From Steven Spielberg and the director of “Paranormal Activity” comes a dark, eerie drama series that may seem too dismal for some, but for those who want something different and dark will enjoy “The River – The Complete First Season”. It’s unfortunate that a series with so much potential and its share of fan support, will not receive any closure as the series was canceled on television.
©2012 ABC Studios. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE:Â The River – The Complete First Season
YEAR OF FILM: 2012
DURATION: (8 Episodes) 344 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Widescreen 1:78:1, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
COMPANY: ABC Studios
RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2012
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by Oren Peli, Michael R. Perry, Michael Green, Aron Eli Coleite, Zack Estrin
Produced: Robert D. Simon, Samantha Thomas
Co-Producer: Hilton Smith
Associate Producer: Ryan DeGard
Executive Producer: Jason Blum, Zack Estrin, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Michael Green, Oren Peli, Steven Schneider, Steven Spielberg
Co-Executive Producer: Wendy Battles, Aron Eli Coleite, Glen Morgan
Music by Graeme Revell
Cinematography by John R. Leonetti
Edited by Alan Cody, Tom McQuade, Michael Stern
Casting by Liz Dean
Production Design by Chase Harlan
Art Direction by Kathleen Widomski
Set Decoration by Rick Romer
Costume Design by Kathryn Morrison, Christine Peters
Starring:
Bruce Greenwood as Dr. Emmet Cole
Joe Anderson as Lincoln Cole
Leslie Hope as Tess Cole
Eloise Mumford as Lena Landry
Paul Blackthorne as Clark Quietly
Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Kurt Brynildson
Daniel Zacapa as Emilio Valenzuela
Shaun Parkes as Andreus Jude “A.J.” Poulain
Paulina Gaitan as Jahel Valenzuela
Scott Michael Foster as Jonas Beckett
Katie Featherston as Rosetta “Rabbit” Fischer
From Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, and the director of “Paranormal Activity†Oren Peli, a truly harrowing and hairâ€raising series comes to DVD. “The River: The Complete First Season†tells the tale of famed wildlife explorer and TV personality Dr. Emmet Cole who went looking for magic deep in the uncharted Amazon and never returned. Now, six months after he vanished, a brave crew of family, old friends and new acquaintances embark on a mysterious and deadly journey to find him in the deepest and darkest depths of South America. The DVD is filled with exclusive bonus features, including deleted scenes that draw audiences further into this heartâ€pounding adventure.
Filmmaker and producer Steven Spielberg had an idea of “what if nature had run amok and animals began taking over humans?”.
This led to the collaboration with horror filmmaker/writer Oren Peli (“Paranormal Activity” films, “Chernobyl Diaries”, “Area 51”) and veteran TV writer Michael R. Perry (“Millennium”, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, “The Guardian”) with Steven Spielberg and what was originally conceived as a film, would eventually become a TV series and led to a well-documented bidding war between ABC and BNC with ABC winning the rights to the series. Bringing in veteran TV writer Michael Green (“Smallville”, “Heroes”, “Everwood”, “Green Lantern”) for additional rewriting of the script, eight episodes were created for “The River” and aired on February-March 2012 as a mid-season replacement.
Despite receiving positive reviews from a few TV critics (while others felt it was too dismal of a storyline), as many hoped for a second season, in May 2012, ABC announced that it would not be picking up the second season. Although there is discussion that ABC Studios is collaborating with Netflix in continuing the series ala “Video-on-demand”.
But fans of the dark drama series will welcome “The River – The Complete First Season” DVD release in May 2012.
“The River” introduces us to famous explorer Dr. Emmet Cole (played by Bruce Greenwood) and how he and his family, wife Tess (played by Leslie Hope) and son Lincoln (played by Joe Anderson) literally grew up on television in the hit series “Undiscovered Country” and were seen by many as an ideal family.
But the truth outside of television is that the family was not perfect and because of Cole’s ambitions as an explorer, he was not as home as much and his son Lincoln would literally resent his father for choosing his work over family.
But one day, Dr. Emmet Cole went looking for the “Magic Deep” in the Amazon and he never returned. Is he dead? Missing? Held captive? No one knows.
