Les Revenants (The Returned)

Really liked season 1, got a couple of episodes into season 2 before realising the question to answer ratio was nearing Lost level and that they could never end it in a satisfactory way.

Was vaguely intrigued by the US version (mostly because Nicolas Jaar did the soundtrack) but the reviews were not good at all so I didn’t bother.

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I loved the show at the time, particularly the first series. The mood was just fantastic. I can’t even remember the ending though. Remember a stand off somewhere in the fog Was glad it ended when it did, just felt like it had done everything it needed to without getting stupid.

Also loved the leftovers which definately had some parallels.

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exactly this. Do want to do S2 soon because S1 is one of the greatest seasons of TV ever imho, up there with the best any Sopranos or Wire has to offer. Endless atmosphere, strong emotional connections and journeys, nicely underplayed acting, stunning settings

10/10

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series 1 is brilliant. the soundtrack is one of my most-played records i own.

i watched one episode of season 2 and binned it off.

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Fucking brilliant.
1st season in particular is so so good.
The delay between seasons hurt it a lot I think but 2nd is still good and in a way Victor not againg a fucking day netween seasons really added to the ‘realness’ of his character.

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Lots of people here writing off season 2 and I reckon unfairly too. It obviously wasn’t as good as season one, that was just absolutely beautiful from start to finish in my opinion, but if anything I was impressed by how good season two actually was, all things considered.

Also, I was satisfied with the ending too. It could have ended up going a number of ways, but I was satisfied with it going the way it did.

The other series we kept comparing it to was Dark, but where as Dark was pretty decent for season 1 and just a total drag for seasons 2 & 3, this was definitely not the case here.

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Haven’t watched the show since it was shown on 4 but this came flooding back to my memory

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Also, shout out to the casting on this, so so fucking good. So many characters were so well cast, so perfectly, and the twins who were no longer the same age really did look that way.

Exactly what I did. Got about 30 minutes into the first episode of season 2 and was just like “What is going on? Who are these people? Why are they doing these things?”.

Think season 2 was buried on E4 or something here from the get go.
Probably in favour of some shite like “The Man With A Nose With Three Nostrils” or whatever shit C4 were branding as serious content at the time.

Season 2 is actually real good. Think its actually a bit stronger if watched after series 1, rather than the few years gap at the time, as some plot points and minor threads get properly expanded on and woven in.

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Agreed, It think they handled the pacing and character development well, and enjoyed more of a focus on the grief of the whole situation on all of the people involved rather than dwelling on the more supernatural elements of everything that was going on.

Think they got the balance of emotional stuff/supernatural/real world evils juuuuussst right.
Theres nothing else quite like it to be honest.
Brilliant.

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Completely agree with this, was quite relieved to hear that there was no season three planned. The ending did leave a few seeds that suggested there could possibly be something more, but I think it would have inevitably ended up with something sillier if they kept exploring the world and situation.

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Actually perfect soundtrack

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I think the first episode is one of the best standalone episodes ever made, a proper gripping hour that just sets everything up perfectly.

Felt like even by the end of S1 it was starting to wear a bit thin and like a few others I think I binned it off a couple of episodes into S2. Am a bit tempted to revisit from the start based on what a few people have said in this thread, in my head I thought it went on for at least a few more series so the knowledge I could clean the whole thing off quite quickly is appealing.

I’d forgotten that C4 basically buried the second series. Was particularly weird given they went really heavily in for the first series, think it was just after the success of The Killing, The Bridge etc on BBC4 and they were promoting it everywhere, think they even had an ad break in French for the first episode.

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I think that if it lost its sheen before the end of the first season for you then maybe the second season won’t do much. I get your point about the first episode, but I was all-in for the whole thing, and found the ending of season one just perfect. I think if that wasn’t your experience, then season 2 might not do much.

I agree with this, however, on watching back there’s something about that moment at the beginning where the butterfly crashes through the glass of the picture frame which is Garth Marenghi levels of ridiculous. Almost made me laugh out loud watching it again.

I’ve just remembered a thing that used to annoy me: Channel 4 were so shit at timing their ad breaks that you’d often come back to a few seconds of the end of a Mogwai track.

Oh, and just remembered another thing:

Les Revenants was where ‘Penis Darkness’ originated on here.

(RIP @balonz)

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Add me to the list of people that really enjoyed series one but didn’t watch series two. Reckon it’s time to remedy that mistake.

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Anyone else use to sing “This is The Returned, this is The Returned” to the theme tune?

Another vote for “Series 1 was great, never watched series 2”. I do remember driving from Inverness to Ullapool with the soundtrack on at full blast, that was a lot of fun.

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