? A closeup look at tonight's TV

There was a moment last week in The River, filmmaker Oren Peli and writer Michael Green's trippy, twisty thriller about an expedition adrift in the Amazon, that neatly summed up what makes it such a guilt-alicious guilty pleasure.

After the bit with the spirit tree and the hanging childrens' dolls, after the bit with the brightly coloured dragonflies that cause hallucinations and then river blindness, and after the bit where a muddy hand reached out from beyond the grave - literally - The River's resident know-it-all laid down the law to his terrified companions.

As played with scenery-chomping relish by English character actor Paul Black-thorne, manipulative TV producer Clark Quietly is fast becoming The River's most engaging villain.

"Every corner of the Amazon has some story legend designed to keep out the white people," Quietly lectured his mates. "We're not here to drill for oil. We're not clear-cutting the forest. We're just trying to make a TV show, OK?"

It doesn't take a horror movie fan, nor yet a regular viewer of witty, sarcastic TV thrillers, to guess what happened next. If you think a character named Quietly was destined to go quietly into that good night, well, clearly, The River was never destined to make your nightly viewing schedule.

Part of the fun of The River is the way it plays with its own stereotypes. No one likes a know-it-all, but there's something especially cathartic about seeing him get his comeuppance, especially when he's a TV producer given to saying things like, "I don't mind an every-man-for-himself villain on board. It makes for excellent television."

In just two short weeks - eight episodes are scheduled in all - The River has realized its early promise as a thrill-a-minute ride into an exotic heart of darkness.

In tonight's episode, the expedition stumbles over the remains of a missing colleague. Their find inadvertently triggers a centuries-old curse, predictable, but no less fun. The River's nominal hero, Lincoln Cole (Joe Anderson), is faced with a moral dilemma: Leave a plagued colleague behind and press on into the jungle, or convince the others that, sometimes, staying where you are is the best policy when lost in the wilderness.

The River works, too, because it understands that what you don't see is often more frightening than what you do see.

9 p.m., CTV, ABC

THREE TO SEE

? It's regionals on Glee! New Directions squares off against the Dalton Academy Warblers in Glee's winter finale. And if you think it was only a few short weeks ago that you saw the fall finale, well, you might be right. You also need an attitude adjustment. It's network TV! It's Fox! Get with the program.

8 p.m., Global, FOX

? Meanwhile, in the chilly white north of Arctic Air, Bobby Martel (Adam Beach) journeys down to Vancouver from Yellowknife with partners Mel (Kevin McNulty) and Krista (Pascale Hutton) to buy a new plane, only to be confronted by moments from his big-city past he'd just as soon forget. Arctic Air has proven airworthy in its six weeks so far; a second season looks likely.

9 p.m., CBC

? It's election season in the U.S. and you know what that means: The culture wars are heating up. Alec Baldwin, a liberal, is David Letterman's guest on Late Show. At the exact same time, on another channel, Bill O'Reilly - who's not a liberal - is Jay Leno's guest on The Tonight Show. Pick your poison.

Late Show, 11: 35 p.m., Omni, CBS; Tonight Show, 11: 35 p.m., CTV2, NBC