Horror movies are having a moment lately, what with films like Weapons and Sinners taking home Academy Awards. But if you’re looking for something more bite-sized, there are also a number of solid horror TV shows out there. Big ones like IT: Welcome to Derry and Interview With The Vampire have made waves, but one of the best horror series on TV has flown almost completely under the radar.
That show is From, which airs on MGM+. From is about to return for its fourth season, and now is the perfect time to get on board this spooky train.
From draws you in with its many mysteries
What is From about?
From begins with a family on a road trip forced to take a detour after a fallen tree blocks their path. They drive through a small town, and then discover that every road seems to take them right back there.
This is the Township, a mysterious village with no apparent fixed physical location. Once people enter the Township, they cannot leave. At night, strange creatures come out of the woods and kill anyone not inside an enclosed structure protected by a talisman, which the people who live here have discovered can ward off the monsters. Some of the residents of the Township have been here for decades; Victor (Scott McCord) has been here since he was a kid. Some, like the Matthews family, are brand new. Everyone here is trying to stay alive and figure out what’s going on while still maintaining some semblance of a life.
One of the appeals of From is the mysteries. What is the nature of the Township? Some residents think it’s an experiment, others a test from God. We learn new details the further into the series we get. There are various “bottle trees” that can warp residents around the area. The Township gets electricity, but wires don’t seem hooked up to anything.
The mysteries are seductive, and the show is great at plotting itself so that you always want to watch just one more episode, since all could be revealed in the next hour. It’s a great binge show, and since there are three seasons now out, it’ll keep you busy binging for a while.
Come for the horror
Stay for the characters
But From isn’t just mysterious. It’s genuinely scary. The creatures aren’t mindless zombies; they’re intelligent, capable of speech and of laying traps for our heroes. They can even trick some residents into thinking they’re friendly…just long enough for that resident to regret it. Where do they go during the day? Were they normal people before, and if so, how did they become like this? They drive much of the terror on From, and they’re great at it.
But no TV show is going to survive on scares alone. From introduces us to a solid cast of characters all trying to muddle through this mystery together. It’s an ensemble show, but first among equals is Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau), a war veteran and de facto mayor of the Township, since when your town is accosted by monsters every night you want a military man in charge. Perrineau is compelling and subtle in the role, giving one of the most well-rounded performances on the show. Boyd is smart and brave, but also vulnerable, emotionally and physically. One of his most important relationships is with his son Ellis (Corteon Moore), although they’re estranged at the start.
And that’s because, some time before the start of the series, Boyd had to shoot Ellis’ wife Abby (Lisa Ryder), who had a mental breakdown — kind of understandable given her situation — and started attacking other townspeople. That’s one example of a human story that helps ground all the scary shenanigans, and From has plenty of them.
The downsides
Could From get Lost?
From isn’t a perfect show. Some fans complain that it draws out its mysteries for too long. The series often gets compared to Lost, which leaned on unsolved mysteries for so long that many fans (although by no means all) were unsatisfied when those we finally got answers.
One of the issues with Lost was that a lot of details about the mysteries were made up as the show went along, which could account for why not everything lined up to everyone’s satisfaction at the end. The producers behind From have said they have a five-season plan for the show, which suggests that they have a road map laid out in front of them. The show has already revealed some major things about the nature of the Township and the creatures. And if we only have two seasons left, season 4 will likely start ramping up towards an endgame, which means that answers are coming. That’s part of why now is a great time to start watching the show if you haven’t been already, before the new season premieres on Sunday, April 19.
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Good show, obscure network
From airs on MGM+, which might account for how this show can have been turning out high-quality chills and thrills since 2022 despite way too few people talking about it or even knowing it exists. There are way too many streaming services out there, and MGM+ is not one of the better-known ones. The service is operated by Amazon, and I wish they would roll the MGM+ content library into Prime Video, which has a lot more subscribers. That way a great show like From might get the bigger audience it deserves.
But even if that doesn’t happen, From is a good enough show to crow about. If you don’t want a good scare, it might be worth picking up MGM+, at least for a month or two, to watch it.
- Release Date
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February 20, 2022
- Network
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Epix, MGM+
- Directors
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Jack Bender, Brad Turner, Alexandra La Roche, Bruce McDonald, Jeff Renfroe
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Harold Perrineau
Boyd Stevens
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Catalina Sandino Moreno
Tabitha Matthews
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