'The Terror' Is a Classic Dad Show You Should Watch on Netflix
I finally found the Northwest Passage
On Monday, Aug. 19, Netflix is adding a trove of 15 current and archival AMC shows to its library. It’s a great move for my guy James Dolan’s1 company. Since AMC is so much smaller than its streaming competitors, its shows tend to get overlooked and underseen, which is a shame, because AMC has one of the highest hit-to-miss quality ratios of any network. So adding these shows to Netflix will automatically get a ton more eyes on them, and create more anticipation for the next seasons of returning shows (look out for my review of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol on TV Guide next month, if you’re into that sort of thing).
There are some high-quality Dad Shows in the collection I would happily recommend. There’s Monsieur Spade, which premiered early this year and would have gotten a full Dad Shows entry if this newsletter had existed then. The noir series is basically Scott Frank and Tom Fontana writing Sam Spade fan-fiction about the classic private eye character in early 1960s France. Clive Owen does a really interesting take on Spade that’s influenced by Humphrey Bogart, but also wholly his own. Really fun show. There’s also two seasons of Dark Winds, where Zahn McClarnon, an incredible actor who absolutely rules in everything he’s in, plays a Navajo Tribal Police detective in the 1970s. And Interview with the Vampire and Preacher aren’t exactly Dad Shows, but they are both great if you want to watch something completely insane. I think Preacher in particular will get the biggest Netflix bump. It’s the Bleach of Seth Rogen’s Garth Ennis adaptations, with The Boys the Nevermind.
But those aren’t the shows I’m giving my highest recommendation. If you watch one show from this AMC drop, watch Season 1 of The Terror. It’s one of the first shows I remember talking about in “Dad Show” terms. If you love historical dramas, you will love it. If you love horror, you will love it. If you love British guys who are good at acting, you will really love it. It’s in the Dad Show Hall of Fame.
The Terror, which premiered as a limited series in 2018, tells the story of an ill-fated British naval exploratory expedition in the 1840s. Two ships, Terror and Erebus, captained by Jared Harris and Ciarán Hinds, respectively, are searching for the Northwest Passage through the Arctic. You and I know that doesn’t exist, but these poor bastards don’t. So they get stuck in the ice for the winter. It’s going to be tough to survive, and impossible to do without going insane. And as if being trapped in the Arctic isn’t bad enough, there’s a monster out there on the ice.
The show does a truly exceptional job at balancing the historical survival drama elements with the supernatural horror elements. Everything is trying to kill them, it’s just a matter of what does it first. (If you’re horror-averse and need reassurance that it’s not that scary: it’s not. It’s heavier on the second half of the horror-drama equation. But it has its eerie moments and dread-filled atmosphere.)
The show is based on a novel by Dan Simmons of the same name, which is in turn based on true events, so it has a historical grounding. It’s the kind of show that uses a lot of nautical jargon and doesn’t explain what it means, just expects you to keep up. That’s Dad Show behavior.
It stars Jared Harris, who you will recognize from a million other things including Mad Men, Chernobyl, and Mr. Deeds, and Tobias Menzies, who at the time The Terror was released was on seven of the 100 best shows on TV. Menzies plays James Fitzjames, the First Officer of the Erebus. They’re two elite Dad Actors at the top of their games. Harris could have won an Emmy for the episode where he runs out of alcohol and he has to detox cold turkey. My friend and former TV Guide colleague Tim Surette once made the very smart observation that if this were a play, Harris and Menzies could swap roles every night. They would do different but equally interesting things with both characters.
Shogun reminded me of The Terror in how it’s a historical drama set in a time and place I would not have thrived in. In the case of The Terror, it’s just too fucking cold. The show is incredibly effective at communicating how miserable the cold is. You will feel the cold so deeply that you will want to light a candle inside of your bones.
The Terror’s showrunners were David Kajganich and Soo Hugh, who are brilliant, shoutout to them. The did not return for Season 2, which was subtitled Infamy and told a ghost story set in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. The Terror was initially conceived as a limited series, but when Season 1 was a hit, it became an anthology series. The problem was, Season 1 was a self-contained thing, and Infamy was totally different. The only thing Season 2 had to do with Season 1 was the name, and even that was a miscalculation, because the Terror of the title is a ship, not a state of fright. Season 2 wasn’t as well-received, mostly because it objectively wasn’t as good, but people may have liked it better if it hadn’t been called The Terror. I liked it, though. However, Season 2 isn’t coming to Netflix at this time, so don’t even worry about it.
AMC may not have learned its lesson from Season 2, because there’s a third season in the works slated to premiere next year. It’s subtitled Devil in Silver and it stars Dan Stevens as a guy wrongfully committed to an insane asylum. Karyn Kusama is directing the first two episodes. It honestly sounds good, and I’m looking forward to it, whether it’s like The Terror Season 1 or not. Maybe if you watch Season 1, you’ll get excited for it, too.
So yeah, The Terror Season 1, on Netflix this Monday. Tell them Dad Shows sent you.
I’ll be doing weekly episodic reviews of Apple TV+’s crime comedy Bad Monkey for Myles McNutt’s Substack Episodic Medium. EM is a wonderful project that I think displays the incredible promise of what Substack can be as the (or at least a) future for digital media or magazines or culture writing or however you want to think of it. It’s a publication, with multiple writers contributing to a specific editorial vision, that’s supported by readers who want to read a specific type of writing they’re not getting elsewhere. I’m honored to get to be part of it. If you’re already a subscriber, you know how great it is, and if you’re not, please consider signing up. You’ll get thoughtful writing about the best shows in your inbox several times a week.
My reviews of the first two episodes are live now. Future episodes will be behind the paywall. I think Bad Monkey is terrific so far. It’s just so much fun. I love Vince Vaughn’s charming motormouth thing, I love the darkly funny but playful tone, I love the fast pace. And it’s a Dad Show.
Just kidding, he’s not my guy. I don’t like him. But he is what two things that have been very important in my life, The Walking Dead and the New York Knicks, have in common.