The Terror: Horrible from Supper
April 30, 2018 7:10 PM - Season 1, Episode 7 - Subscribe

As the men make new attempts to find rescue, a series of shocking events underscores how vulnerable and exposed their situation has become. (IMDB)
posted by Countess Elena (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
So -- is Hickey actually an impostor for his brother or something? Am I completely forgetting that this is a twist that happened in that giant book?

As to the dog, that settles that. At least it spares us a more horrifying scene. I remember trying to read The Worst Journey in the World and giving up after a chapter or so. If going somewhere requires a plan of eating dogs, I hold it's not worth going.

This was a slower episode but worth it, I think. The dread really sank in for me. It was relieved a little by that sweet scene with Lady Silence. I'm not quite sure if I ship her with Goodsir, but as I say, I think it would be better than the book ending for her. (That's supposed to be a good ending for her, but Dan Simmons is not the greatest at women's emotional lives.)
posted by Countess Elena at 7:20 PM on April 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


I too am heartened that Hickey is actually some kind of impostor. It must've been quite a bit easier to flee your crimes back in the good ol' days when you could just ship out to sea after stealing another man's papers. (I'm assuming that's what happened, anyway.)

Sad day when you get promoted, finally taste some delicious seal jerky and then get stabbed to death trying to share the first good news in literal years with your stranded shipmates.

Guessing next ep is going to explore the horrors of what appears to be totally unnecessary cannibalism for the over-land party. If the Inuits are capable of surviving out here and catching seals, surely the men are, too?

If only they didn't have so much hubris, Goodsir could've easily learned where to hunt local game from Lady Silence. Did they just gloss over local wildlife/ice fishing altogether in the book as well in favor of eating canned Lead Chow?

I'm more tempted to read it with each new episode...
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 7:03 AM on May 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


In the book (which I finally read) there was two different things re wildlife: first, the party were initially able to kill and eat small polar bears, but on the trip across the ice, the Creature had started killing polar bears and leaving only the head and fur (which if you’re desperate enough you could still get food off of, but somehow they didn’t). Also, you had to be super quiet and crafty to hunt seals and the sailors were tromping around like loud things.
posted by corb at 10:46 AM on May 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


Thank you, Corb! What a royal bunch of fools they've been, waiting this long to strike out on foot. Here's hoping the Inuit family escaped Cannibal!Hickey's murderous wrath.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:43 PM on May 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


Wow!! The music during that final Hickey scene... holy hell! Nothing has given me the willies like that in a LONG time!!
posted by pearlybob at 5:49 AM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


We are series complete as of last night thanks to the gettin' place. I haven't read the book, but retain a resistance to the use of a narrative supernatural monster device as a sales lever. The show, I think, split the difference with surprising élan. I intend to seek out critiques especially by northern First People writers that compare and contrast the show to the written material.

I want to also call your MeFite attn. to William T. Vollmann's "The Rifles," which to my mind will always stand as the definitive postmodern account of the Franklin expedition. There's no need for a monster, or for God, in the events Bill carefully observes the record of and recounts.

Summarizing: I was much happier with this series than I expected to be. In the end, I find it somewhat sentimental, but given that it includes an imaginary bear demon as a sort of proxy for European capitalism and pretends that said supernatural demon is of non-European and supernatural derivation, I cannot possibly plead surprise at this sort of willful self-deception.

A point related to this: the show self consciously, arrogantly, gestures toward both 2001 and Apocalypse Now, insisting that it belongs in their company. The show is not wrong. I look forward to a midwinter two-day binge, accompanied by no heat and smoked seal meat.
posted by mwhybark at 5:26 PM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


dropping some links.

If Any Living Inuk Knew, Up Here, September 2014, about Louie Kamookak and the rediscovery of the ships.

"The Terror" Flips the Script, April 2018. Dryly measured praise for cultural inclusiveness in the show's production.
posted by mwhybark at 11:17 PM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


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