The Returned (Les Revenants)

[Werthead]

This eight-part series stars in the UK tonight on Channel 4. It's the first major subtitled drama that Channel 4 has shown in a prime-time slot for years, and they are really going to town on it. There's been weeks of trailers and C4 are apparently using the French versions of their ads (including subtitles) during the first episode.

As for the series itself, I've avoided finding out too much about it save it's set in rural France during the mysterious return of people who have died from various causes and isn't just another zombie series.

Anyone else planning on seeing it? Or any French members who've seen it already?

[Pliskin]

I've not seen it, but it had very good reviews back when it aired on Canal+.

This and the best ratings for an original series.

[Sir Thursday]

I'll have to check if this is available on BBC 'Merca.

I would really love to find some good French language TV series.

Have you tried Engrenages (translated to Spiral when it was shown in the UK)? It's a very good crime/justice drama - worth a look if you're a Francophile.

ST

[DaveSumm]

Four episodes in, I think this is a great series. Respects its audience and doesn't beat you over the head with anything, and has an excellent sense of mystery. Anyone watching it? I thought the fourth episode particularly was good, mainly for the creepy Pierre thing. Have no clue what his deal is.

[Werthead]

Not yet. I have all the episodes recorded, but I've got The Tudors to polish off first.

[Tears of Lys]

I want to see it NAIOU!! Not the remake, but the original!

:mutters to myself:

[Werthead]

Seen the first two episodes. Very strong. Somewhat slow and deliberately-paced, but there's some tremendously effective, "A-ha!" moments and some very clever storytelling going on. Great performances.

The only problem I have with it is that no-one reacts realistically to the dead suddenly showing up on their doorstep. No-one calls the police or papers or government. In some cases the people try to cover it up as they think they're going mad. One of the best moments has been the woman thinking her former lover is a ghost and she suddenly goes into a brilliant, "I know you're not really here, I know it's just my imagination," spiel whilst he's trying to explain he is there, and then he thinks she's gone bonkers so walks out and is promptly arrested.

The bit where no-one recognises the young girl is weird though. It's only been 4 years since her death and she's one of twins, yet none of her former friends recognise her.

I want to see it NAIOU!! Not the remake, but the original!

This is the original, French-language version. It's based on a French film from about ten years ago, but really has almost nothing in common with it apart from the bare bones of the premise (people come back to life for no discernible reason, have no memory of what's happened and haven't aged since their deaths). The scale, setting, storyline and characters are all new.

[paddington]

Watched the last episode last night. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the music was great. I still have no idea whats going on though. I think I've maybe missed something important.

[Werthead]

Up to Episode 4 so far. It's really, really good. Though it's also very French: people have a tendency to be enigmatically silent and stare off into the middle distance rather than actually talking about WTF is going on.

Good news: Channel 4 have picked up Season 2 and will be airing it shortly after Canal+, so in about a year's time. Apparently this has been a huge hit for Channel 4 in its timeslot (1.5 million would be great regardless, but for a subtitled French TV series it's astonishing), so unsurprising.

Watched the last episode last night. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the music was great. I still have no idea whats going on though. I think I've maybe missed something important.

Was this the only episode you've watched? That's like starting Twin Peaks with the Season 1 finale!

The music is by Scottish band Mogwai, who are very good.

[paddington]

Nah watched the entire seasons. Well I am going to be waiting for season 2. I kind of hope it isn't like lost, in that there is an interesting premise and it all turns out to be some kind of time travel malarky.

[Werthead]

My take on the full season:

In a small mountain town in a remote part of France, the dead start returning. Camille, a 15-year-old schoolgirl killed in a coach accident, returns home to find her twin sister is now four years older and her parents are separated. Simon, a musician who cannot remember how he died ten years ago, returns to discover his fiancee and daughter are living with another man. Serge is a serial killer, himself murdered, but now alive again and eager to resume his crimes. One of Serge's would-be victims, traumatised for years by the incident, finds a little boy who is also one of the returned, and must look after him whilst her own life falls apart. None of the returned know why or how they have come back...but it is merely the first sign that something much bigger and more dangerous is happening.

