TV Underdogs: Looking at ‘The Leftovers’ season 3 (and hoping for more Matt)
We made it no secret that “The Leftovers” season 2 was our favorite work of television in 2015. The writing was superb, and the same certainly goes for many of the performances. The fact that so many actors had their own episodes gave us opportunities to dive into the narrative for every one of them, to understand why they were and what they were hoping to get out of the world.
While there were many shining lights through the darkness that is this show’s world, Matt Jamison to us remains the most interesting, an almost-perpetual optimist despite the fact he really has no reason to be. Christopher Eccleston was Emmy-caliber throughout, and our hope here is that moving forward, he’ll get more chances to shine beyond one episode and a few shortened storylines in a season. We’ve certainly got some suggestions in the latest chapter of our TV Underdogs series.
Why he’s an underdog – Matt is one of the most emotional characters on the show, and he’s the sort of person you connect to right away. He embraces the underdog role in a few that few other characters on the show do: He is willing to put himself on the line for other people, confront corrupt, and take drastic measures to get what he wants. He knows that he is often facing insurmountable odds, and he tries anyway. It’s hard to think of any reason not to root for him to succeed with his wife and also his extended family.
Why we don’t see more of him – “The Leftovers” is primarily the story of the Garvey family, and as a result his journey is almost secondary and relegated mostly to just a couple of episodes. If the HBO series ran longer than ten episodes, then maybe that would change; unfortunately, that’s not going to happen, and the next season at the moment is slated to be the show’s last. It’s a shame, but also a reality we must embrace.
Ways to feature him more – How about giving us a chance to see more of him with the likes of Kevin and Nora, and having the family operate a little bit more as a unit? We feel like this would be a way to circumvent expectations a little bit, where you think that season 3 is exactly like season 1. We’d also love to see Matt find himself a little more of a flock once more in the midst of the sweeping chaos in Jarden. He’s someone who could encourage everyone to have a little faith, and has shown already that he has a voice worthy of being listened to.