Summary: The crew leave the ships and travel over the ice. Morfin is sick and attempts to kill himself. He is talked out of it, but his rifle misfires and kills him anyways. Goodsir takes the event badly. Jopson is promoted as a lieutenant. Hickey, Irving and another crew member go on a scouting mission. Irving finds some Inuits and communicates with them to get him some food. He goes to tell Hickey only to find that Hickey killed the other member and Hickey kills him.
The Good: This was all Hickey's episode and is confirmed that he isn't a good person in the slightest and will likely be a major villain in the show. The plans for mutiny were red flags on their own, but those final few scenes certainly established how evil this man is. The murder scene was very well done and sent a chill down my spine (see: Best Moment), and the corresponding flashbacks did well to create unease surrounding Hickey's character. We understand now that Hickey isn't the man he is pretending to be and this murderous and psychopathic person is the man he really is. A scene like this was necessary to raise the stakes and tension as the show heads towards its conclusion. This episode was very dark and unsettling with its tone, and not only because of that final scene. The discovery of the rescue squad with their heads decapitated as well as Morfin's brutal outburst and Goodsir's breakdown all gave this episode a dreary tone and helped establish the theme that the real threat isn't from the supernatural forces, but rather the crew themselves. I liked the scenes of Irving communicating to the Inuits. The actor did a great job of conveying some joy and hope when the Inuits helped him and gave him food, and it felt like a genuine feel-good moment. Of course it was all ruined by Hickey a minute later, but I think it worked as a small scene of optimism. Another good scene which was light-hearted was Jopson's promotion. While Jopson's character leaves a lot to be desired, the execution and acting allowed the scene to have some resonance. The Bad: The show is still faltering and not hitting as hard as it should. The main problem is that I don't care about most of the crew. The characters except Crozier, are all very one-note and we don't get to understand who they are. We just see them struggling and we are expected to care because of that. Unfortunately it isn't that easy to make us care about what they are going through and we need to know who they are to allow us to sympathize better. The show has done a poor job with that, and as a result I find it difficult to really connect with this show. An example of this is Morfin's death. I didn't know who he was so I failed to care when he was threatening to kill himself. The rifle misfire not only felt implausible, but also unearned because it didn't affect me in the slightest. The lack of cold is still a problem. I saw some cold breath in this episode which pleased me, but it was very inconsistent which makes me question its inclusion at all. Furthermore, Hickey stands around almost naked with no reaction to how cold it is. That makes me feel like the story takes place in a warm desert instead of the freezing arctic. The first few episodes hinted this would be a survival horror, but the show hasn't done a very good job with that, especially now that the show has slowed down in its middling chapters. There is little tension and the show isn't providing any real fear to me now that the Tuunbaq is gone. Even that final scene was only unsettling and not so much scary, yet it was the most fearsome scene since episode 5. I wish this show would embrace its genre to become something a little more enjoyable instead of trying to be something more thought-provoking which it most definitely isn't. The show has a problem of not letting scenes stick. We have these huge and impactful scenes like Morfin's death and the carnival in the last episode yet they have no follow-up except maybe an impact on a background character who we don't care at all about. This is very bad and it makes every scene feel unimportant to the story, which makes me completely lose interest in the show. The Unknown: What happened to the rescue squad? What decapitated them? In the first episode I had assumed that every question would be answered. But with no follow-up to David's sickness and his vision, I'm beginning to suspect we may not be getting many answers at all which will be disappointing. What will happen to the Inuits now? Will Hickey befriend them or kill them? What happened to Hickey anyways? Why did he choose to join the crew? How did he join the crew despite knowing nothing? What are his motives? Why go on such a life-threatening journey for no apparent reason? Best Moment: Hickey's murders were genuinely horrific. The high-pitched music which was the only sound as Hickey repeatedly stabbed Irving was unsettling as well as Adam Nagaitis' deranged expression s he committed the murders. A very well-executed scene made all the more stunning after the show provided some feelings of joy in the previous scene. Character of the Episode: Hickey. Conclusion: This was another really average and flat episode with a great ending. The ending somewhat saved this but everything that came before it was disappointing and difficult to care about. I am a little worried about the conclusion of the show now, so hopefully I can be proven wrong. Score: 57
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Summary: Fitzjames talks with Blanky and decides that they have to leave the ships and walk. Fitzjames chooses to have a carnival before they leave. Crozier continues to recover from withdrawal. Goodsir realizes that their food is poisoning the crew and must be dealt with. Lady Silence cuts out her tongue to tame the Tuunbaq. Stanley kills himself during the carnival while Crozier makes a speech and burns down the carnival. Hickey saves the crew by cutting them a hole to escape.
