15 Reasons To Watch Revival, Ranked!

The SYFY channel’s latest gem is Revival, which wrapped its 10-episode first season earlier this year. The series, which is a large mix of characters and of genres, is based on a 47-issue comic series by writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton.

Set in Wausau, Wisconsin, Revival takes place 30 days after “Revival Day,” when about 50 recently dead people in the town woke up, alive and now incapable of dying. The town has been quarantined as the people of Wausau, both the living and the “Revivers,” try to live their old lives in a world that’s now forever changed.

The series explores of the Revival on many levels of Wausau; the police, religion, the media, etc. The main lynchpins of the story are Deputy Dana Cypress (Melanie Scrofano) and her college-aged sister Martha “Em” (Romy Weltman).

Whether you know the source material or not, here are 15 reasons Revival deserves to be your next TV obsession, ranked!

Spoilers for Revival follow, so tread carefully.

1. Revival Is Not A Typical Zombie Story

Everyone knows the basics of a zombie apocalypse story, as invented by filmmaker George Romero with Night of the Living Dead. The dead rising, and the series being a comic adaptation, means Revival also invites comparisons to The Walking Dead.

Yet that comparison is also deceptive, because Revival is quite a different story from the typical zombie apocalypse. It’s “zombies” are far from shambling, decaying walkers. The Revivers maintain all their memories and their personalities, and they have no desire to consume any brains.

Despite the quarantine, the revival also doesn’t spread like a virus. This only makes the phenomenon even more inexplicable.

The intelligent and human “zombies” of Revival prove you can teach an old genre new tricks.

2. Revival Gets To Explore Questions Other Zombie Stories Don’t

Since Revival is and isn’t a zombie story, it can tell stories that undead apocalypse stories can’t. Here, the undead aren’t a threat, but actual characters. 

Typically, zombies rising is an unequivocal bad thing. Since the Revivers are the same people they were before, reactions are all over the place. 

Is it a miracle or a curse? One of the Revivers is a little girl named Jordan (Flora McInroy), whose religious parents disown her, thinking their real daughter is dead.

Conversely, there’s also people who are angry and despondent that their loved ones didn’t come back. The reactions are just as split among the Revivers, who are split on if they’re still truly alive, or if they even wanted to come back at all.

3. Revival Is An Unconventional Murder Mystery

One of the genres that Revival throws in its mash-up is the police procedural. The pilot episode — Revival Season 1 Episode 1 “Don’t Tell Dad” — sees Dana investigating the killing of a horse at a local farm with a large, zombie-like bite on its neck. 

“Don’t Tell Dad” is a rough adaptation of the first Revival comic issue, down to the same twist ending: Em is a Reviver. As Dana learns on the next episode, Em can’t remember how she died, only that she woke up in a river.

Em is an addict who stole from dealers and was previously sleeping with her professor (Gianpaolo Venuta), so the suspect list is long.

Dana is obviously motivated to find the one who killed her little sister. Even though, with this murder mystery, the victim is still alive and part of the investigation. Em also has to conceal the fact that she was murdered at all from her overprotective dad. 

4. Revival Is Also A Midwest Noir

Revival complements its unique premise with a specific setting, one that adds to the show’s visuals and completes its themes of a small town disrupted. Filmed in Canada and set in Wisconsin, Revival is a winter noir.

Scenes are often set in wooded, frozen over areas. As the episodes go by, it also becomes clear there’s something(s) lurking in the woods, and the horror is palpable because of how deep the show makes the woods feel.

Winter is the season of death, so it’s natural that a story all about death takes place during the season. The aesthetic of the Revival i.e. Midwest-accented cops in heavy coats trudging through snow deserts, evokes Fargo (both the TV show and the original movie).

One can only guess how Marge Gunderson would handle this case.

5. Melanie Scrofano Is As Capable A Lead As Ever

Melanie Scrofano is top-billed on the show as Dana, and she instantly succeeds at making her a likable lead.

