Are You Watching ‘From,’ the ‘Lost’ of Horror TV? You Should Be

Debuting three years ago on Feb. 20, 2022, hailing from creator John Griffin and backed by a team of TV veterans including Fringe mastermind Jeff Pinkner and Lost‘s executive producer-director Jack Bender, From takes so much of what worked about both of those shows and cranks it up 108 percent on the horror meter. The series centers on folks who mysteriously find that aforementioned fallen log, the first signal that something has gone horribly wrong: they’re inside some form of doom-looped town populated by vampiric monsters who only come out at night to hunt the sorry civilians just trying to stay alive and keep a shred of hope about one day escaping. 

What is this town? Is it a literal nightmare these people can’t wake up from? Is it a pocket dimension? Why are the creatures so damn twisted, and is there any way to stop them? And what’s up with those ghost kids who keep shouting “ankhooey” everywhere they go? For a time, it felt like From would never answer any of those questions. But by the end of season three, which concluded late in 2024 with season four expected to debut in 2026, at least two of those questions got answered: the creatures probably can’t be killed (at least not without them resurrecting through truly disturbing means), and those “ankhooey” kids were simply trying to get the town’s adults to “remember” where they came from.

Full disclosure: I’m obsessed with From, just as I was once obsessed with Lost. Fuller disclosure: I’m still obsessed with Lost. But the lesson I learned from that show was to enjoy the journey and worry less about the destination, without expecting answers for everything. It’s in that spirit that I’ve watched From, expecting we will never get any concrete answers about where the show takes place, why this place exists, so on and so forth. The rules of the town are so nightmarishly flexible that it’s hard to imagine believing anything about this show. And then came the season three finale. In a single scene with those “ankhooey” kids, I went from thinking, “This show is never going to answer anything, and that’s awesome,” to thinking, “I think they maybe have this whole thing intricately plotted out — and that’s awesome.”

Hearing the team behind the show tell it, that’s exactly how From came together: Griffin scoring a meeting with Pinkner’s production team, launching into an hours-long pitch, complete with a whiteboard outlining all of the show’s most intricate secrets. “A lot of John’s original pitch is still part of the show,” Pinkner tells The Hollywood Reporter. “A lot has changed over time, but that’s the way these things go.”

In other words, as lost (get it?) as the characters are, the folks steering the good ship From swear they have the map fully in hand. Part of that security comes from Bender, who directs the vast majority of From, and leads the team on the ground shooting in Halifax, Canada. It’s similar as on Lost, where Bender was the man behind the Hawaiian curtain, directing the adventures of Hurley and friends, keeping his fingers on the beating pulse of why that show worked — mystery and intrigue, sure, but an intense focus on a disparate and desperate group of survivors, hoping for nothing more than escape.

“I believe our task, especially starting this show, is creating a world we care about,” says Bender. “If we don’t care about these people, no matter how brilliant your obstacle course is — and believe me, the obstacle course in [Griffin’s] head was and still is pretty brilliant — you still have to care about the people who are being pushed and pulled in all these directions.”

Even Griffin, the keeper of the elaborate mythology, agrees that the twists and turns don’t matter at all without a connection to the cast: “Jeff was saying the other day that these human themes and moments, all of which we can relate to, but against the backdrop of this genre, elevates everyone and makes their stories more poignant and relatable. What if this really happened to you? How would you react? You might not always make the best decision. You might be flawed. And so we want to see that. We’re presenting flawed people in an impossible circumstance.”

Leading those flawed people is another Lost veteran: Harold Perrineau, an absolute force on television, whether it’s as desperate parent Michael Dawson on Lost, or as desperate prisoner Augustus Hill on HBO’s Oz. Here, he takes on the central role of Boyd Stevens, a former soldier serving as the sheriff of “Fromsville.” Boyd’s struggles are myriad. He’s responsible for the safety of the town, he’s trying to keep his young adult son alive, he’s dealing with a Parkinson’s diagnosis that’s only escalating with every episode, he’s debating morality with the ghost of an old friend who was recently killed by the town’s monsters, and oh, yeah, there’s monsters to worry about, too! And he can’t even kill them, and not for lack of trying! In the season three finale, Boyd watches in horror as the only creature he and the others have ever successfully eliminated springs back to life in wretched fashion, birthed from a demonic pregnancy that only underscores the perpetual sense of hopelessness.

