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"The River" Supernatural thriller series on ABC -Feb.2012

jefferiestubes8

jefferiestubes8

Commodore
Commodore
Starting this week.

The Hollywood Reporter also termed The River " a successor to Lost with potential," and as we've seen with many recent movies, this show uses the "found footage" concept that was first popularized in The Blair Witch Project, and is also being used in the superhero flick Chronicle, and the upcoming comedy Project X.

Similar to Cannibal Holocaust, the sleazeball horror flick that first did the found footage idea, The River is about a search for a man who disappeared in the Amazon, and those searching for him discover supernatural forces in their quest.



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Is The River the next Lost?
http://m.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/61252-is-the-river-the-next-lost

Steven spielberg is a producer on it
Created by Oren Peli and Michael R. Perry of "Paranormal Activity" fame, "The River" deviates notably from other Spielberg-produced fare in that it becomes legitimately scary.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/05/DDHJ1N2BUA.DTL


8 episode order for ABC. i liked the trailer. The 2-hour premiere should be good. I can see them sustaining suspense and scares for 8 episodes. 12 or more though I'm not sure how this could go beyond 1 season. Is this 8-episode-order 'the new miniseries' for network television? It adds up to 5.6 hours of actual content.
I think while the genre is using a found footage style the scary monster programming stems from Lost and cable's American Horror Story doing so well.
What do you guys think of the trailer and positive buzz on this show?
 
Something interesting about this, iTunes have bought the rights to première it in the UK. No TV stations have picked up the rights to air it but it will be on sale on iTunes within 24 hours of airing in the US.
 
Looking forward to it. The commercials have been good and I've read god things about it. I'm not sure how it can sustain itself for several seasons. It looks at most like a one or two short season show.
 
This is one that has gotten me interested since I saw the first trailer. I'll at least check out the premier.
I do agree about the uncertainty for it's future thought.
 
The River might imitate American Horror Story's one-season structure.

If so, I hope they don't imitate AHS in the way the writers just ran the story off a cliff because they knew they didn't need to invest in character or plot arcs. Tell a whole complete story in the time you have, don't just throw a bunch of sensationalistic (if admittedly very entertaining) garbage at us and then say "oops it's the last ep, so I guess the story is over now, see ya in Sept!" :rommie:
 
I think they're just trying to be bigger and more impressive. The only problem is I don't think anyone is considering the longevity alot of these ideas.
 
The problem with considering the longevity of ideas is that you'll just end up doing episodic cop show series if that's what you're worried about. Cop shows have infinite longevity, which is why networks love doing them. If you want to do something high concept, then you have to accept the challenge of making a possibly balky concept work for years.

Consider these topics: "high school teacher decides to become a meth cooker." Or: "biker gang member is conflicted and contemplates leaving the gang."

The first one sounds like maybe you could get a couple years out of it before it gets boring. The second would be lucky to get one year (why doesn't he just, you know, leave?)

The fact that they've both gotten more good years than that out of the stories is due to the talent and imagination of the writers and producers, and the charisma and talent of the actors. All premises are inherently limited, but imagination and skill can stretch them to their maximum potential.

The River is pretty open ended right now - it's just a monster mystery in the jungle. There are ways to stretch that for several years without running out of steam.
 
They released the first two eps online last week (maybe on msn.com?). I was surprised by how enjoyable they were. Definitely made by the Paranormal Activity folk as you recognize the types of shots from those movies, but it was very cool to see an attempt to make a "horror film a week" style show. Can't remember anything quite like it in a non-anthology format. Looking forward to the rest of the eps.
 
Bruce Greenwood was enough to keep me watching for two hours, though it was cliche city. Maybe he'll found the truth behind this Hidden Agenda...in the middle of nowhere, man.

I'll tune it next week if I can remember to watch...don't watch t.v. on tuesdays.

Who else thought "Capt. Pike and the Undiscovered Country"?
 
I wonder how much fuel the Magus has, if they go back to civilization...then they have to explain the dead camera guy and a lot of other stuff.

Before I watched, I was thinking this was a monster show. I was hoping Kretschman was playing some Nazi or descedant of Nazis hiding in the jungles since the end of WW2. I guess he still might be, actually.
 
- Didn't know it was created by the Paranormal Activity guys. It had that vibe.

- I didn't find it all that scary, but the black haired girl turning around was pretty creepy until it was revealed to be a monkey with a mask.

- I knew that the regulars were safe. That's one downside of this being a regular series.

- I don't see this as the next Lost, but I'll keep up with it because I want to see what happens.

Skywalker said:
What's with all these TV shows nowadays that sound more like they should be movies?
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I thought the same thing last night, and according to Temis' article, it was supposed to be a movie. I think it would have been better as a movie. As a show, it feels too stretched out.

I like that this story will be resolved in 8 episodes, but having a new mystery every season seems contrived. If they aren't careful, it'll end up like Heroes, where characters are moved around and changed to serve whatever plot they came up with.
 
The ratings are pretty meh compared with what I expected - cmon people, horror is fun even when it's not particularly great! :D

ABC’s new horror/mystery drama The River launched to so-so numbers last night. The first hour of its 2-hour premiere posted a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.2 million at 9 PM. The second hour dipped to a 2.2 rating and 6.8 million viewers, with the show slipping a tenth of a rating point every half-hour.
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It might have been a bad strategy to lead off with an episode centered around a silly unseen-monster trope. I was getting worried that this so-called horror series wouldn't deliver any actual scares, but the second episode with the creepy dolls and the creepy monkey was much better.

The characters are kind of annoying, except for Lincoln, who I like for his fuck-this-shit attitude about everything. :rommie: There are only, what, six more episodes this season? I don't expect the show to wear out its welcome before then, but given the ratings, nobody should get too invested in this one.

I knew that the regulars were safe. That's one downside of this being a regular series.
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If there's supposed to be a new story every season (in theory), then that means all the characters could be dead by the end of this one. Since this is gonna be one-and-done anyway, I'm looking forward to the fun of seeing them all get picked off one by one. I hope they save Lincoln for last. :D
 
I saw the two episodes that premiered last night. I thought, not bad, and the episode about the dolls was particularly creepy. It's got potential. I hear it's going to be similar to X-Files in that it's an anthology type of series.
 
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