From is a highly addictive horror mystery series created by John Griffin. It premiered on the now-defunct Epix streaming platform in February 2022. It is now the flagship series for MGM+, where it is kicking off a fourth season on Sunday, April 19. The show stars Harold Perrineau, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Eion Bailey, and so many Canadian actors who appear in a ton of genre shows and films. Actors like Elizabeth Saunders, Ricky He, and Corteon Moore, to name a few.

As a person who spends a lot of time begging for good TV, it’s not a surprise From has become one of the things that sparks the most joy for me. Which is why I’m attempting recap most of what has happened these three seasons. It’s an impossible gig, but will hopefully give you enough of a running start to tune in when it returns. Or kick off the best binge of your life as the previous three seasons are streaming on various platforms. Let’s dive in!

What Is From?

From is set in an unusual little town where people enter but cannot leave. The townsfolk have learned how to survive and avoid the monsters who run free at night. In large part due to talismans discovered by Boyd Stevens (Perrineau). Each has a talisman hanging up to bar the evil creatures from crossing thresholds. The town is split into two sections. One is the area with small homes and a diner. Boyd is the de facto leader of this area, while on the hill, Colony House is more of a commune run by Donna (Saunders). People who have the misfortune of ending up in this bizarre town are given the option to choose between the two places. However, neither place is truly safe as the creatures who torment townsfolk continue to raise the stakes.

Who Are We Following?

One of the first faces we see in the pilot is Boyd’s. During the first season, we discover that he and his son Ellis (Moore) are both trapped here but are estranged. We also find out their falling out is the result of losing their matriarch, Abby. Abby could not adjust to this strange town, and Ellis tried to share his concerns with his dad. His dad was preoccupied trying to find answers and ultimately had to shoot his wife to stop her from hurting any more townspeople.

Ellis stays in Colony House, where he has begun a relationship with Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori). Boyd’s deputy, Kenny (He), serves as an almost surrogate son. Kenny’s father dies in the pilot, which leaves him and his mother guilt-ridden and grieving. To make matters worse, it’s discovered that his father’s demise was because the evil forces had gotten into Sara Myers’ (Avery Konrad) head.

New Blood

The day after a grisly killing, an RV arrives in town. The Matthews family set out on a family vacation and, unfortunately, saw the tree in the road that leads souls to this nightmare. Tabitha (Moreno) and Jim (Bailey) are a couple who are on the brink of divorce after losing a child. They had hoped to give their remaining two kids, Julie (Hannah Cheramy) and Ethan (Simon Webster), one last good memory before breaking the news. Instead, they get stuck in this town and caught up in searching for answers while trying to keep their loved ones alive.

Ethan has dreams and sees a little boy that no one else can see. He also quickly bonds with Victor (Scott McCord) as they seem to have a lot in common. Victor has been stranded in town for forty years. He arrived as a child alongside his mother and sister who both met horrific deaths. This makes Victor someone with a ton of knowledge and a lot of truama. In season one, Sara attempts to kill Ethan because the voices tell her it’s the only way everyone can go home. She accidentally kills her brother in the process, which leaves her all alone in this town full of people who now fear her. Boyd saves her from her execution, but she’s still not completely welcome back into the fold.

What Is This Town?

The Fromily is rolling into season four this year, and we still don’t know what this town is. Is it purgatory? Is it a hallucination? Or is it all a very elaborate break from some character’s reality? All of those seem too simple to be accurate, but every fan has probably cycled through those theories a few times. What we do know is that the place has existed for over forty years. We mostly know this because the traumatized Victor was the sole survivor after a massacre four decades ago. With his childhood ruined, and his mother and sister killed, he had to keep himself alive until more people arrived. He ties our main cast to the past and has relayed the rules to countless folks who have stumbled into this nightmare.

We also cannot help but notice the town is timeless. On the surface, not having phones and TV might just seem like a cool way of keeping the characters isolated. However, the town is completely cut off from the outside world. Because they have to take leftover clothes and items from people who died decades ago, everything feels retro. Including our monsters who appear in outfits from different eras and have a vocabulary completely free of any slang or trends from the last sixtyish years.

There Do Be Monsters in From

The monsters introduced in season one look like humans and use that to trick their prey. They appear outside of windows and offer a seemingly human connection as they figure out how to get inside their soon-to-be victims’ heads. They then crack them open like lobsters, which has resulted in many ribcages found around town. However, the monster lore has changed. Originally thought to be invincible, Boyd killed Smiley (Jamie McGuire) by transferring his bloodborne worms in season 2. This gave the crew hope that these beings could be killed, but that was snatched away at the end of season 3. Fatima’s mysterious pregnancy (a storyline that plagued her for a whole season) saw her give birth to something that rapidly grew to reveal itself as Smiley. This is bleak knowledge for everyone to process in the upcoming season.

