Another zombie show: The Returned

[Fire Me Boy!]

On Sundance, starts tomorrow. Anyone planning to give it a shot?

NSFW (language)

[frankotank]

well.....at first I was super turned off by the subtitles.
but man....I thought this show was really good!

at the end....the scene that started just after it said "four years ago".....I was absolutely blown away.

[frankotank]

OK....watched episode two last night.
I really try to not like anything new. I feel like I spend too much time watching shows anyways. but I can't help it. I am loving this show so far.

[frankotank]

THIS SHOW IS AWESOME!
dude! I am seriously. I'm predicting a huge following once this catches on. simply badass! is anyone watching this????

the shit that's going on is like damn! just wow!

the psycho killer. the creepy twin. (actually the non-creepy twin started freaking me out last night too!) WTF is up with Victor??? I have an idea about him...but.....I just don't know!

Spoiler!

I'm beginning to wonder if Victor could somehow be Catwomans unborn child?? but this flies in the face of all the other "returned" people being the same as the day they died. and as mentioned above....what in the hell is up with the older twins back!?!?!

this is like a really good book that has you thinking....now how in the blue blazes are they gonna pull this all together?

to this point I don't think it's fair to categorize this as a zombie show....but then again I don't know what the hell is going on quite yet.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by frankotank

THIS SHOW IS AWESOME!
dude! I am seriously. I'm predicting a huge following once this catches on. simply badass! is anyone watching this????

the shit that's going on is like damn! just wow!

the psycho killer. the creepy twin. (actually the non-creepy twin started freaking me out last night too!) WTF is up with Victor??? I have an idea about him...but.....I just don't know!

Spoiler!

I'm beginning to wonder if Victor could somehow be Catwomans unborn child?? but this flies in the face of all the other "returned" people being the same as the day they died. and as mentioned above....what in the hell is up with the older twins back!?!?!

this is like a really good book that has you thinking....now how in the blue blazes are they gonna pull this all together?

to this point I don't think it's fair to categorize this as a zombie show....but then again I don't know what the hell is going on quite yet.

I've got the episodes on DVR, but haven't started watching yet. Glad to see it's good.

[frankotank]

episode 4

so my hypothesis about victor was wrong. still not sure why he sought out the doctor lady. creepy little bastard.
the twin storyline becomes more and more intriguing.
interesting the lights went out when they did....hmmm....

still not convinced it should be categorized as a zombie show....but we still don't really know the deal quite yet.

this show is so cool. my favorite right now.

EDIT - ummm.....I just realized I'd never actually watched the trailer (what a dingbat), so I did. yup! it's a zombie show! damn. they are certainly taking their time getting to the meat. I don't believe one second of any scene from the first 4 episodes is in that trailer. which is pretty damn cool considering that the trailer looks pretty cool....and the first 4 episodes have been pretty cool as well. this is gonna be a really fun ride.

[Fire Me Boy!]

frank, what you're watching, is it subtitled? The only show I've found seems to be the original Les Revenants...

[notorious]

Please let me know when there is a marathon on.

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

frank, what you're watching, is it subtitled? The only show I've found seems to be the original Les Revenants...

yes. subtitled. airs on sundance channel...and.....DUH! that trailer is in English.
what the hell is going on!!!

[frankotank]

I believe the trailer is for a movie called The Returned.
But the SHOW is Les Revenants. since your title says "Another Zombie Show", I would assume you meant this thread to be about the TV show not the movie?

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by frankotank

yes. subtitled. airs on sundance channel...and.....DUH! that trailer is in English.
what the hell is going on!!!

Found a link just a few minutes ago. A&E is doing an American remake. They're gearing up for season 2 of the one you're watching.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by frankotank

I believe the trailer is for a movie called The Returned.
But the SHOW is Les Revenants. since your title says "Another Zombie Show", I would assume you meant this thread to be about the TV show not the movie?

Nope, remake of the show, on A&E. I just talked about this. Pay attention.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by NewChief

AVClub gave it an A.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-returned,104889/

Spoiler!

Since 2007, TV Club has dissected television episode by episode. Beginning this September, The A.V. Club will also step back to take a wider view in our new TV Reviews section. With pre-air reviews of new shows, returning favorites, and noteworthy finales, TV Reviews doesn’t replace TV Club—as usual, some shows will get the weekly treatment—but it adds a look at a bigger picture.
Grief isn’t always an emotion. Sometimes, it’s an ever-present, never-seen traveling companion, a predator stalking a hiker under the dark cover of the woods. As the hiker moves along the trail and the predator keeps its distance, the monster almost becomes familiar and beloved, a tether to a bleaker, inescapable reality. To grieve is to get better at holding these things in your peripheral vision, to understand that looking directly at them might mean being devoured whole.

