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
This Disney-owned ABC series was quite honestly one of the most brilliant and creative story-telling in a television series in recent memory. Nearly every episode was well-crafted with usually brilliant stories and suspense always leaving me wondering what would happen next, which made for some very serious binge-watching. One of my main complaints concern the lack of answers that the show provides. They spent a tremendous amount of time building up to different questions and mysteries and barely bother to answer half of them. I'm one of those folks who actually appreciated the series finale. I felt it was bittersweet, poignant and moving and really redeemed the lackluster final season.
The characters were great too. In the early episodes, they managed to make unlikable characters like Sawyer, Sayid, Sun and Jin grow and to get you to actually care. They also do a great turnaround in character storytelling. Many times at first who seems to be the villain is actually no threat at all, and shifts over greatly.
