The River is an American television series about an expedition to find explorer Dr. Emmet Cole, who disappeared six months ago while exploring the Amazon. It is made by the director of Paranormal Activity, in the Found Footage format. Wikipedia describes it as "paranormal/adventure/horror."
Not to be confused with River.
The River contains examples of:
- Bullying a Dragon: A.J. frequently bullies "the ghosts" in order to get footage.
- Cassandra Truth: Jahel repeatedly warns the crew not to venture into La Boiuna.A.J.: Just so we're clear, a little girl who talks to ghosts says "don't go." And we're going. Yeah.
- Chekhov's Gun: In every single episode. See that bear young Lincoln was holding in The Undiscovered Country? Yeah, Lincoln finding the bear is going to be a major plot point later.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Given the network though, the whole thing is bleeped out.
- Lincoln drops one when they find the monkey with the doll mask.
- A.J. lets one out when he finds out that he has to crawl into a cave to save the crew.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Lincoln has an unhealthy fear of snakes and prefers the lab to the jungle.
- Eat the Dog: Emmet considers this while lost in the amazon with his dog Salsa, but after much consideration, just can't go through with it.
- Establishing Character Moment: Clark insists on filming Tess and Lincoln's first meeting; Kurt throws a man overboard for touching his guns.
- Evil Brit: Either the demon that possessed Lincoln was British or the actor portraying him just used it as an excuse to drop his American accent.
- Genre Blindness:
- The rescue team hears knocking from inside the panic room in the Magus's Creepy Basement, and they notice that it's been welded shut from the outside, and their first impulse is to cut it open. It's not Too Dumb to Live, since the obvious mundane explanation is that Jerkass pirates welded their victims in there, but clearly nobody present has seen a horror movie.
- Also, let's set up camp in the middle of the jungle at a tree where someone hung a lot of creepy dolls.
- Jerkass Gods:Emilio: God hates me, I know, or he would have made [my daughter Jahel] ugly.
- The Boiuna definitely qualifies. Sure, it has a reason to be pissed about people trying to steal its secrets, but it's also a sadistic asshole who makes it clear that it loves tormenting the crew.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Kurt must kill his fiance Hana after finding her infected with The Virus.
- Literary Allusion Title: For the Show Within a Show - "The Undiscovered Country, from whose bourn no traveller returns", from Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Appropriately enough the line is referring to the afterlife.
- Living Shadow: Corpo Seco is a shrieking blot of (un)living darkness.
- Not Himself: Emmet realizes something is wrong with Lincoln after he tells his father he loves him. Even Emmet acknowledges this doesn't speak well of their family dynamic.
- Oh, Crap!
- The team goes running away from the Creepy Doll tree in panic—only to end up right back in the clearing.
- Emmet realizes he no longer has the strength to whistle.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Though the Coles' nationalities are never mentioned (and Tess measures distance in kilometers), Lincoln slips in and out of a noticeably British accent.
- After Lincoln is possessed, the actor just stopped caring, and his British accent is clearly noticeable.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The crew of the Exodus appear to be completely normal at first, but are quickly revealed to be revenants forever adrift on the river until someone is available to take their place, allowing them to pass on.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The crew rescues Rabbit, and Tess even gives a big speech on her questionable past and future ethics. Then a zombie gets her.
- The Teaser: A bit of The Undiscovered Country is shown before the opening credits.
- This Is Gonna Suck: We hear one from Lincoln right before giving Jonas an injection of epinephrine.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Lincoln wants Tess to be proud of him for the medical research he's doing instead of following in his father's footsteps.
- We Hardly Knew Ye:
- All we really knew about Sammy before his death was that he was Jewish.
- You guys remember Rabbit, right? Neither do we.
- Why Did It Have to Be Caves?: A.J. will film in any sort of dangerous location except caves.
- Willing Channeler: Jahel. She doesn't want to let Emmet's spirit go.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In the first (
and only) season finale, everyone is on the boat safe and sound, ready to return to the regular Amazon river. But the Boiuna won't let them leave, and the river physically reshapes itself so they can't leave.
