Station Eleven is right there

Station Eleven... did not live up to its potential. But I'm still pleasantly surprised to still see it be mentioned on here. It was a good watch.

It reminds me of the WWZ book.

I don't see it as a spiritual successor any more than any other post apocalyptic show. The Last of Us (based on the game and the show so far) is pretty much devoid of the characteristics that defined The Leftovers like the complete mystery/lack of interest in solving that mystery, the high concept storytelling, the focus on the existential angst of grief rather than processing it and moving on etc.

While it feels like blasphemy at this point, The Last of Us has way more in common with The Walking Dead than The Leftovers. The Last of Us is likely to be a Game of Thrones level HBO mega hit while The Leftovers was a specific critical darling with a devoted but modest fandom, and there's a reason for that.

TLDR: TLOU wouldn't make "International Assassin."

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TLOU blows the leftovers out of the water.

I swear to god of all the things that reddit overrates, The Leftovers is the top of the list.

The last of us is a level above the leftovers, the leftovers is supremely overrated on this site.

Finally! Someone with a little sense.

I tried really hard to like the series, gave it around 1,5 seasons but it was such a depressing slog.

Ffs people in concentration camps found ways to cope, laugh and even have fun. We have diaries to prove it. Because that is humanism, we cope, adapt, learn to find some light even in the darkest of times.

Leftovers on the other hand was “human condition” as viewed by an unbearable teenage emo who just discovered existentialism and can’t stop talking about it.

I really don’t understand the praise it gets.

Yeah, no…

Station Eleven exceeded its potential and was even better than the book. The way it ties most of the characters together is a massive improvement and incredibly well done.

I guess you had the books to compare it to, which might've been a benefit (that's rarely ever the case lol), but iirc I found Station Eleven to be overcrammed and inconsistent (but still good).

I can't remember specifics (I'm sure I posted a review on it here somewhere), but by the end the series just didn't leave the impact I thought it would when I was watching earlier episodes, and that's because the series went so many places and did things I thought were just lacklustre amongst other well done parts.

I actually read the book afterwards so maybe that painted my experience differently than if I had already read it (although generally I don't care much if an adaptation changes things from the source material, I get that you actually have to adapt it to a different medium, and there's always the benefit of hindsight too, especially if the original author is involved like with both SE and TLOU). But Jeevan and Kirsten reuniting after all those years really got me. Spoilers for the book, which I definitely still recommend, but >!they don't get that moment at the end of the story, they separate the way the do in the show and the book catches up with Jeevan later on but it's almost completely removed from what's happening with Kirsten.!< I suppose you can argue there's more convenient serendipity in the way the show handles it but the point of that story is human connection and I really think they landed the plane perfectly (no pun intended).

BTW I also recommend the most recent novel by that author, Sea of Tranquility. Something happens halfway through that book that literally made me restart it to get the new context, I never do that while reading a novel.

No it’s not, not even close, if anything, you mean Station Eleven