LES REVENANTS |
|
|
Claire - Anne Consigny Jerome - Frederic Pierrot Camille - Yara Pilartz Lena - Jenna Thiam Pierre - Jean-François Sivadier Adele - Clotilde Hesme Simon - Pierre Perrier Julie - Céline Sallette Victor - Swann Nambotin Serge - Guillaume Gouix Toni - Grégory Gadebois Lucy - Ana Girardot Berg - Laurent Lucas 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 OTHER HEAVEN AND HELL SHOWS Supernatural Revelations Point Pleasant The Stand
|
L'EnfantSix months later. The remote alpine town visited by the dead has been flooded and the two sides of the valley have been cut off from each other. The town is nearly empty, but some residents remain. Those with an agenda. Adele is having a baby, but it is the baby of a dead man. Ambulances cannot trust the roads to go where they used to. The military hold sway, but have no idea what happened or is happening. And the dead are returning once more. The slow burn of the show has not changed at the start of this second season, but there is an intensity to it that suggests this is a series that knows where it is going. This is partly aided by the hysteria of the expectant mother, but also by the secrets that all of the characters share, with what is not said being almost as important as what is. This is a French show, after all, so longeurs and significant silences are only to expected. There is certainly no allowance given for anyone who didn't see the first season. No reminder is given of what happened and precious little explanation is given for what is currently going on. That makes some the proceedings a bit confusing since one side of the valley looks very much like the other side and it's hard to know who is on which. There is plenty of moodiness to go around, with the landscapes beautifully shot and providing a glorious backdrop to the strange happenings. The empty town is especially eerie with its empty streets and wild animals roaming around. The still figures that inhabit it are creepy and effective without actually having to do anything. All is clearly not well in this place, but exactly what is wrong remains to be explained. The first season succeeded because of the leisurely pacing and build up of creepiness rather than jump scares and back shock tactics. It seems that we are in for much the same sort of treatment in this second season. TopMilanAdele's baby is born, but she wants nothing to do with it. The dead are returning at a greater rate and the factions amongst them are struggling to keep their presence a secret. They are also turning violent. Some of those who have now returned are connected from the past. Victor, officially the creepiest kid of television ever, is back and features heavily in this episode with the return of his mother, who was killed on the same night that he died. That event seems to be connected to Toni and Serge and their newly-returned father. Camille's schoolfriends who dies with her on the bus are showing up, but the struggle to keep them safe whilst not telling them what is going on leads to peril. That it would be much simpler to just explain it to them is shown not to be the case as they find out the truth in traumatic enough fashion, but also encounter those walking dead who would keep them contained within their area of the town. The factions within the dead community are not yet well explained, but this is a show that parcels out its revelations slowly, to increase the effect and to keep up the creepiness factor. Some of the character plotlines are a bit meandering (especially Lena, whose relationship with her father and a sketchy explanation for what is happening is all she gets out of the two episodes to date. Links are being forged, however, that suggest there is a stronger story being spun here with a more defined end point in mind than was the case in the first. Some of the sequences are genuinely spooky, such as Camille, her friends and her mother being confronted by the violent dead and the platoon of solders encountering corpses in the trees at the very end. The baby is clearly important, though it remains a mystery as to why. The nature of the flood and the fall in water level at the dam may have been discovered, though it beggars belief that nobody ever found it before considering the size of it. LES REVENANTS remains spooky and eerie and unhurried, but there is a real sense of focus that perhaps wasn't there the last time around. TopMorganeMilan orders Serge to kill Julie. The newly-returned teens have trouble adjusting to their new situations. The Helping Hand shows itself to be a little less helping by keeping Toni imprisoned and Adele continues to have trouble adjusting to be the mother of a dead man's child. The slow burn of the show's multiple storylines continues at a glacial pace, but it is fascinating nonetheless. More and more of the backstory is becoming clear and the plan of at least one faction of the returning dead has become fatally clear. Killing the living so that they can come back as the undead may not immediately make a lot of sense, but the scene with Serge and Lena in the forest clearing is genuinely tense and shocking, possibly some of the best moments from the show to date. By contrast, some of the other plotlines (Adele and the baby and the returning teens' angst, for example) seem a bit trivial. And Julie finally being forced reluctantly out of Victor's afterlife by the arrival of his mother seems a bit forced. The acting remains top notch throughout (from the adults anyway) and the revelation that there are things at the bottom of the newly-discovered sinkhole suggests that the story has a few wrinkles in it yet. TopVirgilSimon takes the baby from Adele. Julie