The Good: The opening scene did a good job of establishing Fitzjames' motives for the carnival. The decision to leave the ships is logical and it's easy to understand why Fitzjames would choose to give the crew some time to celebrate before hard times await them. I liked that there was some follow-up from the underwater scene in episode 1. Collins isn't somebody we know well but I was happy to see that his character is still feeling unsettled after his short underwater trip. There is a clear theme of losing yourself in this episode with this storyline as well as Stanley's which was pretty tragic. Speaking of that, the climactic carnival scene definitely delivered. The happiness was certainly needed to relieve some tension and it set the scene perfectly for everything to go wrong. The immolation of Stanley was well done as it, along with Lady Silence's sudden arrival, cut off Crozier's optimistic return speech and interlaced the episode with dread and horror. The sudden aspect of Stanley's death was very eerie and the fire added a good source of tension which needed to be overcome. It was quite scary to see Hickey brutally kill a crew member to save the rest too. The acting is really good on this show. A lot of what happens only works because the performances do a superb job of conveying each character's emotions. The Bad: The characters in this show remain too shallow. So many of the crew members have no real character and that makes it extremely difficult for me to feel anything for them. Unfortunately this also includes Fitzjames who was presented as a central character, but hasn't done anything much of note since the first episode. As a central character for this episode, he desperately needed to get some depth like Crozier in the last episode, but we got practically nothing for him. The other crew members suffer from this too and that makes all of the side characters lack any impact. There were several character transformations in this episode which didn't feel earned. First was Collins' sudden reveal that he was depressed and scared. This may have made an impact if we saw him slowly get overcome with fear or something along those lines, but we haven't really seen him since episode 1. This "character development" feels so inorganic because of this and doesn't pack a punch at all. The same goes with Stanley. At the beginning of the episode he is calm and collected but he suddenly pulled a murder suicide by the end of the episode. Why? Was it because of the lead poisoning? Who knows. It's bad that such a major scene happened without any understanding of why the character did what he did. I also think that the show has done a poor job of conveying how desperate the situation is. There are far too many timeskips and not nearly enough time is being dedicated to showing how awful it must be to be trapped on these ships for so long. If the point is supposed to be that these men are going mad, then that process needs to be shown. Nobody just goes from zero to a hundred like that. I feel like this episode was bogged down by too many side characters giving unnecessarily long stories which add nothing of substance. Blanky's story about the first mate on his previous voyage is only there for thematic relevance which is not good for such a lengthy scene. A scene like that should have been used to characterize both Blanky and Fitzjames. Maybe we can learn about what drives Fitzjames? Or maybe how Blanky feels about having only one leg now? Unfortunately we get nothing like that. We get more scenes like this too with Collins and Jopson who tell dull stories to pass off as character development. In the slow middle episodes we need much more character than we are getting, and filler like these scenes is just inexcusable. The Unknown: Has Lady Silence tamed the Tuunbaq now? Why did she have to cut out her tongue? What does that signify? How injured is she from it? Best Moment: The immolation of Stanley was so shocking and sudden that it ended up easily being the best thing about this episode. The climax saved this from being a total dud. Character of the Episode: Stanley. Conclusion: This was disappointing. There hasn't been enough character development done and these slower middle episodes are being wasted by not developing characters. In a 10 episode series, we can't afford to have episodes like these. Score: 54 Summary: Crozier is staying in The Terror and drinking his problems away, which frustrates Fitzjames who wants a proper captain. Goodsir discovers that there has been lead poisoning which is the reason for all the sickness. Crozier speaks with Lady Silence and wants a way to kill the Tuunbaq but she refuses to comply. Crozier gets frustrated and Lady Silence explodes at him. Crozier alienates his crew and sends Blanky on the deck. The Tuunbaq attacks and Blanky is nearly killed but the crew manage to wound the Tuunbaq. Crozier accepts his drinking problem after Blanky has his leg amputated and chooses to be a good leader, leaving Fitzjames in charge while he recovers.
