ABC premiered its bold new horror-mystery series with a two hour launch for "The River" (Tue., 9 p.m. EST on ABC). The series features the found footage format popularized recently in the "Paranormal Activity" films, among others. It's a very effective tool in keeping the viewer in the same sense of panic and uncertainty as the characters. And with a multitude of cameras in use because they are filming a show within the show, things aren't perhaps as tight and jerky as what was seen on "The Blair Witch Project."
In other words, the cameras are shaky -- except for several mounted cameras on the boat and when several are mounted in the trees during an overnight stay in the jungle in the second episode -- but there are more vantage points and with professionals at the helm, it's not nearly as chaotic.
HuffPost TV critic Mo Ryan listed several reasons to tune into "The River," along with several to avoid it. Viewers who tuned in likely were coming up with their own pros and cons. As Mo pointed out, though, this is an eight-episode season, so it's already a quarter of the way through its run with this premiere.
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