Why Isn’t HBO Talking About The Leftovers?
The Leftovers, forever snubbed, seems to be being ignored by its own network.
The Leftovers, HBO’s depressing show about a rapture-like scenario, has trouble getting a foothold for two seasons. It’s upcoming third season will serve as its last, but it isn’t something that HBO is talking about. We already know that filming has wrapped — that usually leads to at least some promotion. But all has been quiet. Granted, HBO wouldn’t want The Leftovers to take a bite out of Westworld (not that it possibly could have,) but at this point the silence is a bit odd.
HBO has been running a new promo ahead of its primetime Sunday night shows. The promo shows off clips of Big Little Lies, The New Pope, Girls, Divorce, Insecure, and many others.
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There isn’t even a hint of The Leftovers in the promo. Building off that, in a recent renewal announcement that HBO put it there was talk of incoming shows — specifically The Young Pope and Big Little Lies. Again, nothing on The Leftovers. The show was never a big winner for HBO, so it makes some sense that they would be eager to put it behind them. But that doesn’t quite excuse the level of radio silence that we’ve been getting.
We’re expecting the series to return sometime in 2017, but without any word from HBO it’s difficult to pinpoint, or even guess, when that might be. It feels as if The Leftovers is a holdover from an older HBO, and there is some rush to push those older, less popular shows away to make room for new ones. Yes, it does deserve better than that.
Next: Don't expect Westworld season 2 until 2018.
When HBO does decide to break the silence on The Leftovers, don’t expect anything flashy. We’ll likely either get a press release announcing a release date, or a quickly dropped teaser. Hopefully we’ll also learn exactly why all of this is taking so long, but don’t hold out hope.