Les Revenants

Much credit is deserved here, to find such a fresh field amongst the hordes of undead programming assaulting our screens just now is a real achievement.

The setting is also a nice change adding bags of atmosphere. The acting is excellent with almost all the players showing just the right level of reluctance to accept the mind breaking reality of what is happening around them. The characters are diverse enough to give a real sense of the effect the events are having on the community and not just the individuals.

It's hard to criticise a show that makes such an effort to do things differently, and I wouldn't dream of being harsh to this one. The plot is that of a teasingly slowly unravelling mystery, and I would say this can naturally be just a little frustrating at times. One or two scenes are perhaps a little tough to accept as the genuine reaction of the character.

Little (almost petty) criticisms aside, I really enjoyed this show. It always left me eager for the next episode and I recommend it heartily to anyone looking for a smart new approach to an increasingly tired category.

This show is fantastic. It has got great character developments which make you feel for everyone of them. I don't speak French but the performances are so engrossing that you can feel each character's emotion. The town in which the story takes place is also a major character in the show. Although I am not a fan of supernatural genre but this show with its unique story line and superb direction has made me a fan. Beautiful locations too engross you and I love the opening theme of the show. Wish they created more shows like this one. I am eagerly waiting for the second season. I will recommend this to anyone with a taste for mystery and thriller.

Great series. I'm watching the English-language version of it now with French subtitles and it's great. I can't remember when I watched something that passionately last, waiting for each Sunday installment on British TV. The beauty of it is, it's very realistic and human, spooky in a very believable way. How would you feel if your child or lover came back from the dead and you had to deal with all the problems of hiding them from all the friends and neighbors who were present at their funeral AND have to avoid the truth as the poor souls apparently don't realize they've been dead for years or decades!

I did knock off one point for the dialogue. I'm just not a big lover of "suspenseful" evasiveness when people just don't tell each other things because if they do, the mystery will end after just one episode! Sometimes I was on the verge of hurling something at the TV, so annoyed I was with the characters' constant ambiguities. I don't think I've heard one line of plain honest information in the whole film, it's all understatements, or alternatively something happens just when someone was about to say something important. To me, it's not suspense, it's sloppy manipulative dialogue. So one point off for that.

Otherwise, the actors are very good, the story is well-developed and the atmosphere is beautifully spooky. If realistic horror is your thing, this is definitely a film to watch.

So, 'Twin Peaks' clones turn out to be like buses: you wait twenty years for a slow-moving multi-part television drama with eerie music about weird goings on in an isolated mountain community, and then two come along at exactly the same time. I'm thinking here of Jane Campion's 'Top of the Lake' and this French version, 'The Returned'. 'The Returned' has a brilliant score (by Mogwai), understated, high quality acting, stunning background scenery, a dark mood (the sense of humour in Lynch's series is completely absent), cool French teenagers, and an ever growing army of de-facto zombies who the living would rather make-believe are all in the mind. But it's certainly not a thrill-a-minute, nor is it clear how much depth there is behind the surface, and in some ways these two problems are linked: each episode may hint at the explanation to come, but its real purpose is stretching out the mystery. In the end, it was this absence of substance that did for 'Twin Peaks'. For one series, 'The Returned' was pretty good. But I fear that another might merely prove dull.

Review of Series One:

THE RETURNED, a French TV series tackling a zombie epidemic, is one of the freshest and most inventive pieces of television I've watched in a while. Everything about it screams impressive: it boasts wonderful performances from a series of outstanding actors, huge attention to detail, and exceptional technical values from the direction to the camera-work, the set design, you name it. It's also very well written, with a cast of intriguing characters and just the right level of incident to keep you watching.

Another plus is the horror theme, which for once is handled with maturity and insight into human emotion. These aren't clichéd, flesh-eating zombies, rather missing loved ones, and watching them return to their family members - who have long since stopped the grieving process - is heartbreaking. The horror comes from a growing sense of mystery, of an increasing foreboding, enhanced by some excellent, long-held musical notes which send suspense levels through the roof. It truly doesn't get much better than this, and it puts Hollywood to shame.

If there's one problem with THE RETURNED, it's that it ends up incredibly frustrating, because it answers very few of the many, many questions it raises. By the end of the last episode of season one, we're no closer to the truth of the matter than we were at the beginning of the first episode, which is a real pity; the audience will only go along with you for so long, and there should have been some real, concrete answers to sweeten the mix. As it is, we're now forced to wait - for a very long time - for the second series, which should hopefully provide at least some explanation as to what it's all about.

Review of Series Two:

Most of us who were fans of the first series were eagerly awaiting this second series as it would hopefully tie up some of the mystery from the first. No such luck. Instead of finally telling us what's been going on, THE RETURNED continues to plough the same furrow, deliberately obscuring the viewer and raising more questions than it answers.

The use of flashbacks has gone into overload here. Every episode opens with a flashback and they recur throughout. They're pretty tiresome by now, especially when they add very little to the plot development. Plus, a bunch of new and rather extraneous characters are introduced and the series tells their stories instead of adding much in the way of new stuff to the existing characters.

The quality of the acting is still good, and the cinematography - all stillness and gloom - remains excellent. But the characters seem like they're stuck in a rut, and viewers are forced to wait until the final episode until something finally happens. I'm not sure what - the ambiguous nature of it means that the viewer must make his or her own mind up as to what transpired - but at least it provides a conclusion of sorts. Please, no third series though, as this was a huge step down from the excellent first.