The team is headed up by Cole's wife, Tess (Leslie Hope) and son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson) who were enlisted by "Undiscovered Country" producer, Craig Quietly (Paul Blackthorne). The deal is that the show will pay for all expenses to find Cole, with one caveat – they get to film every moment, no matter the outcome. Joining them is Cole's ship mechanic Emilio (Daniel Zacapa) and his Spanish-only-speaking daughter, Jahel (Pauline Gaitan), camera men A.J. Poulain (Shaun Parkes) and Sammy Kirsch (Jeff Galfer), plus Lena Landry (Eloise Mumford), the daughter of Cole's lead camera man, who also went missing with him. Finally, there's the muscle, security chief Captain Kurt Brynildson (Thomas Kretschmann).
Although he has been missing for 6 months and was recently declared legally dead, the impetus for the search is the fact that Cole's beacon has mysteriously gone off and they now have a jumping off point. Once they venture off the main river and into a dangerous and mysterious area known as "The Bouina," things get really crazy. First they find Cole's boat, The Magus, abandoned with blood on the walls and a spirit trapped in the panic room. Then the crew must contend with vines that seem to have a mind of their own, a group of tribesmen hell bent on blinding and destroying them, various ghosts throwing up roadblocks, and death around every turn of the river.
Since there are stationary cameras, security cameras and handheld cameras on every member of the team, we get to see every moment of what happens to the team of The Magus, both good and bad. Additionally, Cole's team left dozens of tapes from their trip and these may hold clues as to what happened to them. Each step of the way, the search team is fed little bread crumbs such as finding the boat, a member or two of Cole's missing team, or even his pocket knife. At first, it seems that The Bouina (a snake demon who inhabits the area sharing its name) doesn't want them there, but then it offers what seems to be help. Could it be simply luring them deeper into the jungle only to keep them trapped there? The season finale brings a measure of closure as the team does locate Dr. Cole, only to find that they are unable to escape The Bouina. Cole's famous tagline, "There's magic out there" couldn't be more true for the group.
First off, let me say that I was never frightened by the film Paranormal Activity. That kind of stuff just doesn't get to me and neither did the scares in The River. The River touts Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity director) and Steven Spielberg as its executive producers, so it's got some cred behind it. I just never felt driven to find out what happened next. There were some creepy moments, for sure, but the shaky cam style didn't appeal to me that much and neither did the "cameras in everyone's faces" bit. The acting is well done and believable, and secrets abound, both in The Bouina and among the members of the crew, but I just didn’t find the show all that compelling. And I wanted to, I truly did. I had heard good things about the River and thought I would absolutely love it, but it just felt like they kept throwing more things in to add to the fear factor. It's not enough that the crew is being hunted by tribesmen with holes where their eyes should be; let's throw in some zombies and a demon possession. Dragonflies who possess someone by invading their mouth as they sleep is eerie, but let's drop a bunch of dead birds on the ship, have it attacked by rabid roaches, and then ram it with a ghost ship. For me, I guess there was just too much magic out there.
Special features include a bunch of deleted scenes, commentary on the first and last episode and a featurette called "The Magic Out There" which is a short behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show. I wish there had been a featurette explaining a little bit more about why Dr. Cole was compelled to go to The Bouina and what he was looking for, specifically, because the team kept finding things along the way, chief among them Dr. Cole himself, but things were never quite explained. I guess that's what Season 2 is for. The River: The Complete First Season isn't a bad show, it's just not mind-blowing. If you don't mind shaky cam and you love reality TV, it just might be something you'd love. For me, it just didn't do the trick.
