FROM Season 2 Review – The Good, The Bad, The (Somewhat) Worrisome

With the entirety of Season 2 of MGM+’s From available for streaming as of the final week in June, let’s take a look at some of the positives and negatives of the horror series.

The Good

In my review of the first season of From, I wrote that there aren’t a lot of genuinely scary television shows being produced, and that’s still true. For fans of the horror genre, From Season 2 definitely fills that void, maintaining the consistently scary tone of Season 1. If you enjoyed that first season overall, you can expect more of the same here.

The show isn’t nonstop terrifying every single moment, of course – I’d say it’s properly paced for what a horror series should be. Some episodes are definitely scarier than others, and there are enough moments of calm to explore the show’s characters.

Speaking of characters, the show’s central protagonist, Sheriff Boyd Stevens, played by Harold Perrineau, is probably my favorite character on the show, as well as Perrineau being From’s best actor. Perrineau portrays Boyd as being both likeable and flawed, and he’s a strong leader for the community, though he never comes off as annoying or overly preachy.

I still, as I wrote in my initial review, think that the strongest attribute of the series is the creepy atmospheric town. The atmosphere, and the many mysteries of the town that we’re introduced to (which I have some more thoughts on that I’ll get into later), are what I think will really hook viewers and keep them coming back for more.

The Bad

I don’t think there’s too much on From that I’d categorize as being downright “bad,” but if one were to be nitpicky, some of the acting on the show definitely isn’t the strongest. A few of the actors, like Corteon Moore, who plays Boyd’s son, Ellis, don’t have the range to play their roles quite as effectively as the show’s creators probably intended.

Could probably use some acting lessons, but I am sure he’s a nice guy!

I think part of the blame for largely not having super strong characters though also lies with the show’s writers and creators. With the exception of Boyd, we’re largely just told of a character’s past and there’s more “telling, not showing” when it comes to how characters are feeling at a given moment. A lot of the characters aren’t explored on more than a surface level – we’ll get a person’s job title and a few basic personality traits, but there’s not deep exploration beyond that for most of the cast.

All of this is largely fine for the most part, since I don’t think people are watching From for its characters – they’re watching to see what happens to people when they’re dropped in a crazy, inescapable haunted monster town.

Another (small) thing that the show doesn’t get right is its title. From is probably the worst-named series in recent memory. If this show had a better title and was on a more popular platform, I really think that it could be a major hit.

The (Somewhat) Worrisome

From is basically a horror version of Lost. And, while Lost started out extremely strong in its first couple of seasons, it promptly fell off of a cliff in terms of overall quality when it came time to actually answer some of the questions the early seasons posed. I worry that From could fall into a similar trap as we get additional seasons. It’s easy to hook viewers when you can present them with one interesting and unexplainable occurrence after another, but you better have a good explanation for things ultimately.

That first season of Lost was great! My favorite character from the show was Vincent (bottom left).

Season 1 of From presented viewers with loads of questions – there were monsters in the night, magic trees, and ghosts – all of which presumably have some sort of explanation (be it based in the real world or totally supernatural). Before watching Season 2, I was curious if this season would begin to answer any of the first season’s mysteries, and it largely didn’t.

In many ways, Season 2 feels like a continuation of the show’s first season. If you liked Season 1, you’ll probably enjoy this new season – I definitely did. It’ll be easier to judge the show once we learn if the solutions to the mysteries we’ve been presented with will be satisfactory. For now though, From continues to be an enjoyable, and supremely bingeable show, for horror fans. 

Grade: 8/10