Sundance’s new French import, The Returned (Les Revenants in its country of origin), succeeds so tremendously because it understands all of the above—and finds an ingenious horror metaphor with which to depict it. A loose adaptation of a French film of the same name, the series centers on a small village that becomes home to five former corpses. Now living again, they have no memory of where they were in the time they were deceased—indeed, no knowledge they were dead at all. A teenage girl, a mysterious young boy, a woman who’s been dead for decades, a cold-hearted criminal, and a groom who perished on his wedding day return from the grave, expecting at first to pick up where they left off. Instead, they find that time has passed and those they loved grew older.

The Returned adroitly straddles the line between “mystery show” and “horror series” as well as any program of this sort since Lost. In the first episode, “Camille,” larger mysteries about why these people have returned to life and the circumstances behind their deaths—and the very odd fact that a nearby reservoir’s water level is plummeting—swirl around the characters, both living and dead. The end of that premiere interweaves a number of beautifully accomplished shocks and big questions, all the while revealing just how good this show’s casting department is.

From there, the series has bought itself enough space to meander. It understands that true horror often involves a growing sense of unease, and it exploits that as much as possible, getting weirder and more off-kilter with every episode. Yet it never becomes an especially plot-bound series. The mysteries are what they are, and the show tosses a few bones to those who desire a straightforward narrative. But at almost every turn, The Returned chooses to highlight two things that set it apart from the many other series in TV’s recent horror boom: mood and emotion.

The mood develops exquisitely from the first frame. Filmed in the French Alps, the series’ locations have a unique look, one that utilizes the outdoor surroundings and barren outposts of such an isolated town. Though it possesses several moving dialogue scenes, The Returned is never afraid to go silent for long periods of time—to simply observe its characters, both living and dead, adjusting to what their lives have become. The series boasts some haunting imagery: a church steeple poking out above a placid lake’s surface; a young woman bathed in a pool of light, waiting for something horrible to happen. An excellent, brooding score by post-rock outfit Mogwai adds to the gloom.

Yet it’s emotion that carries the day here. In its finale—one of the year’s best TV episodes—The Returned reveals how skillfully it has developed a whole community of characters, then evokes how much more fierce the bonds might become between, say, a mother and a child reunited after death. As the series wears on, it reveals itself to be a deeply moving one about motherhood—planned, unexpected, and gained through circumstance. Though it is a series with a great many strong male characters, the beating heart of the program is its women, who adapt and evolve and refuse to give up, even when assaulted by a killer in a dark alley or discovering a long-dead daughter poking around in her old bedroom.

That finale also reveals just how beautifully the titular returned operate as a metaphor for grief and loss. The series makes a fuller tilt into actual horror as it goes along, with most of the tropes expected from a story about the dead returning to life getting at least a nod. But it clings so strongly to the emotional through-line that it can never get lost. To lose a daughter or a brother doesn’t mean one stops being a parent or a sibling. It simply means that the relationship shifts and warps to accommodate the blank space. The Returned celebrates the possibilities of resurrection, yes, but it also warns how all-consuming grief can be, how impossible it is to keep your eyes on the trail when there’s something else lurking in the dark.

Completely different show.

The show in this thread APPEARS to be the anticipated remake of Les Revenants from France. But it bears no resemblance to the French show. Les Revenants was more moody and opaque, kind on Twin Peaks, X-Files, Lost feel, where the returned just show up and initially don't appear to even know they've been dead. They get a lot of mileage early on out of people thinking they're being haunted, when its in fact fresh and blood 'humans' appearing for them. A lot is left unexplained and it's very atmospheric.

It won an International Emmy for best drama. Many of the early episodeshad compelling twists and drama to them, but I worried towards the end that it was going to far into Lost-land where they set up a ton of shit and pay nothing off. It's a occasionally compelling mishmash of the supernatural, the mundane, and a few head scratchers.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by frankotank

well.....at first I was super turned off by the subtitles.
but man....I thought this show was really good!

at the end....the scene that started just after it said "four years ago".....I was absolutely blown away.

The absolute highlight of the show was when one of the twins tapped on her sister's bedroom wall. Great setup, great payoff.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by frankotank

episode 4

so my hypothesis about victor was wrong. still not sure why he sought out the doctor lady. creepy little bastard.
the twin storyline becomes more and more intriguing.
interesting the lights went out when they did....hmmm....

still not convinced it should be categorized as a zombie show....but we still don't really know the deal quite yet.

this show is so cool. my favorite right now.

EDIT - ummm.....I just realized I'd never actually watched the trailer (what a dingbat), so I did. yup! it's a zombie show! damn. they are certainly taking their time getting to the meat. I don't believe one second of any scene from the first 4 episodes is in that trailer. which is pretty damn cool considering that the trailer looks pretty cool....and the first 4 episodes have been pretty cool as well. this is gonna be a really fun ride.

Nothing in the trailer was in the entire first season.

[frankotank]

yeah this is what I'm watching.