“The Terror,” season 1, is an AMC drama series that can now be viewed on Netflix. The 10-episode story is loosely based on Sir John Frankin’s nineteenth-century Arctic expedition and Dan Simmons’s novel of the same name.
Sir Franklin hoped to crown his naval career by discovering a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In 1845, his party of 129 men left England in two ships, the Terror and Erebus. Not a single member of that ill-fated crew survived. This gripping tale is the foundation of “The Terror,” season 1.
“The Terror” AMC series contains all the essential elements of a British naval disaster story: murder, mutiny, insanity, suicide, starvation, euthanasia, and cannibalism. What’s not to like?
In addition, the series includes a monstrous animal that stalks the expedition and devours several crew members. The animal is an enormous polar bear on steroids, but the crew refers to it simply as “the creature.”
Mike Hale, who reviewed “The Terror” in the New York Times, liked the series but had some reservations. “The heart-of-darkness framework,” he wrote, depicting “hubristic Europeans” who become lost in the new world and descend into savagery, was “constructed with intelligence and finesse.” Nevertheless, in Hale’s view, the series’s story is “obvious and generally tedious.”
I disagree with Hale’s gentle criticisms. I found the “The Terror’s” narrative both fascinating and gripping. The series’s supersized polar bear was genuinely frightening, adding a layer of suspense and thrill. Polar bears, after all, are the only animals in North America that stalk humans, and they can run as fast as a horse. Those bears don’t need to be supersized to be terrifying.
I agree with Hale that the “The Terror” narrative is obvious, but only if viewed superficially. At a deeper level, the Terror crew’s disaster is a complex story that can be interpreted in many ways. For example, it can be seen as a case study of poor leadership and faulty decision-making. It’s also a cautionary tale about the massive destruction of a once well-disciplined organization by a single sociopath. The stark landscape of ice and treeless tundra is a story in itself that evokes a bleak assessment of the modern human condition.
Screenwriter David Kajganich affirms the oft-repeated observation that people’s true character is only revealed under extreme stress. As the series progressed through its ten episodes, some of Sir Franklin’s crew descended into cannibalism, while others rose to almost Christ-like status through sacrifice and suffering.
As someone who once spent time in Alaska’s Yupik and Inupiak communities, I can attest that the series’s depiction of the Inuits is accurate. They are gentle but resolute people with almost no record of violence before their introduction into the so-called civilized world.
In short, “The Terror” is an entertaining adventure story. I found it totally satisfying, except for the last episode, which was a bit confusing. This is only a minor criticism, however. Overall, “The Terror” is a triumph.
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| What’s not to like? Hubris, a sociopath, cannibalism, and terror |
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