And as six months has passed, while Dr. Cole would eventually become a hero to those who watched his show, for Lincoln can’t wait to begin his graduate studies and finish college. But his mother, Tess has come with news that a beacon belong to Dr. Cole has been found and there is a chance that his father is alive. And that she wants Lincoln to come with her and search and possibly rescue him.
But for Lincoln, it rubs him the wrong way that his mother has brought the film crew along with her (while she is asking for his help). We learn that to fund the rescue, Dr. Cole’s ex-producer Clark (played by Paul Blackthorne) and Tess have agreed to front the money for the rescue if camera crews can document it.
And sure enough, the group including Magus mechanic Emilio Valenzuela (played by Daniel Zacapa) and his daughter Jahel (played by Paulina Gaitan), A.J. Poulain the cameraman (played by Shaun Parkes) and other cameramen including private security bodyguard Captain Kurt Brynildson (played by Thomas Kretschmann) have been assembled to find Dr. Emmet Cole.
So, Lincoln agrees to go and the group explore the Amazon to find the Beacon signal and Dr. Emmet Cole but he is not there. As the group goes back to the village, Lincoln runs into his childhood friend Lena Landry (played by Eloise Mumford), daughter of a missing cameraman who was with Dr. Emmet Cole, and apparently she has been doing hero own research and believes she may know where they may be.
The group once again heads out to find the area that Lena had found and as they search a boat, they find a door that has been sealed. Thinking that Emmet may be in there, the door is opened and inside they find a bowl with blood and next thing you know, a black shadow attacks Lena and the crew.
Jahel, who is looked at as a superstitious person by her father, tells Lincoln that the monster they let free is “corpo seco” (a Brazilian folklore that this entity is so evil that it was rejected by Satan to enter hell) and it craves blood and it was sealed in that room, but now has been let out.
But as Lincoln feels they need to return back home and get out of the area, Tess is not willing to leave without her husband.
This leads Lincoln, Tess, Lena and the others to travel the Amazon forests where they will be put to the test by many dark, monstrous entities including jungle tribes where they must survive. But will they find Dr. Emmet Cole or even Lena’s father?
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The River” is presented in widescreen 1:78:1 and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Digital Surround. For the most part, “The River” looks very good and considering it was shot in Hawaii (like the drama series “Lost”), I would not be surprised that if “The River” was a hit series, it would have received a Blu-ray release.
But for the most part, the DVD looks very good as most of the series is shot outdoors and has that mix of documentary and the TV screen monitors ala “Paranormal Activity” that made this series suspenseful, dark and eerie. There are some compression artifacts but that is expected for a DVD release.
On DVD, the series looks good and also sounds good via Dolby Digital 5.1.
The series is primarily dialogue-driven but because the characters encounter a good number of entities and tribes, there are exchanges of gunfire and sound effects that utilize the surround channels. But the series is center and front channel driven.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The River” comes with the following special features:
DISC 1
- Episode 1 Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary for “The Magus” by executive producer-writer Michael Green, Executive Producer Zack Estrin and Director-Producer Jaume Collet-Serra.
DISC 2
- Episode 8 – “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” Audio Commentary – Executive Producer-Writer Michael Green, Executive Producer-Writer Zack Estrin and actor Bruce Greenwood.
- Deleted Scenes – (16:30) 14 deleted scenes.
- The Magic Out There – (18:08) A behind-the-scenes look at the making of “The River” with interviews with the creators, cast and crew. Also a look at the visual effects of the series.
“The River” is a fascinating, dark, creepy drama series on ABC and one would have hoped it would carry on where “Lost” left off in terms of having a series that would creep people out each week, but want to keep them coming for more.
Unfortunately, “The River” was canceled and what we have here is a series that people have invested their time in watching but once again, are not going to be given proper closure. It’s the reality of many drama series that air on television and some just get canceled without any closure, we have seen this happen with popular drama series such as “Heroes” and “Firefly”, with at least the latter receiving a feature film.
And while there is a glimmer of hope that the series may continue via video-on-demand, one may wonder if “The River” would continue as it was originally planned, for a movie release. Because it seems more probable that a series this dark would be best as a horror film.
