Tonight “The River” debuts on ABC with a two-hour premiere. The show was put together by Paranormal Activity writer/director Oren Peli with Paranormal Activity 2 screenwriter Michael R. Perry, Michael Green (Green Lantern) and Zack Estrin (“Prison Break”, “Tru Calling”) and stars Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) as Dr. Emmet Cole, an television adventurer who went missing deep in the Amazon and was been presumed dead.
However, his location beacon begins relaying a signal six months after his disappearance persuading his wife (Leslie Hope) and son (Joe Anderson) to journey through the Amazon to find him and if you’ve seen the trailer it’s shot in that first person documentary style and is quite obvious it comes from the man behind the Paranormal Activity franchise.
Tonight’s two-hour episode was directed by Unknown and House of Wax helmer Jaume Collet-Serra and I have to admit, I’m looking forward to it. As a big fan of the Paranormal franchise I’m wondering how far they can take things on network television and still maintain tension, how the story will be presented and whether there will be an actual end in sight or if it will play out like “Lost,” which felt like the ending was never considered beyond vague ideas of where they may want to take things.
As anyone that reads this site often, you know I don’t really watch too much television. I recently tried watching “Alcatraz” but what a mess that show is. From the first episode it felt like the series was on life support with each episode appearing to exist only to create more confusion for the next with absolutely no end in sight.
I think network television has done a good job of coming up with new ideas and shows that keep audiences on edge, but the lure of keeping a show on television longer than it should causes for lulls in story-telling and silly storylines. Based on what we know about “The River” it looks to me like it should have a lifespan of two, maybe three seasons. If the creators and ABC went into it with this in mind then maybe we’ll have something special here.
Another thought is to make sure each season has a definitive ending. Treat it like a movie in that you wrap-up one big storyline, be it over the course of 12 or 24 episodes, and leave just enough room for things to continue beyond that. In the case of “The River” I can imagine the first season finale ending with them finally escaping the Amazon with Emmet alive, but for whatever reason he’s not the same person he was when they last saw him, something is drawing him back to the river.
The second season could explore that attraction and some erratic behavior that takes them back into the jungle and a third season could tidy things up with a myriad of endings such as Emmet disappearing to the Amazon forever, leaving his family clueless as to his fate. Or the entire family could find themselves drawn back to the river where whatever the attraction may be holds them there to do its bidding.
I don’t know, I’m just thinking off the top of my head here, but I think a lot of this goes back to our discussion over the ending to Joe Carnahan’s The Grey. I think with television the inclination is always to show the audience everything. Television shows are forced to keep certain secrets hidden from the audience to maintain an allure to keep viewers coming back… “Will they show us what’s really going on this week?” “Will they finally get off the island?”
The problem is, audiences have now come to expect all the secrets to be revealed. A rule seems to be in place that you can only keep so much from the audience and I guess that’s okay, but I also think it depends on how much you’re hiding and the reasons why.
“Lost” is a perfect example of too many secrets with answers that were kept from the audience by adding flashbacks and other nonsense only to pad the storyline, delaying the inevitable. The delays caused for more questions to be ginned up, allowing for about two more episodes before the answers were revealed, and let’s face it, those answers are rarely satisfying. The entertainment is in the journey, it’s not about waiting around for the answer, pissed off because it is now expected to be revealed next week.
For once I’d like to see one of these network shows not answer all the questions, leaving the fate of the lead characters up in the air. Create an air of mystery. Many people confuse things to where they believe the reason they are watching something or paying attention to a story is to find out how it all ends.
Yes, the ending is a vital piece of the puzzle, but only in how it ties back to everything you’ve already seen. The fun is in the journey, not in the fact that it ends. Things end because they have to, but once it ends, if a story has been told well, you should be enticed to watch it again, looking for clues and reasons to support where it all ended and your interpretation of that ending. Tonight when I watch “The River” I hope to see signs this is a show that may deliver in these areas.
If you haven’t seen a trailer for the show (first off, where have you been?) I have added it directly below. Also, if it’s any good I may try and do a write up tomorrow, so if you can, give it a watch tonight on ABC (it starts at 9 PM PST) and maybe we can discuss it tomorrow.
