The horror series From has been one of the biggest dark horse success stories in television. It first launched on the Epix network back in 2022 (which became MGM+ in 2023), and developed such a strong cult following that it was picked up for three additional seasons, with a fifth and final season currently in production. It’s been quite an uphill battle for the show, but this year, the premiere of Season 4 seemed to be a breakthrough point. The buzz about the show’s return (after nearly two years) sparked new interest; Amazon Prime Video streamed the first season for a limited time, exponentially increasing the viewing audience. But as always, it was a thin pipeline of those who watched From Season 1 and those who signed up for MCM+ to continue watching.
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Now, From has premiered Seasons 1-3 on Netflix, and it’s quickly exploding in popularity like the cult fandom always knew it could. After you binge the first three seasons, check our breakdown on it, below. Then we’ll help get you into Season 4, so that you’re ready for the final chapter when From Season 5 premieres.
From‘s Story & Mythos Explained (Seasons 1-3)
The first season of From saw the Matthews family, Jim (Eion Bailey), Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), Julie (Hannah Cheramy), and Ethan (Simon Webster) go from a normal, cross-country drive to being lost on a detour road that takes them into a small town. They meet the town’s Sheriff, Boyd (Harold Perrineau), and other townspeople who have been stranded for a long time, like deputy Kenny Liu (Ricky He); Boyd’s son Ellis (Corteon Moore) and his free-spirited lover, Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori); Sara, a girl who “hears” the whispers of the supernatural entities controlling the town; town doctor Kristi Miller; mama-bear community leader Donna (Elizabeth Saunders); and Victor (Scott McCord), a deeply traumatized and childlike man who was the only survivor of a previous generation of townspeople.
The veterans try to inform the Matthews that there’s no way back out of town; the road circles back in an endless loop. Unwilling to believe in supernatural phenomena, the Matthews nearly die on their first night after they crash into wealthy tech-bro Jade Herrera (David Alpay), who is transported to the town as well. Stuck out in the woods with wrecked vehicles and injuries, the Matthews are totally unprepared for the moment when the sun goes down and freakish ghouls disguised as people from the 1950s swarm the town and kill anyone whose doorway is not protected by a strange set of talismans Boyd found out in the woods.
Season 1 of From is mostly world-building: The Matthews settle into the town and their new circumstances, and the townspeople try to survive the dread and evil creeping in and taking root. Eventually, the Matthews lead the way to discovering that an evil entity is controlling the town; it also becomes clear that this entity can get inside people’s heads and make them do unthinkable things. The townspeople try to build a radio tower to contact the outside world; instead, they make contact with the evil entity, which summons lightning to destroy the tower and somehow also destroys the Matthews’ home in a massive sinkhole.
After being banished for killing her brother and aiding the monsters in an attack on the town clinic (which killed Kenny’s father), Sara helps Boyd track her visions and insights to the transportation portal known as the “farway tree” out in the woods. That sets Boyd’s sights on a bigger goal: reaching the mysterious lighthouse seen in one of the visions, that could be the way home.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Season 2 of From is all about deepening the lore and stakes. An entire busload of new people show up in the town, and they are not at all inclined to listen to Boyd’s authority, or Donna’s communal reasoning. The bus people include hothead Randal Kirkland (A.J. Simmmons), sensitive prophet Elgin Williams (Nathan D. Simmons), and Marielle Sinclair (Kaelen Hom), a pediatric nurse, addict, and Kristi’s fiancée. Boyd discovers the “Faraway Tree has transported him into a strange medieval dungeon where he finds a man named Martin chained to a wall. Martin warns Boyd about a prophecy of doom, then passes on his legacy to the younger man. gets some kind of strange new power or ability, when Martin transferrs leechy parasites into Boyd’s skin, giving him strange new abilities. A new threat emerges in the form of the “cicadas,” ghoulish bugs that kill anyone who falls asleep. That looming threat only aggravates the panic and tension amongst the townspeople, straining their unity, and Boyd’s leadership
The sophomore season does suffer the typical drawbacks of slowing down the pace of the story, floating new mysteries before it answers old ones, and kind of spinning its wheels. Still, the human drama is balanced by a nice bit of puzzle box solving. . The finale threw viewers for a loop, when Tabitha Matthews makes through a portal to the lighthouse, only find the benevolent entity of the town, a little boy dressed all in white, who confesses the visions were meant to luer Tabitha there for another reason: pushing her off the balcony of the lighthouse and into a portal that takes her back to the “real world” outside the town.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Season 3 of From is a nice return to form after the dragging portions of Season 2. The mystery box is full of good stuff again: Tabitha back in the real world worked – as does the contrived set of cirucmstaces that bringing her back to the town with a few new allies poor soles, including a cop named Dani (Samantha Brown) and Victor’s father, Henry (Robert Joy). The townspeople get more bold, branching out to explore more of the woods and discovering a lakeside settlement with fresh-grown food that will ensure their survival. However, the meddling makes the dark forces around the town get more devious and aggressive in response; the monters slaughter more townspeople and even cows, crippling the town’s livestock and food supply.
The psychological horror aspect of From is something that showrunner John Griffin really focuses on in Season 3. The town starts to come apart at the seams, and so does Boyd, quietly but surely. Ellis’s girlfriend Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) is also given a main arc, when she becomes infected by some darkness that leaves her pregnant (a medical impossibility) with some kind of demonic child. Fatima’s “child” turns out to be a reborn “Smiley,” one of the ghouls who Boyd killed using his parasites. The mother-son connection provides Fatima with the key insight that the ghouls are actually the original townspeople, who made a Faustian bargain to sacrifice their kids, in exchange for immortality.
Meanwhile, Tabitha and Jade suffer through an entire season of strange visions for the revelation that they are reincarnations of previous townspeople like Victor’s mother Miranda and Christopher the ventriloquist. The knowledge comes at a very high price: Jim Matthews is mind-blown when he discovers a future version of Julie in the woods, desperately trying to warn him that the big bad entity is taking a more active hand in things: The Man In Yellow. The time travel is too late, as the Man in Yellow appears and tears Jim’s throat out, one of the first big character deaths in the series.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
How to Watch From Season 4 (Right After Seasons 1-3)
Unfortunately, From Season 4 is being streamed exclusively on MGM+, as a means to help boost the subscriber base. Plans start at 7.99/per month, or you can get a discounted yearly subscription for just over $60. It’s a tough choice: If you’re not all that into (or even familiar with) MGM+ content, that’s sixty dollars (or more) you’re spending on one show. The only other option is the long wait (and hope) that Season 4 eventually makes it way ot one of the bigger streaming platforms like Prime Video or Netflix. So pick your poison.
We can see this, though: From Season 4 is the best since the first season, and that’s saying a lot.
You can stream From Seasons 1-3 on Netflix, or the full series on MGM+. Have you checked it out?
