From 'Lost' to 'The Leftovers': Get To Know Damon Lindelof's TV Magic

Damon Lindelof Overview

Damon Lindelof was a creator of the TV series Lost and The Leftovers who has always been drawn to supernatural storytelling. According to Fresh Air's Terry Gross, Damon Lindelof explained that he was particularly interested in real-world stories where the supernatural can and often does occur. He also said that the question that has fascinated him the most is what happens when he dies and he thought that the storytelling that he was interested in is really talking about death and loss and grief.

Damon Lindelof TV Series

As mentioned before, death, loss, and grief were all central themes in Damon Lindelof's TV series, especially The Leftovers. If we throw back, in its second season, the show was based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, which tells the story of those left behind after 140 million people mysteriously disappear from Earth in an event known as the Great Departure. Tom Perrotta, who co-created the show, also describes the Great Departure as an earth-shattering event, which leaves the characters scrambling for answers that they may never learn that powers the show.

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The Leftovers Second Season

In an interview, Tom Perrotta said that he really likes the idea that the Great Departure functions as a kind of foundational event, and that the characters were in a sense living in a religious ground zero. This event has happened that basically was unprecedented, when 140 million people give or take have disappeared instantaneously. It resembles the Christian rapture but, of course, also makes a mockery of the Christian rapture, because they have not really gotten into a whole bunch of other religions, but there was just a sense in the show that new religions have all the energy and old religions seem bewildered and silent in the face of this literally earth-shattering event.

Interest In Conspiracy Theories

Not only as mentioned before, Tom Perrotta also explained that his dad was a huge fans of conspiracy theories. He thought that certainly there were other television shows, The X-Files was the one that had a huge profound effect on him and his dad. Everything that The X-Files were talking about was a conspiracy theory, whether they were talking about the idea that aliens had colonized the planet or they were talking about the existence of supernatural phenomenon in biblical times. The conspiracy theory was an emotional coping mechanism, because the truth was so unbelievable. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta have characters on The Leftovers who were constantly struggling with this idea.

Fans Reaction

In the final season of the show, probably the episodes that were the least effective were the ones that tried to just tick off the answers to these mysteries and did not really do the emotional work, because the fans had really come to care about the people on that show. Tom Perrotta said that the book was not going to explain where these people went, but it was about people who were living in the aftermath. It was the condition of ambiguity that he was interested in talking about.

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