The Leftovers
The rare show that threw out a perfectly good title sequence and replaced it with its opposite. One season of grief painted as a Renaissance ceiling, then a complete reversal into snapshots and a country song.
The Leftovers rebuilt its titles: three distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–3, running between 83 and 89 seconds.
At 89 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 50-second median for drama sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on HBO in 2014, when Curb Your Enthusiasm, In Treatment and The Comeback were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; The Leftovers did so two times.
All 3 opening title sequences
Season 1
83sA fresco in the Renaissance manner — figures reaching upward as people are taken out of the frame — over Max Richter's score. Mournful, and widely disliked for it.
Season 2
89sDiscarded and rebuilt from scratch: family snapshots with the departed erased out of them, cut to Iris DeMent's 'Let the Mystery Be'. The same show announcing a different attitude to the same loss.
Season 3
85sThe snapshot format is kept for the final season, but the song beneath it was swapped from episode to episode rather than fixed.
More drama opening titles from the 2010s
2 sequences
Euphoria
No opening sequence as such. Each episode runs a cold open, often one character's history told in narration, and only then cuts to the title card.
- Season 1
- Season 2
1 sequence
The Boys
Superhero iconography rendered as corporate branding and then defaced — the show's whole argument, done in graphics.
- Season 1
1 sequence
The Night Manager
Le Carré's arms dealer and the hotelier sent in after him, opened by weapons assembling out of luxury.
- Season 2
2 sequences
Game of Thrones
A map that rebuilds itself each week. The clockwork cities shown change with the locations the episode visits, which makes it the rare title sequence carrying actual information.
- Season 1
- Season 8
1 sequence
Yellowstone
Montana filmed as a land claim — cattle, mountains and fence line, with the ranch's brand doing the title card.
- Season 1
3 sequences
The Witcher
No sequence in the usual sense. Each episode opens on its own sigil, drawn together out of liquid silver and shards over black, with the theme beneath it.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3