With “The Walking Dead” currently the highest-rated show on TV, perhaps it’s no surprise that “Resurrection” — a new series about people coming back from the dead — is now the season’s most-watched regular-timeslot drama debut.
The ABC series’ premiere on March 9 (heavily promoted during the network’s Oscar telecast) drew nearly 14 million viewers, which grew to 21.7 million viewers when DVR and online viewing were factored in. That beat NBC’s freshman hit “The Blacklist.”
The show’s second episode this past Sunday (9 p.m.) declined to just under 11 million viewers — but was still the most-watched network entertainment program of the night.
“Resurrection” is based on the novel “The Returned” by Jason Mott (not to be confused with Sundance TV’s “The Returned,” which is based on a film called “They Came Back”). And though there are no zombies in “Resurrection” — at least not in the comic-book sense — it does raise some existential questions, which seem to be striking a chord with viewers.
“The television series and the novel both tap into that wish-fulfillment that we all have. We’ve all lost someone and wish for that second chance to make things right or do things differently,” Mott tells The Post. “And that’s what ‘The Returned’ was exploring as a novel — and I think that’s what the television series is exploring. I think that’s what people are responding to.
“I think it’s a very healthy thing to have this arena where you can tune in weekly and have this thing explored.”
“Resurrection” takes place in Arcadia, Mo., where deceased loved ones start to return — beginning with 8-year-old Jacob (Landon Gimenez), who wakes up in China with no idea how he got there. When immigration agent J. Martin Bellamy (Omar Epps) takes him home to his parents — Henry (Kurtwood Smith) and Lucille Langston (Frances Fisher) — he discovers that Jacob died more than 30 years ago.
Producers have deviated from the novel quite a bit, introducing a slew of new characters and focusing the eight-episode season on a small town instead of the novel’s global story. But Mott says he likes the new direction the writers are taking — and recognizes it’s a necessity for sustaining a TV series with a potential for multiple seasons.
“They’re sticking to the spirit of the book, which is ultimately the important thing to me,” he says.
Mott calls his reaction to the ratings for “Resurrection” an “unbelievable, overwhelming feeling,” and, like the producers, sees the potential for many seasons worth of storytelling should ABC renew the show.
“It’s a story with legs — you can bring in a lot of different things, examine a lot of different things,” he says.
“The more time you have, the more opportunities for deep stories, for deep narrative, and I think that’s what people really want in television,” he says.
“I hope that they get a chance to really stretch it out and make these stories as rich as possible.”