I was very recently asked if I did requests, to which I am always open to, as well as,  questions or suggestions. Criticisms: well you can keep them to yourself.

The request was from an old friend. We first met commuting to college in 1984 then later worked together at an Industrial Museum in the late 80s and finally sharing office space in the late 90s and early 00s. 

He asked two interlinked questions:-

• What to do with left overs?
• Which flavours go together better?

The use of the term ‘left overs’ steered me away from cooking (please see The Leftovers (Part 2) for foodie ponderings). I remembered with a vagueness a very subtle tv show shown by Sky in the UK made by the wonderful HBO, entitled “The Leftovers”. It told the story of an event, a moment, a blinking of an eye when the world changed. People just vanished! A day to be judged and delivered – A rapture without the rapturous journey skyward to heaven. The main story surrounds the people left behind – ‘The Leftovers’ and how they try to live a normal life after an abnormal event. We join them almost 3 years passed the original Leavers Day.

There were 3 seasons of the show. The last and concluding broadcast in late summer/early autumn 2017. I had watched all 3 seasons deciding that during the first and second seasons there was something missing, but compelling me to want to know more. The cast, the script, the plot, the cinematography or the incidental music; I could not put my finger on it.

Season 2 ended a couple of weeks before Sam died. Meaning season 3 was planned and indeed transmitted in the middle of my “Lost-time” – an apt title that best describes how I was feeling and the void in my memory of those days.

Watching the cast strive for closure; trying to get on with a life without answer! Season 3 it hit me like a revelation – I understood what was missing! Every actor, every technician, every writer, were worthy of a lifetime Emmy for they had explored & captured;  the sense of loss; and then multiplied answer on a planetary scale.

So what do you do with “The Leftovers”? How do you make ‘what was’ into ‘what is’ & (God willing) ‘what can be’?

TV does give us a clue when they say…

To Be Continued…