Did No One See the F@#king 'Leftovers'? What Is Wrong with these Awards People?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 11, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 11, 2017 |

There are a lot of snubs we can talk about among today’s Golden Globe nominations. Where’s The Good Place, for instance? Why weren’t Greta Gerwig or Jordan Peele nominated for Best Director? Why are there so many nominations for This Is Us? USA Network’s Sinner was fine, but was it really awards-worthy? Same with Jessica Biel? What’s Ansel Elgort doing on this list? Will & Grace, really? And come on: There’s no excuse for leaving off The Big Sick from best comedy or musical, even if that was an incredibly competitive category.

But also, like, what the fuck? Where’s The Leftovers? Did the Hollywood Foreign Press just not watch the show? Do they hate Damon Lindelof? Are they Brad Pitt truthers and holding it against Justin Theroux? Did they miss Carrie Coon’s unforgettable performance? Do they hate perfect television? Because The Leftovers was the best show on television this year. It was brilliantly written, transportive TV, a show that made us question our own lives, that both shook and renewed our faiths, that cracked open our goddamn souls and held them up for us to inspect.

I’m not saying that The Leftovers is The Wire, but I am saying that the show was a goddamn miracle of television. It went places that few shows are brave enough to venture. It combined spirituality, conspiracy, incredible character work, and questions about our very existence, and it did so perfectly. Not a lot of television finales stick the landing like The Leftovers did. It was impeccably written, impeccably directed (Mimi Leder!), impeccably acted and brilliantly structured in ways that This Is Us could never even dream of. Stranger Things season two was fun! But that wasn’t impactful television. It did not leave an imprint. Not the way The Leftovers did.

The Crown, Stranger Things, and This Is Us are fine television shows, but they’re playing in the shallow end of the pool. The Leftovers waded in deep and it rewarded every goddamn one of us who came along for the journey. It was masterful goddamn television, and while the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Emmy voters refuse to acknowledge that, the show’s lasting impact will not be forgotten by us.