Jennifer Ward

Masterful cinematography and makeup! Beautiful performances. And of course, sublime music. "Maestro" is an ecstatic collage of sumptuous images and heightened emotions. Thorns: I grew weary of Leonard's elephantine ego and Felicia's bitterness, which, ironically, is a product of her own hubris. And where was Sondheim? I'd hoped to meet him. Roses: Bradley Cooper's performance is a slam dunk, as is the sound engineering.

Watch this. Stick with it. "The Leftovers" is a saga. An epic re-imagining of love, on a Biblical scale. Be open to it and the tears that you will inevitably shed. As one astonishing plot twist follows another, the story becomes increasingly compelling and profound. So do the questions it invites us to ponder. Crafting a show of this magnitude and beauty required pulling together first-rate writing, directing, acting, and astounding production and technical talent. Co-created by Damon Lindelof and author Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel on which this series is based, "The Leftovers" is a finely tuned work of art with the power to upend the heart's barriers to oceanic aching. Originally aired from 2014-2017, it is prescient in 2021, as a pandemic, climate change, war, political and social upheaval, conspiracy theories, and false prophets beg us to grapple with death, uncertainty, and 'reality'. Without revealing the plot, I will sum up "The Leftovers" with one word: Love.

I'd like to see a Netflix 'documentary' about mysteriously afflicted people who cannot afford endless searches for diagnoses and cures. The people in this limited series are well-educated, primarily white, and have personal/family/partner resources to exhaust. While I empathize with the subjects, I find them obnoxious on various levels as well. Self-absorption runs rampant. Care-worn family members and life partners almost look worse than their sick loved ones. They are emotionally and financially drained. The wealthiest woman, however, has a wonderfully encouraging and rested husband who is able to provide the best wellness journey money can buy. You should see the well-being retreat she checks into! Ah, to be in the 1%. Seeking a cure for her sensitivity to chemicals, another woman and her partner travel to Martha's Vineyard for a diagnosis. The doctor suggests they move from filthy Manhattan to the idyllic hamlet for ongoing treatment. Yep. They plan to sell their endlessly renovated/detoxed house and just do it, with the ultimate goal of moving to Colorado. Let me guess: Boulder? A few of the people — patients and loved ones alike — are straight out of Burning Man, replete with neck and face tattoos and Millennial flat-affect that gets flatter as time goes by. One young woman has mold issues. In the final episode, "Well," her boyfriend pulls up to a remote desert location with a hermetically sealed "safe trailer" that her family raised around $22k to buy. After he and her sweet brother finish installing it, they radiate joy. Brother hugs sister. Her response? "You smell." (Did I mention that a doctor offered her a potentially life-saving treatment at zero cost to her family and that she turned it down?) Seems these folks are afflicted with entitlement.