Dana is a fierce and tough detective, sure, but she’s also just trying her best while being pulled in all directions. She’s a single mom, on ornery terms with her father, and has let her relationship with her sister fade.

During the series’ cold open, she’s preparing to quit and leave Wausau, then the Revival kills those plans. Scrofano is the perfect actress to place this series’ shoulders on.

She has experience leading genre TV from her titular role on the Western-themed Wynonna Earp — another law-woman tied up with the undead. Fans of Wynonna Earp will probably find Revival right up their alley.

6. Em Cypress Will Be Your Favorite New TV Heroine

A rule in comic books is to give a character a distinctive silhouette. The character on Revival who most fits that is Em.

Many of the comic, and now the show’s, promotional images shows her in her signature black hoodie and wielding a scythe. That’s the weapon of the Grim Reaper and one that fits a rural farm community.

Romy Weltman gives a promising performance as Em, and her youthfulness reflects back on the character in effective ways. In the comic, Dana and Em look nearly identical (freckles and all) — they could pass as twins.

Here, Em is definitely the younger sister; her bangs and Goth-black hair underline her youth, which then underlines her characterization as a troubled girl trying to find her reason to stay alive.

7. The Cypress Sisters Are The Sad Heart of Revival

Dana and Em are absolutely the co-leads of Revival; their lead roles and performances can’t be separated. Both Scrofano and Weltman are convincing as sisters, even if (or, really because) their characters butt heads in such a sibling-like way.

There’s unmistakable sadness to their relationship, though. It took Em dying for them to reconnect. Few things are more painful than a loved one dying and you realizing you didn’t make the most of your time with them. Dana has that realization, but she’s got a second chance.

The murder mystery without a true loss premise of Revival might seem self-defeating, but Dana’s determination to crack the case informs her character. Even if Em is still around, she failed to protect her sister, and she has to make up for that.

8. Steven Ogg’s Blaine Is A Creepy Villain

One of the more blatantly sinister members of the Wausau community is Blaine Abel  (Steven Ogg), a fundamentalist Christian and aspiring exorcist horrified by the Revival. “The gates of Hell” have opened, Blaine says, and it’s the living’s duty to purge the demons walking around in the revived bodies.

Ogg is primarily known for playing villains of the wilder (and sometimes) funnier side. Trevor on the video game Grand Theft Auto V, the Savior Simon on The Walking Dead, or the gun-toting Sobchak on Better Call Saul, to name a few. 

Blaine doesn’t act manic but he’s definitely a little crazed. His voice has the compelling power that a preacher’s should. Whenever he enters a scene, he completely steals it and your attention.

9. Voice Actress Lenore Zann Plays A Live-Action Role

One of the supporting characters on Revival is Jeannie Gorski (Lenore Zann), a chipper administrative assistant at the police department. If you recognize her, it might be because of her voice.

While Revival is far from her first live-action role, Zann has an extensive voice-acting resume, both English language cartoons and anime dubs. ’90s kids will know her as the southern belle superhero Rogue from the X-Men cartoon, where she affected a Mississippi accent.

Even without the accent, hints of her Rogue voice (like how she says “Darlin'”) come through.  Zann’s extraordinary career doesn’t end at acting; she served in the Nova Scotia assembly Canadian parliament for a decade.

When her time in public service ended, she returned to acting — and not just as Rogue on the revival (no pun intended) series, X-Men ’97.

10. Revival Will Scratch Your Mystery Box Itch

The title sequence of Revival is brief but striking. In a dark, underwater void, a web of interconnected items, from Dana’s police badge to a ring Em found on her when she revived, are all woven together with a skull in the center.

It’s a perfect visual representation of the series, which becomes a box full of mysteries — Wausau is a town filled with red herrings. The central mystery, of course, is how did the Revival happen?

Was it supernatural? A divine gift of some kind? If it’s biological, then how come it doesn’t spread? And why did the Revival affect the specific people that it did?

