Remember The Returned (More4)? That French drama about a mountain town to which its dead return. It was more than just a zombie show, because it dealt with loss, mourning and faith. It was beautiful, different, artful, moving, utterly absorbing, naturally performed and achingly, Gallically cool. Then infuriating at the end, because none of the questions that begged for answers were answered. Like, why the dead were coming back in the first place, and then where they suddenly disappeared to; the significance of the water, the scars, Lucy, Victor, everyone and everything.
Now it’s back, after more than two years. Which is a long time-out for a relationship that ended badly, senselessly, with confusion and accusations of cheating. Should we even care anymore? I’m going to give it another go, because I can still just about remember the good times.
Ah yes, the water came up in the town, after going down in the lake. There’s not a lot happening down at the Lake Pub (Lek Peurrb) – maybe it’s not the “in” place anymore. There’s not much happening anywhere: the whole place is deserted, most people have left. A stag wanders through an urban, concrete landscape. Is he dead too, arisen out of the lake which is full of the corpses of beasts? Oh, now he is (dead).
Adele is not (dead). Though, she is carrying a half-zombie in her womb. That’s going to be interesting and complicated when it happens, which won’t be long now. And the fully dead, the horde, who disappeared so suddenly, seem to be returning too, in their numbers.
No, I still don’t really have any idea what’s going on. Nor am I overly hopeful that all will become clear. But it is beginning to seduce again.
Actually, the best thing about The Returned is not Gallic but Celtic – the haunting soundtrack by Mogwai, from Glasgow. It’s not merely an afterthought but very intricately intertwined with the drama. So that if it does all go wrong again, and becomes too exasperating, I guess we can just listen to Mogwai and treat the rest as a long, eerie, slightly pretentious video.
Also, I suppose there is an aptness in something coming back to baffle once again. The return of the dead and the return of The Returned.
