More choices for the Matthews family…

It’s not clear to me what From is trying to achieve. Strangely it is as much kitchen sink drama as it is horror and I’m not finding myself convinced the balance between the two has been achieved in a way which works.

After episode one I was curious to see where the show would go and I come out of episode three a little disappointed.

Episode 2 is a slow journey through the night following the events of episode 1. Unfortunately we cut between different groups and the different circumstances they face ends up being jarring rather than engaging.

One group is facing profound danger but each time the tension ratchets up we cut away to a group who are much safer and whose concerns are, therefore, very different. This contrast ends up weakening the tension for those in real peril while being irritating when we’re with those who aren’t in danger. Worse still, those in relative safety don’t really even reference the fact that loved ones might not make it through the night.

The premise here is really interesting – a long term dread and the reality of how people adjust to live with it. Except if I want that kind of misery I think the 2014 game This War of Mine or the 2008 film, Waltz with Bashir do it much better and don’t appear to need the added thread of the supernatural.

We end episode 2 with the morning coming, more people dead (natch) but really no progress at all into working out what’s going on or what might be done.

Of course, it may be that nothing can be done, but that too isn’t really explored.

Episode 3 drags us forward only incrementally – we learn a little of how the town’s organised and we get some very uneven character development. Some of it is really interesting but much of it feels like spending time with characters to be told who they are rather than being shown who they are.

I’m not a massive fan of the maxim ‘show don’t tell’ but there are definitely times when I’d rather be shown not told and From strays the wrong side of this with how the characters explain who they are to the audience.

Furthermore with deaths mounting really quite rapidly and at least three of them occurring in suspicious circumstances (like more suspicious than monsters in the night) not a single character stops to ask what’s going on. I found the situation strange because on the one hand we have long stretches of characters doing chores and reflecting but at the same time no one seems focussed on the present and where they are right now.

Maybe I’m misjudging the entire thing but if it were me I’d be trying my damnedest to work out what the hell was happening even if it was ultimately an exercise in futility. The biggest difference between those with chronic suffering and those with acute suffering is the unwillingness of the latter group to acknowledge what’s happening. The belief that this too shall pass is a strong motivator for quick and impulsive action.

So the elements here are good, interesting and potentially excellent but they’re not gelling for me. I’ve reached the end of episode 3 and I don’t know if this is a show where everyone’s going to die, I don’t know anything about the nature of the evil in the night, I don’t have anyone to root for and there are people who are clearly trouble but that an entire community appear to be ignorant about via the medium of poor decision making.

Verdict: There’s a distance to go and I’d love to see some of this character work pay off because the central cast are really interesting but at this point, three episodes in, I’m not sold.

Rating? 5 out of 10.

Stewart Hotston