starts to investigate Louis' past. Camille discovers some new powers that the dead possess and lucy decides that it is time to resolve the problem that is Milan The glacial pace of the show continues in this episode, but the lack of forward motion is starting to grate. After the shocking and unnerving events of previous episodes, nothing much of note happens here and events seem to be somewhat repetitive, although there are some interesting facts to discover. The dead can read minds, or so it would appear. Whether this is only amongst themselves or takes in the living as well, is not made clear. What use this is also remains obscure. Once returned, it seems that the dead cannot die. Milan is shot by Serge and yet wakes up sometime later, only to face a watery fate. New characters take up some of the load from the more familiar faces, but even with their backstory being explained, their significance is only hinted at and dilutes the roles that the previous characters are playing. Audrey and her parents, Simon and his parents, are these of long-term importance or just some fleshing out of what does appear to be an episode of almost filler material. Little new is learned and by the end we are almost right back where we were at the beginning. It's still very moodily shot and moodily acted and just about manages to get by on that. TopMrs CostaLouis foresees danger befalling Julie and sets out with Mrs Costa to prevent it. Simon and Adele take refuge in the church whilst Pierre and the Helping Hand form a party to hunt down Toni. The army prepare to enter the cavern system that snakes under the town and a returnee is betrayed. The snail's pace of the show continues to slow, if that were possible, but the sense of unease and threat continues to grow. Whether it is Pierre's increasingly chilling behaviour towards the returnees, the sudden return of Serge's victims, come back to haunt him, Louis' ability to walk past the guards who beat others who would leave or the idea of the army descending into tunnels that we already suspect hold more of the dead, there are plenty of reasons to sense that peril lies ahead. The fact remains, though that nothing actually happens in the entire episode. There is plenty of quality thesping going on, but nothing in the way of plot development. It's not that kind of a show, but it needs ot make good on some of its promises soon. Top. EstherToni forces Serge to confront his past and the terrible things that he did. Julie learns more about Louis' past and something surprising about her own. Adele's husband's body is found and Milan is released from his watery grave. Pierre's troops discover Louis and Mrs Costa, leading to fatal consequences. Inch by inch, the storylines are starting to come together as links between the characters are unearthed. Finally, there is some sense that this might all be leading somewhere. With only two episodes to go, however, the pace is going to have to pick up somewhat if we are to get to any sort of satisfactory resolution. The only actual action is sharp and unexpected and seems to make one character's whole presence in the series pointless. It's handled with surprising speed and seems rushed and ill-thought out. The revelations around Louis and his link to the tunnel may suggest another link to the Julie's past, though that seems and unlikely plot development. Milan's return also seems to have happened purely to get the series to some sort of conclusion. The acting remains top notch and the pace remains deadly slow. The hints are there, though, that the end may be nigh. TopAdeleThe power is gone and the town is cut off. Nobody can leave. Victor takes an interest in Adele's daughter and the friends of the dead prepare for the End of Days. Strands are slowly coming together, though not to provide any answers. The inevitable drama around Victor's gift and what it means for Adele and her daughter make for extremely tense viewing. Pierre is slowly going insane, proving to be a bit of a nutcase survivalist on the sly. Camille's lies continue to have tragic consequences even though Lena is returned to her family. What happened to her after the big cliffhanger last week isn't even mentioned, which is a bit of a cheat to say the least. Toni and Serge going for a swim starts off well enough with the introduction of the fact that nobody can leave the town any more (something that is made clear when Julie and Victor make a run for it), but ultimately leads to a twist that means nothing. Not yet, at least. The returnees are all started to decay now, to gruesome effect, especially with Simon's act in the cell. There is another cliffhanger much like last week's, but considering how that was just ignored, it has a lessened impact. TopLa HordeSimon comes for Adele and her daughter, but only gets one. Victor weaves another vision, leading to death. Everyone takes shelter at the Helping Hand compound as hundreds of the dead advance on it. It's the last episode and there are conclusions, but not one single explanation. Not one. Why are the dead rising? Why these dead? Why do they want certain of them to return to the group and not others? What is Lucy's role in all of this? What happened outside the shutters? Explanations, though, have not been the stock in trade of this show. Mood has been its purpose and the mood here is one of approaching doom. The dead do nothing, but their approach is dreadful all the same. Their demands are simple and small enough, but that's what makes them so terrible, their lack of significance. Good people die, others vanish, and nothing is explained. The audience is hooked to the end, but is rewarded with very little as a result. Top |
