"The
River" (series premiere on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on
ABC)
Watcher: Dave Lake
Despite the fact that "American
Horror Story" has been scaring up good reviews and good ratings for FX,
horror has never done well on broadcast TV. Just ask "Harper's
Island." The ... more series, about the search for a nature show host who goes
missing in the Amazon, looks an awful lot like a hybrid of "Blair Witch" and "Paranormal Activity," a comparison that is apt
given the show was dreamed up by Oren Peli, the director of "Paranormal
Activity." ABC outbid NBC for the series, and it has produced eight
episodes, which will comprise the first season, but whether the plot will have
legs beyond the initial episodes remains to be seen. Read the reviews for the
sequels to "Paranormal Activity" for proof that the premise runs a bit thin. At
the end of the day, however, it's the viewers that matter, not the stories, and
the "Paranormal Activity" franchise certainly drummed up plenty of business at
the box office on the back of similar ideas.
Verdict: Fail
(ABC)
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