Prestige Serialized Television is Today's Novel. Case Study: The Leftovers

Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers languished as a novel but blossomed as a television series.

Précis: TV has supplanted literature as the dominant artistic narrative medium. This is especially true for pieces that operate in what William Deresiewicz calls the “upper middle brow” mode (I also recommend Deresiewicz’s essay on prestige television “The Platinum Age”). Although I am a reluctant convert, I think it is indisputable that there have been culturally significant and artistically interesting contributions made by prestige televised drama. And looking ahead, I think we should expect the most compelling narrative to appear on the small screen. I explore HBO’s The Leftovers as a case study of this phenomenon - a clear example of where a TV show dramatically outstrips the novel it is adapted from, providing greater emotional and psychological depth, range, and complexity.