''Resurrection'' is an American

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

drama television series that aired from March 9, 2014, to January 25, 2015, on ABC. It is based on Jason Mott's 2013 novel '' The Returned'', and is centered on a town in which dead people come back to life. It was co-produced by

ABC Studios ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...

and

Plan B Entertainment Plan B Entertainment, Inc., more commonly known as Plan B, is an American production company founded in November in 2001 by Brad Grey, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Kristin Hahn. In 2005, after Pitt and Aniston divorced, Grey became the CEO o ...

, led by

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...

Aaron Zelman Aaron Zelman is an American television writer and producer. He has worked in both capacities on the series ''Law & Order'', ''Criminal Minds'' and ''Damages''. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild of America Award for his wo ...

, JoAnn Alfano, Jon Liebman, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Michele Fazekas, and Tara Butters. On May 7, 2015, ABC cancelled the series after two seasons.

Premise

The series follows the residents of

Arcadia, Missouri Arcadia is a city in Iron County, Missouri, United States. The population was 618 at the 2020 census. History Arcadia was laid out and platted in 1849. It was named after the Greek region of Arcadia. A post office called Arcadia has been in op ...

, whose lives are upended when their loved ones return from the dead, unaged since their deaths. Among the returned is Jacob Langston (Landon Gimenez), an eight-year-old boy who drowned in 1982. Having been found alive in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, Jacob is brought back to the United States by an immigration agent named J. Martin ("Marty") Bellamy (

Omar Epps Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, and producer. He has been awarded nine NAACP Image Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, one MTV Movie Award, one Black Reel Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Epps's film r ...

), who defies orders and returns Jacob to his parents, Henry (

Kurtwood Smith Kurtwood Larson Smith (born July 3, 1943) is an American television and film actor. He is known for playing Clarence Boddicker in ''RoboCop'' (1987), Robert Griggs in ''Rambo III'' (1988), and Red Forman in ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), as ...

) and Lucille (

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...

). Jacob's surprise return inspires his uncle, Arcadia Sheriff Fred Langston (

Matt Craven Matt may refer to: * Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) * Matt, Switzerland, a ...

), and Fred's daughter Dr. Maggie Langston (

Devin Kelley Devin Marie Kelley is an American actress. She starred in the ABC drama series ''Resurrection'' playing Dr. Maggie Langston and also co-starred on the Fox crime drama ''The Chicago Code''. She also starred in eight films, four of which are shor ...

), whose wife/mother drowned while allegedly trying to rescue the boy, to learn more about this mystery. Caleb Richards (

Sam Hazeldine Samuel Hazeldine (born 29 March 1972) is an English actor working in film, television and theatre. He is the son of actors James Hazeldine. and Rebecca Moore. Early life Sam Hazeldine was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of actors ...

), the father of Maggie's best friend Elaine Richards ( Samaire Armstrong), becomes the second Arcadia resident to return, and he warns that there are many more to follow.

Cast and characters

Main

as Immigration and Customs Agent J. Martin "Marty" Bellamy/Robert Thompson *

as Lucille Langston *

as Sheriff Fred Langston *

as Dr. Maggie Langston * Mark Hildreth as Pastor Thomas "Tom" Hale * Samaire Armstrong as Elaine Richards *

as Caleb Richards (main; season 1, recurring; season 2) * Landon Gimenez as Jacob Langston *

as Henry Langston

Recurring

* Kathleen Munroe as Rachael Braidwood * Kevin Sizemore as Gary Humphrey * James Tupper as Dr. Eric Ward *

Tamlyn Tomita Tamlyn Naomi Tomita (born January 27, 1966) is a Japanese-American actress and singer. She made her screen debut as Kumiko in ''The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986) and reprised the character for the streaming series ''Cobra Kai'' (2021). She is also ...

as Dr. Toni Willis * Travis Young as Ray Richards *

Veronica Cartwright Veronica Cartwright (born April 20, 1949) is a British-American actress. She is known for appearing in science fiction and horror films, and has earned numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. As a child actress, sh ...

as Helen Edgerton * Lori Beth Sikes as Janine Hale * April Billingsley as Barbara Langston * Ned Bellamy as Sam Catlin * Jwaundace Candece as Mrs. Camille Thompson * Shawn Shepard as Mr. Wallace Thompson * Nadej Bailey as Jenny Thompson * Christopher Berry as Deputy Carl Enders * Glenn Fleshler as Mikey Enders (season 2) *

