God, The Leftovers is so brilliant it’s an embarrassment to other TV shows.

And Carrie Coon…well, Damon Lindelhof said something great about her that is so apt. I’ll just quote it.

Carrie has to know that that’s a comedic reading, but Nora would not want to be laughed at in that instance — she’s so frustrated. And that’s what I think is really interesting, for someone who is so clearly in control of her own life, she keeps doing these crazy things — whether it be hiring a prostitute to shoot her in the chest or getting the Wu-Tang tattoo or locking all the doors in her house as if Kevin is going to try to get in a window. She does all these irrational, unreasonable things, yet she seems completely and totally sane and under control when she’s essentially behaving like a crazy person. I don’t know how Carrie does that. I think that if you were to ask most people, “Do you think that Nora Durst is crazy?” They would say, “What? No!” But I would like to read you from the list of 10 things that Nora Durst has done and ask you that question again.

Carrie is such a wonderful actor that she’s doing all these deranged things yet she brings you into her own world so skillfully that it all seems reasonable. But if you actually think about them for a moment they are all FUCKING INSANE.

Also, there has never been such a good show that deals with the issues of why the stories we tell matter, what they say about us, and what us listening to and believing in each other’s stories gives us, takes from us, and obligates us to be and to do — and to hope for.