“We need a win,” Perrineau tells THR when asked about how this show has to end. “Somebody needs to win, to get out and stay out. I’d be so disappointed if the monsters win, to be honest. I’d love the show to keep going on, but if we lose, and a whole bunch of new people come in? God. But that’s just me. What if it actually ends like that? That might be really satisfying in some way. But I want a win, somewhere.”

When he talks about it — that need to win — Perrineau sounds almost as desperate as his character, and for good reason. While season three’s finale answered some very big questions, it also ended with the Fromsville residents in a deadlier spot than ever, even if they don’t know it yet, thanks to the introduction of a brand new monster who sure seems like the show’s big bad. But don’t ask Griffin, Pinkner or Bender to elaborate on that guy. All things “Man in Yellow” remain top secret for now, with only two words to describe him: “Stay tuned,” according to the producers. (For the deep-cut From-heads, if you’re wondering about whether there’s more to Tilly? A curious response to that question: “Stay tuned.” Alert the Reddit!) 

So, nothing on the mysteries right now. Nothing on the subjects of the Man in Yellow, the Boy in White or Jasper can be answered — not just because the producers are staying tight-lipped, but also because they’re still considering detours on the drive ahead. 

“The mythology is our road map,” says Griffin. “But we’ve left ourselves very open to the organic nature of surprise. I won’t go into the whole metaphor, but I often think about this as a road trip where you know where you’re starting, you know where you’re ending, but you get to wander, get lost, get surprised, because you know what the structure of the trip looks like.” 

For now, the team’s pulling out the map, building out the path toward season four, which begins production in Halifax later this year under Bender’s leadership. “This is the best crew, the best line producers — artisans, I would say,” he says. “I’ve worked on shows like Game of Thrones with warehouses filled with artisans making jewelry for extras, where you’ve just never seen so many people working on a show, and here, we just don’t have that money, needless to say. When I came to the set of Colony House [one of the show’s central locations], I saw all these people on their hands and knees inlaying varieties of wood, things I don’t even have in my house! It’s incredible how smart these people are and how hard they work.”

“Everybody worked really hard under the gun this past year through a Halifax winter,” adds Pinkner. “Jack is an unbelievable field general, and the whole crew — our producers, every artisan who works on the show, on top of which Harold and our spectacular cast… they’ve all decamped to Halifax, and it’s like Lost in its own way; it’s its own island. And our cast, many of whom are far less experienced than Harold professionally, career-wise, have rallied like a family. And this is a rarity in series television, to have a team like a family, following Jack’s lead, following Harold’s lead. Everybody relies on each other in a way that is so spectacular to be part of. It’s always hard, but that makes it joyful.”

There are many words to describe From, but “joyful” is probably not the first that comes to mind — even if that’s the exact right word to describe the fans, according to Perrineau’s own personal experience. “Lots of people come up to me and say, ‘I love the show. I told my friend he’d love it, and he really loves it, and I think my friend told other people,’” he says. “It feels really word-of-mouthy. Like it’s this secret people have. Do I want it to be a big Netflix hit? Sure, but am I also tickled by what’s going on with the fans? I really am.”

As Perrineau notes, From fans have a sacred responsibility to share the show with others, to expand the “Fromily,” as it’s called in the community. So, consider this me doing my sacred duty: if you ever loved Lost and its mood and its themes, and if you are a fan of character-rich and gore-soaked horror, you need to seek out From. And then it’s your responsibility to tell more people. Everyone on From is trying to escape. The rest of us, though? To borrow from another show: “We have to go back.” And just for good measure, to borrow directly from From: “Ankhooey.”