The Good: This episode revolved heavily around Crozier and put him through a short but very good character arc. We start the episode with Crozier in a very rough situation. We had gotten hints of his alcoholism in the last episode but it has completely consumed him by this episode. We have learned a lot about Crozier and we understand that his biggest demons come from his past and before we get to the biggest conflict in the show, we need to see him overcome his own demons. The alcohol addiction provides that conflict and it symbolizes Crozier's lack of ability to overcome himself. Eve when he is doing a captain's duty (which is very rare for him) by interrogating Lady Silence, she chooses to attack him personally, reminding him once more about how awful his life is. And his first response? He sends away one of his friends and decides once more to rest up and have a drink. It's powerful to see Crozier as such a mess and with the crew's chances of survival decreasing, it creates an incentive for us to want Crozier to return to being the man who he was 3 episodes ago. Furthermore, the episode uses this incentive to help get us to care about Fitzjames, who has been a background character for the most part. With him driving for Crozier to be the man he is supposed to be, even going as far as to quote the late Franklin about his insufficiencies, it makes us root for him which is a very important step to get us to like his character. More certainly needs to be done with Fitzjames, but this is a very good start. The resolution of Crozier's arc was very well done. I really like the idea to have a character arc occupy a complete episode, especially in the middle of the season. The middle chapters in a book are often the most boring, and that can translate to television as well. This show did an excellent job making this middle episode feel important and enjoyable by having a complete character arc cover a single episode. The best part though is how the resolution didn't feel rushed at all. Instead the episode used a separate plot point, the Tuunbaq, and combined it with Crozier's arc to provide him a reason to turn away from alcohol. It was the Tuunbaq causing Blanky to be amputated which awoke Crozier at last. He realized that this could have been prevented if he had been smarter, and as such learns from his mistakes and gives a fantastic speech at the end of the episode highlighting his change in character, demonstrating how he has finally shaken off his demons. With Fitzjames in charge, it gives Crozier valuable time to get back in shape so he can potentially be back to the respectable captain we saw in the first episode. There were other great developments in this episode. As I mentioned before, there was a separate storyline revolving the Tuunbaq in this episode which was expertly laced into the Crozier storyline to make both blend together as a cohesive unit. The best scene combining both was the interrogation of Lady Silence. We learned a lot of great information about the Tuunbaq here, planting many possibilities in our minds which is very interesting. I had initially thought that Lady Silence would be a sort of villain for the show, but the thought that she also seems to be scared of the Tuunbaq is an interesting one and makes me believe that it may be going rogue by attacking the men. It opens up a lot of interesting possibilities and creates a great hook for us as we head into the back half of the season. Hickey continues to be a fascinating question mark in the show. This episode demonstrated that he is very good at manipulating people and taking opportunities whenever he gets them. Could he be primed to become a villainous character now? We have already established some hostilities between him and Crozier, and now that we are seeing some typically villainous traits from him it feels likely that he will become a villain. I was very happy that the show included lead poisoning and used that to answer the sickness instead of something supernatural. I'm very happy that the show is making an effort to be historically accurate. Having done some research, I learned that the message left by Lt. Gore and the early death of Franklin were also historically accurate which impressed me. I love seeing shows put in effort to get the little things right, as they almost always result in an increase of quality. The Bad: There wasn't anything bad about this episode in a story perspective. However, I wills ay that the show is missing something. It hasn't emotionally engaged me yet. The writing has been fantastic and it has been a joy seeing the story unfold in front of us, but I'm yet to truly care about the characters or where the story goes. I'm only intrigued or interested. It's because of this that I don't feel comfortable rating this show too high, since I don't get the same level of enjoyment