THE END OF THE WORLD - - - AGAIN

WIRED.com reports that a LOST herder has a new HBO series. HBO has ordered a ten-episode first season of the show, but no news yet on the premiere date.

Writer and producer Damon Lindelof's new project is called The Leftovers, which is about what happens to the people left behind after a Rapture-like event.

As WIRED reports the television series is based on the 2011 Tom Perrotta novel of the same name where the world discovers the Rapture has taken place, but it wasn’t exactly the one that Christians had anticipated would occur since there doesn’t seem to have been any logical rationale to who was taken, with other faiths — and even atheists — disappearing, while some deeply devout Christians found themselves left behind. In addition, no one on Earth is exactly sure what really happened, even three years later.

 So it appears that some of the LOST elements have been ported to this new series. Instead of just an island, it is the entire planet. Instead of unexplained smoke monster and light source, it is unexplained vanishing removal of people from the planet. One wonders if The Leftovers will have any left over LOST story arcs.

Perrotta’s disquieting take on the aftermath of a traumatic and mysterious worldwide event is likely to remain influential on the show, particularly considering that he co-wrote the pilot episode with showrunner Lindelof.

A departure from the LOST series is that the initial cast includes recognizable names like former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston, Justin Theroux and Liv Tyler.

I have not read the source material, and would not research it to spoil the event for others. But the pitch for this show has an overwhelming issue that needs to be answered: what happened to all the people who vanished from Earth?  It needs to have a rational mythology which viewers can identify with and accept. Once that mystery is revealed, the series could continue on with the characters coping with that knowledge and trying to reverse, re-boot or sustain the events in question.