Chris Schulz: This year's most underrated TV show

Chris Schulz says The Leftovers is one of the most underrated TV shows of 2014.

Why does no one rate The Leftovers? Chris Schulz investigates.

It's about that time of year when everyone starts making lists - best albums of the year, best films of the year, and, oh yes, perhaps some Christmas shopping lists as well.

When it comes to naming the best TV shows of 2014, there are some obvious contenders: Fargo was a fantastic murder caper full of oddball characters, crazed accents and weird haircuts, Game of Thrones delivered plenty of bloodthirsty thrills and spills yet again, while True Detective, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and Hannibal are all up there.

Comedy wise, Silicon Valley is my pick for delivering guaranteed LOLs, thanks to its geeky in-jokes and the great Kumail Nanjiani, while locally, I've seen every episode of Late Night Big Breakfast at least six times, and still end up with my cheeks hurting afterwards.

Let's not forget Bella Henry's brilliant guest spot on The Paul Henry Show - I'm nominating that for the greatest TV moment of 2014 right now.

But there's one show that everyone seems to be overlooking. Whenever I raise it amongst friends, no one has seen it, and I just get strange looks when I mention it amongst TimeOut's telly addicts at the Herald.

It seems to me that it's being wrongly overlooked by nearly everyone with a pen and a desire to craft their year's viewing into some kind of top 10 format.

I'm talking about The Leftovers, the HBO series by Lost's Damon Lindelof, based on the Tom Perrotta novel, which screened on Sky TV's Soho channel around the middle of the year.

A scene from The Leftovers.

Yes, it was bleak as all hell - not since Six Feet Under have we seen a series so indebted to death. Yes, it relied on the dubious acting talents of Justin Theroux, who seems to think he can express a full range of emotions just by taking his shirt off and raising one eyebrow. Guess it worked for Jennifer Aniston.

And yes, it could test patience by delivering several stand alone story arc episodes focusing on just one character. Ahh yes, Lost used to do those too. Screw you, Lost.

But, for me, The Leftovers delivered one of the most involving, addictive and under-the-skin shows of the year. I haven't been this spooked out by cult antics since Tom Cruise's Scientology video was leaked, and I haven't been this addicted to a show since someone introduced me to Utopia (the twisted British drama, not the God-awful US reality show).

This isn't a show for the faint of heart. It's also not one for those wanting action thrills and spills. The Leftovers is about people dealing with something that's already happened, not things that are happening right now. It shows that event in the first five minutes, then skips forward three years.

But right from those terrific opening credits, I would get chills down my spine. The Leftovers is creepy at every turn, employing the same kind of dread and foreboding as brilliant French show The Returned.

I don't cry watching TV shows - I save my tears for when Farro Fresh runs out of Artisan chocolate milk and I have to force feed myself Primo. But when Nora finds lifelike dolls of her departed family sitting around her dinner table one morning, I'm pretty sure something resembling a tear eeked out of the corner of my eye.

If you haven't seen The Leftovers, you should. Binge watch it over the Christmas holidays. After all, what is Christmas if it's not for enjoying TV shows about family members going missing?

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