X
- AMC
- Aug 12, 2019
- AMC
- Aug 12, 2019
Summary The fictional account of the Royal Navy's expedition led by Sir John Franklin (Ciaran Hinds) in 1847 to locate the Northwest Passage is based on Dan Simmons's 2007 novel of the same name where the crew on the HMS Terror are trapped in the ice and attacked by an unknown entity.
Created By: Max Borenstein, Alexander Woo
- AMC
- Aug 12, 2019
- AMC
- Aug 12, 2019
Summary The fictional account of the Royal Navy's expedition led by Sir John Franklin (Ciaran Hinds) in 1847 to locate the Northwest Passage is based on Dan Simmons's 2007 novel of the same name where the crew on the HMS Terror are trapped in the ice and attacked by an unknown entity.
Created By: Max Borenstein, Alexander Woo
Where to Watch
Season Episodes
View All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
75
76% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
24% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
75
76% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
24% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
"The Terror: Infamy" is so good and so cleanly told that it really doesn't require much of a primer before diving in, but a little background couldn't hurt.
Borenstein and Woo show a great deal of trust in the core story, the grand production design, and the modern parallels to carry most of “Infamy’s” emotional heft. While each beat of the story may play out as you expect, that inevitability largely makes the action itself more haunting.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 45 User Ratings
6.0
49% Positive
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
24% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
27% Negative
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 45 User Ratings
6.0
49% Positive
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
24% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
27% Negative
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
Season 2 is almost perfect. It’s two tales of terror intertwined. One is the Japanese Ghost story brought to America by immigrants. The second is the historical terror wrought upon those immigrants (many were American Citizens) by a racist government.
The ghost story aspect is good spooky fun and culturally grounded. It gave flesh to spooky stories told to me by family.
Most importantly, the historical aspects were dead on. Everything rang true, every detail matched up to the family stories about that horror, of being caged like animals without trial based on your physical characteristics and country of origin. And making the best of it. And remaining loyal patriotic Americans despite it, even, as some did, giving their lives to defend our country and democracy worldwide.
I’m giving this a 9 because there are a few places where the script dragged. That’s just me being honest—the pacing problems were few, but they’re there imo.
Performances were good to great, with the standout being George Takei, portraying the old fisherman and community elder. (Honestly, the performance was uncanny because he looked, talked, and acted like my late Uncle Michi, although Michi was a teen at the time of the camps.)
One other aspect I really appreciated as an Angelino was the intersection of the story with Mexican culture, and later blending in of Mexican folklore with the Japanese folklore. This was done well. I shudder to think of the hash that lesser writers could have made with it. The writers obviously have a profound understanding and love for Los Ángeles, and I freaking dig that.
Report
SEASON 2
A very intriguing premise, I really enjoyed the crossover of traditional supernatural elements from cultural settings and how the film explored loss and ancestry in a unique way. Very impressive.
Report
SEASON 2
Moments of visceral body horror were used sparingly and to shockingly good effect in a show that is carefully choreographed to unnerve viewers from the off.
By largely following a single family, “Infamy” also finds a way to make a staggering historical event that can sometimes feel too big to comprehend feel as personal as it truly was. ... Despite having significantly less material to work with than Mio, Mori, Usami, and George Takei find nuanced, deeply affecting ways to portray their characters’ building trauma. ... Kiki Sukezane’s Yuko is brittle, chilling, and eventually, as the show begins to unveil her backstory, heartbreaking.
It's a campfire tale that won't jolt you immediately, but it packs an unsettling punch that lingers. Woo and Borenstein have also illustrated how The Terror is, indeed, a franchise beyond that original yarn Dan Simmons spun.
The series doesn’t minimize the internees’ hardships, even if it somewhat underplays them. But it’s also a little strange to see the only major piece of pop culture about Japanese-American incarceration imply that its characters have even scarier things to worry about.
The result is suspenseful and atmospheric but slow-burning to the point of inertia. The story works better as a righteously angry family saga than a fantasy chiller. Worth a look out of historical interest but for far superior drama, seek out the first series.
The second season in this series that combines realistic horror with the supernatural continues the trend as it follows a Japanese American family and their neighbors as they are interned during World War II and are threatened by a ghost. I definitely preferred the first season, but this is a good work by itself.
The show is a sad look at, but an important lesson on, the Japanese American interment camps. It even contains some details I hadn't heard before. The season doesn't shove the awfulness down your throats at once, rather having the show breathe and have the worse parts hit you in occasional gut punches. Between it all is some good drama of people dealing with adversity.
I felt this was a good view into Japanese culture, especially the paranormal part of it. It's just refreshing for an American supernatural show to use a non-Christian religion as a basis.
Cast is good across the board. Shingo Usami and Derek Mio work great together as a combative dad and son showing the differences between generations (immigrant and first generation Japanese Americans). Usami is probably the best actor in this. He plays the stoic Japanese father but is able to convey so much with so little.
Unfortunately, the story does have its share of leaps of logic. It's cardinal sin though is that it simply can't compare to the superb combination of acting, story, and execution that was the first season.
Overall, I've found this to be rather interesting and recommend this.
Report
SEASON 2
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
Report
SEASON 2
Well this is unfortunate. For context I loved Season 1 of this show and it is very much worth your time. Given that story has wrapped up it makes sense that they would need to start fresh with season 2. So the premise here is that we merge the historic experience of Japanese Americans during WW2 with J-Horror elements (similar to Ring or the Grudge etc). This isn’t a bad idea at all, and in the hands of competent story tellers could have worked brilliantly. Unfortunately in the Terror Infamy both of these ideas are handled with all the subtlety of a brick to the face.
For the supernatural horror aspect what’s missing is build up or slow burn - exactly why Ring worked and this doesn’t. The historic horror aspect fails for the same reason but also because of the lack of nuance and one sided view of history that the writers have.
The intent here is to use a historical event to create a piece of political propaganda commenting on modern day - complete with sympathetic references to ‘fellow travellers’ (Season 1 did NOT do this). An expert writer can pull this off but its a tall order. If it handled badly you are immediately going to alienate people who don’t agree with you and also those on the fence. This show is doing the latter.
Report
SEASON 2