Revival episodes run a consistent 42 minutes, and with that brisk pacing, it never overstays its welcome or forgets to move the story forward.

11.  Revival Will Tide Over Curious Zombie Fans

While not a conventional zombie story, Revival is still worth checking out for that genre’s fans. Since the works of the aforementioned Mr. Romero, zombies have been a tool of social satire, and used to tell stories about social change.

Compare The Last of Us, the preeminent zombie show out right now is. The Last of Us is about the world changing and how people can become monsters in desperate times. Revival takes a more microscopic lens and looks at a community changing.

In Revival, the Revivers are used to explore societal discrimination. Non-revivers look at them like they’re different, they’re registered and tracked by the local government, and hardliners suggest putting them into camps.

It may not be an apocalypse story, but Revival still questions our humanity like a good zombie story should.

12. Revival Remembers To Have A Sense of Humor and Horror

REVIVAL — “A Rose and a Thorn” Episode 108 — Pictured: Brandon Oakes as Jesse Blackdeer — (Photo by: Naomi Peters/Lavivier Productions/SYFY)

Revival isn’t pure horror, but it still remembers to be scary. The very first scene of the show on Revival Season 1 Episode 1 “Don’t Tell Dad” is set in a crematorium when the Revival happens.

One of the Revivers, Jesse Blackdeer (Brandon Oakes) was in the process of being cremated, and so wakes and bursts out of the oven while on fire.

Yet Revival isn’t all scary, and there’s comedy to balance out the darkness and intrigue. Dana has a exasperated sense of humor that only makes her more endearing.

In particular, she develops a Mulder & Scully-esque will-they-won’t-they with Dr. Ibrahim Ramin (Andy McQueen), a CDC officer sent to investigate the Revival. Dana and Ibrahim working alongside her dad everyday makes it that much more awkward.

13. The Revival Soundtrack Is Full of Bangers Famous And Obscure

Revival isn’t packed to the wall with needle drops, but most episodes close out on a song that plays over the end credits. The soundtrack ranges from 2000s alternative (Alkaline Trio shows up on Revival Season 1 Episode 3 “Reality Check”) to contemporary artists.

Take Revival Season 1 Episode 2 “Keeping Up Appearances.” That episodes features Buried A Lie by Senses Fail when Em runs off with charming musician Rhodey (Kaleb Horn).

It’s a song all about trying to solve the murder of a dead girl, and so a seamless fit for Em’s story. So much so, it could be her character’s theme song.

Yet the episode closes with the country/folk Murder At The Bingo Hall by Amigo the Devil, played over the scene where Dana first learns Em might have been murdered. The string plucking sound as the camera closes in Dana’s face is effective tension building.

14. Revival Season 1 Is Just A Binge Away

Revival Season 1 concluded in August. If you missed it during its original run, the season is now streaming in full on Peacock.

With 10 breezily-paced episodes, it’s a quick binge you owe it to yourself to take. Now that the season has concluded, you can watch at your own pace.

Again, the main thing that keeps Revival going is its mysteries. If you want to know the answers, you can binge through the whole season and enjoy it as a complete package.

On the other hand, Revival episodes flow well as standalone chapters. If you want to recreate the experience of watching it week to week, staying in suspense and forming theories, you’ve got that option too.

15. Revival Is A Strong Introduction To The Original Comic

While a Revival Season 2 has not currently been confirmed, your journey with the story doesn’t have to end at Season 1 Episode 10.

Seeley and Norton’s original Revival comic is ripe for reading and, having concluded in 2017, has the assurance of an ending that the show doesn’t yet. The major characters and driving mysteries are the same, but the show is hardly a beat-for-beat recreation of the comic.

While comic issues breeze by in 20ish pages, television episode need more meat on the bones. With any luck, Revival will carry on for more seasons and remix the comic even more.

The Revival comic is available in eight paperback volumes and/or four hardcover ones. Like the TV series, it can be read in a rush, but taking your time with the story can be rewarding too.

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Revival airs on SYFY and is streaming on Peacock.

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