S02E08 – “International Assassin” -- When it first aired on HBO just a few years ago, this episode was immediately praised by its modest — yet fervent — fans & critics alike. Touted as the best hour of The Leftovers, which is no small achievement given the tightrope walk the narrative’s format had to perfectly navigate. Of course with the gift of hindsight, it’s easy to look back at this episode as “just par for the course,” since every episode of the final (3rd) season doubled down on this one’s morally nuanced & fearlessly unconventional approach to storytelling. But “International Assassin” shouldn’t be retroactively re-graded just because the final season of this criminally-underrated TV series served up nothing but curvebusters. In fact, The Leftovers was always special, and I have no doubt that future audiences find this stellar series and share my sentiment; while Season 01 proved to be a worthy meditation on how our society faces — or in some cases aggressively avoids facing — grief, trauma, loss, and isolation, Season 02 takes off with such a drastically advanced setting & tone that it almost leaves viewers whiplashed (in the best way), where it breaks through the ceiling and into lower earth orbit with S02E08...and everything that follows in the remaining Season 02 and all of Season 03 is nothing short of auteur television. While the world was so caught up in Breaking Bad’s ending, or Game of Thrones best seasons — a little series called The Leftovers left an indelible mark on television history, one that deserves to be mentioned among the likes of The Wire, The Americans, and Deadwood.
Review by oftenevilBlockedParent2019-11-05T12:46:13Z
S02E08 – “International Assassin” -- When it first aired on HBO just a few years ago, this episode was immediately praised by its modest — yet fervent — fans & critics alike. Touted as the best hour of The Leftovers, which is no small achievement given the tightrope walk the narrative’s format had to perfectly navigate. Of course with the gift of hindsight, it’s easy to look back at this episode as “just par for the course,” since every episode of the final (3rd) season doubled down on this one’s morally nuanced & fearlessly unconventional approach to storytelling. But “International Assassin” shouldn’t be retroactively re-graded just because the final season of this criminally-underrated TV series served up nothing but curvebusters. In fact, The Leftovers was always special, and I have no doubt that future audiences find this stellar series and share my sentiment; while Season 01 proved to be a worthy meditation on how our society faces — or in some cases aggressively avoids facing — grief, trauma, loss, and isolation, Season 02 takes off with such a drastically advanced setting & tone that it almost leaves viewers whiplashed (in the best way), where it breaks through the ceiling and into lower earth orbit with S02E08...and everything that follows in the remaining Season 02 and all of Season 03 is nothing short of auteur television. While the world was so caught up in Breaking Bad’s ending, or Game of Thrones best seasons — a little series called The Leftovers left an indelible mark on television history, one that deserves to be mentioned among the likes of The Wire, The Americans, and Deadwood.