[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
While the zombie oeuvre has no shortage of entries, most of them plumb the narrative of the survivors battling a very dangerous foe in the undead, as well as the possible triggering contagion that set things in motion. Revival, Syfy’s newest genre drama, premiering Thursday in the slot just vacated by SurrealEstate, is based on a four-part graphic novel series of the same name by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton that was first published 12 years ago, three years into the run of The Walking Dead.
Here, the undead are neither dangerous (mostly) nor triggered by some sort of outbreak (as far as we know). Instead, one random day in December just before Christmas in a tiny postage stamp town in Wisconsin, the dead simply reawaken. Some buried, some not, some in very dicey situations, but all emerging back into the world perplexed about how that happened. And they’re not the only ones.
The town boasts a small police force headed by Sheriff Wayne Cypress (David James Elliott). One of his deputies is daughter Dana (Melanie Scrofano), who’s just about to finally shed the hold the town and her family have on her when “Revival Day” happens and they end up on the front lines of managing the crisis and quarantined as the CDC descends. Whatever happened there didn’t happen anywhere else, so nobody gets to leave.
Dana’s still planning to get out as soon as possible, giving her young son, Cooper (Hudson Wurster) a shot at something better and different, when her younger sister, Em (Romy Weltman), resurfaces in their life after ghosting them. Then, it’s up to Dana to solve a mystery compounded by living and previously dead suspects. The sisters become the heart of the show, joined by visiting CDC doctor Ibrahim Ramin (Coroner‘s Andy McQueen), who’s drawn into a mystery of his own, working to decipher how the Revivers regenerate themselves and what caused them to revive in the first place.
Also in the mix is Blaine Abel (Steven Ogg), a burgeoning religious zealot who’s made up his mind that they’re an abomination, which makes him the one to be feared. And Mayor Dillisch (Conrad Coates) tries to navigate between keeping people safe and managing a simmering panic.
The first episode lays out the basics and sets the timeline, picking up 35 days after Revival Day, which unfolds up in the cold open (and leans heavily into the scares), while the second and third episode calm things down and really set the tone of what I hope the show will be. We learn that the Cypress clan has a very good reason to be a bit salty around the edges, but they love each other.
And Wayne and Dana do actually believe in their sworn duty to protect and serve their community, even if they disagree on what that looks like. We also see things through the lens of the Revivers, for whom the day is not just a physical reset but an emotional and psychological one, too — for better or for worse.
The further I got into the season, the more I really liked it. It’s a good middle ground of emotionally complex storytelling and the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle threat of the unknown as people deal with a new world order that pits the living against the dead. It’s a scoche gentler than my beloved From — randomly violent-slash-gory while still leaning into the quiet moments of an ensemble dynamic and familial plotting and threaded with enough humor to keep it far afield of feeling hopeless. Everything’s gone to hell, but they have the gumption to deflect that and deal with it.
Revival also has an excellent deep dive of music threading the episodes, and is a bit analog, or digital-light, with everyone using flip phones and no mention of social media or the Internet. The random modern reference I heard was someone asking about a hybrid car. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be set in the year the first novel was issued, or even earlier (the Prius is 25 years old this year), but I loved the vibe of it.
The cast, lead by Scrofano (a newly minted CSA award winner for Tubi’s Wynonna Earp: Vengeance) is excellent as the conflicted Dana, who uses her humor as a defense mechanism but cares deeply to the point of feral about protecting her own. Weltman is new to me, mostly recently starring in Prime’s The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh. She’s very good opposite Scrofano and Kaleb Horn, who plays Em’s new friend Rhodey beginning in episode 2.
McQueen was a favorite during his Coroner run and he and Scrofano have scenes together that are adorably awkward as they try to work together despite a misguided start. The series is the first regular role for Elliott in a minute, and he’s super game as a sheriff attempting to hold his town and his family together amid extremely unusual circumstances.
The series is created and the first two episodes were written by Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce, who serve as showrunners. They also executive produce alongside Scrofano and Lance Samuels, Daniel Iron, Samantha Levine, Neil Tabatznik, Daniel March, Greg Hemmings, Stephen Foster, and directing producer Amanda Row, who helms the first three episodes I screened. Wynonna Earp alumni Noelle Carbone and Killjoys and Travelers alumni Ashley Park are also on board as co-executive producers and writers.
Revival premieres this Thursday, June 12th, at 10 pm/9c on Syfy in the US and CTV Sci-Fi in Canada. It’ll stream a week later on Peacock in the US and next day on Crave in Canada. Here are a few sneak peeks.
[Updated 8/24/26 — Season 1 is now on Netflix. Check out my exclusive interview with series writer and co-producer Heather Taylor here.]
Photos courtesy of Laviver Productions/SYFY; videos courtesy of SYFY.
