11 Best Thought-provoking Movies On Crave Canada

What would you do if 2% of the world's population disappeared without any apparent reason? This haunting human catastrophe is the premise of the HBO series The Leftovers. Starting three years after the event (dubbed the “Sudden Departure”), it homes in on small town coming to grips with the ramifications of this question, particularly police chief Kevin Garvey, played by Justin Theroux, who inadvertently finds himself at the center of it all.

For some inexplicable reason, it is relatively unknown compared to other HBO shows but this has to change. It is innovative, has an amazing Max Richter soundtrack, as well as a stellar cast, including Liv Tyler and an outstanding Carrie Coon. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, whose 2011 novel the show is based on, The Leftovers is a must-watch mixture of grim and gripping, but also beautiful, engrossing television!

Made up entirely of B-roll and random, unglamorous footage of New York City, as well as the intentionally awkward, stuttering narration of its creator, How To with John Wilson might be the most unlikely series to offer touching, life-affirming insights about human connections and the simple beauty of the world we live in. As Wilson sets off at the start of each episode trying to provide advice on a mundane topic, his curiosity and self-effacing nature land him in increasingly odd places with different strangers around the city. The show may seem like nothing more than a bunch of vignettes loosely strung together at first, but upon closer look there's truly clever wit and intelligence that goes into every single transition. How To's power sneaks up on you—quietly teaching us the value of community and how we're always a part of something much more interesting.

One of the most original, underseen, and unexpectedly wholesome shows on HBO, High Maintenance spends each episode looking into the everyday lives of various New Yorkers, often with eccentric jobs or alternative lifestyles. The only thing that connects them is that they all happen to be clients of an unnamed weed dealer (played by Ben Sinclair), who becomes a witness to their ordinary joys and struggles. Barely any of the stories we get to see throughout the show's four seasons have a traditional dramatic arc to them, but the series remains a one-of-a-kind comfort nonetheless—showing us just how colorful and interesting a mundane life can be when we have well-meaning people surrounding us. And it's a prime example of how television should be allowed to tell stories in any form, making perfect use of the half-hour episodic format to capture these fleeting, beautiful snapshots.

These days, pandemic stories can go either of two ways: horribly or profoundly. The realism may be too much to bear, causing so-called pandemic fatigue, or it can compel you to move in the world in kinder, more self-aware ways.

Thankfully, HBO’s overlooked Station Eleven falls under the latter category. Epic, poignant, and lighthearted, the ten-episode miniseries (adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name) is one of the few pandemic-set, post-apocalyptic shows that takes a closer look at the kind and creative ways humans approach survival.

This English-language adaptation of the 1973 Swedish miniseries by Ingmar Bergman stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, whose palpable chemistry is at full force here. It’s daunting to adapt a work from such a legend of the screen, but director Hagai Levi finds new nuances and modern situations to the story—infusing a different cultural identity into some characters, and playing with typically gendered tropes such as infidelity. While it can be frustrating to watch this couple's failure to communicate properly, Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain’s powerful, heartbreaking performances should keep fans and casual viewers hooked to the screen.