The River

[Fievel]

"The River" on ABC --



Mildly intrigued.

[Ribbons]

Hm, Steven Spielberg & Oren Peli? That's an unusual pairing. Add to that jungles, magic, ghosts and an intermittent faux-found-footage POV and you've got yourself a spicy gumbo of weirdness. I can't tell whether it looks any good so far, but it's got my attention at least.

[Fievel]

I honestly don't remember posting that or even watching the trailer.... but I'm definitely interested in this.
On top of everything else in this, Bruce Greenwood is like a comfort food... I'll give anything he does a chance.

[Nice Marmot]

When the heck does this premier?

[Fievel]

Premieres Tuesday February 7 at 9:00.

[Ribbons]

Herc Says 'The River' Lacks Depth:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/53367

[TheBaxter]

TheBaxter says Herc lacks taste.

[TheBaxter]

as for the show itself, i'll be watching. if the characters and dialogue are a bit lacking at times, i can deal with that, as long as it genuinely delivers some scariness. one thing that's really lacking in shows these days is actual scare-the-shit-out-of-you horror. american horror story has the occasional moment, but more often than not it's campy and silly (in a good way, but just not scary), and really, how easy is it to be scared watching a show where everyone is, or eventually becomes, a ghost. and the walking dead is scary, alright.... scary boring. hopefully this show doesn't fall into the same trap of having 55 minutes of stupid people talking stupidly about stupid stuff, and 5 minutes of zombies or ghosts or cannibals or monsters or whatever the big baddies are on this show.

i also have a hard time seeing how they can maintain the "found footage" conceit for an entire series, especially if it goes into multiple seasons. i mean, filmmakers have to bend over backwards contriving a way to explain it for the 90 minutes it takes for a feature film.... hours and hours of tv is another story entirely. they'll have to be pretty clever to keep it going that long.

also, what's with steven spielberg producing every fucking tv show and movie in the world right now? has he resorted to just selling his name to people to put on their products now? it's not like the spielberg name, as a producer, exactly conveys quality anymore. i mean, terra nova, and then smash (which i can't bring myself to watch, mcphee or no mcphee) and now this show, not to mention buttloads of movies. isn't the guy rich enough that he doesn't have to whore himself out like that? really, what does spielberg bring to a tv show about a broadway musical anyway? are indiana jones fans and close encounters fans going to give a show like that a shot just because of his name? don't think so.

[so sorry]

also, what's with steven spielberg producing every fucking tv show and movie in the world right now? has he resorted to just selling his name to people to put on their products now? it's not like the spielberg name, as a producer, exactly conveys quality anymore. i mean, terra nova, and then smash (which i can't bring myself to watch, mcphee or no mcphee) and now this show, not to mention buttloads of movies. isn't the guy rich enough that he doesn't have to whore himself out like that? really, what does spielberg bring to a tv show about a broadway musical anyway? are indiana jones fans and close encounters fans going to give a show like that a shot just because of his name? don't think so.

Speilberg gotta eat!


My guess is that His Name attached to a series brings clout to the TV Studio to sell it to the markets, who then can whore it to the consumers as some big deal because of Spielbergo. And I defy you to find one person in Hollywood who DOESN'T need more money.

[TheBaxter]

also, what's with steven spielberg producing every fucking tv show and movie in the world right now? has he resorted to just selling his name to people to put on their products now? it's not like the spielberg name, as a producer, exactly conveys quality anymore. i mean, terra nova, and then smash (which i can't bring myself to watch, mcphee or no mcphee) and now this show, not to mention buttloads of movies. isn't the guy rich enough that he doesn't have to whore himself out like that? really, what does spielberg bring to a tv show about a broadway musical anyway? are indiana jones fans and close encounters fans going to give a show like that a shot just because of his name? don't think so.

Speilberg gotta eat!


My guess is that His Name attached to a series brings clout to the TV Studio to sell it to the markets, who then can whore it to the consumers as some big deal because of Spielbergo. And I defy you to find one person in Hollywood who DOESN'T need more money.

that's why it's called money.

[Nice Marmot]

I'm in. Even if it's cheesy, I have room for a fun, guilty pleasure type show right now.

I'm not as down on the found-footage stuff as so many others. Only because I KNOW it can be done right. It's just that nobody else has figured out how to do it lately . . .

[Nachokoolaid]

I watched Smash and the River, the two big premieres of this season, and I honestly liked Smash better. The character were endearing, and the actors were better overall. The River was okay, but it seemed a bit cheesy and bloated. I got a bit bored at times, and the answer to whether they could sustain a "found footage" feel for an entire season has been answered. No. No they couldn't, because they couldn't do it for the entire premiere.

[Nice Marmot]

The River was absolutely awful. Just poorly written & executed.

[TheBaxter]

yeah, i gotta say... it was pretty bad. the first hour was boring, the 2nd hour was bug-fuck nuts over-the-top ridiculous and confusing. but at least the acting was consistently bad from beginning to end, so that kinda tied it together. and they're playing so fast and loose with the "found footage" aspect it's like they don't really care. i mean, they have a frikkin' MUSIC SOUNDTRACK for tebows sake. how do you have music over a found footage film? that's just sloppy lazy ridiculous. i don't even know why they bothered with the whole found footage approach, since they don't even bother pretending to try to stick to the format. i guess it was all just to capitalize on the trend.

[The Vicar]

Doesn't look like this one is going to survive.

[Ribbons]

Yeah, this is more of a horror show than The Walking Dead or American Horror Story. However, it's also 100% stupid. Leaving aside the chaotic mash-up of genres and cliches, there's something fundamentally flawed with a horror story (some new iteration of which appears on The River on a weekly basis) where you know going in that nobody is going to get hurt. Plus, stupid. The reality show format allows them to get away with stuff like exposition more easily because it can be teased out in interviews, but it's got severe storytelling limitations as well. It's commendable that they're not exactly trying to re-create the Paranormal Activity feel, despite the sporadic presence of found-footage POVs, but it just doesn't work.

Something that made me laugh in the first or second episode was the moment where the TV crew unearths a clip reel of Bruce Greenwood performing acts of magic and talking about how reality is so much bigger than we realized. They look at each other and go, "Looks like we just got ourselves season 2!" I think they spoke a little too soon.

[TheBaxter]

i couldn't make it past the 2nd episode. i just barely made it past the first.