from this as I would from something like "Black Mirror". I understand that it is difficult to get emotional engagement from a ten episode show, but that doesn't excuse it for not being present in the episode. The Unknown: Does Lady Silence speak English? Her outburst was spurred by things which Crozier said in English, so did she actually understand him? What are the Tuunbaq's current allegiances? Does it serve Lady Silence or is it actually acting on its own? Is it getting revenge for the death of its previous owner? What are the extents of the Tuunbaq's injuries? Does it have any way to heal itself? Best Moment: The one scene I haven't talked about so far is the Tuunbaq attack. That's because I want to discuss it here. This show has shown total mastery of horror scenes. Franklin's terrifying death 2 episodes ago was stellar, yet this was somehow even better. The dark lighting, the fearsome presence of the Tuunbaq which is rarely seen, and the reaction we see from Blanky really sell the terror of this sequence as the Tuunbaq hunts down more men. It's survival horror at its absolute best. Character of the Episode: Crozier for having a great character arc in this episode. Conclusion: This show continues to deliver a great story with excellent elements of horror. However there is that emotional engagement missing which prevents this from being great television at the levels of some of the best TV shows out there. Don't get me wrong, this show is still great, especially for a miniseries, but I don't think it's quite on that amazing level I see potential for. Score: 65 Summary: The Tuunbaq keeps killing men and nothing is being done. Crozier drinks in his cabin to wash away his sorrows. Flashbacks show Crozier getting rejected by Sophia. Back in the present, Hickey leads an expedition to capture Lady Silence who he believes is controlling the supernatural bear. Crozier punishes him with 30 lashes for disrespect and not following orders.
The Good: Crozier was great in this episode. He has essentially become the new series lead now that Franklin is gone and he has been given really good character depth. We understand his sorrows all too well from being rejected, but thankfully there is much more to him. He doesn't know how to command the crew with Franklin gone, so he instead just ensures everyone follows his orders and then proceeds to give no real orders. Instead it's Hickey who takes action with a rogue expedition, which is exactly what Crozier was attempting to do in the previous episode. Crozier is becoming self-absorbed and lost and as a result he has lost his intelligent edge which he had over Franklin. Now he is just another captain, and without Franklin's ability to communicate with the crew, it seems likely that he will be facing mutiny soon. Hickey was very good here too. It makes sense for him to want to act out, after all tons of men have been lost to the Tuunbaq and he doesn't want to be one of those men. In his eyes he has done the right thing, and it is interesting to wonder how many other crew members think he is in the right here. They of course don't want to be picked off either, and as such I can certainly see them wanting to do something about this monster, especially with rumours going around about its supernatural nature. The titular punishment was a good scene in the episode which continues the strong storytelling. Crozier viciously ordering the punishment to continue was brutal and was a fitting explosion of that depressed anger he has been trying to drink away. The crew members' disgust at the beating was effective to start driving a wedge between them and the captain, and I think it was conveyed appropriately. It was an uncomfortable watch, but we needed to see it to understand why Hickey and the rest of crew would have some conflict with Crozier. The horror continues to amp up in this episode. The first half of the episode was tense and scary with the Tuunbaq lurking around and getting kills. The sequence with Crozier and Evans trekking the ice was a stand-out and so was the scene of Hickey finding the dead body torn in half standing on the ship. I really liked that final scene between Goodsir and Lady Silence. It's nice to see a decent human on the ship in Goodsir and he is very easy to like and root for. It was nice to end the episode on a positive note with Goodsir trying to make peace with Lady Silence. The Bad: Nothing really. The Unknown: What is Jane's role in the story going to be? We were given a lengthy scene of her wanting to help Franklin's expedition, and that surely couldn't have been for nothing. I believe she will do something important in the story, but it's just a question of what. Where are the crew's allegiances currently at? Hickey found some tobacco in his hammock, so clearly he has some friends amongst the crew. There is also a question