Resurrection

 

Les Revenants (The Returned)

I saw an episode of Resurrection last night.

I found that it did not engage me. That was surprising, since the French series Les Revenants (The Returned) which it seemingly was based on, did engage me.

I had heard an interview on NPR with one of the creatives behind Resurrection (the writer, I think), and they did not mention Les Revenants. Maybe it had no influence on them. Nevertheless, the French series imbued me with a desire to see more, and the American did not.

There is a basic formula for American shows about uncanny things that seems to dictate that everything must be done after the manner of a military force or a national police force - not a local police force, for they are used either as foils, either incompetent or possessing skills unknown to the national forces, such as the FBI.

So Omar Epps wants to keep the Feds out of things, because he knows that if they ken what is going on, they will be all over things, they will clamp a lid on it, they will expend every effort to contain it, the will devise ways to put an end to it...
The list goes on.

The French had a local police force, but most of the time the citizens did what they felt like doing, and the police were a background, like police should be, not always mugging right in front of the camera.
It seems as if we are always running from unknown dangers, or we are running from the government, or running from both, and any moments for love are few and far between and gratuitous when they do occur; fear, hatred, and violence have top billing.

The most poignant scenes in Les Revenants dealt with a teen girl who returned and found that the boy she had been enamored of was too shocked to return her love. Their relationship runs through the story, and it is surprisingly compelling.

What I like best so far about Resurrection is that Veronica Cartwright is to be in it. I loved her in Alien.

 Resurrection

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