How not to do justice to a disgraceful period of history
It’s The Terror, captain, but not as we know it. The supernatural anthology series returned with a different story, by different writers, with a different cast. But if it neither looks, swims nor quacks like a duck, then is it even a duck at all? In this case, sadly, it’s closer to a turkey.
The Terror’s excellent debut series – about the fate of two Victorian expedition ships lost while seeking the Arctic’s Northwest Passage – aired in the US in 2018. Bafflingly, it took until 2021 before it was shown on the BBC.
Now the follow-up, The Terror: Infamy (BBC Two/iplayer, from Friday), has finally arrived after another three-year wait. It’s all an infuriating throwback to the days when the Corporation had a habit of wasting acclaimed US imports. It would snap up The Wire, Seinfeld or Mad Men, then shunt them around the schedules until viewers lost patience.
It’s a real shame. The second chapter of this supernatural anthology series makes stylishly bleak drama out of a disgraceful period of American history: the internment of 120,000 US citizens with Japanese ancestry after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is the first major TV depiction of this injustice and several members of the creative team have family connections to the scandal. George Takei (Star Trek) was
imprisoned in two such camps as a child. He stars in a supporting role and served as historical consultant.
Our main protagonist, however, is Chester Nakayama (Derek Mio), a Californian photography student with a natty line in fedoras. His immigrant parents are branded “enemy nationals”, implausibly accused of spying. Uprooted from their fishing community near Los Angeles and bundled onto buses at gunpoint, they are forced into remote camps.
The indignities don’t end there. A vengeful spectre was also at large, picking off the villagers in grisly ways. Had an ancient spirit followed them from Japan, seeking payback for a past wrong? Or was such talk just superstitious mumbo-jumbo spouted by cowed elders from the old country?
Presumably the intention was to interweave the evils of racism with paranormal horrors. (Presciently, the US broadcast coincided with Trump’s Mexican border detention centres.)
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. You’ll never look at polar bears in the same way again. Michael Hogan
Dom is 16. He’s a kid from a London suburb, who could be enjoying an easy life of “waking up late and chilling,” as he puts it. Instead, he’s aiming to become a Royal Marine commando.
In the opening episode of Commando: Britain’s Ocean Warriors (BBC Two, Sunday), we followed Dom and other recruits in the final stage of their training. That’s a 6.5 mile endurance course (2.5 miles wading cross-country through tunnels and freezing bogs, followed by a four-mile run with a shooting test at the end of it), a nine-mile speed march, a Tarzan assault course, and a 30-mile march. Go a second over the time limit, and never mind your eight months of training up to this point – you’ve failed.
“Gruelling” doesn’t cover it. Try to imagine yourself, aged 16, having the physical and mental toughness to push through that. The programme also focused on Kane, a little bit older, who had spent extra time in training after suffering a stress fracture. By that final week, he was in pain. Before the 30-mile march, he was asked how his leg was, and he replied: “I’ll get over that finish line on stumps if I have to.”
Dom and Kane explained their reasons for wanting to sign up. Dom had seen people from his neighbourhood getting into drugs and ending up in prison. “You’ve got two paths to go down – the right one or the wrong one.” Kane had been a joiner, earning a decent wage, but wanted more: “I’ve seen a lot of people in my life that I don’t want to be like. I’ve made the right choice by coming here.”
You could argue that this was free advertising for the Navy, a recruitment film that glossed over any negatives. You’d be right. But so what? It was one of the most stirring programmes I’ve seen in a long time, and humbling to see these young men pushing themselves. It also featured inspirational stories from former commandos, still wearing their green berets with pride. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with a lump in my throat at the end, when the recruits made it through, and when the show paid tribute to two distinguished veterans no longer with us. Anita Singh
The Terror: Infamy ★★
Britain’s Ocean Warriors ★★★★