Season 1 - 10 episodes (2018)
Rent The Terror on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Created by: David Kajganich
Based on: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Starring: Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, Paul Ready, Adam Nagaitis, Ian Hart, Nive Nielsen, Ciarán Hinds
Rated: TV-14
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Plot
In this supernatural, semi-historical horror anthology series, each season is inspired by a different infamous or mysterious real-life historical tragedy.
In the first season, the Royal Navy's polar explorer ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror into uncharted territory in the Canadian Arctic.
Verdict
A unique setting provides the basis for an increasingly dreary expedition. Bleak is the word, from the very beginning. and this never relents. Trying to cross the Arctic, the situation keeps getting worse. Each episode brings the crew closer to their end as hope fades. This creates a great mood as everything goes wrong. The captains don't get along, the food is tainted, they're trapped in the ice, and that's not even the worst part. It's not fun, but it is engrossing as the slower pace aligns with the slow dissipation of any thought of a positive result.
Watch It.
Review
Even if I didn't know the premise to this show, the expedition feels doomed from the start with a number of ominous events that culminate in a choice of taking the safe route or going all in. Of course they go all in, certain they will find the Northwest passage through the Arctic. The boats get stuck in the ice and must spend the winter in the Arctic. After three episodes I wondered where this would go. I like the restraint in the show. It's a measured, menacing decline as hope dissipates. You could argue this is slow, but the pacing fits the mood. It's a plodding march to an unknown end. Disaster and futility are around every corner. as they're trapped in the Arctic and everything goes wrong.
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| Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies play Francis Crozier, Harry Goodsir |
If all that wasn't enough, they're food is tainted and there is a supernatural element that's inescapable. Captain Crozier (Jared Harris) plans to abandon the boats and walk across land to find an outpost. These captains have butted heads throughout, as Captain Franklin (Ciarán Hinds) is confident they'll find the passage and weather winter, while Crozier wants to send a scouting party in case they don't.
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| Ciarán Hinds plays Sir John Franklin |
The show is so dark and foreboding. Even after they abandon the boats for land, the color palette is still dreary. At that point everyone is near death and they're fighting a mutiny. They start to give up, and I can't blame them. They've survived so much, but at this point hope is gone and there's nothing to push them forward. Everyone's spirit breaks. That is this slow, a ten episode trek where hope declines and then fades, but it's a well done journey that cloaks you in paranoia, wondering what will go wrong next.
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