Michelle Fairley Michelle Fairley (born 1964–1965) is an actress from Northern Ireland. She is best known for playing Catelyn Stark in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2013). She has since appeared in the USA Network series '' Suits'' (2013), the ...

as Margaret Langston (season 2) *

Donna Murphy Donna Murphy (born March 7, 1959) is an American actress, best known for her work in musical theater. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she has twice won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical: for her role as Fosca in '' Passion'' (1994–1995 ...

as Elegant Woman/Angela Forrester (season 2) *

Kyle Secor Kyle Ivan Secor (born May 31, 1957) is an American television and film actor. He is known for portraying Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999). Early years Secor was born in Tacoma, Wash ...

as Brian Addison (season 2) * T.J. Linnard as William Kirk (season 2) * Jim Parrack as Preacher James Goodman (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

Season 2 (2014–15)

Development and production

In January 2013, ABC ordered the project to pilot status and in March brought in

Charles McDougall Charles McDougall is a British Emmy Award and BAFTA-winning director. Biography McDougall has directed for popular television series which include the pilot episode of ABC's ''Desperate Housewives'' (which includes the unaired pilot as well) ...

as director as part of a two-year deal he signed with ABC Studios. On March 7, 2013, ABC released its list of potential hour-long pilot pick-ups, with the title changed to ''Forever''. The title changed again after ABC ordered it to series in May 2013. On May 7, 2015, ABC announced that it had cancelled ''Resurrection'' after two seasons. The

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

cited low ratings as the reason for its cancellation. It was high-rated in its first season, but saw a big drop in ratings in its second season. ''Resurrection'' produced by ABC Studios was one of the biggest cancellations for ABC along with two other shows ''

Cristela ''Cristela'' was an American multi-camera sitcom television series that aired from October 10, 2014, through March 6, 2015, on ABC. The series was created by stand-up comedian Cristela Alonzo, who also starred in and wrote for the series and ser ...

'' and the

Ioan Gruffudd Ioan Gruffudd (; (born 6 October 1973) is a Welsh actor. He first came to public attention as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe in ''Titanic'' (1997), and then for his portrayal of Horatio Hornblower in the ''Hornblower (TV series), Hornblower'' seri ...

drama ''

Forever Forever or 4ever may refer to: Film and television Films * ''Forever'' (1921 film), an American silent film by George Fitzmaurice * ''Forever'' (1978 film), an American made-for-television romantic drama * ''Forever'' (1992 film), an American ...

''.

Reception

Critical response

''Resurrection'' scored 60 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

based on 29 reviews, indicating a "mixed or average" response.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

gave it a 52% rating with an average rating of 5.7 out of 10, based on 33 reviews.

Ratings

Overall

Season 1

Season 2

Broadcast

In Australia, the series premiered on March 25, 2014 on

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

. Its debut episode was the highest rating series premiere for two years in Australia, attracting an audience of 1.9 million mainland capital city viewers (beating previous record holder ''

Revenge Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." P ...

'' whose first episode reached 2.06 million viewers in 2012) and 2.82 million viewers nationally. It also topped all three key advertising demographics. The second season premiered on February 22, 2015, at the new time of 10:30 p.m. every Sunday. The second season premiered to 112,000 in a new time slot and consequently was the lowest ratings for the series. In New Zealand, it premiered on July 16, 2014 on TV2. In Canada, the series was simsubbed on

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television ...

for the first season and

CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

for subsequent seasons. In Ireland, the series debuted in summer 2014 on

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

. In the United Kingdom, the show began airing on pay-TV channel,

Watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached ...

on August 18, 2014. The second season premiered on March 19, 2015.

Home media release

ABC and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment scheduled the release of the first season of ''Resurrection'' in DVD format for June 10, 2014. The two-disc set features all eight episodes and bonus features, such as "On Location in Georgia", "Resurrection: Building a Mystery",

blooper A blooper is a short clip from a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms o ...

s, and deleted scenes.

References

External links

* * {{Brad Pitt 2010s American drama television series 2014 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming American fantasy television series 2010s American science fiction television series 2010s American supernatural television series English-language television shows Serial drama television series Television shows based on American novels Television series by ABC Studios Television shows filmed in Georgia (U.S. state) Television shows set in Missouri Fiction about resurrection American fantasy drama television series