• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

The dead rise from their graves and mortuary drawers in a new series on Syfy that represents a new take on the undead.

Unlike similar scenarios in a hundred TV shows and movies, these Lazaruses (Lazari?) are not technically zombies, most notably because they have no appetite for dining on the living.

In this new show -- titled “Revival” and premiering Thursday -- the recently risen simply reassume the lives they lived before, or at least they try to.

The problem is that the still-living are scared of and also repelled by their fellow citizens who were recently buried, but now walk among them once again.

The townsfolk of Wausau, Wisconsin, even have a name for them -- Revivers. The name revives memories of the “Alien Nation” movie and subsequent TV series in which strange new arrivals from space came to settle in earthbound communities, where they were called Newcomers.

The communities in “Alien Nation” looked upon the Newcomers with fear and distrust, and the show was widely interpreted as an allegory of xenophobia.

“Revival” might be one too. But in the first episode previewed by the TV Blog, the hostility of the townspeople simmers in the background as the storyline centers on members of local law enforcement and government authorities trying to make sense of this epidemic of revived corpses.

The first thing they do is order a lockdown and then later begin taking the first steps toward lifting it, which is when the concerns of the citizenry bubble to the surface.

By this time, the town’s Revivers -- at last count, 47 of them -- are mainly restored to the mainstream symbolized by a small child back from the dead who is ostracized by her school classmates who call her Zombie.

Why only 47? Because one of the mysteries of this outbreak is the fact that it is only affecting the people who died within the last two weeks. Those who died previously remain dead.

Although the undead in “Revival” are not evidently humanivores, not all of them are peaceful undead citizens, since some of them led previous lives characterized by mental illnesses and criminality.

Once revived, they return to the habits and emotional states that they left behind. These particular Revivers are the ones who local law enforcement must contend with most. 

The show’s central figure is Sheriff’s Deputy Dana Cypress (Melanie Scrafano), whose father happens to be the sheriff (David James Elliott). 

In this show, surprises and plot twists are frequent and unexpected, and the emphasis is on action and suspense. It is one of the best shows I have seen this year. 

“Revival” premieres Thursday, June 12, at 10 p.m. Eastern on Syfy.