Lost, while not being the first popular TV show with a mystery angle that got millions of people
hooked, is one of the most influential series of all time. For better or worse it inspired many other
series after it to introduce a mystery angle to keep viewers coming back to see where or not it
would be solved. Flash-forward to 2022 and now we have From, a show clearly inspired by it's premise, swapping a
lush, strange tropical island for a more budget-friendly Canadian forest.
From is one of the most unoriginal series I have ever watched, everything you see here has been done before in some
other form. I was initially put off it because of this and it's odd, unimaginative title but a friend finally convinced me
to give it a go recently and I was pleasantly surprised.
Despite its unoriginality the show is very well executed, the direction is solid, the cinematography is nice and
also slower than most recent shows which is refreshing, the acting is mostly good and doesn't break suspension of disbelief (which
is impressive for a horror work) and the writing is refreshingly clever.
The story is about the inhabitants of a strange forest that somehow captures people driving on country roads all over North America.
The Matthews family, who are main characters throughout the show, are driving in their RV to go camping when they come across a large tree
in the middle of the road surrounded by crows. They turn around and end up in a small town located in this forest, they try driving out
of the place through the road but find that it brings them back to the town. The other people trapped here have done what they can
to make things liveable, but this is made extremely difficult by monsters that come from the forest at night to torture and butcher them.
These monsters are like powerful vampires that can alternate between a friendlier human form and a scarier, more monstrous form that
shrieks and howls. We witness one in the first scene of the show where it takes on the form of a young girl's grandma and convinces her
to open her window to let her in, like an old-fashioned Vampire. The only protection the people have against them are 'talismans', strange
rocks with Nordic runes carved onto them. Of course this place is home to many supernatural threats and phenomena but these monsters are
one of the primary threats throughout the show.
What makes this show work are its relatable and often likeable characters who are written with both flaws and admirable traits.
For example Victor, a resident who has been trapped there for decades, is a creepy, emotionally-unstable man-child but he means
no harm and has a very tragic past. If I had one criticicism about the writing is that some characters swear too much, but that's
a very minor issue and it makes sense given the context.
The writing is surprisingly intelligent for a horror work, often in horror media characters will do stupid and clumsy things and
just be written to be completely unlikeable so that the audience won't feel bad when they are horribly killed.
This show wants you to like it's characters, most of them anyway, and there are some surprising and unpleasant deaths in this show.
What also makes the writing clever is that the writers let the characters be aware of the absurdity of their situation as well as
other events on the show, they often question whether or not what is happening to them is real, how physically impossible things
such as the looping road and where the electricity for the appliances in the town is coming from and the characters actually plan
and take steps to find out what is going on.
It's also surprisingly scary, there are some effective jump-scares, the monsters are quite disturbing in their sheer sadism and depravity and having likeable characters means we want to see them be safe and secure against such threats.
In season 2 the show does arguably start to fall into the Lost trap of introducing new threats and phenomena without addressing
currently existing ones but the show does seem to be on a better track than Lost in that regard.
If you're looking for a good horror series or spiritual successor to Lost I highly recommend From.
Series Completely unoriginal yet surprisingly compelling
Lost, while not being the first popular TV show with a mystery angle that got millions of people hooked, is one of the most influential series of all time. For better or worse it inspired many other series after it to introduce a mystery angle to keep viewers coming back to see where or not it would be solved. Flash-forward to 2022 and now we have From, a show clearly inspired by it's premise, swapping a lush, strange tropical island for a more budget-friendly Canadian forest.
From is one of the most unoriginal series I have ever watched, everything you see here has been done before in some other form. I was initially put off it because of this and it's odd, unimaginative title but a friend finally convinced me to give it a go recently and I was pleasantly surprised. Despite its unoriginality the show is very well executed, the direction is solid, the cinematography is nice and also slower than most recent shows which is refreshing, the acting is mostly good and doesn't break suspension of disbelief (which is impressive for a horror work) and the writing is refreshingly clever.
The story is about the inhabitants of a strange forest that somehow captures people driving on country roads all over North America. The Matthews family, who are main characters throughout the show, are driving in their RV to go camping when they come across a large tree in the middle of the road surrounded by crows. They turn around and end up in a small town located in this forest, they try driving out of the place through the road but find that it brings them back to the town. The other people trapped here have done what they can to make things liveable, but this is made extremely difficult by monsters that come from the forest at night to torture and butcher them. These monsters are like powerful vampires that can alternate between a friendlier human form and a scarier, more monstrous form that shrieks and howls. We witness one in the first scene of the show where it takes on the form of a young girl's grandma and convinces her to open her window to let her in, like an old-fashioned Vampire. The only protection the people have against them are 'talismans', strange rocks with Nordic runes carved onto them. Of course this place is home to many supernatural threats and phenomena but these monsters are one of the primary threats throughout the show.
What makes this show work are its relatable and often likeable characters who are written with both flaws and admirable traits. For example Victor, a resident who has been trapped there for decades, is a creepy, emotionally-unstable man-child but he means no harm and has a very tragic past. If I had one criticicism about the writing is that some characters swear too much, but that's a very minor issue and it makes sense given the context.
The writing is surprisingly intelligent for a horror work, often in horror media characters will do stupid and clumsy things and just be written to be completely unlikeable so that the audience won't feel bad when they are horribly killed. This show wants you to like it's characters, most of them anyway, and there are some surprising and unpleasant deaths in this show. What also makes the writing clever is that the writers let the characters be aware of the absurdity of their situation as well as other events on the show, they often question whether or not what is happening to them is real, how physically impossible things such as the looping road and where the electricity for the appliances in the town is coming from and the characters actually plan and take steps to find out what is going on.
It's also surprisingly scary, there are some effective jump-scares, the monsters are quite disturbing in their sheer sadism and depravity and having likeable characters means we want to see them be safe and secure against such threats.
In season 2 the show does arguably start to fall into the Lost trap of introducing new threats and phenomena without addressing currently existing ones but the show does seem to be on a better track than Lost in that regard.
If you're looking for a good horror series or spiritual successor to Lost I highly recommend From.