“FROM” is a horror series produced by the Russo brothers that starts with a truly compelling premise. The mystery surrounding the unknown small town and the concept of a place trapping whoever passes through it is terrifying. The night monsters add a genuine layer of tension and anxiety that put the characters in constant danger.
The creators manage to keep the audience’s interest with fairly intense cliffhangers that push watching the next episode. However, across its four seasons, the show constantly stalls its own momentum through watered-down narration, repetitive dialogues, and a massive tree of unanswered enigmas.
The biggest and most persistent flaw of “FROM” is its narrative pacing. Out of a 50 to 60-minute episode, often only 20 minutes are genuinely interesting. To hit MGM’s runtime quota, the screenwriters heavily pad the plot with long and trivial dialogues that contain information the audience either already knows or doesn’t need.
Instead of building genuine tension, the show frequently relies on cringey character conflicts that make it feel like a soap opera. Right when we are on the verge of a major reveal, the camera suddenly jumps to an unrelated scene. The online fandom is extremely active with theories, but a show cannot rely entirely on its community when the narrative itself is constantly stalling. Shorter, tighter episodes would have greatly benefited the storytelling.
The show constantly drops potentially interesting subplots, just to focus on more pointless dialogues
Another frustrating pattern is how the creators introduce fascinating storylines only to abandon them. In Season 3, the monsters showed a promising behavioral shift by targeting Boyd’s weaknesses, but the focus was quickly shifted away to stack even more questions. Similarly, Season 4 introduced the “Story Walker”, a figure able to travel across chapters to alter past events, only for the writers to completely drop the concept shortly after.
While the creators claim the entire plot is planned out, watching 40 episodes with minimal tangible explanations makes the narrative feel messy and unguided. Even when seasons deliver action-packed finales, the resolutions feel underwhelming and unfulfilling, leaving major elements like the Children’s bones or the red thunder far too vague.
Some shy improvements on the last season make me hopeful for the finale
Despite these systemic issues, Season 4 finally showed some signs of improvement. The narrative pacing picked up, giving long-awaited answers regarding the narrative cycles as Tabitha and Jade took on central roles. The introduction of the Man in the Yellow Suit, who can physically shift into anyone, raised the stakes significantly as he generated chaos inside Fromville. Julia Doyle delivered one of the best performances of the season, playing the villain with a perfect balance of innocence and eeriness.
Furthermore, Season 4 toned down the cringey character conflicts in favor of actual collaboration. Redimensioning the roles of Ellis and Fatima, who wasted so much screen time in earlier seasons, was much-needed. Coupled with noticeable acting improvements from Hannah Cheramy, Simon Webster, and A.J. Simmons, the show proved it still has the ingredients to be better.