Resurrection: Nobody Leaves Arcadia

Hello everybody! Today we have a supernatural show about the dead rising (not zombies though) called Resurrection.

RESURRECTION

DIRECTOR: Aaron Zelman

STARRING: Omar Epps, Frances Fisher, Matt Craven, Devin Kelley, Mark Hildreth, Samaire Armstrong, Sam Hazeldine, Landon Gimenez, Kurtwood Smith

GENRE: Fantasy, Science fiction, Supernatural

YEAR: 2014

COUNTRY: United States

What happens when the people you have mourned and buried suddenly appear on your doorstep as if not a day’s gone by? Would it be a miracle, madness and is it even real? The people of Arcadia are forever changed when their deceased loved ones suddenly start to return. An 8-year-old American boy wakes up alone in a rice paddy in a rural Chinese province with no identification and no idea how he got there. Details start to emerge when the boy, who calls himself Jacob, recalls that his hometown is Arcadia, Missouri and an immigration agent, Martin Bellamy (Omar Epps), takes him there. The home he claims as his own is occupied by an elderly couple, Harold and Lucille Langston, who lost their son Jacob more than 30 years ago in a drowning accident. While they look different, young Jacob will recognize them as his own parents. But how can this be?

 

The boy that stands before them looks like their son and knows details about their lives that no one else can know, but this must be an elaborate hoax. Lucille wants to believe but Harold Langston can not accept it. Those closest to the family try to unravel this impossible mystery, including Sheriff Fred Langston (Matt Craven, CRIMSON TIDE), whose wife Barbara also drowned 30 years ago trying to save Jacob. But this boy who claims to be the deceased Jacob knows secrets about the events of his own death that no one else knows-secrets that Fred’s daughter Gail will begin to investigate and discover to be true. The child’s return will have everyone questioning faith, miracles and the supernatural. When other mysterious strangers start to arrive in Arcadia, we come to know that Jacob is not the only one FOREVER. From Executive Producer Aaron Zelman (DAMAGES, THE KILLING) and Brillstein Entertainment and Brad Pitt’s Plan B comes a character drama about what happens when the dead come back very much alive.

 

Resurrection is a very interesting show, and one of the few shows that ABC has produced in the last couple of years that I actually enjoy. Sorry ABC, you just don’t make shows that I like to watch. There is just enough surprise and suspense in each episode that it kept me coming back every week, hoping to have the answers for plenty of my unanswered questions. The main cast performed very well, I wasn’t disappointed in their performances as much as I normally am. Where Resurrection really strives are the moments full of emotion and intimacy. Why do you make us feel Resurrection?

What disappoints me about many of the Resurrection episodes is that nothing much of interest happens until the last 10 minutes. I worry too that this premise may be too incredible to have a satisfactory conclusion, but I hope I’m wrong. All too soon, however, the mystery that I like about Resurrection turns into soapy melodrama, and the supernatural is superseded by the clichés of network drama: stock characters, obvious plot twists and too much heavy-handed exposition. Lastly, the show is bogged down by mundane subplots and generic characters.

PROS:

• Surprise and suspense in each episode to keep me coming back each week.
• Plenty of unanswered questions.
• Main cast performances.
• Moments of emotion and intimacy.

CONS:

• All interesting points of the show happen in last act.
• Premise may be too “out there”.
• Mystery turns into melodrama.
• Mundane subplots and generic characters.

SCORE: 6.5 / 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGtNrz8dhV4

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