Most Improved Award: The Leftovers

If you were equally distraught as I was over the brow-furling depression fest that was The Leftovers season one, then season two will be a welcomed reminder of what made The Leftovers entertaining in the first place. Sheer curiosity at the premise (the sudden rapture of 1% of the world’s population) was often the only reason I returned week to week. Season two better serves the concept by simply expanding the scope; the single biggest improvement (besides show-runner Damon Lindelof not writing out of sheer depression) is just a change of scenery. No more is the cold, drab (and have I mentioned depressing?) set of Mapleton, New York. The move to Jarden, Texas, a community untouched by the global tragedy by occasionally plagued by unsettling earthquakes, injects Leftovers with expansive landscapes, warm, sunlit colors, and some much needed optimism. We get a better view of our newly raptured world; villages of…