Eerie New TV Show Hits Very High Rotten Tomatoes Score After Premiere

Revival, Syfy’s latest Image Comics adaptation following Wynonna Earp, is the new must-watch hit of the summer.

Just two episodes into its 10-episode freshman run, the supernatural horror noir series, which premiered on Thursday, June 12, already holds an impressive 92% critics’ score and a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

An adaptation of Tim Seeley and Mike Norton’s Image Comics series of the same name, Revival centers around Dana Cypress (Melanie Scrofano), a single mother and small town cop in rural Wisconsin who is thrust into the center of a truly bizarre mystery when the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves, appearing and acting like they once were.

The series, which also stars David James Elliott, Romy Weltman, and Andy McQueen, among others, is being heralded by critics as “a fresh twist on the dark thriller genre of comic-adapted stories” and a show that manages to hit “all the right dramatic notes.” The series is also drawing comparisons to other popular Syfy series, with Pajiba’s Dustin Rowles writing, “it’s already charming and very much in the vein of Wynonna Earp, Resident Alien, or even Buffy in its heyday,” while FandomWire’s Alan French said Revival is “undeniably the best-looking show on SyFy since Chucky.”

Celebrating the show’s high Rotten Tomatoes scores on Instagram, co-creator, co-showrunner, and executive producer Luke Boyce said he “still can’t believe it. This kind of reception is ‘dream come true’ territory.”

“This show was years in the making. Every frame came from a place of deep care, from a genuine love of the original comic, and from long, hard weeks of creative toiling, rewriting, reworking, and fighting for what mattered. My partner, [Aaron B. Koontz] constantly challenged us to push the story, to not just adapt but elevate where we could. We didn’t always have the money (honestly, we barely had the money), but we had the ambition, and somehow, piece by piece, it came together,” he continued. “To see that effort met with this kind of reception? It’s the kind of thing every filmmaker hopes for… Thank you. Truly.”

Although Syfy hasn’t yet renewed Revival for a second season, the show’s strong early start paired with the fact that its source material ran for 47 issues makes a renewal seem likely. However, fans will ultimately have to wait to see if a second season is ordered.

New episodes of Revival air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy. Episodes then stream on Peacock one week after their broadcast air date.