Adapted from real events, The Terror tells the story of two Royal ships with their two brave captains who thought together and decided to take a serious adventure to do what no one can ever do, discover the Northwest Passage.
Fans of the book may find themselves missing certain elements of Simmons's go-for-broke ending, but the series has its own riff on those same central themes, one that I found just as arresting and just as involving.
We're all still caught up in a mad, self-perpetuating cycle of fear. If that's your entry point to The Terror, so be it, but it doesn't have to be. The terror is many things, and one of them is bound to get you.
Nerve-racking suspense, a deceptively gorgeous landscape and the deeply developed characters lend a rich, big-screen quality to "The Terror's" hourlong episodes.
Forward momentum - for the plot, creature action and character development - finally kicks in during episode three but it's a big ask for AMC to expect viewers will return after the first two episodes.
It's a thriller where everything contains cruel intention -- be it the wind, the ice, the water, what have you. The story leans into the superstitious nature of sea-fairing men and ramps up the fear factor with Inuit lore and shamanism.
"As the title suggests, The Terror is interested in fear itself, how it transforms us, how it turns us cruel and savage... it conjures a piercing dread, both familiar and inconceivable; a portrait of man and nature at their cruelest and coldest."
Simmons' novel was originally optioned for a feature film, but the decision to stretch it out to a mini-series was a wise one, allowing The Terror a leisurely development of the crew's growing anxieties.
A lavish event series that could be called 'Master and Commander Meets The Thing.' It's not quite as exciting as that pitch makes it sound, but it is a show that builds up steam around the fourth episode.