The Returned (Les Revenants in its original French) is a gripping, slow-burning drama series which is based around a simple premise: what if the dead come back to life? Not as zombies or ghosts, but living, breathing human beings with no memory of what happened to them and no explanation available for how this has happened? The reactions of families, loved ones and friends is mixed and varied: some treat the returned as horrific freaks, others try to adjust to the reality of the situation and others (including a local, canny religious leader) see it as a sign from God. The returned themselves are bemused and confused by the situation, but - in a possible clue to what's happening - all seem motivated by unfinished business from their former lives.

At the same time, the show develops other mysteries. The water level at the local dam is dropping, to the alarm of its staff. A previous dam on the same site collapsed in 1977, flooding a neighbouring village and killing more than a hundred people. Does this have something to do with what's going on? And how is the water reappearing in random locations in the area, such as at the local power station?

The Returned is keen on giving out the mysteries, but not on providing grand, over-arcing answers to everything (with at least three seasons planned and only airing at two-year intervals, we may be in for a wait for some answers). Instead, the show prefers to pose a question and then develops it over the course of several episodes. We get answers, but these may be complicated by other factors, or lead to fresh questions. Sometimes a single flashback or a line of dialogue may suddenly connect several elements together and lead to moments of revelation. The series is small in scale for its first half or so, but then becomes more epic in later episodes when contact with the outside world is cut off by a power failure. This late development kicks the series into a higher gear and introduces an extremely tangible sense of threat and menace to proceedings that carries the show through to a powerful cliffhanger ending.

The series is extremely character-focused, and both the writing and acting is superb throughout. The show has a strong focus on younger characters, such as Camille and her twin sister Lena (and the idea of twins separated and aged differently is an extremely powerful and disturbing one, handled well), and the actresses (Yara Pilartz and Jenna Thiam respectively) absolutely sell the idea of them being siblings and caught up in extraordinary events. 'Victor', the young boy adopted by the traumatised nurse Julie, seems to be at the heart of many of the mysteries in the series and is played with at times disturbing intensity by Swann Nambotin, whose thousand-mile stare makes the skin crawl. Flashbacks to his life before show a completely different, more emotional and 'normal' boy, and Nambotin's ability to switch between the two modes is phenomenal. Céline Sallette is also extraordinary as the damaged Julie, a character in denial about how badly her near-murder has destroyed her life until her encounter with Victor allows her to rediscover her humanity. Put like that, it sounds trite, but Sallette's performance (and that of Alix Poisson as Julie's former lover, Laure, desperately trying to reconnect with her) powerfully sells it.

The rest of the cast is also excellent, with the series' ability to use the big mysteries to illuminate the more human character moments being inspired. In this regard, as well as others, there's a little bit of Lost in the show's DNA, though the show is a bit keener in giving out answers to questions in the first few episodes. However, the show does occasionally resort to the same cheap tricks Lost used: characters sometimes completely fail to communicate with one another and will almost deliberately refuse to ask the questions any sane human being would in that circumstance in the name of tension. I can also see a question of who gets to control the town's supply of firearms might become a big question in the second season (as it was in the second season of Lost, somewhat tiresomely).

Still, the show benefits from sharper writing and better acting than its American forebear and the mysteries are different enough to raise more interesting themes and questions. The tone of the show is also very different, being darker and far more tense: David Lynch and Twin Peaks feel like more of an influence in that regard. The cinematography is also stunning, with the beautiful scenery offset by a decision to film daylight scenes only around dusk, resulting in a desaturated colour palette that adds to the creepy atmosphere. Backing everything up superbly is the haunting minimalist soundtrack by Glaswegian post-rockers Mogwai, which complements the visuals perfectly.

Season 1 of The Returned (****½) will be released on an English-subbed DVD in the UK on 9 September. Unfortunately, despite being shot and shown in HD, no English-language Blu-Ray release is currently listed. The DVD is also not for sale in the United States, though that might change after release. Season 2 will be shown in France in late 2014.

