The Terror

The first season of The Terror places a fictional horror story inside the Franklin expedition's Arctic setting. Two ships, officers with different judgements and an environment that offers very little forgiveness are enough to create unease before the unexplained threat enters it.

Jared Harris, Ciarán Hinds and Tobias Menzies make the command relationships compelling. Decisions have to be made with incomplete knowledge, and rank does not guarantee that the person making one is right. The cold and confinement gradually reduce the room for an error to remain small.

My recommendation concerns that first season, rather than the anthology as a whole. It is slow, bleak survival drama with exceptional use of its isolated setting. The supernatural element does not replace the practical danger; it makes an already frightening situation harder for the characters to understand.