ABC’s The River took a terrific premise which could have become another suspense classic like Lost and instead evolved it into something miserably ridiculous and irritating. A suspense/horror series is nothing new for network television, but The River wanted to be both a grounded suspense shocker and a supernatural fright fest, and the amalgamation of the two premises just didn’t work. The series could have worked wonderfully well with a different game plan, but on the evidence of the eight episodes which constitute its first (and only) season, the show really delivered only one episode that was really first-rate.
The River: The Complete First Season
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra et al
Studio: ABC Studios
Year: 2012
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 anamorphic
Running Time: 344 minutes
Rating: TV-14
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
MSRP: $25.99
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Review Date: May 14, 2012
The Series
3/5
Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) has fronted the nature series The Undiscovered Country for twenty-two years, but when he cuts his usual crew loose, leaves his wife Tess (Leslie Hope) and son Lincoln (Joe Anderson) back home, and heads off into the depths of the Amazon “looking for magic,” it’s no surprise when he goes missing. His former producer Clark Quietly (Paul Blackthorne) gets the go-ahead from a network to completely fund an expedition to find him if his wife and son will go along and if the entire venture is filmed. The just found footage of their two months on the Amazon constitute the contents of the show’s eight episodes.
Pushing the documentary approach to storytelling to the extreme, the series uses the same “found footage” approach to each episode’s narratives that was used in The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Chronicle, but the rapidly edited, almost schizophrenic back and forth between sharp, detailed footage and the grainy, glitch-filled low resolution camerawork takes some getting used to, and some viewers may never get used to it. The writers have one of the most exotically mysterious and creepily unknown parts of the world as their playground (the interior Boiúna region of the Amazon), but instead of keeping most of their spooks in our imaginations, the episodes are ripe with possessed dolls, ghosts, a mysterious blinding powder, zombies, and, for a finale, demonic possession. While there are enough “boo” moments to satisfy the younger members of the family, the boogeymen that have been conjured up to battle our protagonists in each episode really push one’s tolerance for silliness to the breaking point.
Performances across the board are very good, however. Bruce Greenwood playing the lost explorer turns up on the majority of episodes in videotapes found at various points along the way. In the episode “Doctor Emmet Cole,” however, he’s center stage in the series’ one true standout episode struggling to survive in the jungle, and it’s the episode which best illustrates how superlative the series could have been if the writing throughout had been this imaginative with the episode’s shocks mostly suggested through sound effects like the odd rustling in the brush or with our seeing the results of some unknown encounter rather than having the antagonists right in our faces. Leslie Hope’s alternately fierce and frail wife holds our attention in each program, and Joe Anderson matches her scene-for-scene as the bitter son resentful that his father’s television program has always taken priority over him. Thomas Kretschmann as security chief Captain Kurt Brynildson has some secrets he’s keeping close to his vest while Eloise Mumford as the daughter of Cole’s cameraman (Lee Tergesen in a couple of wonderful guest star appearances midway in the run) is quite fetching as a possible love interest for the young males on board and a spitfire herself in her determination to find her own father lost with Cole in the jungle.
Here are the eight episodes which constituted the entire run of the series contained on two discs:
1 – Magus
2 – Marbeley
3 – Los Ciegos
4 – A Better Man
5 – Peaches
6 – Doctor Emmet Cole
7 – The Experiment
8 – Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Video Quality
4.5/5
The program is presented in its television widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions. With all the varying resolutions of the different cameras used to capture imagery for the show, it’s remarkable that this standard definition image is as solid as it is. At its best, the images are crisp and beautifully detailed with excellent color and accurate flesh tones. The degraded footage from low rez cameras comes through as distinctly as it can though one may see some line twitter on occasion. Black levels are good rather than great. One character speaks Spanish almost exclusively, and the subtitles for her dialogue are very easy to read in white lettering. Each episode has been divided in 8 chapters.
Audio Quality
5/5
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix is probably the most sophisticated and creatively imaginative of any television soundtrack since the heady days of Lost. The various channels are alive with constant jungle sounds or sounds on ships or in buildings, wonderfully using the split effects to draw the viewer’s attention from one part of the soundstage to another. The music by Graeme Revell is driving and well placed through the fronts and rears. You just won’t find anything more effective on any other series from this past television season.
Special Features
3/5
There are two audio commentaries. On the pilot episode “Magus,” producers Michael Green, Zack Estrin, and director Jaume Collet-Serra have an entertaining conversation discussing the premise for the show, casting for the series, and the shooting in Puerto Rico (subsequent episodes were shot in Hawaii). For the finale episode, Green and Estrin are joined by star Bruce Greenwood who doesn’t talk much since he hadn’t seen the episode, but the two producers have no trouble at all filling the time with comments. It’s clear from their conversation that they didn’t yet know the fate of their series when they recorded the commentary.
“Magic Out There” is an 18 ¼ minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series with comments from the producers, director Jaume Collet-Serra, and stars Bruce Greenwood, Leslie Hope, and Joe Anderson, among others.
There are thirteen deleted scenes which can be viewed separately or can be played together in one 16 ½-minute montage.
The disc has promo trailers for Once Upon a Time, Missing, Revenge, The River, Castle, Frankenweenie, The Avengers, John Carter, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
In Conclusion
3/5 (not an average)
A missed opportunity to be sure, The River didn’t make the most of its promising premise and instead opted for a supernatural approach to the storytelling that just didn’t quite pass muster. While not a high definition release, the picture and sound are impressive on these discs, and fans of the show will no doubt be glad to have a souvenir of its brief, under-heralded run.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
