The last 12 months have been marked by political upheavals, natural disasters, and a continuous string of scandals that plagued virtually every industry in the global economy. Though appraisals of 2017 vary depending on the person, it has been an ugly year from a purely objective standpoint—one so messy and brutal and eerie that the world might appear unfamiliar to you in a way you’ve never quite experienced before.

So that’s where TV comes in. People generally watch it for a brief respite from their lives. Who wants heartache or confusion when there’s already so much of that in reality? We want to laugh. We want superheroes to save us. We want to solve fictional mysteries. We want to have things we can’t have, feel things we can’t feel. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

BUT

One TV show captured the existential horror, and subtle beauty, of 2017 — Quartz—The Leftovers

Check it out. In the end it’s a love story, and, it’s what 2017 felt like.