FROM Season 3 Review: The Creepiest Show On TV

October 24, 2024

Introduction

After Die Hard (1988) changed the action genre forever, there were the inevitable knockoffs that followed. Affectionately referred to as ‘Die Hard on a (blank)’ some were better than others. Die Hard on a Bus became Speed (1994). Die Hard on a plane became Air Force One (1997). And Die Hard on a Mountain became Cliffhanger (1993). After the iconic yet polarizing series LOST premiered on ABC back in 2004, a similar effect took place with numerous shows following the same basic format. Manifest, Fringe, Colony, Flash Forward, Dark, Wayward Pines, and many others all share some of the LOST DNA. Perhaps no show on TV follows the LOST roadmap more than the fantastic From, currently in its third season on MGM+

Premise

Much along the same lines as LOST (its tamer and less gory relative), John Griffin’s From is also about a group of people who are trapped and desperately want to return to their ‘normal’ lives. This time, however, it’s a creepy town in the middle of nowhere (literally), instead of a gorgeous Hawaiian island where everyone looks fabulous. Rather than arriving simultaneously via airplane (LOST), the castaways on From arrive separately, all of them driving along some (the same?) unnamed road, and coming across a (the same?) fallen tree.

Try as they may, all those who stumble into this town are unable to leave, thus winding up over and over again in the same place they started. Replete with a diner, housing, and electricity with no wires, the trapped inhabitants must band together to try and figure out clues on how to get back home. Also, once the sun goes down, get inside, quickly. While LOST had ‘The Others’ and a ‘smoke’ monster, From has smiling human-like creatures that come out at night ready to rip your throat out. They also look like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Harold Perrineau stars as Boyd, the town sheriff, trying to instill order. This becomes doubly hard when Boyd’s decision-making is consistently questioned. The Matthews family (Catalina Sandino Moreno, Eion Bailey, Hannah Cheramy, and Simon Webster) represent the confused viewer at home when their RV is run off the road and their whole world is subsequently turned upside down. Armed with mysterious and protective talismans, the ‘Fromians’ struggle against the elements, the monsters, and each other and they band together and try to survive.

Season Three

The first season of From was ambitious, but also wildly uneven with ‘B plots’ that went nowhere. This took away valuable time from the main arc of the series. John Griffin and co-writer Jeff Pinkner (producer/writer on LOST) wisely cut off the excess fat, resulting in a more focused and enjoyable second season. Season three of From continues that trend, picking right up where season two ends. It helps that the show’s mythology and world-building is top-notch. A quick stop on the show’s main Reddit page will reveal dozens of screenshots forensically studied.

Without giving too much away, season two introduced the viewer to a whole slew of new characters. Some nice. Some are not so nice. There are music boxes, lighthouses, visions of small children running around, and of course…monsters. Lots of nasty and smiling monsters. That’s the one constant. In season three, no one is safe from getting killed and the gore is amped up to new levels. There’s also the Fredo-like Victor (the fantastic Scott McCord) who seems to be the key to unraveling all of the town’s mysteries. His backstory finally gets the full treatment.

Often referred to as a ‘puzzle box’ show, From continues to both elate and frustrate viewers with its one-step forward and two-step back approach and every episode ends on a cliffhanger (just like with LOST) which leaves the audience immediately wanting more. In this new era of binge-watching, it’s a nice throwback to the puzzle box TV shows of fifteen years ago. Also, be warned, the stakes in season three are MUCH higher and the monsters are not just scary, but organized and manipulative. They are slowly revealing that there is a ‘reason’ for their horrific actions.

Conclusion

If you like shows with endless mysteries, tons of world-building, and heavy doses of gore, then you’ll like From. With top-notch acting and writing that never goes overboard with exposition, Griffin, Pinkner, and director Jack Bender have taken the LOST formula to an entirely new level, hooking the viewer in from the very first episode. It also helps that Harold Perrineau was told in pre-production, before the series started, that the showrunners had a definitive plan and endgame, unlike with LOST, which went off the rails in its final season.

From is one of the best shows of this genre on streaming platforms today. Wholly unique, it is legitimately scary and borderline horrific at times. This coming from someone who grew up on George Romero and Dario Argento films of the 1980s. While some ‘red shirt’ characters do little else than take up space, that’s to be expected from, this type of format. From is showing viewers that you can continue to push boundaries, while still providing entertaining television. Let’s just hope they can stick the landing.

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