Saturday at the Movies #82 - The River and ramblings

First off, I can say with authority that opening a car door directly into one's face is exactly as fun as it sounds. Which would be exactly none. I came out of it relatively unscathed though, and one Puppy Bowl later, am back in the saddle. Well, keyboard, and it would be at the keyboard rather than in it, but in either event, it's February.

For TV lovers, this means February Sweeps, and that means the good stuff is coming. Which means favorite shows will overflow with big name guest stars, characters will break up, or make up (or both) secrets will be revealed and events transpire. It's time for the sensational, the scandalous, and the midseason replacement. Enter The River.

I am taking the cautiously optimistic stance on this one. We have a nature show host who disappears somewhere in the uncharted Amazon, leaving behind puzzled loved ones, including an estranged son, Lincoln. Six months later, Lincoln is finally ready to move on, but lo and behold, Dad's emergency beacon goes off, and a motley crew begins the search.

This works for me because I like the adventure aspect, the scenery promises to be lush and exotic, and the big question of whether Lincoln's dad (and the fact that I keep having to refer to the Wikipedia entry to remember his name -Emmett- should indicate who looks like the central character to me at this point. I could be wrong.) of what really happened to Emmett could go in a multitude of directions. Is Emmett alive? Is he dead? Is he the one activating his emergency beacon or did a random alligator lay an egg on the panic button? Since the show is touted as paranormal/adventure/horror, things may not be as they seem and I'm sure somebody is going to learn a valuable lesson somewhere.

That's the optimistic part. The cautious part comes from the fact that I am still not over other shows with equally engaging premises. Reunion, for one. The Jury. The Nine. All of which had me eager for the next episodes, all with complex characters with complex relationships -six high school friends over the course of twenty years, one of them the eventual murderer of another; a random selection of the populace selected to sit on the same jury; or complete strangers bound together forever by being in the same place at the same time when a crime occurs - and all of which vanished after a few episodes.

Hopefully Emmett will be the only thing that vanishes quickly in The River, and we won't be left with dangling threads to haunt us years later. What do you think, faithful readers? Will you be tuning in? What shows ended too soon for you and still demand some answers?