First, the good news about “The River” is that it was a series that was exciting for those who enjoy dark mythology. We have seen various Brazilian mythology and folklore make its presence known through this series, from the evil corp seco in episode 1 to the Tree of Spirits with dolls hanging from the trees (which does exist) and also featuring the tribes of the jungle.
There is no doubt that elements of the real life story of Percival Harrison Fawcett can be seen in “The River”. Fawcett was a Canadian explorer who left to find a lost ancient city in the jungles of Brazil back in 1925. During that time, Fawcett, his oldest son Jack and good friend Raleigh Rimell traveled to the jungle with only them three, so they would not disturb any of the jungle tribes or be seen as hostile explorers (as many tribes have never seen white men before).
The three men entered the jungle and never returned. And since then, many rescuers have gone on rescue or research missions to find the fate of Fawcett and his group, and supposedly around 100 people have perished during the expedition.
Needless to say, the story of Fawcett’s expedition and the mystery of their fate has managed to capture the attention of many people worldwide and also lends to the mysteriousness of what lies within those jungles in the Amazon?
In “The River”, Dr. Emmet Cole found something…but what did he find? There is a lot of topics that writers can explore and so I felt the series did have potential because of the mythology and that people were into darker dramas these days (granted, many revolve around vampires or zombies) and the fact that it’s on ABC instead of cable television, would make it more enticing.
Which leads us to the problems that “The River” faced.
The series reminded me of the action film “Predator”. A group of warriors who become the hunted of an alien hunting species. Well, for the “River”, the characters are searching for Dr. Emmet Cole but because the are entering the jungle (some with good intentions, others bad), the spirits and tribes are no doubt concerned of who enters their jungle and thus, these characters felt like the hunted.
The problem is that “The River” seems that there is no glimmer of hope. These characters are put through various challenges where they may or may not live but suffice to say, everything is too dark with no hope in sight. You take the series such as “Lost” and what I remember best about the series through the fans are what they remember outside of the suspense or mysteries. There was a lot of humor in the episodes, there was a glimmer of hope and sure, that glimmer of hope was often dangled and then yanked, but you felt there was hope in the series and you can’t help but laugh or just stay glued to the series as there was also a romantic and its fair share of shocking moments.
It’s one thing to have a group such as Lincoln and his mother Tess and Lena Landry. Lincoln and Lena are the potential couple, and then you have Jahel, the superstitious one who is interesting because she is the most passionate one to tell people of the folklore and why they should leave. Everyone else seems like they are scumbags. Even Tess, you question her motivation of finding her husband at times.
It often felt like the only two people you do care about is Lincoln and Jahel and I think when there are not many characters to root for, it eventually becomes problematic with viewers as there is no character to hold their attention. Sure, Lena would have been intriguing (because of her close relationship to Lincoln) but there are mysteries that surround her character and this mysterious tattoo that she has behind her neck since she was a child that caused Dr. Emmet Cole some concern.
But outside of Tess, the mother and Jahel, the young teen…Lena is the only single adult woman in the series.
But using “Lost” as an example, while there were characters in that series who started out like scumbags, there was point of redemption that made you root for them. With these characters featured in “The River”, there were only a few that I wanted to live and I wouldn’t care if others were killed by the dark entities.
And this leads us to the worst thing about this series and that is, you enjoy the dark, suspenseful nature of the series and then you find out, the series has been canceled and there is no form of closure for viewers. I want to know what happened to Dr. Emmet Cole, I want to know what happens to these characters. And unfortunately, with only eight episodes, there is only so much story that can be told.
There was so much potential with this series and unfortunately, it’s over. And with ABC drama series, we have seen it happen before in 2011 with “Off the Map” and in 2010 with “FlashForward”. Drama series which had a lot of potential, didn’t do that great in the ratings but yet no final episode given to wrap things up for viewers who have invested their time into supporting the series. At least give some closure to a series, especially if you are going to release the series on DVD.
Overall, “The River” had potential and I still do believe it does have potential, may it be as a novel or an actual film. But if you are a fan of the series, if you are looking for something short in duration, dark and creepy…then I can easily recommend “The River”.  Otherwise, with no sign of an extra season or a final episode to give closure for fans of “The River”, it’s a series that is tough to recommend because there is no doubt that watching these eight episodes will make you crave for more, just to find out…there is no more. That is unfortunate.
