What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T10 WHATS UP! August 11 - 17, 2019 is based on a legitimate inci- dent from real-life history: the disastrous lost expedition led by Englishman Sir John Frank- lin in 1845. Franklin and his crew intended to probe the Arctic region for the coveted Northwest Passage, but the two ships assigned to the task (HMS Erebus and HMS Ter- ror) became icebound, and all 129 men who set out on the ex- pedition perished. The wrecks of their ships remained undis- covered until 2014 and 2016. To the already terrifying prospect of becoming strand- ed in Arctic ice, Simmons add- ed his own piece of supernatu- ral flair to rocket the story into truly brain-breaking territory. He added an unrelenting Arc- tic demon known as the Tuun- baq, which pursued and sav- aged the doomed survivors as they struggled to boat, sled and hike their way out of the grip of the northern ice. "The Terror: Infamy" repli- cates that formula of real hu- man history paired with a su- pernatural threat, but it relo- cates to an entirely different era. This season features a community of Japanese-Amer- icans during World War II who are imprisoned in camps set up by a paranoid U.S. gov- ernment after the attack on Pearl Harbor. These Japanese-American internment camps are seen as a shameful moment in Ameri- can history, and the story of the camps remains largely un- explored by American televi- sion. No series has ever fo- cused on life inside those camps, let alone one that fea- tures a majority Asian and Asian-American cast like "The Terror: Infamy." The new season juxtaposes the cruel fate of interned fami- lies with this season's new it- eration of occult monstrosity. Unlike the Tuunbaq of Season 1, which was an invention of Dan Simmons, the preternatu- ral baddie of "The Terror: In- famy" is a creature inspired by Japanese folklore, known as a bakemono. In Japanese my- thology, a bakemono is under- stood to be a shape-shifting entity that disguises its origi- nal form. The show is likely to take healthy liberties with its inter- pretation of the folkloric bake- mono. This season's evil crea- ture needs to deliver a horrify- ing visual punch equal to that of the Tuunbaq's mutated zombie polar bear from Sea- son 1, while simultaneously expanding upon the tradition- al Japanese mythology to ex- plain why a spirit might pur- sue individuals across oceans to their new homes. The first season of the show was able to count on a sturdy plot derived from Simmons' novel, but now that the series has turned into an anthology, showrunners have a new set of challenges. Unlike "American Horror Story," which retains a number of core cast members from season to season, "The Terror" anthology looks as if it will require audiences to em- brace a new set of performers every year. If "The Terror: Infamy" is as successful as the original sea- son was, there will be limitless opportunities for the show to expand and plunder mytholo- gy and folklore from around the world. Find out if the an- thology format is a good fit when Season 2 premieres Monday, Aug. 12, on AMC. George Takei as seen in "The Terror: Infamy" continued from page T2 Infamous and terrifying: AMC's first anthology horror series heads into Season 2 TV FEATURE