Monsters and madness and men, oh my! The Terror is the unsung treasure of peak television

"Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Dan Simmons, it chronicles a doomed Royal Navy expedition dispatched to the Arctic in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. Under the leadership of Captains Sir John Franklin and Francis Crozier, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, manned with 129 crew, set sail from England in 1845. They became locked in pack ice off King William Island in the winter of 1846."

"Simmons's 2007 reimagining of this story, as well as the 2018 TV adaptation, speculates on the ultimate fate of the ships and their crews, using historically accurate names, dates and locations but embellishing the tale with Lovecraftian horror. Not only are the men contending with a subzero wasteland and suspected lead poisoning from their diminishing tinned food supplies, they are also being stalked by an enormous polar bear-like creature known to the local Netsilik people as Tuunbaq."

"For the Tuunbaq, the icebound ships are a year-round buffet and the Englishmen aboard are high-protein snacks. AMC may be better known as the network that gave us Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, but season one of The Terror stands shoulder to shoulder with the very best of 2010s Peak TV."

The Terror chronicles the true historical disappearance of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror during an 1845 Royal Navy Arctic expedition seeking the Northwest Passage. Under Captains Franklin and Crozier, 129 crew members became trapped in pack ice off King William Island in 1846, vanishing entirely. AMC's 2018 adaptation, based on Dan Simmons' 2007 novel, reimagines this Victorian-era mystery by combining historically accurate details with supernatural elements. The crews battle extreme cold, lead poisoning from tinned food, and a monstrous creature called Tuunbaq—a spirit-animal known to the Netsilik people. The series features exceptional writing and performances from acclaimed actors, establishing itself as premium television comparable to acclaimed dramas.

Read at www.theguardian.com