When "Resurrection" premiered in the spring of 2014, it was a show that harbored so much progress. It was a great mystery, with real emotional kick (dead relatives coming back from the grave). Sadly, after intriguing viewers throughout that first season, in this second campaign the show descends into a mess unfulfilled plotlines and messy character introductions.
(CAUTION: some minor spoilers ahead)
The main problem with this show in this season is that it is always moving "sideways" rather than "forward". The core of the show should be about "The Returned" and how/why they are coming back. Those questions are ultimately never really answered, and now that the show is almost surely to be cancelled, what a disappointment it is to have a show with so much potential never realize any of it.
"Resurrection" in its second season took almost the exact same path as a contemporary, "Under The Dome". Both shows started off with a great kernel of a story/idea, but both shows also wasted that kernel by not exploring it enough. I stopped watching "Dome" just an episode into its second season (when I knew it was just screwing around again), and although I watched this whole effort from "Resurrection", the result was a similar conclusion.
The really sad thing, of course, is that there is (was) so much interesting material in this show just waiting to be explored. Agent Bellamy (Omar Epps) and Maggie (Devin Kelley) have great chemistry as the "leads", while the other members of the Langston family are just interesting enough to make you care about what is happening to them. In this second season, there are even more potentially interesting threads added, such as:
-Margaret Langston (Michelle Fairely) playing the matriarch of all matriarch's. Her backstory/history could have been oh so interesting...if anything ever made sense out of it. -Pastor Tom (Mark Hildreth) and Rachael (Kathleen Munroe) and the baby between them. Does the baby have some significance to the Returned? If only we knew... -A mysterious Preacher (Jim Parrack) who claims to be able to revive the Returned. Interesting adding religion into the equation again...but only because that angle was so botched with Pastor Tom.
So, basically, all the characters/plots on this show had great promise at some point, but it never comes together to form that cohesive narrative. It's almost like the writers were trying to make this second season episodic (new plot every week) when the show structure screams "short-run serial". I'm guessing what happened is that after its initial whirlwind success, the network didn't want to send an end-date right away. As such, the writers scrambled to come up with ideas, the overall quality dropped off, and the viewers did likewise (after the second season premiere, ratings dropped like a brick).
I'll always remember "Resurrection" for its fascinating premise, but it will also be equally remembered for utterly failing to capture that opportunity. Even if it does somehow manage to come back for a third effort, I don't think I would return (pardon the pun) to see what it cooks up next.
(CAUTION: some minor spoilers ahead)
The main problem with this show in this season is that it is always moving "sideways" rather than "forward". The core of the show should be about "The Returned" and how/why they are coming back. Those questions are ultimately never really answered, and now that the show is almost surely to be cancelled, what a disappointment it is to have a show with so much potential never realize any of it.
"Resurrection" in its second season took almost the exact same path as a contemporary, "Under The Dome". Both shows started off with a great kernel of a story/idea, but both shows also wasted that kernel by not exploring it enough. I stopped watching "Dome" just an episode into its second season (when I knew it was just screwing around again), and although I watched this whole effort from "Resurrection", the result was a similar conclusion.
The really sad thing, of course, is that there is (was) so much interesting material in this show just waiting to be explored. Agent Bellamy (Omar Epps) and Maggie (Devin Kelley) have great chemistry as the "leads", while the other members of the Langston family are just interesting enough to make you care about what is happening to them. In this second season, there are even more potentially interesting threads added, such as:
-Margaret Langston (Michelle Fairely) playing the matriarch of all matriarch's. Her backstory/history could have been oh so interesting...if anything ever made sense out of it. -Pastor Tom (Mark Hildreth) and Rachael (Kathleen Munroe) and the baby between them. Does the baby have some significance to the Returned? If only we knew... -A mysterious Preacher (Jim Parrack) who claims to be able to revive the Returned. Interesting adding religion into the equation again...but only because that angle was so botched with Pastor Tom.
So, basically, all the characters/plots on this show had great promise at some point, but it never comes together to form that cohesive narrative. It's almost like the writers were trying to make this second season episodic (new plot every week) when the show structure screams "short-run serial". I'm guessing what happened is that after its initial whirlwind success, the network didn't want to send an end-date right away. As such, the writers scrambled to come up with ideas, the overall quality dropped off, and the viewers did likewise (after the second season premiere, ratings dropped like a brick).
I'll always remember "Resurrection" for its fascinating premise, but it will also be equally remembered for utterly failing to capture that opportunity. Even if it does somehow manage to come back for a third effort, I don't think I would return (pardon the pun) to see what it cooks up next.
