robertemerald Review of The Returned

The Returned (2015)

Original drama whereby beloved persons deceased strangely walk back into town years later.

[8/10 · 17 January 2018]

I have seen the original French drama on which this is based. I've also seen the brilliant first season of The Leftovers. I'm a science fiction fan, so such shows are all good news to me and I'm therefore bias. The scope for failure in such shows is all down to the actors, the script and the plot. All three shows succeed brilliantly. It's almost edge-of-your-seat viewing, all have a certain horror, and brought out in me a strange fascination that was a surprise and very enjoyable. There's a depth of thought by the writers that is, from a science fiction point of view, truly brilliant, and certainly original. There are movies that use such themes but have to use a certain quirkiness, or failing that a certain catastrophic horror, that don't succeed as well as this series. It comes across as very honest, very human, a certain unknowable horror, even with those that find themselves alive again, and is thus very watchable. I have to take my hat off to brave television that walks such a tight-rope. I'm docking The Returned two points for not being brave enough to resolve the season sufficiently (for me). I could see a great ending there, but it's stalled, presumably to make way for a second season. From memory the French version had this problem as well.