IR TV Review: THE TERROR - DEVIL IN SILVER - EPISODE 1 (“November Of My Soul”) [AMC+-S3]

"The Terror" as an anthology series is a new entry to this reviewer's context. But like other anthologies aka "American Horror Story" it uses some kind of basis for each season so it is its own self-contained story. In this way, "The Terror" is able to bring in some interesting actors interested in limited approach that might not want to commit to an ongoing series (which previous seasons did). This specific series: "Devil In Silver" is both on AMC+ and Shudder (but it seems it was on Netflix before) so it is behind a pay wall allowing them to try different things, though streaming has mostly made this distinction fairly thin. The focal character here entering into the first episode titled "November Of My Soul" is Pepper (Dan Stevens), a would-be musician who finds himself through interesting circumstances committed to a hospital called New Heights for psychiatric evaluation. From the pre-credits, there already seems to be something untoward happening after we are inferred of a accident with one of the patients. This sets it up well without showing it. This first episode is just meant to set up what is happening to Pepper and what is out of his control.

Stevens plays this part well (and he has also played his share of villains) because you see the sense of rage but also of helplessness within him. Of course there is the periphery of what might actually be going on. There is a very little given away whether it be the orderly who seem a little too ready to pounce, a therapist (played by Stephen Root) who seems resigned to what is happening and yet quotes the context of Moby Dick. The lead doctor has a connection to what keeps the place running but there is also a central founder figure which plays well into the final moments. The idea, as posed by one of the patients, is the question of what makes a place evil: is it created that way or does it come to that point? The first episode doesn't give away too many answers but it does start to create a vise (not by jump scares -- it tries it once but doesn't quite work) but by mood and anticipation...which might be the show's saving grace depending where it goes. "November" as an episode does set a time clock but doesn't quite establish the full rules but that might be a matter of time. The writer of the novel Series 3 is based on also wrote the teleplay which is always interesting because details that a non-biased screenwriter might approach fall differently when it is your own original work. B

By Tim Wassberg