The Returned (French supernatural drama on Channel 4)

I think it's only airing in the UK at the moment, on Sunday nights at 9pm, Channel 4. Seems like spoilers after the initial airing are generally acceptable in rolling TV threads around here?

This sounds really good. C'mon you god damned torrent sites, deliver!

i love this show, it gets stranger and stranger and i really cant predict whats going to happen in future episodes. great and gripping tv drama. it doesnt abide by normal tv cliches either, like when the parents find camille back in their house they dont cry and hug her and fall to their knees like most characters in tv dramas would. they just clam up and are speechless and dont know what to do. makes it more credible and chilling really.

Found a copy of original French season through, um, alternate means. After two episodes I'm all in on this - I'll try to keep in sync with the thread. Loving the uneasiness in this and the Mogwai soundtrack goes with the atmosphere like Carpenter/Howarth.

Rewatched the first episode last night to see if we could pick up on anything we'd missed, but I don't think we did, especially. We were rapt throughout again though, which is kind of remarkable given that we only watched it the other week and we're now on episode 3 in the regular broadcast cycle; it just cemented the chronology of things a little more.

When Lucy was left in the underpass after being stabbed they showed a dog wandering in and sniffing around her, so when the police said someone had tried to eat her liver I assumed it was the dog. But the police assumed it was the attacker, and then said the attack seven years before was exactly the same, liver eating n all. So was the dog just a red herring?

Third episode seem to have the most "what the... what was... wait..." moments. The thing in the bin, the (imagined?) scissor attack, a reflection in the mirror towards the end, the demon child's drawings (one of them clearly referring to Toni and Serge: a large man holding a shotgun and someone next to him holding a knife).

What was the reflection in the mirror?

The scissor attack thing was really weird and hard to explain.

Towards the end Claire was in the bathroom and you briefly saw a reflection when she opened the bathroom cabinet; you saw it again when she shut it and it was obviously er jerome or pierre, i just wondered if it was someone different the first time. Maybe not but I will check.

I was watching that closely expecting a shock but as far as I remember it was nothing first, then her husband. Could be wrong though.

The bar manager's dead brother is the stabby guy, right? But then he also appeared to turn into the creepy kid as well.

yeah whether he turned into the kid or what happened in that scene at all is very vague.

I know the show is plenty nuts but serge turning into the kid seems a little too o_O to me. But the 'plausible' explanation, that she had a hallucinatory panic attack, isn't entirely satisfying either.

i guess it could be something else that is neither of those two.

oh yeah *takes off binary specs*

So, up to date with it now.

Is the man who went to barman's house and there was the dog bit, but he isn't the barman - is he definitely the man who stabs lucy and julie in the underpass? Wasn't quite sure.

I wondered if the stabber was some sort of being who stops people from being resurrected? Is he killing them in a magical way to stop this, cf burying a vampire upside down or at a cross-roads?

I also wondered if the little boy was something to do with this. I don't know, and I like not knowing atm.

I love the butterflies in ep 1 and the wolf in ep 2.

my favourite tv show in ages (and we have been spoilt in recent times ... ).

love the whole small rural town with dark social undertones slowly coming to the surface.

which is very twin peaks - i.e. aside from the weird stuff, there is the day to day small town politics ..

Is the man who went to barman's house and there was the dog bit, but he isn't the barman - is he definitely the man who stabs lucy and julie in the underpass? Wasn't quite sure.

serge, the barman's brother, definitely the attacker.

ok there was no funny reflection at the end of ep 3. but another question: who was the woman in mr costa's flat in ep 1? he tied her to the bed and then lit the place up but the fire brigade found no body, and then in ep 2 she was in the diner where simon beat up the waiter.

i mean yeah she was prob his wife but where is she now?

Thought it was her you saw looking furtive at her husband's funeral?

She turns up at his funeral looking confused

I'd like it if not much of Costa's story was revealed, just that little vignette

I've kept meaning to watch this, but as that would entail using 4OD I haven't been able to summon up the enthusiasm. But as most of the series I've been watching have finished (Orphan Black, Mad Men, Hannibal), I'll make the effort and start digging into this. Just love this kind of stuff when it's done well.

This is a good show. I'm slightly nervous about where they will take the story now they've built up the atmosphere so successfully - are they going to try to explain everything? The stuff about Lena's scar seems important too, though I'm not sure what it means.

4OD is pretty terrible - enforced adverts and it likes to stop working about 3/4 of the way through. Mind you it gives me fodder for 'worst tv adverts of the moment'.

adblock works though?

I think they're explicitly pairing up each of the returnees with some painful consequences (Mrs. Costa returns -> Mr. Costa kills himself, Simon returns -> Adele looks likely to break down again, especially if Thomas leaves her, Serge returns -> goes back to attacking/killing people, maybe Victor and Julie's neighbour, maybe Camille and Lena's scar?). It's obviously a theme of the series (in a "be careful what you wish for" vein) but I hope it's not part of the plot, with some causal being at the bottom of the lake motivated by revenge or general malevolence.

So, I watched all three episodes back to back today, and, yeah, I liked it. Didn't love it, though. The dialogue (translation?) isn't the best, but it's nicely stylish and sombre, and has a few decent chills. Strongly reminiscent of Let the Right One In in tone and mood and muted performances, as well as environment: cramped flats, dimly lit underpasses, grey concrete; and the surrounding countryside lurks ominously.
It's not as feverishly off-kilter as Twin Peaks, but I do like how mysterious and seemingly inexplicable things can happen at any time.

The more I watch, the more I'm reminded of Donnie Darko.

For one thing, it's an antidote to a lot of recent terrible films and TV, which totally waste the opportunities afforded by the supernatural.

