DJariya

By djariya at 2012-02-07

Synopsis:



Episode 6 of 8

Cellar Door

Nice to have an episode with more screentime for Bruce Greenwood.

While I like that the structure of this show is built around the "found footage" conceit, there are some eye-rolling moments when you start to think, "Why is there a camera on right now? Who's filming this?" Like when the natives have Emmet, why is the camera operating intermittently on and off during this time? Doesn't make much sense.

whoopdido

There's magic out there.

MikahC

I have a few eye-rolling moments each episode, but I can never remember them the next day, mostly because, as a self protection mechanism, I try to forget them as soon as possible. I like this limited run of The River. Get in, tell a story, get out. More BBC-like. If it were to continue, my hope would be they stay with the same formula instead of deciding to go to a 22-episode season. (Good is good, more is better, right?) The show is categorized as horror, but it's a kind of horror light. I'm not into horror, but I do like the mystery of the show.

I like that the show is based around the pursuit of magic with the assumption that it's "good," but almost everytime we see magic, it isn't. Because who's to say that just because there's magic out there, it'd be "good". Nature is famously indifferent to mankind's morality.

I'm not sure how one knows for sure when one crosses the line into insanity, but if you find yourself looking at a skinned colleague hanging from a tree and your response is, "It's OK, we're just being tested," consider yourself there.

I thought we were going to see a dog eating from early on in the episode. Animal lovers must like that he essentially chose death over killing man's best friend. In the moment, I think I'd kill the dog, but everything in me sided with his choice. The dog has been nothing but supportive and "loving" to him and his reward would be to get stabbed in the brain?

Given the amount of time since the tapes were made, the dog was in surprisingly good shape when found. There's no telling how long ago whatever happened to the camp happened, but either the dog was still able to eat after it happened or it didn't happen that long ago.

SteelWill

This isn't just found footage, we're watching the produced series as it's been cut and edited together from that raw footage. This really didn't hit me until the episode with the in memoriam tribute. So far I haven't noticed a shot that hasn't been explainable by a camera being left on or an active camera person. Magic infinite camera batteries are another matter though.

TomOpus

I wondered the same thing. I guess they just wanted to show the dog was okay without dealing with how the dog was still very healthy. The damage to the compound did not look recent...at least to me.

I might have to rewatch the episode but another thing I wondered is: the natives grabbed Emmet, along with the 2 cameras (still recording, of course). Did they also grab the pack that the tapes were in? If not, how did the tapes from those 2 cameras make it back into the pack of the rest of the tapes?

Next week's show looks pretty awesome.

Rob V

This is a fun show but I'm glad it's only 8 episodes. It would make the perfect summer filler show instead of all the reality garbage and dancing / singing shows we get.

whoopdido

Totally agree. The second episode almost lost me, but I've been digging it since then and really enjoyed this episode.

I think it was pretty obvious Emmet wasn't going to kill the dog. Has a dog ever been killed on a network show before? Killing dogs and kids are a few of the "taboo" subjects still left. Plenty of people have died already on this show, but having the hero kill a dog would be a huge no-no.

SteelWill

Supernatural killed one a couple of weeks ago. I thought this one was a goner too. Killing a dog because you're starving to death might be the only forgivable way to do it. Maybe.

DJariya

Really fun episode.

Agree with the rest. It was good to finally see an episode with significant screentime for Bruce Greenwood.

Loved the skinned cameraman and monkey. at them being blurred out.

Okay, I'm surprised that noone noticed the dark haired female camera person was Katie Featherston, who stars in all the Paranormal Activity movies. The Producer of PA series and The River is Oren Peli, so the connection is pretty obvious.

Gunde

Maybe that's why no one mentioned it
She was also in last weeks episode albeit only for a split second.