Damon Lindelof and author Tom Perrotta (whose book serves as the source material) are behind this supernatural drama, one in which a mysterious, Rapture-like event has made 2% of the world’s population disappear. And the show’s central question isn’t necessarily what happened, but as we’ve noted in our recaps, how it affects the characters three years on. And Lindelof has some advice to those perhaps waiting for the big answer.
“If that’s why you’re watching the show, don’t watch the show,” he told Vulture. Fair enough. And Lindelof and Perrotta certainly had to do a little bit of battling to see their show get greenlit, with HBO rejecting their first draft of the pilot.
“It wasn’t propulsive,” said HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo. “It retained too much of its meditative quality.” So to that end, the lead character played Justin Theroux, who as Perrotta notes was “maybe a little too nice, a little bit too marginal,” got beefed up to something a bit more complicated.
The network mentioned “the word anti-hero, which Tom and I resiste,” Lindelof recalls. “They said, ‘The anti-hero is the new hero. He has to be flawed.’ ” And frankly, HBO was right. Kevin Garvey is infinitely more interesting as a character who might be able to handle everything around him, and it helps zero in on the tone of loss and grief the show explores.
But what do you think? Do you need a big reveal about The Sudden Departure, or is Lindelof and Co. correct to keep the focus on the characters? Let us know below.
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