Steve Sanyal – Google

From is a mystery box style show. Every time you reveal one of the mysteries, it shows you another one. It’s created by some of the same people who created Lost, including one of the main characters in that show who plays the lead in From. The premise is pretty simple and compelling (SPOILERS FROM S1E1 only). A family goes on a road trip and finds their route blocked by a fallen tree. This fallen tree seems to symbolize the end of their lives as they know it. When they turn back, they come to a town with a single road through it. When they follow that road out of town it ends up taking them back to the town. They learn that at night gruesome monsters come out and devour anyone they encounter. There are many things to love about the show. There is the mystery of the town and the monsters themselves. There is a rich ensemble of characters and their relationships, as well as the supernatural experiences many of them go through which also leads to more character development as well as advancement of the plot. There is also an incredible level of suspense, because important characters do die, and often in very gruesome ways. There is also an underlying symbolism around what the town represents in each of its inhabitants personal journeys. I highly recommend it.

Some spoilers ahead Seasons 1 and 2 were great with the latter veering into time travel. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the world building the show did. Season 3 seemed to go where so many shows have gone - alternate timelines. It started tearing down what I enjoyed about the show. Season 4 continued down the alternate timeline path and then basically did a cop out ending which seemed to just steal from Netflix’s show Dark, which I felt did it much better. The fourth season was tough to watch. I stopped caring about the characters, the plot became a caricature and I had my phone in my hand a lot to get through it.

The whole premise and world building in Season 1 was well done. However, I found Season 2 pretty difficult to enjoy. The plot becomes very predictable and I feel like they are just stretching the content into a soap opera level drama just to get to the last episode of the season. This is problematic because the dialogue and character development is pretty weak in the show as well. It’s also pretty problematic because characters that should be dead are miraculously alive again and that bit gets old. Also, overall I find the show pretty depressing and full of cruelty which isn’t really my bag. And amidst the cruelty the biggest antagonist is super cruel but given how harsh the world is it’s pretty ridiculous people don’t turn on him. I watched an episode of Season 3 and then decided to just watch the recap for the season. In 10 minutes I got to see everything that happened and didn’t really feel like I missed much. Honestly, if seasons 2 and 3 could have been combined it could be a good show. But there is just too much filler drama.

The first few seasons were great. It’s cool seeing Johnny on a path to redemption and Daniel having flaws instead of just being the hero. The younger generation characters are great too, with underdogs and aggressors. The character development across the ensemble cast was great and bringing back old villains from the movies was also well done. But at some point, probably between Season 2 and 3 the show starts getting pretty ridiculous. It still has some nice moments, but the same plotlines just keep getting rehashed with different characters. The plot becomes so predictable at times the show just feels like filler. Definitely still appealing to a younger audience like my teen but to someone who grew up on the original movies when they came out it just got too cheesy.

I really wanted to like this show. I actually enjoyed the first episode because it explored one of my favourite themes and helped me feel hope. But it fell apart from there and I didn’t feel anything in the remaining episodes. I couldn’t find myself caring about any of the characters. The dialogue was non inspiring and sterile. The stories all felt recycled from past series. I got to episode 8 and gave up on the first season. I started the first episode of the second season and felt pretty much the same. It is definitely better than Discovery but I found that absolutely atrocious past the first season. Picard is the only recent series I have liked.

I want to love the show so much. I haven’t read the books. But the show is so bad in so many parts that I have decided to read the books instead. What this show gets wrong is the same nonsense that the creators brought to Game of Thrones sadly, when they had to write the content or adapt it significantly from the source material. Lazy, predictable writing with plot decisions that don’t make any sense.