Media Buzz: 'The River' preview

If you’ve seen promos for ABC’s new show “The River”, which starts its eight episode season with a two hour premiere tomorrow (2/7/12), chances are you’ve been given the impression that it’s a scarier version of “Lost”. In some ways, that’s a fair comparison. The series is set in the jungle and there’s a mysterious, dangerous entity that looks like the “Lost” smoke monster. That however, is where the similarities end.

After watching the pilot, it’s clear “The River”, for better or worse, stands on its own merits, particularly those of its creator and executive producer. Co-creator Oren Peli, the director of “Paranormal Activity”, brings his shaky camera and abrupt style of fright to the mix. And with Steven Spielberg as executive producer, the show is slick and well polished. 

Despite its pedigree, however, the program’s premiere fails to grab viewers the way it’s promos promise.

“The River” follows a group of people on a search through the Amazon for Dr. Emmet Cole, played with enthusiasm by “that guy” actor (as in, I’ve seen that guy in a bunch of other things but I can’t recall his name) Bruce Greenwood. Cole is an Americanized version of Steve Irwin - a nature expert, family man, and host of a long running TV show that focuses on the more wondrous aspects of our planet’s most remote areas. When Cole goes missing his wife and adult son, who were also co-stars on the nature show, set out to find him. Once in the Amazon the pair and their group find something much worse than they expected – the aforementioned smoke monster and loads of videotapes of Cole, who has seemingly lost himself to something “magical” in the jungle.   

The show is filmed as a pseudo documentary, with a former producer of Cole’s and a camera crew on hand to capture everything for a future program. This is a clever way to get multiple angles of the action and at times a hidden camera view of what’s going on. It also provides a secondary antagonist for the son and daughter – the slimy producer who only cares about ratings.

“The River” has plenty of potential. The adult son, played by Joe Anderson (Max from the film “Across the Universe”) and the intuitive mechanic’s daughter (newcomer Paulina Gaitan) are interesting characters who, if developed properly, can be very deep. Bruce Greenwood is used well. He’s not the lead of this series, but his sparse appearances provide the plot with the necessary amount of backstory. The setting leads to plenty of exploration and the premiere hints at would may be some potentially intriguing subplots.

Unfortunately the show has some big holes that it may not be able to fill. The rest of the cast seem doesn’t seem up to the show’s lofty goals. TV producer Clark (Paul Blackthorne) and Cole’s wife Tess played by Leslie Hope (Jack Bauer’s wife from “24”) are bland and lifeless. Their characters are clichéd and the performers, while in admittedly weak roles, can’t seem to make much from what they’ve been given. But “The River’s” most glaring issue is its biggest selling point – the smoke monster. The show has been promoted as being scary, but aside from one or two moments, there’s not much to be frightened of. In fact, there are times when the scares are borderline camp. Viewers also appear to learn almost everything they need to know about this paranormal activity – what it is, how it can be captured, what it wants – in the first hour, leaving nothing to the imagination. Instead of building up suspense and giving us a few clues to make us curious, “The River” seems to show it’s hand too soon.  

It’s difficult to judge an entire series based on the pilot. Not all shows can debut with as gripping an introduction as “Lost” or “Homeland” and many a series has had inauspicious beginnings that weren’t clear indicators of its future potential (see “Spartacus”). That said, even with a stronger second hour than first, “The River” is off to a bumpy start.

Overall premiere grade: C+