The Returned is an American remake of a French tv series, Les Revenants, which is a spinoff of the premise of a French movie with the same title, but unrelated to the short-lived ABC series, Resurrection, which has an extremely similar premise, but is actually based on a book by Jason Mott, who never heard of Les Revenants until I tweeted him, called The Returned. Got it! In a small town, the dead are alive again, and they’re not zombies. The dead do not remember dying and have woken up as if it is the next day whereas everyone has moved on physically if not emotionally.
I’m a little sad that I didn’t see The Returned soon after Les Revenants, but it has been over a year, and I’ve forgotten the details of Les Revenants and remember it in a vague, but fond way. The Returned ended up being background tv, and it took around three to four days to finish it whereas I watched Les Revenants in one sitting. The Returned is only two episodes longer than Les Revenants so I could have totally finished it in one sitting if I was engrossed, which I was not. I so needed a break that I watched quite a few things before I finished it–mostly comedies.
The Returned felt too similar in tone to The Leftovers and felt like a diminished replica of the original. Even the casting occasionally felt like it was inspired by trying to look as similar to the original French actors as possible. I’m not sure if dialogue uttered in French sounds deeper when you read the subtitles than when you hear it in your own language, but in American English, it sounded melodramatic. One major visual criticism is that it would have been visually difficult to distinguish between the past and the present without the intertitles.
When The Returned did depart from its origins, it took traditionally American violent or supernatural routes instead of exploring the more philosophical aspects of the story line. The Returned felt infinitely more rapey, particularly in the first episode after a big reveal and a character returns to a bar, and violent in spirit than Les Revenants, and not in a good way that moves the story forward, but rather hijacks character development in exchange for sensational plot twists. The resurrected dead are more consciously malevolent than their French counterparts-more like vengeful spirits or succubus than people. The Returned feels like the Winchesters will drive through any minute or the town is on a hell mouth and we need to call Buffy.
If The Returned does decide to embrace the supernatural instead of the existential in its second season, I think that the diametrically opposed prophetic resurrected one versus the insane vengeful resurrected one can be a positive dynamic that I would love to watch, but then The Returned will need to completely depart from any ponderous dialogue.
The Returned’s cast is excellent, but fails to achieve any resonating chemistry with each other except the eternally dynamic and powerful Michelle Forbes who brings energy and life to any scene that she is in. Dear universe, we love Kevin Alejandro, but you seem to see him as a villain or a very scary misguided good guy. Please rewatch True Blood. More of that please.
If you haven’t started to watch The Returned, good, don’t. Just watch Les Revenants, but if you feel compelled to watch The Returned because you are a fan of one of the cast members, then you will be satisfied, but not satiated.