To promote their new series, “The River,” ABC launched “Exploretheriver.com,” an interactive experience when pointing-and-clicking on various objects revealed videos, photos, “scares” and tweets related to “The River.” It also connects with your Facebook, and will give you a mission to look for your friends around the boat, as well as pull in a few of your photos. 

While it looks really awesome, and includes lots of interesting videos, the only problem I have with it, is that the “Find your friends” element just seems really shoe-horned in there, and in finding out more about the show, the “FB Connect” element seemed unnecessary. But despite that, it does a great job at introducing sets from the series, as well as some of the bigger mysteries about “the source,” as well as being true to the show’s aesthetic.

(Source: exploretheriver.com)

While “The River” wasn’t my favourite new series when it came out a few months ago — the “found footage” genre just isn’t for me, however, I do like the unique site it built for “The Undiscovered Country,” the show within the show. 

The unique site has all the elements of a proper TV site, with episode recaps, video, galleries, and “news” that lines up with the fictional storylines within “The River.” This is a great extension that shows how tranmedia-ish elements can pad out the world of a series. As a non-fan, I haven’t really dug into the blog posts to see if there are any clues about the big mystery within the show, but if I was, I would be all over it.  For most sites, this kind of thing would be a “nice to have,” but considering “The River” is meant to be considered “real,” then a site like this would be a must. It’s a great way to build out the story-world, and provide a little bit of an interactive easter egg for audiences.

I should also mention that “The Undiscovered Country” looks really great, as it should. For the “30 Rock” one-offs, I can get behind making them look lacklustre if it’s just related to a gag… but when a feature is much more essential to the mythology, it should be really thought out, planned and deftly designed as this one has.

(Source: beta.abc.go.com)