The Leftovers Falls Early: Lit Hub's TV Adaptation Bracket Reaches Round of 16

The Leftovers is out. Lit Hub's bracket to crown the best literary TV adaptation of all time lost one of its most ardently defended contenders in the first round, and Day Three host James Folta has been processing it publicly. "After going through the stages of bracket grief (anger, double checking, projecting, anger, thirst, scrolling, anger, and simmering) I think I'm through the worst of it," he wrote.

Sixteen shows now remain, and the Round of 16 voting closes today at 7:00 PM EST. Yesterday's round of 32 produced several near-miss eliminations: Lonesome Dove, Justified, and The Queen's Gambit all went out by margins of just a few percentage points, according to Folta. Friday Night Lights, True Blood, and Big Little Lies also exited. Interview with the Vampire upset Heated Rivalry, which Folta admitted he didn't see coming.

What's on the ballot today?

Eight matchups, organized across four themed regions — Cerebral, Carnage, Carnal, and Cozy. The marquee pairings:

• Cerebral: Shogun vs. Wolf Hall — two heavyweight historical dramas, both from acclaimed source novels (James Clavell, 1975; Hilary Mantel, 2009)
• Carnage: Slow Horses vs. Say Nothing — MI5 misfits against IRA history, a matchup Folta calls fitting "since MI6 and the IRA were 100% out to get each other in real life too"
• Carnal: Killing Eve vs. Interview with the Vampire — a contest of toxic on-screen relationships
• Carnal: Normal People vs. Orange is the New Black — love and affection, college edition versus prison edition
• Cerebral: Sherlock vs. Station Eleven
• Carnage: Game of Thrones vs. Roots
• Cozy: Brideshead Revisited vs. Agatha Christie's Poirot
• Cozy: MAS*H vs. Pride and Prejudice

Folta expects at least one of Game of Thrones, Pride and Prejudice, or MAS*H to reach the finals, after all three posted strong vote totals yesterday.

The matchups worth watching

Game of Thrones (2011), adapted by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss from George R. R. Martin's unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire series, faces Roots (1977), the landmark ABC miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel. Folta notes Roots nearly got pulled by ABC executives uncomfortable with its unflinching portrayal of slavery; the network insisted on adding a concerned white captain who isn't in the book. The series features an early performance by LeVar Burton.

In Carnage, Say Nothing (2024), Josh Zetumer's adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe's 2018 book about the Troubles, faces Slow Horses (2022), based on Mick Herron's Slough House novels, with Gary Oldman as the "relentlessly disgusting, but equally brilliant" Jackson Lamb.

The Cerebral region offers perhaps the day's most analytically interesting contest. Shogun (2024), with Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada, is, per Folta's blurb, "gorgeous, well written, and superbly acted" but hews perhaps too closely to the prestige-TV formula. Wolf Hall (2015), adapted from Mantel and starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, and Claire Foy, has an exquisite first season; its second, arriving ten years later with the same cast, "loses its footing."

The Cozy region pits two certified classics. Brideshead Revisited (1981), the eleven-episode adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, is described by Folta as "about as much of a one-to-one translation from the page as you can imagine." It meets Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989), which ran almost 25 years with David Suchet as the definitive Belgian investigator.

MAS*H (1972), the anti-war sitcom adapted from Richard Hooker's 1968 novel, whose finale was the most-watched television episode in American broadcast history at the time of airing, faces Pride and Prejudice (1995), the BBC's scrupulously faithful Austen adaptation that made Colin Firth a Hollywood leading man almost overnight. Folta has both advancing deep in his mental bracket.

How it works — and what's next

Voters pick a favorite in each matchup via forms at the bottom of each bout. "We're looking for the best show, not necessarily the most faithful adaptation," Folta instructed. "Go with your gut."

The schedule runs through the week: quarterfinals Thursday, November 12th, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM EST; semifinals Friday, November 13th through Sunday, November 15th; finals Monday, November 16th. The winner is announced Tuesday, November 17th — at which point The Leftovers fans will presumably begin their grief cycle again.