Parents' Guide to

The Terror

By Martin Brown, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Explorers confront fear of the unknown in scary mystery.

TV AMC Drama 2018
The Terror Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

See all
age 16+

Based on 5 parent reviews

Scumofscotland
Scumofscotland Parent of 15 and 18+-year-old
December 8, 2022
age 18+

Fantastic series but please don’t show to kids

Fantastic writing, dialog, and sets. Fully recommend for adults with a strong stomach for very graphic scenes. I can handle gore to a good degree but this one had me turning away 50% of the time during tough scenes. All that being said, it is one of the best things I have watched in many years.

This title has:

Too much violence
Dio fry
Dio fry Parent of 13, 13, 14 and 15-year-old
February 1, 2019
age 13+
See all 5 parent reviews

What's the Story?

A pair of British sea ships are traveling through the Northern Passage of the Arctic Ocean when things start to go wrong in THE TERROR. One crew member becomes violently ill, while another falls from the crow's nest to his death. Icebergs damage one ship's propeller, and when Captain Sir John Franklin refuses to abandon the vessels, the ships and their crew become trapped for months in a thick blanket of ice. As more and more dangers mount for the expedition, the captains and the crew must figure out how to survive nature's constant threats.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5 ):
Kids say (4 ):

This exciting, tense mystery series is reminiscent of two media landmarks: Alien and Lost. Like Alien (which shares a producer with this series in Ridley Scott), The Terror transports us to a strange and unfamiliar place: a mass of ice in the Arctic ocean in 1845, where there's nothing but vast expanse in all directions, including down into the gloomy depths of the water. The cinematography and art direction are stunning enough on their own, but the story also manages to find plenty of surprises in the supposedly barren landscape, as the crews of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebes explore the ice and what's underneath.

As in Lost, when the characters explore, they continually discover that something about this place is not quite right. When a crew member starts vomiting blood, it's not simply because he has scurvy; the ship's surgeon can't figure out what's happening. Men have visions of spirits imploring them to run away. Others disappear inexplicably. And, of course, as the members of the expedition try to survive, they must also figure how to work together, despite plenty of suspicion, grudges, and personal agendas between them. Both Alien and Lost sparked hundreds of imitators, but The Terror gets right precisely what those two did, without copying them explicitly. It immerses us in a completely unfamiliar yet fully realized world, rife with immense and unknowable danger, and it pits its characters in a duel to the death against forces of nature they can't even fathom.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what it means to be an explorer. What did it mean to be an explorer hundreds of years ago, and how does that compare to today? The characters in The Terror are traveling in uncharted territory in the Arctic. Is there a modern equivalent of their journey?

  • Families can talk about man versus nature. What obstacles do the characters in The Terror face? Why do they, for example, choose to steer their ships into the ice and snow? What dangers does nature present to them? How do the characters feel about these dangers?

  • Which things on The Terror can be explained by science, and which can't? The show seems to be telling us that something mysterious is happening. Is it? Or is this just a product of the characters' limited perspective? Which facts do the members of the expedition choose to accept? Which do they choose to ignore? Why?

TV Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended tv lists

Related Topics

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate