Tim Seeley and Mike Norton’s Image Comics book Revival has one heck of a hook: one day in the small town of Wasau, Wisconsin, everyone who has died in the past few weeks is suddenly alive. But instead of becoming zombies, they’re just back, alive, and now the town — and the world — has to reckon with that. And in the middle of that is a murder mystery that needs to be solved by the town’s cranky, donut-loving Detective, Dana Cypress.
It’s the sort of story that seemed prime for adaptation. And yet, over the course of the past 13 years, that adaptation has eluded the book through various stabs at movie and TV… Until now, as the first season of the show will premiere on SYFY, starting next week. And good news, while co-showrunners Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce have peppered the episodes seen by critics (SYFY provided the first six for review) with nods and shout-outs to the comics, the TV show is very much its own thing.
Revival (the TV version) stars Wynonna Earp‘s Melanie Scrofano as Dana, Romy Weltman as her emo sister Martha “Em” Cypress, and David James Elliott as Wayne Cypress, their father and also Dana’s boss as the chief of police. There are other characters in the periphery, which we’ll get to in a second. But Revival doesn’t work if these three don’t work; and thankfully, they do.
Dana is tailor-made for the sarcastic bad-ass persona with a hint of vulnerability Scrofano perfected on Wynonna Earp. Elliott is essentially playing an older version of the character he played on JAG. And comparative newcomer Weltman fits right into the main familial dynamic, more than holding her own — particularly when she’s able to ditch a pretty hideous wig later on in the season.
Andy McQueen also makes a solid impression as Ibrahim Ramin, the CDC rep assigned to Wasau, who has an ill-timed anonymous encounter with Dana, complicating their dynamic. And guest stars, including Steven Ogg and CM Punk, are a delight whenever they pop up on screen, even when they’re menacing our heroes.
But beyond the cast, and to get back to what I said earlier, what works best about Revival is how the show uses the comic book as a guideline without feeling beholden to it. That allows moments like a near shot-for-shot remake of the opening scene of the comic in the opening scene of the pilot. But it also adds different, complicated dynamics that — despite the show being set in an indeterminate earlier era — seem very reflective of the world outside our window. While the Revivers are mostly content to just go back to their lives, everyone else is uneasy about their neighbors being resurrected for unknown reasons. This leads to discussions like internment camps, stamping IDs, arm bands… All the things that characterize dark times in human history like Nazi Germany, and modern America.
I said mostly, and that’s because in between the many tones of the show, one it does very effectively is horror — because some of the Revivers aren’t dealing with the whole thing as well as others. Viewers with a fear of teeth falling out might want to skip the first episode entirely. And plenty of weird, gross things happen on a regular basis in between the ongoing investigation into the origin of the Revivers, a crime saga where local gangs are moving in on the town, and general drama between the characters.
If anything, that’s the biggest fault of the show, that it takes on a lot in the first season. You can feel the writers putting it all on the table to the point that the table starts to creak under the weight. For viewers, Revival might work better as a binge than week to week, given the amount of “things” happening. Working against that notion are the pretty excellent cliffhangers at the end of the episodes, but the show is juggling a lot of tones, a lot of plots, and a lot of characters. And at times can’t quite gel them all together.
That said? After a strong pilot and some slow simmering episodes in the front half of the season, things really start to heat up in the back half, with the end of Episode 5 and all of Episode 6, the strongest of the bunch sent for review. The action is bigger, the circumstances get wilder and weirder, and the Northern Exposure with light supernatural undertones feeling of the show gets taken over by something far more LOST-ian and intriguing.
Will the show get to play out all these ideas and bring them together by season’s end (there are two episodes beyond what was sent for critics)? Maybe. And if they don’t, will we get to see how this all plays out in a Season 2? Again, maybe. Regardless, it’s nice that after the long journey Revival has had, it’s great to see it brought to life in a way that respects the source material, while finding its own way to become a TV show.
Revival premieres June 12 at 10pm ET on SYFY.
Revival Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
Revival will officially premiere on SYFY on Thursday, June 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The season will be eight episodes long, with new episodes dropping weekly. Episodes will also be available to stream on Peacock one week later.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Revival, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, June 12, 2025: Revival, Season 1, Episode 1: “Don’t Tell Dad”
- Thursday, June 19, 2025: Revival, Season 1, Episode 2: “Keeping Up Appearances”
- Thursday, June 26, 2025: Revival, Season 1, Episode 3: “Reality Check”
- Thursday, June 26, 2025: Revival, Season 1, Episode 4: “Run Along Little Lamb”
- Thursday, July 10, 2025: Revival, Season 1, Episode 5: “Triage”
- Thursday, July 17, 2025: Revival, Season 1, Episode 6: “Bloodlines”
- TBA: Revival, Season 1, Episode 7
- TBA: Revival, Season 1, Episode 8 *season finale*
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