Because From is nineteen mysteries in a trench coat, the devil we know is not the only danger. Tabitha begins seeing ghost children in season 2, which leads her on an unexpected adventure. Thinking she can help the children, she learns about Bottle Trees. These trees in the forest allow certain people to pass through and appear in new locations. After using one, she meets up with a ghost kid who pushes her seemingly to her death. However, she awakes in the real world, present day. Armed with Victor’s lunchbox, she tries to figure out how long she has been gone and how to get back to the scary town to save her family and the others. Her quest leads her to Henry (Robert Joy), who is Victor’s father.

Ghosts, Ghouls, and Graphic Violence

Henry has spent forty years wondering what happened to his family. He hesitates to believe Tabitha’s story, but then reveals that his wife was having visions before she and the kids disappeared. He shows her some of the artwork she left behind, and she tells him that his son is alive but in the town she’s trying to figure out how to return to. Henry and Tabitha get into a car wreck and wake up in strange town where people are upset that Tabitha does not have answers or help.

In addition to the ghost kids and creatures that eat the citizens while playing with their minds, there are other threats. We have not seen them, but we know things lurk in the forest, as Boyd and Sara barely survived them. We also know that when teams went to forage for food, there was something stomping on the roof of the structure they hid in with a talisman. So, no one should be sleeping easily in this town.

What Can We Expect from Season 4 of From?

We clearly have to deal with the aftermath of Fatima’s “miracle” baby being the crew’s biggest hater. Not only did no one believe her when she told them something was wrong in her womb. One of her friends held her captive and still lives down the hallway from her in Colony House. While Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons) was fooled by his visions into doing their enemies’ bidding, Fatima probably isn’t going to feel safe with him in Colony House. Also, the town is unraveling at the seams as tensions are high. The people will not take hearing his part in her abduction, or another town member’s death, too well.

To further complicate matters, Boyd started to torture Elgin to find out where Fatima was being held. Then Sara stepped in and took one of Elgin’s eyes and confirmed she is still the most dangerous human in the land. These are secrets that are hard to keep in this small community.

The Matthews Family Is Not Thriving

Season 3’s finale saw Jim die and introduced a future version of Julie. This Julie (with the bad wig) was running from what we thought was one of our monsters, but in the daytime. This changes the game because Smiley and friends seemingly only come out at night. Is this a new threat? Is this an ability they have kept secret to toy with the town? We do not know, but we are stressed. This also means that Julie discovering she is a story walker comes with a surprise power in addition to the bad wig. More importantly, will Jim stay dead? From is not afraid to kill major characters, but killing off the Matthews family patriarch and asking Eion Bailey to sashay away feels odd.

This family has already been through a lot, so we can imagine that mourning Jim will take center stage. On top of this, Tabitha discovered some world-shattering news in the season 3 cliffhanger as well. She is being led to believe that she has been in this town many times before, as many different women. Her reincarnations (if that’s what we are calling them) are always a mother with a spouse. So, she lost Jim and gained two other husbands in town via Henry and Jade (David Alpay). Which means that in the past, she was Victor’s mother, who died in this town. So, the Matthews Family will have a ton to deal with as we all try to figure out the family tree that just parked itself in the middle of the road.

What Smiley’s Return Means for Boyd and the Town

Because every season brings new faces, we can probably expect more people. While we’re happy Smiley is back as an audience, I do not see that ending well for the townspeople. Especially Boyd, who chased after what he thought was his grandkid only to watch his enemy be reborn. How is he getting out of this dangerous situation? Will he and Smiley have a moment in these dark tunnels? Who knows?

In Conclusion

A lot has happened in these three seasons of From. I left a lot out because I don’t typically send my EIC novels. There have been so many heartbreaking deaths, puzzles, flashbacks, etc., these last three seasons. Even with the podcast I cohost has trouble with all of the spinning plates. There are too many moving pieces and so many theories. If you like a smart TV that refuses to talk down to you, then this is your show. It had me since the pilot, and even when I have questions, I cannot look away. From feels like a perfect time capsule for these unprecedented times when anything can, and does, happen. You cannot prepare for the unknown, even though life is filled with unpleasant surprises. All you can do is work with the hand you were dealt and hope you make it out relatively unscathed.

Odds are, if you opened this article, you are already in the cult of Chucky. So, you know the Chucky was the only reason most of us knew USA and Syfy were still with us. Our favorite foul-mouthed killer doll drove horror fans to those networks in waves. Some of my last good memories of Twitter are reading posts during the commercial breaks from strangers also watching in real time. For about an hour every week, this horror community seemed like an actual attainable goal. After three banger seasons, one of which was split in half because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA Labor Strike of 2023, this fantastic show was abruptly canceled. Fans are still reeling, questions are left unanswered, and the cliffhanger keeps us up at night. More importantly, TV has not been as fun and deadly since our beloved show was ripped from us. 