In short, this was an extraordinarily good show, let down by a couple of Lostisms and a silly two-year gap between seasons. Also, the lack of an English-subbed Blu-Ray release. Beyond that, awesome and worth catching before the UK remake (although that might be better than expected as Paul Abbott is writing it) and maybe even the US remake of the UK remake.

[Weeping Sore]

Is this in any way a re-make of the 2004 French film Les Revenants (US tr.:They Came Back)? It was frankly a bit dull and uneventful, but I'm excited to check out the show when it is available here.

[Lord of Rhinos]

This is confusing me. There's a new book that just came out from U.S. poet/writer Jason Mott called the Returned that seems to have the exact same premise. It's been picked by ABC and titled "The Resurrected" for the upcoming TV season. So is this just a case of two different TV shows with two different sources that happen to have the exact same title and premise?

[Werthead]

Is this in any way a re-make of the 2004 French film Les Revenants (US tr.:They Came Back)? It was frankly a bit dull and uneventful, but I'm excited to check out the show when it is available here.

Not exactly. The producer of They Came Back felt that the film's premise could do with further exploration, but the direct wasn't interested. She went to Canal+ and after a lot of development, they decided to buy the rights to the film and redo it as a TV show. However, The Returned has a somewhat different premise: in the film, the dead are coming back worldwide and in the TV show it's a much more local phenomenon. The characters, relationships, plot details and revelations are all original to the TV show, and you certainly don't need any familiarity at all with the film to watch the TV series.

This is confusing me. There's a new book that just came out from U.S. poet/writer Jason Mott called the Returned that seems to have the exact same premise. It's been picked by ABC and titled "The Resurrected" for the upcoming TV season. So is this just a case of two different TV shows with two different sources that happen to have the exact same title and premise?

There's been some question marks over this: Mott claims his primary influence was The Road and a few other things, and was apparently unfamiliar with the French series. The timeline would also broadly support this: the book's been talked about for a year, whilst The Returned only debuted on French TV in late 2012, and as an English-language version just a couple of months ago. However, the novel's premise sounds very similar to that of the same inspirational movie, They Came Back, which is a lot older (2004) and there's been some theorising that Mott may have been influenced by that. The premise is pretty general and familiar, though.

I do think the situation had a bearing on why Channel 4 and Canal+ jointly decided that the English-language title of the series would be The Returned rather than Rebound, though. It's a better title and I think they wanted to take ownership of it. It certainly forced the American series to change its title from The Returned to Resurrection, as the US producers apparently failed to register the name in time. There may also be a link to the fact that Paul Abott is doing a UK remake, under the title They Came Back, and an American company may also want to do a direct remake of the French series at some point.

[Werthead]

The Returned will start airing in the USA at 9pm tonight on the Sundance Channel. If you have it, definitely check it out.

[BLU-RAY]

Grantland's Andy Greenwald just reviewed this - I have neither seen the show more read the review, but I generally find Greenwald good.

[BLU-RAY]

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/91241/the-walking-no-longer-dead-the-sundance-channels-the-returned-goes-for-smart-horror

Whoops - link.

[Jerol]

OK, we binged on three episodes last night so we're through episode 4. "Why don't you sing a song in your head" had both my wife and I screaming at the TV. I have absolutely no idea where this is going. I only hope that they don't fuck it up. Please tell me they don't fuck it up.

[Werthead]

They don't fuck it up.

But this is only Season 1. Plenty of time for them to do so in the future :) And they have got some insane scheduling going on. Season 2 won't air until late 2014 and Season 3 in late 2016 (in France, so not in the UK or USA until months later in each case). Fortunately, S3 will be apparently be the last one.

[Welease Woger]

This series is really, really, good. And it has just won the International Emmy award on best drama series.

My only issue with the show is that the season finale was not satisfying in addressing the many mysteries that the show puts forward, although it set a nice starting point for season 2.