THE RETURNED is the latest foreign TV series to be remade for the American audience.   It follows the lives of a small mountainous town whose live are affected when loved ones who died tragic deaths come back.   The power flickers every once in a while as those left behind deal with their emotions once more when the dead loved ones come back.   Also a serial killer resurfaces and this killer has a connection with Dr. Julie Han (Sandrine Holt) who survived her encounter with the killer and she becomes attached to one of the returned, a little boy named Victor.

 

Carlton Cuse has developed a series (an adaptation of the French TV series Les Revenants) which is better suited for binge viewing as it is a slow burn series.  Some characters I connect with more like the identical twins (Camille and Lena) separated by four years of age since one died in a bus accident and others I wish I see more of like the old man’s dead wife (Michelle Forbes) who isn’t seen that much in the first four episodes (with her story being more of a focus in the fourth episode after her supporting subplot in the first episode).   Then you have the relationship Rowan and Simon (who died) and her new fiancé who is very creepy in a stalkerish way (once you learn what he has been doing to keep tabs on Rowan).   Finally, you are left with the little boy named Victor who forms a bond with the local female doctor, but one of the other characters may also know him (check episode 4 to see what I am talking about).  

 

The slow burn approach works great for all-at-once viewing while people may tire of it from week to week unless it is something that drags them in like The Walking Dead (which is a show I find a little too slow some weeks).  So far, it does seem it draws a lot of the same plot elements form the original French TV series and I am curious to watch the original show (which has a second season coming to the US soon).    The TV promos do show some scenes that aren’t in the first four episodes I have watched.   The show focuses on some of the returned while slowly introducing some of the other returned loved ones.   I hope the remaining six episodes out of the first season order of ten answers some questions and resolve some of the story further than it has so far.   THE RETURNED interests me and yet frustrates me at the same time with its slow burn approach.

 

This review is ©3-9-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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