Revival episode two “Keeping Up Appearances” continues right where episode one left off.
A recent incident at the local hospital has the town on edge about what to do about the revivers in the community. Dana Cypress takes on her most personal case yet, while “Em” Cypress begins to unravel and show how deep the hurt is from her recent trauma. Also floating in the background of the episode is a mysterious man from the woods who makes his presence known.
Episode two is more focused compared to the pilot. While the pilot bounced from moment to moment without much of a connective thread or ‘push’ from a previous scene, the actions of the episode directly influenced the subsequent scene to create a rising tide to another fun final moment to get you to come back next week.
(Photo by: Mathieu Savidant/Lavivier Productions/Syfy)
For how large the cast of characters and world has been in the first two episodes, Revival has worked best when the scale gets smaller. Dana interrogating Em in her apartment, Dana and Ibrahim in the car, and Em and her new friend at the end behind the bar are all quiet, personal moments that bring heart.
It is also pretty clear that this is going to be a show about the Cypress family. From the impromptu family meeting in the hospital to the fact that a Cypress has been in almost every scene. Not that it’s a bad thing (yet), but the other main actors certainly have much to give to the series.
I hope we get to see more of Ibrahim as the season progresses. Right now, he serves as a foil for the sheriff and a sounding board for Dana and plays a backseat to the family. Andy Mcqueen is playing the role well, and here’s hoping that both he and the character get time to shine in the future.
Steven Ogg, playing the mysterious Blaine Abel, makes his first on-screen appearance in episode two. He played a more subdued version of himself in the limited screen time he had, which made for an engaging introduction. With the amount of camp and larger-than-life characters we have seen from Revival so far, it was a pleasant surprise to see the opposite from Ogg.
The dialogue was not as strong as the pilot and did not have the polish. Some of the lines hit (“Lady, STOP!), but many of the moments felt flat or were rushed to get to the necessary end. The family fight in the beginning needed to be a few minutes longer to realistically get to the monologue they capped the scene off with. Some offputting ‘anti-wokeness’ dialogue choices took me out because of how unnatural they were (The sheriff saying “Even the bleeding heart liberal agrees with me” when Ibrahim’s only characteristic so far has been he is nervous and Dana saying “Dad is going to kill me, I guess that’s insensitive now”).
(Photo by: Naomi Peters/Lavivier Productions/Syfy)
The hospital action scene is a microcosm of my biggest issue with Revival, which is the lack of polish around the filmmaking execution. Dana is running towards the chaos of the moment, and three people in scrubs casually jog past her without an inkling of concern about what they are running from. Two moments could have been standouts, where solid editing could have built amazing tension, but instead, they ended up cookie-cutter shots. If you don’t have the budget, then you need to be executing perfectly on what you can control.
Is the mystery box holding? I would say so. Episode two gave enough breadcrumbs through the revivers and the case Dana is now exploring to justify watching episode three.
I still recommend Revival as a fun show for the summer, but I am concerned that the production can not keep up with the world-building.
New episodes of Revival air Thursdays on Syfy.
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