Les Revenants (TV series) - French supernatural drama series (aka "The Returned")

[dracenstein]

A French tv series airing in the UK in June on Channel 4. I just saw the tv trailer for it just now, minus sound, and it looks good. The English title is The Returned, but was formerly known as Rebound, may still be for US and other territories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Rev...28TV_series%29 Not the one I saw, but same series. Apparently, it's based on a 2004 film.

[Neil]

Looks interesting - Thanks! ps: Where the US remake?

[Neil]

Starts Sunday June 9th at 9pm - http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/05/chan...-the-returned/

[Publius]

It doesn't seem to be about zombies at all. Am I missing something?

[Neil]

I'm slightly confused too! It sort of looks like dead people have returned, but it's unclear if they're basically normal, ghosts or zombies!??!

[dracenstein]

First report(s) I read indicated that it was a zombie series, but I no longer think so. Neither do I believe they are ghosts. Undead, certainly. Apologies about that.

[Neil]

^^ I'll swear I've seen the word "zombie" in some articles about it?!

[MinionZombie]

I'll give this a punt and see what it's about. Reading a bit more about it, it seems less like a "zombie" series and more like a supernatural series (indeed some have compared it to Twin Peaks in some ways) ... it sounds more like that dead people have returned, as if they'd never died, and they try to resume their normal lives. Doesn't sound like a "zombie" series to me, but it's pretty unclear what it's really about from the adverts (notice how the one Channel 4 have mostly shown shows only images with music ... thus hiding the fact it's in French with subtitles ).

[Neil]

I'll give this a punt and see what it's about. Reading a bit more about it, it seems less like a "zombie" series and more like a supernatural series (indeed some have compared it to Twin Peaks in some ways) ... it sounds more like that dead people have returned, as if they'd never died, and they try to resume their normal lives. Doesn't sound like a "zombie" series to me, but it's pretty unclear what it's really about from the adverts (notice how the one Channel 4 have mostly shown shows only images with music ... thus hiding the fact it's in French with subtitles ). Note the title - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...take-over.html Confusing!

[Morto Vivente]

Thank goodness C4 went for the cheap option and decided on subtitles rather than dubbing. Personally I have issues with lip-sync, it's never good enough and extremely distracting. All the confusion over what type of show this is has added to the mystique. I suspect it's a supernatural show, or rather supernatural zombies without a healthy appetite i.e. not the ghoul and haitian zombie fusion of GAR. Judging from the trailer the show seems quite interesting, I'll certainly give it a shot. I wonder if they'll ultimately reveal the source of the zombification like "Pet Semetary" ?

[Neil]

^^ I hate dubbing too!

[MinionZombie]

I'm fine with dubbing, personally, as long as it's done well. Sometimes I like to watch things dubbed, sometimes I like to watch things in their original language - I don't get the attitude towards dubbing generally, because countless countries around the world watch English language content with locally dubbed voices. I wouldn't watch Downfall with dubbed voices, but - as an example - I watched the Japanese action/fantasy movie "Versus", and the main character is a total badass in it, and while his dubbed voice matches the image, the actor's real voice doesn't (weirdly enough) as the real voice of the actor sounds too soft for the sort of character he's playing. Sometimes dubbing can be awful - but in those cases they've done it very cheaply, hired useless voice actors, and not bothered to get it right ... but you look at things like the Sergio Leone westerns where they picked the right voices, and even changed lines of dialogue to fit the lips of the actor in the scene (e.g. "more feeling" in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly). So yeah - not averse to subtitles or dubbing - it's whatever suits the type of film better in my own personal view. Another comparison would be watching Das Boot in it's original German, but watching The Raid with dubbed voices (I've seen some better dubs, but also many worse dubs). Back to that Telegraph article - yeah, it doesn't sound like "zombies" to me - at all - it definitely sounds supernatural, instead. Also - a soundtrack by Mogwai? AWESOME SAUCE.

[dracenstein]

It seems that even tv guide magazines are calling it a 'zombie' series. So how do we define a 'zombie' in the 21st Century?

[Morto Vivente]

In all seriousness though I don't think this show will stray too far from the magical/supernatural variety of zombie. I'm pretty sure they're not flesh-eaters though, they appear to be normal in the eyes of the community when they initially come back from the dead. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

[MinionZombie]

But TV guide magazines etc have piss-all idea what a zombie is anyway, to say that they're ill-informed on the subject would be an understatement. Nothing that I've seen or read about this show suggests "zombies" - it clearly looks supernatural instead.