ABSTRACT

River is a six-part television series that was shown on the BBC between 13 October and 17 November 2015. Scripted by Abi Morgan, the series centres upon the titular character John River’s (Stellan Skarsgård) investigation to discover the murderer of his police colleague, Jackie “Stevie” Stevenson (Nicola Walker). Throughout the series River is “haunted” by dead figures, which he refers to as “manifests”, and who are both visible to him alone and with whom he enters into dialogue. Forced to attend sessions with the police psychiatrist and therapist Rosa Fallows (Georgina Rich) to discuss his mental health issues, River seeks to resist her interventions and to rely upon his interactions with his “manifests” to help solve the case(s). In one sense, the style and structure of the series acts in a manner akin to the displacement and condensation of dreams. Several reviews of the series referred to its artistic film-like qualities. Reviewers also remarked upon the ways in which aspects of “Nordic noir” infuse the series, particularly in the character of John River, together with his Scandinavian styled flat. Raising important Lacanian issues of sexuation, knowledge and jouissance, this chapter will investigate how feminine structure is put to work in the series, and how the feminine ex-sists within River.