The by now conventional plague of lol zombies totally misses the horrible idea at the heart of the vodoun zombie myth, that someone you know turns into a shell.

This isn't zombies, but it brings something of that personal horror back imo

In the Flesh, recently, pushed that idea a bit more.

Well well well

'He won't talk'

Still nothing new about her that got stabbed in the underpass, except she's some sort of clairvoyant.

The depth of the lake seems to be very important, but it's not clear why. What's down there?

Do we know the name of the village, btw?

Do we know how many episodes this thing is?

Do we know why even though the french accent is supposed to be sexy it's always funny when they say they're going to "the lake poob"?

so helping hand dude was one of the balaclava guys who shot victor? but seemingly the one who tried not to have him killed?

and what's the story with lena seemingly mirroring the murdered girl?

it's all quite cool and confusing but i fear that they may be doing that lost thing of setting up incredible mysteries in the opening series which will ultimately be impossible to explore in a satisfactory way.

this is based on a film, right? maybe someone who cares less could investigate and report back with whether or not it'll be worth investing any more time in this. no spoilers.

is it going to have a few seasons? like how far has it gone in france?

wiki says 8 episodes this season & season 2 scheduled for next year

Do we know the name of the village, btw?

Was wondering if it's significant that nobody ever mentions the name of the town

Also a wee bit disappointed that the adverts werent' subtitled last night

So I watched the whole series on DVD when it came out in France a few months ago - best French series ever by far (not saying much I know). I don't wanna spoil it for everyone here so I'll refrain from commenting too much - but yeah a second season is definitely on the way.

The depth of the lake seems to be very important, but it's not clear why. What's down there?

Maybe I misinterpreted this, but I thought the idea was that the water was actually rising and nobody knows why - they checked the dam for cracks/leaks but everything's fine. Did I get that totally wrong?

i think its that the lake's going down & the water level in the power station's going up?

The level was falling, but then in last night's ep one chap said they "don't know where it's coming from" and another guy said it's ok lol "the power station won't get flooded", cut to shot of an apparently waterlogged power station. Very confusing. I suppose this would make sense if the falling level has corresponded with water level rises downstream from the dam, but this is far from clear, and you'd think someone else would have noticed.

xp

it's indeed the latter - water rising on one side, drying up on the other

I've heard something about having to wait two weeks for next episode?

Also - apparently lucy's clairvoyance happened during sex?

Sorry I meant Victor, not Vincent.

ah cool - i genuinely wasn't sure if there was a character called vincent or not!

It was implied in the last episode that the revenants are mostly people who died before their time for whatever reason. With a bus crash, a flood and a family of serial killers in the town that's going to rack up to quite a lot.

Given that no one can leave the town and most of the people who could flee already have, I'm not sure how they're supposed to be living. Like how do any of them have jobs, or buy food, or whatever, at this stage?

that's exactly what i was thinking. it isn't quite in lost territory yet but it wouldn't be a long trip for it to get there.

Just watched ep 2, with the ruined dam. Is that the same dam that is also entirely intact and has people driving back and forth over, or is there another dam I am unaware of?

guess they rebuilt it?

what? when? this wasn't a flashback. berg, the new investigator in the town with mysterious flooding but a definitely intact damn, drives down an abandoned road and finds a ruined dam.

dam, damn

was it destroyed in the past? i don't remember that.

There was a dam that broke in the 60s or 70s (when Victor was alive) but they built a new one

ah right. one mystery solved!

Yeah unfortunately that mystery isn't meant to be solved until episode 3 so mini spoiler there.

ep 1 : bored me and i was debating whether to go for the rest.

end of ep 3 : hooked.

really enjoying it, just wish ch4 had the whole season on demand so i could just watch it all over a weekend.

just caught up.

oddly i heard 3 versions of 'what are they doing in heaven today' yesterday, two on the show and another on last week's world on 3 (bela fleck and abigail washburn)

Caught up, much sinister. Started laughing when tony and serge's cabin was invaded by a bevvy of beauties, stopped laughing pretty quickly. I'm enjoying all the factionalism and intense relationships (serge and milan, christ) without worrying too much about where it's all going.

did anyone keep up with this? finale was kinda crappy i thought but s2 generally was v good.

i have just watched the last two episodes and made a mental note not to watch series 3 if such a thing ever happens.

watching series 2 in the US, hasn't finished yet. Read online somewhere that they knew there wasn't going to be a series 3 so they had to wrap things up with series 2 finale, which resulted in a bad ending? Not there yet for us in any case.

yeah you'll see it when you see it but imo it did feel a bit rushed.

shame as i think at times this show has been brilliant, the relentless gloom it all, the beautiful, desolate cinematography, and the subtlety of some of the themes.

yeah, i watched this to the end.
as you say, it looked gorgeous.
however, early on in s2 i came to realise that a lot of it was people walking.
lots and lots of walking, and then a reveal.
not sure how i feel re the ending, but i wont say anything until the US crew have caught up.

yeah people walking and nothing happening, people sighing, it was just relentlessly grey. i quite liked that about it.

the personal relationships in it were also prob better and more organic than most shows

agreed re the focus being about relationships as opposed to action.
it was definitely something to watch in the autum/winter months.
it totally suited the recent grey/dark weather.
i really enjoyed it.

if there is a s3, then apparently, it will be a different setting/scenario.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-returned/news/a673549/there-could-be-a-third-series-of-the-returned-says-creator-fabrice-gobert/

This was definitely best when the mystery served to drive the relationships, unfortunately in the finale they decided to foreground the mystery and turn all the returned into warm milk zombies, even big psycho Milan. Still, I'm a sucker for a (kinda) happy ending.