of if Hickey is at odds with Crozier now, but I'm extremely confident that he will be. Adam Nagaitis did a great job of portraying Hickey's anger after the lashings and I'm sure that it will have to lead somewhere. What is with the black teeth and spoiled food? Does is have something to do with the sickness from the first episode? Best Moment: The lashings were the most brutal part of the episode so I'll go with that scene. Character of the Episode: Crozier. Conclusion: This was another solid episode to continue the story. The writing on this show has been very good so far, and it looks like it may end up being an excellent miniseries. Score: 62 Summary: Crozier suggests sending 8 men 800 miles to HBC for help to Franklin who is appalled and refuses. He tells Crozier that he doesn't really like him at all. An outpost is created in the ice to hunt down the Tuunbaq. Franklin goes to visit and while he is there the camp is attack. everyone is killed, including Franklin. The Inuit woman, Lady Silence is let free and she begins to learn how to control the Tuunbaq. Hickey and Gibson come into conflict when Gibson claims to Irving that he was innocent and Hickey just sort of attacked him.
The Good: I like that we got some more development on Franklin in this episode. He has been very arrogant but mostly likeable before and we really needed to learn more about why he was making the choices he did. Here we get to see why he believes in faith so much. We learn that nobody really believes in him, and so he is forced to believe in himself with hopes that he can prove everyone wrong. Of course having his wife tell him all of this to inflate his ego doesn't help at all. This built up nicely for Franklin's scenes with Crozier. Crozier continues to be logically sound as he requests getting some help from HBC, but Franklin is too stubborn to listen and doesn't want to be labelled as a failure. He still arrogantly believes he can succeed, and in his arrogance he completely alienates Crozier and continues making enemies. It was a great scene and was one which really made us sympathize for Crozier who only wants to make it out of this alive. Naturally with this being a survival horror, there needs to be some surprising deaths and we got a really surprising one here as Franklin dies in the bear attack. The scene was terrifically shot (see: Best Moment), and was completely unexpected as Franklin has been a pivotal member of the crew so far. The burial of Franklin was a really good scene, and I thought it was a nice touch to have him buried to his own words he was going to say for Lieutenant Gore's death. Also, the visual of Franklin's leg in the coffin was quite unsettling and suitably grim. I enjoyed the Hickey and Gibson storyline too. Hickey has been likeably strong-willed so far and I did enjoy this little conflict. Gibson was logical in why he betrayed Hickey and I understood why Hickey would have felt the need to confront Gibson about his choice. The Bad: Nothing really bad about this. I thought this was quite consistent in its quality, though the show does seem content with what it is and isn't really attempting to leave more of an impact than its limited nature allows. I suppose it is still much better than aiming high and falling flat. I certainly am enjoying the show for what it is though. The Unknown: What is the significance of those chiseled charms? Will we see more of them in the future? What was Lady Silence requesting to get from her father? What was the circle she drew earlier? Does it have something to do with her controlling the Tuunbaq? The Tuunbaq gave her the seal at the end. Does that mean that the deaths of the men were from Lady Silence's orders? Best Moment: Franklin's death was visually stunning. It perfectly captured the panic of a sudden, horrific death and the total chaos and disorder it would have put into Franklin's head. The connection the scene creates with the viewer is splendid and it was a real testament to Ciaran Hinds acting, the sound design and the cinematography that the scene boasts. Character of the Episode: Franklin. He left a great impression on this episode. Conclusion: This was another solid episode which contained one of the best constructed death scenes I have seen in a television show which focuses on the horrors of death. Score: 64 Summary: After 8 months, two search parties are sent in the east and west to find if the ice has thawed. The east group finds nothing. The west group finds the ice hasn't thawed but encounter a strange creature which kills Lieutenant Gore. They accidentally shoot an Inuit man and take him back to the ship. Dr. Goodsir tries to save him but he dies. His daughter is with him and apparently she now has control over the Tuunbaq. Tensions build between Franklin and Cozier despite Franklin's efforts to rebuild their friendship.
