The real focus of the first season was not just who was left to walk this earth, but how they were able to grapple with the question of why they’re still here. What made the show a pleasure to watch for me was being uncomfortably forced to acknowledge the why. Coming to grips with your own mortality can take your mind to dark places and for many that was a deal breaker for The Leftovers. Morgan’s life is like yours and mine, he says, “except there’s one small difference: It never ends.” He’s lived for over 200 years because he’s incapable of dying. Every time he’s murdered or voluntarily takes his life, he wakes up a few hours later butt naked in the ocean. Here we are again, left to answer the question of why. If you watched the pilot, and judging from the ratings many of you did not, you know there isn’t a good answer for it, at least not yet. Hell, even Morgan has no idea why he’s been around for so long. Now we can sit here and say the premise is overdone. Fox essentially premiered and quickly cancelled New Amsterdam, a series from 2008 with a nearly identical premise. I can say that I really dislike procedural dramas, and its sub-genre of painstakingly intuitive detectives as I previously mentioned, because I do. There’s no doubt this is a challenging role for Gruffudd. He’ll have to manage the modern day while stretching himself to be the anchor for a variety of historical set pieces. The rest of the cast, including the always-reliable Judd Hirsch, should help him out. Inevitably a show is measured against the class it comes in with and if it can make a dent in the ratings when going up against established returners. The remaining questions moving forward are: Is Forever a promising half-procedural or is it just the least mediocre in an overall bland freshman drama pack? And can it overcome some difficult timeslot competition and a premiere that was buried in the ratings by just about everything else on television? Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
