Resurrection is a particularly vexing program.  Based on the bestselling novel “The Returned” by Jason Mott, Resurrection has a creepy and even ominous premise: people who died years, even decades, earlier return from the dead under strange circumstances, all apparently at the same time.  And it’s not that their former bodies reanimate; they reappear at the age, and in the clothes, that they were wearing at the time of their burial/death.  It’s a premise that has a lot of potential to be terrifying and disturbing.  So why is the show focused so much on family drama?

 

The one thing keeping this series interesting is the potential cause of the “resurrections”, and what might happen if more and more people start to return around the world.  If it’s just this one small town, then what is so important about it?  It’s veering into similar territory as Under the Dome, but even that had a lot more mysterious elements to explore than what is happening here.

 

I understand and even appreciate the idea of focusing on the personal and societal reactions to a strange event like this, instead of the event itself, but there should be a balance.  It might be more interesting if the town’s attempts to isolate the returned as pariahs were more volatile, or if the audience wasn’t manipulated into sympathizing with Jacob because he is a child.

 

It also seems a bit unusual that the events in the town wouldn’t have started to get some sort of media attention.  Granted, this is the Midwest, so perhaps everyone in the town is conscious of the storm that would arrive should the wrong people find out about the phenomena, but it still seems odd that someone wouldn’t spill the beans.

 

This episode seemed to be more egregious on this point, perhaps because it was easy enough to assume that the pilot and first formal episode of the series would take a more measured approach.  If anything, this episode seemed to be even less active, which is establishing a worrisome pattern.  The ratings are there for now, but how long will the audience continue to be so patient?