The surprise hit of the summer has to go to the French zombie show The Returned. Over a million Brits watch the Sunday night Gallic drama and now two remakes are in the pipelines. Shameless creator Paul Abbott has brought the rights to remake it in the UK and Brad Pitts production company have used it as inspiration for a show of the same name. The show itself is based on a French movie called They Came Back and was the highest ratings programme ever on Canal+ (the French equivalent of HBO). Its the first time Channel 4 have showed a fully subtitled foreign drama for 20 years and its worth putting down Twitter for a second to really pay attention to the screen. The show features no household names, even to most French households, but we were hooked. Sunday was the last in the series to be broadcast in the UK and a second series has been picked up to be shown in late 2014. Its no secret that zombies have become the new vampires but The Returned is special. Here are some mild spoilery reasons why you should be watching this show.
5. It Revamps The Idea Of Zombies
These arent staggering, groaning decaying bodies with the need to consume flesh, the returned are living functioning humans who dont even realise themselves they are dead. The only noticeable features they have is a huge appetite and the lack of need for sleep. In fact they are more like ghosts coming to terms with the fact life and people have moved on since their passing. They feel, they love, they have sex and they have regrets like the living. Another recent show that has dealt with a more emotional walking dead was BBCs In The Flesh. The main returned are school girl Camille who dies on a school coach crash, a Pete Doherty look alike Simon who dies on his wedding day, creepy child Victor who appears mysteriously and barely says a word, Serge who was buried alive by his brother to stop his cannibalistic attacks on women in the underpass and Mme Costa who seems to have a of experience in this returning thing. Animals reanimate as well, the most beautiful being a butterfly jumping out of a display cabinet as it re-enters life.