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"This Week... The Magus crew are run aground by another vessel and soon learn that the seemingly welcoming crew members, claiming to have come to their rescue, have in fact a very different agenda, causing a dire, life-and-death situation... There&amp;#039;s Magic Out There... We&amp;#039;ve reached Day 22 in the hunt for Emmet Cole and, thanks to new recruit Jonas (Scott Michael Foster), the crew of the Magus have a clearer idea of where to look for the missing TV host. But Lena (Eloise Mumford) is more concerned about her father Russ, who also vanished on the river... Lena&amp;#039;s search for her father is the primary focus of &amp;#039;Peaches&amp;#039; - the episode&amp;#039;s title coming from a childhood nickname that Russ bestowed up on her - and it&amp;#039;s lucky that actress Mumford is a charming screen presence since the character of Lena borders on the irritating this week. Putting aside her insistence on providing the occasional musical interlude aboard the Magus - we&amp;#039;ve learnt that nothing spoils tension like a burst from the accordion - many of her actions this week are frustratingly simple-minded...    Thus far, the central cast of The River have avoided acting like dumb horror movie cardboard cut-outs, and we&amp;#039;ve praised the show for it. So it&amp;#039;s disappointing this week to see Jonas and Lena heading off to explore the Exodus alone and chasing strange noises in the dark. And would Lena really perform a Blair Witch impersonation down the camera for laughs, given the horrors she&amp;#039;s witnessed? Still, once Lena eventually tracks down her quarry, things improve considerably. The character discovering her father (Lee Tergesen) aboard the Exodus in a disturbed state is an effective moment... And while it&amp;#039;s relatively obvious that Russ won&amp;#039;t be joining the Magus crew full time, his final scenes are emotional and well-played by both Mumford and Oz star Tergeson, who delivers a solid guest performance all round.       Given the show&amp;#039;s limitations - chiefly its claustrophobic setting - it must be difficult for the writers of The River to devise a new threat each week. We&amp;#039;ve had a mixed bag so far - the Mocegos of &amp;#039;Los Ciegos&amp;#039; were wonderfully unsettling, but the killer vines of last week&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;A Better Man&amp;#039; didn&amp;#039;t exactly spark terror in this viewer... Thankfully, the writers have come up trumps with &amp;#039;Peaches&amp;#039; - the ghost ship is a neat idea, and it&amp;#039;s monstrous crew are an effective, well-realised threat. We&amp;#039;ve criticised The River&amp;#039;s occasional over-reliance on CGI in the past, but coupled with the physical presence of the actors playing the Exodus crew, it works here. The moment in which one of the ghost crew is burnt up by a flare is particularly impressive. Credit also to the show&amp;#039;s writers for finally allowing Jahel (Paulina Gaitan) to come out of her shell. The character was in danger of becoming a wide-eyed clich\u00E9, constantly terrified and babbling in Spanish about unseen threats, but she finally gets to act like a human being this week. Jahel&amp;#039;s friendly interaction with Lincoln (Joe Anderson) and relationship with Soup (Walter Perez) help flesh her out somewhat. &amp;#039;Peaches&amp;#039; is another impressive instalment of The River - a series that&amp;#039;s not perfect, but is getting nowhere near the ratings or acclaim that it deserves. In the face of seriously low audience figures, its cancellation is now an inevitability rather than a possibility - here&amp;#039;s hoping that the crew of the Magus find Emmet and the mysterious &amp;#039;Source&amp;#039; before the show&amp;#039;s criminally short run comes to a end. Let us know what you thought of The River&amp;#039;s latest episode below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-river/review/a368505/the-river-peaches-recap/>