[5] In a small French mountain town many dead people reappear apparently alive and normal, including teenage school bus crash victim Camille, suicidal bridegroom Simon, a small boy called "Victor" who was murdered by burglars, and serial killer Serge.

While they try to resume their lives, strange phenomena take place: recurring power outages; a mysterious lowering of the local reservoir's water level, revealing the presence of dead animals and a church steeple; the appearance of strange marks on the bodies of the living and the dead.

The series was shot in Haute-Savoie, mainly in the city of Annecy, and in Seynod, Menthon-Saint-Bernard, Poisy, Cran-Gevrier, Sévrier, Annecy-le-Vieux, Veyrier-du-Lac, and Semnoz.

They described it as inspiring them, they wanted some kind of musical mood in place before they started, so we were working a bit dry at first ... we'd (only) seen the first couple of scripts in English".

[20] The band released a four-track sampler of the music (Les Revenants EP) on 17 December 2012, the day of the showing of the final episode.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 100% with an average score of 9.2 out of 10 based on 39 reviews and a critics' consensus of, "A pleasant change from typically gory zombie shows, The Returned is a must-see oddity that's both smart and sure to disturb".

[23] Le Monde said the series marked a resurgence in the fantasy genre[24] with the dead appearing out of nowhere, trying to regain their lives where they left off.

[31] It received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials for the 2014 TCA Awards.

[32] Fabien Adda and Fabrice Gobert received a nomination for Best Screenplay for the episode "The Horde", for the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards.

[55] In May 2013, it was revealed that an English-language adaptation was in development by Paul Abbott and FremantleMedia, with the working title They Came Back.