The first two seasons of AMC’s “The Terror” are among the best in the history of horror television, atmospheric period pieces with real tension and philosophical depth. Perhaps the third installment, “Devil in Silver,” based on the novel of the same name by Victor LaValle, suffers from existing in their shadow, but my issues with it would remain without the arguably unfair comparison.
Despite some ever-timely themes about the inequity and systemic failures of the mental health system in this country, “Devil in Silver” feels flat, likely a factor of being too faithful to its source (LaValle himself gets writer credit, which is often a mistake) or a rushed production that never quite found its voice on set. There are some strong performances, but in a prime era for TV horror, this one doesn’t find the right balance of thrills and character, throwing ideas into a demonic mishmash that too often fails to connect with the mind or the gut.
A brief history: Dan Simmons’ excellent 2007 novel, a story of a doomed 19th-century Arctic expedition, gave the series its name as it was the source for the 2018 first season starring Tobias Harris and Tobias Menzies. The 2019 second season, subtitled “Infamy,” was another chilling period piece, set in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. After a long break, “The Terror” is back with a visit to a mental hospital in a vaguely undefined time period that doesn’t quite feel like today due to its references to Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Iron Maiden, but also has just enough modern technology to make it a little unclear. A lack of specificity weaves its way through much of “Devil in Silver,” a frustrating characteristic given how much the other two installments thrived on detail.
It’s even more startling to see the flattened approach to storytelling in “Devil in Silver,” given who’s behind the camera in this 6-episode season, including Karyn Kusama (“The Invitation”) and co-showrunner Christopher Cantwell (“Halt and Catch Fire”). They’re part of the team that tells the story of Pepper (Dan Stevens), an ordinary guy who loses his temper and attacks the truly awful biological father of the daughter of Pepper’s girlfriend. The incident draws the attention of cops on the scene (including the great Marin Ireland and Philip Ettinger), but they decide they don’t want to do the paperwork and just drop Pepp off at New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital. All he has to do is take his meds for a few days, and he’ll be released. Of course, it’s never that easy.
When Pepper goes full McMurtry—Kesey’s novel and the Jack Nicholson version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” are literally name-checked right around when their influence reaches its fever pitch—he ends up stuck in New Hyde, basically a prisoner of the head of the facility (Aasif Mandvi) and something far more terrifying than a bad doctor. There’s something prowling the halls of New Hyde, a creature that might actually be the devil himself, and one that keeps the patients terrified and subservient. Judith Light, CCH Pounder, John Benjamin Hickey, Chinaza Uche, and Stephen Root fill out a strong ensemble, but it’s Stevens’ show. The ambitious Stevens growls his way through Pepper’s journey, playing this former musician as someone who knows he might have anger issues and has made a few bad decisions in his life, but he refuses to be medicated into a catatonic state to fix them.
Of course, “Devil in Silver” is about a system of mental health facilities that use human bodies and traumas as items on a ledger sheet. Take your medicine three times a day; don’t speak up; don’t cause a scene. LaValle’s book is obviously an indictment of a failed approach to treating mental health in this country like a burden, taking agency away from those who need help and doing as little as possible to keep them alive. It’s a system that often treats symptoms instead of disease, a timely message, but one that LaValle and his team hammer like a kid with a toy. There’s too little subtlety in “Devil in Silver,” a show that’s constantly spelling out what its characters are doing, why they’re doing it, and what it means in the show’s social commentary.
It works only in the too-few times that it’s allowed to be weird. Hickey (“The Big C”) gets the juiciest role as the Evil Wizard behind the curtain, and he leans into malevolence and actual threat in a way the rest of the show lacks. Most of all, “Devil in Silver” feels too restrained, too content to deliver its themes and hit the character beats instead of trying to build atmosphere or tension. There may be something evil hiding in New Hyde, but we know that because we’re told it over and over again, never because we feel it. The first two installments got under your skin; the third may leave a few scars, but it never goes any further beneath the surface.
Whole season screened for review. Premieres today, May 7, on AMC+.
