DVD REVIEW: ABC's 'Resurrection' Slow To Show Signs Of Life In Season 1
The best compliment I can give Resurrection is, it's as if The Walking Dead aired on Lifetime and was penned by Nicholas Sparks, or The 4400 minus the cool superpowers.
Being handed season 1 of Resurrection to binge watch for this review, I was excited and hopeful as I had been waiting for a show of this vein. However it's a bit clunky in it's execution, and leaves some big plot holes. Finding out it has been adapted from a book, and there is also a French series that aired on Sundance to rave reviews explains a way the lack of focus after the initial pilot.
The first scene begins in rural China where a small boy, Jacob Langston (Landon Gimenez) suddenly awakens. He is returned home to Arcadia, Missouri by immigration agent Marty Bellamy (Omar Epps, House), where they do little research into why he was in China, so little in fact that they neglect to realize Jacob died 32 years before and they are presenting him to his now elderly parents played by Kurtwood Smith (That 70's Show) and Frances Fisher (Titanic).
The pilot takes place over several days, yet poor Jacob is never offered a change of clothes and continues to wear the shirt we later find out he died in, was buried in and of course he was wearing it when he woke up 32 years later in a swampy rice paddy.
What follows are muddled plot lines with religious overtones, including a second formerly dead character popping up, the town arguing over faith and whether or not this is an act of god or the devil. The church goers rejecting their pastor for welcoming the returned, unnecessary tension between Jacob's family and the immigration officer among others, another twisted secondary plot involving Jacob's former best friend turned pastor and more. All in all, it gets a little unfocused midseason, and I eagerly awaited for it to again find it's footing.
By the last two episodes of the season, my interest started to pique again as it revealed some larger, more focused plot lines to set itself up for season 2. My hopes for season 2 is that the writers no longer hold back and sugarcoat on the obviously creepy premise of the the undead. I don't want another zombie show, but a little more mystery and macabre surrounding the returned characters would add some intrigue.
If you have already watched this show and loved it—as many have, judging by it's return to ABC next season—the DVD comes with extras that have some insights into the location in Georgia where they shoot, a decent blooper reel, three deleted scenesm and an excerpt where the show's stars share their own theories about why these characters have returned.
