# The Returned, SF&F without blue screens



## Sally Ann Melia (Jun 20, 2013)

It was about half way through the second episode of The Returned that I  felt the French Pride running through this new Sunday night series on  Channel 4. A burly bar man just released from a Police interrogation is  under attack by his brother, one of the Returned, he stands holding a  door closed against his attacker, and without irony he chants the first  prayer of the catholic faith: Hail Mary, full of grace... It was at that  moment I felt 'l'envie' for our Gallic cousins. France is a republic,  and church has deconnected from the state since the 1789 revolution, but  it considers itself a Catholic Country, and unburdened by political  correctness, the French KNOW they are Catholics, and it is without irony  that they use common prayers, because that is part of their Gallic  identity that is what it is to be French.

It is the way The Returned handles religion which I find so interesting.  Because the French like us Angle-Saxons are not a religious country,  and while less then 10% go to church every Sunday, there is a much  greater consensus that church is the right route for Christmas, Baptisms  and Weddings. I mean we're French, it's our birth right to be Catholic.

So The Returned sensitively portrays a woman who is divorced following  the death of her 13 year old daughter, but nevertheless 'has turned to  religion' to see herself through the grieving process, and now is  desperately trying to 'square the circle' of her daughters return. After  all says her new partner: You are not the first. ( an oblique reference  to Jesus Christ's resurrection.)

And don't you just love the teens portrayed so realistically that you  can smell them. The moment I enjoyed the most on Sunday evening was the  brief glimpse we had of two thirteen-year-olds, dressed, yes but only in  modest underclothes, lying side by side  and face to face, thinking  about sex.

"if you don't want to," he says...

And for it was a Darcy moment, a mumbled line which felt freash, and  right, and just so romantic. Why do the French get it so right when it  comes to sex? When we the puritans, the Protestants, the politically  correct, angle-Saxons are served up early evening government health  warning about violent sex, showing young teens forcing the issue, when  our red tops revel is a cultue of not ciggies, but blow-jobs behind the  bike sheds, the French in one careless 5 second scene, illustrate  without even knowing how it should be for teens.  And I just wanted to  have it on a loop and watch it again and again and again. 

So, the title of this piece was SF&F without blue screens, and  therefore we should before we close talk about the special effects. Well  that's just it, apart from some wonderful time delayed light and shadow  shots, there is no SFX in this classic SF&F show. OK a coach goes  off the edge of a cliff, but I think it was a model, I leave it to the  film tech guys to correct me. In any case, the French did not both with  the long crash shot into the valley followed by an explosion, in  something that was much more terrifying the bus driver looses control  and the bus just topples over the edge of the high mountain road.

This is classic stuff, make sure you catch up the first two episodes on  4OD, and with me prepare yourself for a treat this coming Sunday night.


----------



## Bugg (Jun 25, 2013)

I've enjoyed the first three episodes.  Quite a sedate pace, but the atmosphere is good.


----------

