From - Season One Television Review

As much as I enjoyed season one of The Terror, I can't help but feel as though it's difficult to find genuinely good horror TV. Part of this, I imagine, is that scary things tend to become less scary as time goes on. This is essentially why horror films are king in the scares department as viewers are given just enough time to see what's spooky before hitting the credits. With that said, I had heard good things about this one and it looks like my curiosity paid off.

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Where to Find It: I saw this one on Amazon Video where it is available for rental/purchase, however it is primarily available for streaming via Epix.

General Information 
From is a science fiction horror series that originally premiered on 20 February 2022. It was created and (primarily) written by John Griffin with Jack Bender having directed the majority of the episodes. It was primarily produced and distributed via Epix, although it looks like viewers outside of the U.S. can see this show on Netflix (lucky you!). Season one spans ten episodes and Deadline reports that a second season will premiere in 2023. In 2022, both the show and actor, Harold Perrineau, were nominated for the Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Season one holds a slightly above average 63 Metascore on Metacritic, which starkly contrasts with a 96% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

The Story

Somewhere in rural America, a group of strangers have found themselves trapped in a small, run-down town with a terrible secret. No matter what the denizens of this town do, they can't leave, but there are much larger problems for them to worry about. Every evening, Sheriff Boyd Stevens (played by Harold Perrineau) walks around town ringing a bell to tell everyone to go home and lock their windows and doors. Something evil stalks the townsfolk during the night and it's up to Boyd and Deputy Kenny (Ricky He) to keep everyone safe. This delicate equilibrium is sorely tested though when a batch of new strangers roll into town and find themselves in a terrible accident.

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You better lock your windows and doors when you hear Boyd and his bell

Something I quickly came to appreciate about this show's writing is that it pays attention to detail. The concept of a group of people trapped in a dangerous scenario has been done many times, but frequently there are glaring plot holes that eventually hurt immersion and require the audience to intentionally ignore things. This is exceptionally rare here, which not only made a great impression, but also caused me to gain more and more respect for this series as time went on. Some early examples I can give that won't spoil things are like how Boyd and the rest of the town have developed a system for explaining how the town works to newcomers or about how the town is able to consistently have resources like food or power.

As both horror and mystery, From's story has to carefully balance how it doles out information to its viewers while also keeping crucial plot-points hidden, and I generally think that it does a great job of this in season one. I had a blast making wagers and guesses with friends as to what might happen in the next episode and we were frequently off the mark thanks to From's ability to keep the mystery alive. If I were to make a comparison, I'd say From generally mirrors season one of Lost in this way. For now, I'm optimistic that perhaps From will avoid the pitfalls of how Lost's narrative ran away from it.

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The Matthews Family acts as the our surrogates for understanding how From's world works and they're just as clueless as we are

Speaking of Lost, shows that keep people isolated require good characters and From does a fantastic job of presenting a wide variety of fascinating survivors with different motivations and talents. There are some wonderful exchanges between the townsfolk as they struggle with the despair of their current surroundings, along with the emotional baggage they brought with them from their old lives. This interplay is most immediately felt from two of the town's newest members, Jim (Eion Bailey) and Tabitha Matthews (Catalina Sandino Moreno), but other subplots are slowly rolled out as we learn more about the other people of the town. From the very first episode, the characters of From feel like genuine people contending with extraordinary circumstances.

Special Effects/Atmosphere
Although the plot of this show doesn't particularly ask of much when it comes to special effects, it's clear that Epix didn't hold back on making the setting and its characters look believable. Costume and set design are pretty good in this, with everything looking fairly lived-in and worn. One can immediately look at Boyd's outfit and see he's been wearing it for some time. 

 

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There's something eerily off about the town, and that's just fine with me

Setting-wise, the houses and diner look serviceable, but reflect a sense that they haven't been properly cared for in many years. A giant home on a hill, called "Colony House," looks almost gothic in design and I really appreciated the little flourishes of the interior shots we see of that particular building. I will admit that I'm a bit perplexed at how many people live in the town as that seems to fluctuate from episode to episode. Sometimes it seems like there are only 15-20 people living in the town, but then there are times that the number has practically doubled.

