New York Post - 27.08.2019

New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019

nypost.com

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Here’s a peek at Hailee Steinfeld

as 19th century poet Emily Dick-

inson in the Apple TV+ series 

“Dickinson,” out this fall.

By LAUREN SARNER

A

MC’s “The Terror: In-

famy” opens with a

young Japanese-Ameri-

can woman serenely ap-

plying makeup before

stabbing herself.

It’s a gut-punch of a scene —

exactly what co-creator Alexan-

der Woo wants to convey in the

horror anthology series.

“The strategy has been to use

the vocabulary of Japanese

kaidan — or ghost stories — as

an analogy for the terror of the

historical experience,” says Woo,

47, citing films such as “The

Ring” and “The Grudge” as exam-

ples. “So in feeling all those

things [viewers] feel when they

watch a scary movie — palms

sweating, heart beating fast — it

gives them access into the plight

of the Japanese-Americans in our

show.”

“The Terror: Infamy” (Mondays

at 9 p.m.) is a 10-episode histori-

cal horror/drama that follows

Chester (Derek Mio), a young

Japanese-American who, along

with the rest of his family, is forc-

ibly relocated to an internment

camp in California following the

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

in 1941. The mysterious young

woman (Yuki Morita) from the

opening scene haunts them

throughout the rest of the story.

Woo says there’s a reason the

series is titled “Infamy,” the key

word in President Franklin D.

Roosevelt’s famous “day which

will live in infamy” speech to

Congress following the Pearl

Harbor attacks.

“We’re turning the word ‘in-

famy’ on its head here,” he says.

“What FDR referred to as an at-

tack by the Japanese government

on US soil now has two more

meanings: one is this infamous

act of the US government upon

its own people, and [the second]

is the character whose history is

also infamous and who haunts

the show.”

The acclaimed first season of

AMC’s anthology series, called

“The Terror,” starred Jared Har-

ris (“Chernobyl”) and mixed

history with the supernatural, fol-

lowing a doomed British Arctic

naval expedition in the 1840s.

George Takei, who co-stars

in “The Terror: Infamy” as

a community elder, acted

as a consultant on the

second season, providing

Woo with insight about

his own experience.

The “Star Trek” leg-

end lived with his

family in a Japanese-

American intern-

ment camp in Ar-

kansas for three

years, from ages 5

through 8.

Woo says that

one of the most

important things he learned from

Takei is that it wasn’t all doom

and gloom — despite the grim

subject matter.

“We asked him, ‘Is there

something that people get

wrong when they do filmed

representations of the in-

ternment?’ and we were

told, ‘They make it too

miserable,’ ” he says.

“What he meant, of

course, was that it

was a grossly unjust

act and there was a

great deal of sadness

and misery — but

it’s also the story of

resilience and re-

sourcefulness.

“These people who were im-

prisoned in the middle of no-

where persevered and made a

home out of this prison,” he says.

“So visually, what we’ve tried to

do in our show is to take this place

that is barely structures of any

kind at the beginning — because

the camp hadn’t really been fin-

ished when they got there — and

then slowly, over the course of the

season, the garden is nicer, the

barracks are made into a home.

“It’s a testament to the resil-

ience of people [such as Takei’s

father] who said, ‘We’re going to

make a home for our children out

of this misery.’ ”

Derek Mio (near

left) and

Cristina Rodlo

in Monday’s

episode of “The

Terror: Infamy.”

Ed Araquel/AMC

Alexander

Woo

Getty Images for AMC

“I watch all the comics on Net-

flix. I highly recommend Colin

Quinn’s ‘Red State Blue State’

— that one really makes me

laugh. Nate Bargatze is good

and John Mulaney, obviously. I

like ‘Succession’ on HBO and I

re-watched ‘The Sopranos’

again. I like ‘Billions’ — that’s

pretty good — and I watch a

lot of [British streaming

services] Acorn and Brit-

Box. I like [British crime

drama] ‘Vera.’ ”

— Leno (right) hosts

CNBC’s “Jay Leno’s Ga-

rage,” back for Season 5

Wednesday (10 p.m.)

WHAT I’M WATCHING: Jay Leno

“Family Feud” host Steve

Harvey (left) is taking the

show international. He’ll

host and produce a new

version of “Family Feud” for

South Africa and Ghana

that will go into produc-

tion later this year for a

2020 premiere. “I believe

‘Family Feud’ will be-

come a household name for lo-

cal South African and Ghanaian

families,” Harvey said in a state-

ment. “And this is just the be-

ginning in Africa. I expect this

show to lead to multiple media

and business projects in and

throughout the continent.”

Harvey has hosted daytime’s

“Family Feud” since 2010.

‘Feud’ heads to Africa

Paul Drinkwater/NBC

Courtesy of Apple

TV Tuesda

NBC Photo Bank via Getty Images

Viola Davis (right) will play 

Michelle Obama in “First Ladies,”

a Showtime drama also focusing on

Eleanor Roosevelt and Betty Ford.

Getty Images

‘The Terror:

Infamy’

co-creator

explains series

undercurrents