The TV Legion

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 Posted by Television at 5:23 PM

The TV Legion

“The River: The Complete First Season” DVD Review

Posted: 30 May 2012 11:41 AM PDT

theriver season1 The River: The Complete First Season DVD Review

Created by “Paranormal Activity’s” Oren Peli, “The River” is a nice blend of thrills, drama, and interesting storytelling. It has all the things Peli is known for and pretty much feels like a television extension of the “Paranormal Activity” franchise. The show is somewhat scary (probably the scariest network primetime series I’ve seen) but I think the TV ads over-hyped the fear factor a bit much. I would have watched the show when it aired on TV but I thought it would be too scary for me. However, while there are some scary moments, if a wimp like me can watch it with no problems, it can’t be too bad. I’m guessing horror fans will be a bit disappointed by the lack of fear-inducing moments but “The River” should be perfect for average viewers like me who want to feel slightly scared without being grossed out or having nightmares.

“The River” tells the story of an Amazon expedition to find a missing explorer named Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood). Six months after he vanished and long after he was assumed dead, his emergency beacon goes off. Emmet’s wife Tess (Leslie Hope), his son Lincoln (Joe Anderson), and a TV production crew led by his ex-producer Clark (the always great Paul Blackthorne) set off on an expedition to find him. While attempting to find Emmet, the team realizes his catchphrase (”There’s magic out there”) is true as they find themselves facing off against angry spirits and other paranormal entities. “The River” also features a show-within-a-show format which can be distracting at times but is also sometimes fascinating to watch. Swear words are bleeped out, food products are blurred out, the show uses a shaky cam (which I absolutely despise even if it makes it look more real), etc. This is a big part of the first couple episodes but eventually starts being phased out a little bit towards the end.

Whenever you have a short-run show like “The River,” the question is did it end well. There’s nothing worse than falling in love with a good show that ends without wrapping anything up. Luckily, even though the series only had eight episodes it does end pretty well with the main mystery mostly wrapped up. Like a good serialized show, however, it opens up an intriguing storyline for season two that I wish could see the light (but almost certainly won’t). Netflix did show some interest in picking up the series a few months back but since there hasn’t been any news lately, I doubt anything will happen there. However, if they did somehow pick the show up I would definitely become a subscriber to watch a second season. “The River” isn’t “Lost” 2.0 or anything but it’s still a very good sci-fi/horror show that I enjoyed watching.  The cast is very good with notable names like Bruce Greenwood, Leslie Hope, and Paul Blackthorne. There’s also a lot of lesser known actors but they do a fine job as well.

Overall, I would definitely recommend “The River: The Complete First Season” to most science fiction and horror fans. While I wish there were more than 8 episodes, the mystery is intriguing, the show is scary but not too scary, and it’s very well acted.

4 out of 5

© Mort for The TV Legion, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:


0 comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)