The Acting

With the exception of Harold Perrineau and David Alpay, I'm fairly certain I have never seen any of the other actors in this show before, which is downright shameful as nearly everyone absolutely nails their role. Perrineau perfectly conveys Boyd's sense of consignment to his role as the sheriff of a doomed village. Equally so, I really liked how Shaun Majumder plays the sullen Father Khatri with such reverence that I felt like I could physically see the trauma his character is saddled with. Alpay was a personal favorite of mine as his character Jade was both hilariously snarky, but also believable in his cutting commentary of life in the town.

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Shaun Majumder pulls off a great performance as the beleaguered Father Khatri

Genuinely, the greatest flaw I found in this show was Simon Webster's performance as the young Ethan Matthews. Webster's lines always feel fairly stilted, but I don't hold it against him too much as child actors are probably one of the hardest factors to deal with in any form of production. I think the showrunners do a good job of making up for Webster's issues by surrounding him with some great actors like Moreno and Bailey who play as Ethan's parents.

 

A final note worth mentioning is the performance of the "monsters." I'm not sure what to call them, but the performers that were cast as the creatures that hunt the townsfolk are played with a great sense of terrifying subtlety. Everything from the way that they move to how they smile sent chills up my spine from beginning to end. As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, it's hard to keep things scary in a television series, but these performers pull it off with style. 

The Best of the Best: The writers' attention to detail.

The Worst of the Worst: Simon Webster's performance makes me wish Ethan would spend a night in "the box."

Calhooey Score: 9/10 -Fantastic

Would I Recommend?

6

It's a horrifying world worth getting lost in

 

From is a fascinating and thrilling experience that keeps viewers guessing from episode to episode. This is quite possibly my TV series of 2022 and I highly recommend it to horror fans. I personally bought the entire first season on digital and have every intention of doing the same when season two gets released!

Spoiler Comments

• Perrineau just keeps finding himself "lost" in random inescapable places, doesn't he?
• Loved the use of The Animals' "We Gotta Get Outta This Place" in the first episode opening. It's a bit on the nose, but I didn't mind.
• I was wondering if leaving that spike-strip on the road would come back to haunt Kenny and Boyd and boy, did it ever!
• As soon as I saw Jade I was like "yep, this is the guy I'm going to root for through the rest of the show."
• I initially thought that Perrineau was the only actor I'd seen before in this show, but David Alpay played the minstrel in season two of The Tudors! Hopefully he fares better in this series than he did in that one...
  
• I respect Frank's decision to take his own life, but I imagine there are slightly less painful ways to go about doing so instead of going in the box.
  
• One of the big questions on my mind for the first several episodes was what might happen if someone tried actually talking to one of the monsters. It looks like Kevin's sacrifice showed us that they're pretty cunning when they want to be.
• All things considered, I'd say that the body count at Colony House wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
• I was devastated when Father Khatri bit the dust. At first I thought he'd just gotten slapped in the face, but these monsters have quite the pimp-hand.
• One of the few areas where I didn't like the writing is in how Boyd's discovery of the talismans worked. I don't mind him stumbling upon them, but it seems a little too easy that he simply knew that it was those marked stones that kept the monsters at bay. I feel like this would've taken a fair bit of trial and error to figure out how they work.
• Did anyone else see that the bus has "Grand Rapids" written on the side? Maybe we'll see Kristi's fiancé.
• Sorry, Kenny.
• I really hope Jim doesn't try to go down that hole...
• I'm a tad annoyed that we didn't see more of what was going on with the spiders that nearly killed Boyd. Do we think it was a giant spider that dragged the tent over there, or was that something else entirely?
• Also: I hope Jim isn't claustrophobic...
  

References

(1) From. (2022). From cover image. IMDB. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9813792/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt.

(2) Gibbsn. (2022, February 27). Boyd ringing his bell gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/from-from-tv-show-boyd-harold-harold-perrineau-gif-25010871.

(3) Tangcay, J. (2022, February 14). The Matthews Family image. Variety. Retrieved from: https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/from-epix-creature-transformations-makeup-1235181612/.

(4) From. (2022). Kenny and Jade in town image. IMDB. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9813792/mediaviewer/rm2523128833?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_10.

(5) Evans, W. (2022, February 26). Shaun Majumder as Father Khatri image. TV Fanatic. Retrieved from: https://www.tvfanatic.com/gallery/khatri-reacts-from-season-1-episode-2/.

(6) Weston, C. (2022). Frank scared image. HITC. Retrieved from: https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/03/09/where-was-from-filmed/.