The TV show "The Returned" is a science fiction series following the lives of those living in a small French town shaken by the reappearance of residents after their deaths. The show explores the individual lives of specific people who, after their separate deaths, have returned back to their families.
In terms of Levi Straus' Binary Oppositions, theme of Living vs Dead and Us vs them is explored. Throughout the show, the 'returned' look extremely similar to the living to the point where audience members may feel confused over who is dead or alive. This is highlighted by the nonchalant way that the returned come back to their families. They simply walk back in to their lives, there is no 'awakening' or significant moment where we see the characters come back to life. This makes the audience see them as extremely normal, just like any other character in the show, increasing the significance of the way that they are treated by other characters.
Many of the living characters seem very hostile towards the returned. It is explored throughout the show that this could possibly be out of fear, jealousy or anger. Characters such as Thomas, who abuses his power as a police officer to mistreat Simon represent some individuals resentment and attitude towards the returned characters. Despite the characters previously being residents of the town, they are now made to feel different and rejected from it. There is an ongoing struggle between the authorities and the returned and the audiences are made to feel like they are not wanted - alienated and confused by their own presence.
The treatment of the returned characters and how they are represented as 'other' could be a comment on our real life society and its treatment of migrants or people from other countries and ethnicities. Many characters show anger towards the returned, wanting them to go back to where they have come from, of course, like us, not knowing exactly where that is. Camille, arguably the main 'returned' character in the show, is labelled a monster. She experiences misjudgement from people in the "helping hand" and also at some point, Lena, her sister. We are encouraged to sympathise with Camille as she begins to believe these things are true. The labels that she is given begins to affect her actions and opinion on herself. In addition, we see that the returned characters, and some of their families, are desperate for the peaceful integration of the returned and Camille's family and Julie try to go about their lives are normal despite their additions. However, the overarching will of town and the authorities ends up leading to forced segregation, in episode eight we see how the returned are forced to separate from the town by repressive authority figures.
Usually, we see representation of other and an "us vs them" mentality when there is an element of race or ethnicity. The media constantly tries to make us believe that foreign immigrants and people of ethnic minority are to blame for societal issues such as lack of jobs etc. An interesting thing to note about the show is that all of the cast members are white and, as previously mentioned, have very little physical differences. This, again, makes it increasingly hard for us to distinguish between the alive and 'undead'. In my opinion, this amplifies the impact of the mistreatment as audiences are encouraged to see it as unfair or unnecessary, because it is based on something that the returned characters can not control. So when we apply this to society as a whole, we are encouraged to see that those marginalised and seen as 'other' in our society, did also not choose the characteristics that they are judged upon.
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