never afraid to move the lens of the storytelling to a different place. Maybe The Leftovers would benefit from something like that.”

What we also think the second season will benefit from is not having the same burden of existing within the same source material. The book dominated the first season, and now we are preparing for an era of a whole lot more creative freedom for the show.

Ultimately, we hope that it is really good. We know that Lindelof is an easy target for some in the genre community, but he remains one of our favorite creative minds.

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