Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries we face in life is the question of what happens after it ends. It’s an enigma for which many religions have sought to provide an answer, often proposing that metaphysical existence lives on, even after the moment the body flatlines.
A variety of television shows have also taken their creative cracks at interpreting death and its implications. But France’s Les revenants (The Returned), no Netflix, provides an especially staggering new spin on the subject of mortality, one that perhaps many would consider as ideal as it is implausible: death as a temporary state from which — you guessed it — we can return. Whether it is physically, or only metaphysically, is for us to discover.
Seems appealing at first, but Les revenants quickly upsets any solace we may find in the thought of impermanent death. Each episode is dedicated to a single character, piloting with Camille (Yara Pilartz), who is first introduced as any other 15-year-old, earbuds in and head in the clouds, as she sits on a bus among her classmates. As the bus winds gracefully higher into the Alps, we all but expect its sudden swerve off the side of a cliff. There are no survivors.