Returning from the dead has been all the rage – sorry – in TV land over the past few years. Of course we have The Walking Dead and several zombie-themed episodes on shows from Grimm to Castle, but lately there’s been a new kind of post-dead series making an appearance, that’s neither zombie-based nor ghostly. It’s people who just simply, inexplicably (at least at first) return from the dead.
There are a few such shows currently in development, but one has been on our screens recently, and another is coming our way in March. The first, the absolutely excellent The Returned, aired on The Sundance Channel in December. It’s a French series with subtitles, but gained quite the cult-ish following – including me – and a lot of critical acclaim. It has been picked up for a second season. We told you back in September that A&E is developing an American version of the series, and that Carlton Cuse (The Strain, Lost) may be showrunner.
The show that’s coming up is ABC’s Resurrection, and while it’s based, loosely, on a book entitled The Returned, by Jason Mott, the showrunner insists that this is not another version of the TV series of the same name. According to THR, executive producer Michele Fazekas has never watched the French series. “We knew about The Returned when we came onto the project, so we avoided it.”
Both series revolve around the sudden and unexplained appearance of a young person several years after her/his death, alive and well and the same age as when he/she died. But where The Returned was marketed as mysterious and somewhat chilling or creepy, Resurrection is being marketed as a whiny sobfest. IT IS NOT THAT. At least, the pilot that was distributed as a screener for the show is not. Sure it’s emotional, but there is also heavy emphasis on the mystery.
I tell you all this so that when you see the new poster for Resurrection and watch the trailer and see the TV spot with that horrible whiny music, you will still give the show a chance. I make no promises after the first episode, but I liked the first episode, and I hate whiny emo sobfests. A lot. And I love twisty mysteries.
With all those caveats in mind, here is the poster for Resurrection, along with the trailer and new TV spot:
TV Spot: Resurrection – Premieres March 9
Trailer: Resurrection
Resurrection, starring Omar Epps, Matt Craven, Devin Kelley, Frances Fisher, Kurtwood Smith, Sam Hazeldine, Samaire Armstrong, Nicholas Gonzalez, Mark Hildreth and Landon Gimenez, premieres Sunday, March 9 at 9/8c on ABC.
