RESURRECTION Is Coming Back To Life
I started watching Resurrection in its first season. I admit I quickly lost interest. It seemed to me that by the second episode the show was already jumping the shark. I watch a fair bit of television, so I am informed enough to sometimes contribute to SciFi4Me.com. And I have little patience for a show that doesn’t hold up.
In case you haven’t been following along, the whole story starts with a boy, Jacob, who suddenly shows up in a rice patty in China. Okay, that’s a bit odd but, it gets even more so when he’s reunited with his parents. They explain that this can’t be their son, he died thirty-two years ago. Or to be more accurate, the father, Henry Langston played by Kurtwood Smith, is the one who won’t believe his eyes. The mother, Frances Fisher as Lucille, buys it hook, line, and sinker.
By the second episode, several people were returning, and that just seemed like too much too soon for me. I felt the series would have been better served to have explored the first returned in more depth before they brought in more characters.
I’m not even sure why, but I started watching the second season, and to my surprise the show started to hold my attention. There are plenty of story lines that are too much like an evening soap opera for my taste. But the story lines that do work, make it bearable to wade through the who’s sleeping with who now and who were they with before stuff. I’m more interested in the mystery of the whole situation.
The show mostly has a great cast. All of the core characters are well cast. Even the young lead, Jacob Langston, portrayed by Landon Gimenez, holds his own with much more seasoned adult actors. Omar Epps is one of my favorites as Detective Bellamy. He started the series as a federal officer who draws the short straw and gets the assignment of driving Jacob home. At this point, he’s developing relationships with the people in town both returned and not. Oh, and he was killed and is now himself a returned.
The reason this season has gotten better and more interesting lies squarely with Michelle Fairley. She portrays Margaret Langston, Jacob’s grandmother. She is very much the matriarch of the family even though she’s only been returned to the family a relatively short time.
Her character has many layers. She has secrets, plans, and a dangerous history. While she lies and sets her plans in motion, she maintains her elegance and southern charm. You can see malice in her eyes as she toasts the family. She’s planning someone’s demise, but she will look gorgeous the whole time and share her thin smile. She’s the sort of villainous character that you love to hate.
I’d like to have less of the soap opera stuff and more of this central family’s story. They are the most interesting part of the whole show. They are the hub of the wheel that all the rest of the show revolves around. Except it really doesn’t need much of the rest of the town and all the little stories. It needs to fully and completely explore this one family and what’s going on with each of them.
