10 Most Underappreciated TV Shows Of The Decade (So Far)

Les Revenants is an oppressive and consistently upsetting French drama about death and resurrection, scored by a Scottish post-rock band. Can you see why it never broke into the mainstream?

Loosely based on a 2004 film of the same name, this chilling and atmospheric series is arguably one of the most captivating ‘zombie’ stories of all time, although the z-word may not be an appropriate way of labelling such a down-to-Earth and relatively bloodless show. Les Revenants is about residents of a town returning to life, but they do so as normal human beings, completely unaware that they’ve even died.

One fifteen year old girl, the victim of a bus crash four years ago, awakens and immediately returns home. The only thing is, her identical twin sister is now nineteen, and treats her with horror and mistrust upon her arrival. Another man returns after a decade to find that his wife has now moved on, and his then-unborn daughter is now nine years old.

Somebody must have though Les Revenants had mainstream appeal, because it was adapted into a rather lacklustre American version for Netflix a few years ago. It didn’t pack the same punch, however – the original French version is far superior, but the American remake is more well-known among English-speaking audiences.

Rather ironically, Les Revenants waited a little too long before returning with a second series, with the long hiatus slashes viewing figures in half, to an average of 0.6 million per episode.