The Good: Franklin and Cozier's relationship is deepening and it is pretty interesting so far. They are obviously not friends anymore, and it's interesting to learn more about them. Obviously there will be some conflict due to Franklin leading the crew into icy waters and getting trapped, but this episode makes it evident that it's just the nail on the coffin at this point. Seemingly the conflict started when Franklin's daughter Sophie rejected a proposal from Cozier at Franklin's behest, and has continued to reject them. This should lead to some interesting conflict between them, and I'm curious to see where Fitzjames will come into play and whose side he will take. I liked Hickey's brief introduction here as the homosexual member of the group who seems to take pride in his status thankfully. We don't know much about him yet, but he has certainly gained my interest and I want to learn more. I presume that he and Cozier will build some kind of friendship in the next couple of episodes. Goodsir's group had the best tense moment in the episode with the ice storm and bear attack. The concept of an ice storm is pretty scary in itself, but it was made worse with the presence of something hunting the group. The eventual moment where Gore is killed is pretty shocking too and lets us know that there is another threat to worry about. Furthermore, the thought that the beast may have tracked them back to the ships will surely add a lot of tension in the camp, and just the thought of being hunted may be enough to cause dissent amongst the crew. The reveal that the ice will grow and prevent the ships from any other movement gives us an idea that they are all on borrowed time. It's an effective way to escalate the tension and give the story more of a sense of purpose. The Bad: One of the biggest problems I have with the show is actually a really small thing, but it's really hurting my engagement in the show. It was a problem in the last episode too but I forgot to mention it. The cold. This story is meant to take place in freezing cold, so I should be feeling tense and uncomfortable by watching the crew be trapped in such cold. But I don't because the cold has been conveyed poorly. Why is it conveyed poorly? There is no cold breath ever. It's a small detail but it's one that is really annoying when you notice it and it really breaks my immersion in a lot of scenes. There are too many side characters in the story and they just feel expendable. The show seems to have a core 4-5 characters and everyone else just seems to exist to die. I hope we can get something more for these side characters, or at least get a select few side characters to get some characterization and development. At the moment it's hard to care about all of them. The ice storm scene isn't as tense as it should be because I don't care about the fates of any of the characters. I would be on the edge of my seat if these characters mattered, but since they are expendable, I really wasn't as into it as I probably should have been. The Unknown: There is tension between Hickey and Irvine. What will Irvine do to Hickey next? Clearly he isn't just going to leave him alone. What does the women mean by them disappearing? Death? Or something else entirely? The Inuit man was the same one that appeared to David in the last episode. How did he do that? Does he have some sort of power? Is it because his tongue is cut out? Does he have something to do with the sickness? Why did he want to die on the ice? What is the monster? Is it the Tuunbaq which the Inuits talked about? Do they somehow have control over it? The daughter apparently controls the Tuunbaq now, so how will that come into play? Best Moment: I'll go with Hickey winning over Crozier while talking with him and them becoming friends. Character of the Episode: Crozier. Conclusion: This was a solid continuation of the story, albeit a slower episode. The characters still need to be set-up more, and if I get to the point where I really care about them, this show could end up becoming really good by the end. As of now, this is a decent show, but one that really isn't threatening to be that memorable or powerful. Score: 58 Summary: Captain John Franklin leads his crew to find the Northwest Passage on 2 ships, The Terror and The Erebus. After The Erebus gets caught in ice, Francis wants to harbour both ships for the winter, but Franklin chooses to press on, getting a crew member to dislodge the ice. One of the crew members, David, gets mysteriously sick and dies. He is buried in a coffin with a loose lid. After 6 days, The Terror and The Erebus get trapped in the ice and are seemingly stuck for the winter.