Why the Chucky TV Series Cancellation Hurt Horror Fans

Chucky picked up where the films left off. We were introduced to new characters, but the entire squad from the movies eventually returned. Everyone knows Child’s Play/Chucky is one of the few franchises that has only gotten better over the years. We don’t talk about the 2019 mutiny. Although, it reminded people this IP needs Don Mancini at the computer and Brad Dourif’s voice to work. Mancini managed to bring the kills, fucks, and fun to basic cable and somehow raise the stakes higher.

This team not only had one of the best shows on TV, but it was also the reason most of us realized Syfy and USA have apps for streaming. The way Twitter would light up during the new episodes made my cold little heart so happy. Remember when Peacock abruptly stopped uploading episodes the next day? The fans mobilized and bullied the streamer into trying Jesus instead of us? 

Aside from making us better horror fans with nods to the work of Brian De Palma, Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, etc. Chucky was also pure, unadulterated fun. Guessing how many Devon Sawa characters would die in each season was one of my favorite games. Meanwhile, Jennifer Tilly and Fiona Dourif reminded executives (and Leonardo DiCaprio) that women over 25 years old do exist and should be given more to do. The fact that they didn’t win Emmys for any version of the characters they played is another reason we need to ask what is the purpose of award shows. What other series would let Fiona become a drag king dressed as the character her dad originated? What other show could possibly understand that Tilly is a beast who can do it all in stilettos?

This Wasn’t Child’s Play

Aside from Chucky doubling down on the inherent queerness of the universe (something a lot of the reviews on Shudder seemed to miss), it also amped up the violence. Chucky blew a little kid up and I squealed with delight. I watched the main trio (Zackary Arthur, Björgvin Arnarson, Alyvia Alyn Lind) jump various versions of Chucky multiple times.  The scream I let out when Chucky blew up the North Pole can still be heard around the world. I nearly clapped when Junior (Teo Briones) beat his dad (the second Sawa character to fall in season one) to death using Chucky as a weapon. This show was cinema, and we did not deserve it. Maybe that is why it was rudely taken away from us.

Put Some Respect on Brad Dourif’s Name

Chucky’s third season specifically proved that it was in a league of its own. While most shows understandably struggled to find their footing after the strikes, the Chucky crew used it as an excuse to go bigger and better. The White House adventures brought us the campy and deadly chaos that we only get from this universe. However, amid the almost execution of Tiffany Valentine (Tilly) and the first family drama, they did something I was starting to think would never happen again. They allowed Brad Dourif to walk around this world built on the foul-mouthed doll he’s loaned his voice to for almost forty years. Dourif and Mancini kept this train chugging since 1988. Having one of Dourif’s very few on screen appearances in this universe happen this season still hits me in the feelings. 

I grew up watching the Child’s Play films on VHS when most kids were playing with dolls and going outside. I couldn’t say freckles that young, so I kept telling people “Chucky has fuckles” as I begged for a Chucky of my own every year. So, when I tell you Brad Dourif’s voice is more familiar to me than the voices of people I am related to, I am being serious. However, as special as this was to me, I know it hit many other horror fans just as much.

I know this because, as I said earlier, Chucky brought us together online. It made us come together in a way that I have very rarely experienced. The franchise’s legacy is lasting because it continues to grow with the times while remembering what makes it special. This is unique in a world where people snatch IP for soulless entries without ever asking what made people connect to it.

Chucky Is A Real Doll

Most importantly, Chucky reminded us that this killer doll is not a monster. Yeah, he might murder children in spectacular ways. Sure, his body count is definitely higher than that of the other slashers at this point. However, he also happens to be the heart of this franchise that is seemingly filled with people who found family within each other. It’s impossible to watch any documentary, press tour, etc., and not pick up on that.

That magic thing is so palpable that you feel it coming through the screen with each installment or season. It’s infectious, and for three seasons, we felt like we were a small part of this wonderful and wild bunch. Social media has not been the same since the show was wrongfully cancelled. Most of us went back to only vaguely remembering that the USA and Syfy are still going. Almost no one I know can name a current show on either of them.

I have witnessed a ton of boneheaded moves within television in the last few years. However, canceling Chucky was the biggest mistake. I’m still in shock that no one swooped in to save it at the last minute. I know this isn’t the end for Mancini, or the death of the artists he has assembled over the decades. However, I hate that when we need this franchise the most, it’s out of commission. Here’s hoping Charles Lee Ray and the gang come back to us sooner rather than later. Because I am petty, I also hope that everyone involved in canceling this beloved show is having an awful day.