We discovered From via random targeted social media ads. It’s in its third season and currently airs on a service called MGM+. I’m not sure what MGM “normal” stands for, so the idea that I’m getting “plus” remains confusing to me. I know the lion; is it a bigger lion? A louder roar? 

From comes to us from at least one of the producers of Lost, Jack Bender, who also directs a bunch of episodes. It stars Harold Perrineau, a terrific actor who appeared on Lost but was not served well by their storytelling. I didn’t recognize anyone from the rest of the cast; there’s a guy who’s off-brand Paul Rudd, a pushy lady, an annoying kid, etc. They shoot it in Nova Scotia so I assume they paid for Perrineau and then picked up the rest of the cast from local repertory companies. I hope this is a good gig for all of them. 

I admire its purity. It’s a mystery box show that’s far more interested in the box than its victims. It pays enough lip service to character development that we have a pang of concern for these folks as they face outlandish challenges. But it’s really an onslaught of maladies, from food spoiling for no clear reason to the cadre of creepy monsters that only come out at night and are kept at bay by mysterious “talismen” in each of the small community’s homes. 

It’s a partial town, a few houses and a police station and a diner, a little church and some municipal building that’s now a clinic. And it doesn’t seem to really exist even though it does; the people who arrive there are never able to leave. They disappear from the point of view of the “real world.” 

There’s a creepy backstory that’s being slowly unveiled, weird caves with dead children walking around, a phone that only receives calls from the dead. Is there some mystical anguish deep in the soil of this place that is no place? Or is it a malevolent force torturing these souls with a deliberate menu of tricks and deceptions? 

Do I care? I don’t think so. I watch From while I scroll on my phone. I occasionally surface to keep up with the latest tragedy to befall these poor people I barely know. Recently after their crops mysteriously spoiled, the night monsters (who are all dressed up like 1950s stereotypes, the milkman and the cheerleader and so forth) petulantly let all the goats and cows out of their confines. This forced the residents to leave their homes at night to save the animals, and thus make themselves available for slaughtering. 

Ultimately, this led to Perrineau’s long-suffering town sheriff tied up in a barn watching a sweet old Korean lady being graphically murdered by these monsters, while he could do nothing to stop them. It’s basic cable levels of gore, so it’s not like torture porn…more like torture Cinemax Friday After Dark. 

It can be a brutal show, but horror in general can be brutal; the “mystery box” of it all adds a level of compulsion, if you are the kind of person to be drawn into these sort of things. That’s why I admire its purity; it’s not ashamed of what it is, and it doesn’t try really to elevate itself. There’s not a lot of deeper mystical meaning. 

That’s not to diminish what it does. It effectively maintains these mysteries in a way that suggests there is an answer (although fool me twice, shame on me). The actors bring credibility and grit to the scripts. It invites you to climb into the mystery box, but it’s also easy to climb back out when it’s over, and move on with the broader mystery box of human existence.