The Good: This show really has a Ridley Scott horror feeling to it, reminiscent of the first Alien movie. There is a real uncomfortable tension brought in by outstanding visuals with bleak colouring creating a sense of foreboding in a lot of the scenes. Furthermore, the cramped cinematography gives off a claustrophobic feel, which is aided by the presence of a huge amount of crew-members which occupy almost all empty space, and also some fantastic sound design which accounts for the gentle flowing water and the creaks and groans as the ships travel. While very little has happened so far, there has been a unique slow-burn tension present in the entire episode, similar to the first hour of the "Alien" movie. Hell, there is even a scene which reminded me of the famous "chest-burster" scene from that film. The characters in the show are simplistic so far, but we get a good idea of who they are. Captain Franklin is a good man, and though he made a poor decision by pressing forwards, he clearly doesn't do it for greed and ambition, but rather in an attempt to keep the crew optimistic despite the blatantly miserable conditions. This is much better than just having an annoying character as captain who is difficult to sympathize with. The other characters, like the doctor, Francis and James have been well-defined so far and I'm interested to learn some more about them as the show goes on. Thankfully, the acting from all characters has been excellent so far, and with high-tier actors working the show like Ciaran Hinds, Jared Harris and Tobias Menzies, I suspect that the acting will remain a consistent high point of the show. I did like the little bit of characterization that the character who went to cover David's body (forgot his name, oops) got. We don't know much about him, but he got to demonstrate some morality by not leaving David just out in the open like that. I also like the characterization of the doctor, who tried to show some heart for David, before doing his job and cutting him open, and also of Francis, who clearly has experienced something traumatic in the past. Like a lot of other successful pilots, this show does a great job of setting up a lot of questions as it gets started. I'm very intrigued to find out what happens in the show and I want to see more, which means that the episode definitely did its job. The Bad: The biggest problem with this episode however is that it is VERY slow. It's risky to have such a methodically paced pilot because it has a chance of alienating viewers very quickly. When I look at this episode as an overall package, very little actually happens and that makes it rather tough to get involved in the show early on, despite the intrigue it raises. I'm curious, but I can't call it good television yet. I feel that the episode took too long to get to the big moment of the ships getting trapped in the ice and that the episode may have been more gripping if that had happened a little earlier on. Anybody who has seen any horror will know that David will return in some form. The loose coffin lid felt like an easy way to bring him back without any complications. I'm fine if they want to bring him back as a twist, but I wish it wasn't so easy to spot that detail. The Unknown: What sickness hit David? What did it do to him and how did it kill him? How did he get it and how does it spread? Do other crew members have it now? How would they be able to know if they have it? Who was the person David imagined? Were they just a hallucination or were they actually there in some form? Are they connected to the sickness? What did David mean when he said "he wants us to run"? Did he mean run from the man, or is the man trying to help them? What was the dog barking at? Is there something that the dog noticed that the humans didn't? Is David going to return in some form? Best Moment: While the moment didn't really impact the story much, I really enjoyed the crew member's descent into the water. It was a fantastic horror scene which put us in an uncomfortable situation where we didn't know what awaited us under the water. The arrival of the dead body was very good and appropriately scary. Character of the Episode: Franklin. Conclusion: This was a solid pilot episode, but it was very slow and I don't feel that enough happened to really engage us into the story. Of course I do expect things to get better once the horror aspect actually kicks in, so this episode is far from problematic. It's just completely unspectacular and feels too focused on set-up. Score: 60 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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