The Best Show You’re Not Watching Is On A Streaming Service You’ve Never Heard Of

Somehow, I am now a huge fan of a show I’d never heard of a week ago, From, a horror series that blends elements of LOST, Wayward Pines and Silent Hill. And by the end of this article, perhaps I’ll convert you too.

From is fantastic, and critics and audiences agree. Season 1 has a 96% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and the just-released season 2 has a 100% after two episodes. But if it’s so good, why have you never heard of it? Because it’s airing on a streaming service I doubt most people even know exists, MGM+. Yes, like, the movie studio MGM, where MGM+ was a rebranding of the old pay channel Epix. Now, Amazon owns MGM, but for reasons I cannot fathom, because From would be a great Amazon Prime original series, far better than the $300-500 million megablockbusters they’re putting out, it isn’t a Prime exclusive. I think you can preview it on Prime, but for all episodes you’d have to subscribe to MGM+. Which I did. And it was worth it.

I have been waiting for a show to scratch that LOST itch ever since the first few seasons of that show, before things really went off the rails. Many, many attempts have been made to ape LOST since, and it felt like Yellowjackets may have been getting the closest, though I’m less sure about that in season 2 now. Incidentally, the only actor I actually recognize in From is Harold Perrineau who played Michael on LOST. You know, the guy always yelling “WALT!” Well here he’s giving a lot more to do as the sheriff in a cursed small town you cannot leave.

This is the Wayward Pines of it. Once you are steered into this nameless, ruined town by an unseen force, you can no longer leave. The road will just loop you back into town endlessly, and attempting to escape through the vast forest surrounding it will get you killed.

Why? Well, after dark, monsters emerge. Here, things mix Silent Hill with It Follows. They look human, they walk slow, they always smile. They will talk to you, try to coax you out of your locked down houses they can’t get into. But if you let them in or are out after dark, they will shapeshift into demonic monsters that tear you to shreds. And the show doesn’t shy away from this violence, as it’s a very hard-R rated series with its blasted-open ribcages you’ll see from the monster victims.

The show opens with a new family arriving in town and struggling to comprehend where exactly they ended up. There are two factions in town, a bunch of “live and let live” hippie types who live in one communal house on a hill, and then the town itself run in a more regimented fashion by Perrineau’s sheriff.

From works because it is genuinely terrifying and blends legitimately interesting mysteries for its entire duration. Over time, you’ll start learning more about the monsters, the central question, but in season 2 we’re starting to figure out that this is only scratching the surface of what’s going on in the town. But at this point, the less I say the better, as digging in an figuring out the deep weirdness of it all is part of the fun.

Given that the show is still relatively new, it could still end up fumbling the ball like LOST did with many of its central questions, but that show was always more about the ride than the destination, and so far, the ride of From is fantastic. It’s better than essentially anything else on Amazon Prime right now short of maybe The Boys, and is probably one of the better shows airing across most streaming services outside of your obvious Big Boys like Succession and The Last of Us. But it’s getting a tiny, tiny fraction of the attention, airing on a streaming service that shouldn’t exist with a cast almost no one has ever heard of. And it deserves more.

Watch From. On Prime. Pay. Subscribe temporarily. It’s worth it, trust me.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.