Resurrection: Season One DVD Review

Mitchell Stein- What if someone you lost somehow turned up at your doorstep once again as if not a day has gone by? Disney-owned ABC’s television show Resurrection follows the story of a young boy named Jacob ends up back in the small-town of Arcadia, Missouri, although Jacob passed away over three decades earlier.

Without giving away anything from the series’ first season, it’s entertaining but far from being as big of a breakout show as it may have intended to become. It’s an entertaining and promising first season to what will hopefully be an even more gripping second season (which was officially picked up for a second season by ABC) and luckily with only eight episodes, it doesn’t lose track of itself. It manages to stay on track and get very much to the point. It’s perfectly eerie, and doesn’t end up at stupidity of the undead which is seen by most television shows. In some shows on television, death is just a normal thing that the characters go through as if it were an average routine and somehow end up back alive again, taking death as a very simple thing, leaving missed opportunities of dark, and sophisticated story-plots behind. Luckily, Resurrection takes on a bit of a more serious side in that note. It keeps well to the dark-ness of death and attempts to dive in enough just not to go far enough in that world, taking the story more carefully and not becoming a ridiculous zombie-fest.  

Many people will argue that Resurrection is a bad copy of the 2012 French series The Returned. I haven’t seen a single episode of the latter, so I will not be comparing the two TV series at any given moment, so fear not. Although they have similar basics in plot, the two television shows are not based off of each other. ABC’s adaption is based off the best-selling novel The Returned by Jason Mott, although that novel has the same title, the television show is not based off of that either. I will not be comparing this to the novel at no time as well, but rather looking at this as a completely original television series.

As I watch several episodes of the series, I notice many missed opportunities in story, with minor plot holes and several points that just seem out of context and a bit ridiculous in my opinion. I guess the shows’ staff felt that we needed to care about the characters, so they added silly problems and silly remorse that they feel sorry for, leaving me to wonder why they bothered. It’s better to develop a character over time rather than launching a character with a shaky back-story. People don’t start liking characters in their first few episodes. It takes time to grow onto characters and develop them over time rather than starting them off in situations where we are supposed to feel moved. In television, the timing in situations like this matter a lot. In its pilot episode, we’re expected to care about six different characters and their problems when we don’t even know what half of their names are.

I will say for the show’s sake it’s a good thing that it was picked up for a mid-season premiere, with only eight episodes in its first season. This way it doesn’t lose track of itself and manages to stay on-course. A 24 episode season would quickly fall apart and lose sight of its story and get dragged out, so it’s pleasing to see it short and straight to the point.

Aside from that, there are a lot of things that are really well-done directing wise, with a lot of really great camera movements and great shots. Many things fall into place well in terms of the cinematography that is executed in the show. Even without any major visual effects, the technical aspects work well. Working alongside with its great musical score, some scenes are directed well in the sense that really move you and create emotional balance between characters when some others can push you off the edge of your seat wanting more. The two are well balanced and I really enjoy the directing aspect for that reason.

Resurrection is fairly entertaining but by no means the breakout show of 2014, a role dominated by many other shows that stole the spotlight such as The Blacklist, Sleepy Hollow, Agents of SHIELD and others and Resurrection didn’t quite garner the amount of viewers the others have, but it did well enough for another season which will most likely be a lot more promising.

The bonus features in this release add to the entertainment, but a really big lack of features with only four in total. There’s a great feature named Resurrection: Building a Mystery which was very entertaining and dove deeper into the mystery of the show, which I won’t share details of due to spoilers. There’s also Deleted Scenes and Bloopers and On Location in Georgia which behind the scene footage at the set of the series. It’s decent overall, but with such a short season, I feel there should have been a bit more to this DVD to make it all the worthwhile to purchase.

Overall, Resurrection is an entertaining show, but rather shaky at times in its plot, but it still remains one of the most promising first seasons of the 2014 television season. Season two should be very promising and far more enjoyable. I think after a few episodes the show founds its footing and will stay on-track throughout its second season. 

Resurrection: The Complete First Season is now available on DVD. 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com