It’s been 20 years since Lost, but its influence is still being felt. “A trapped group of people tries to escape while contending with an otherworldly force” can sum up both Lost and dozens of shows it inspired, from The Society to Manifest to Yellowjackets. But one show reached new heights with Lost’s formula, and is now amid its third season. There’s never been a better time to dive in and crack open a brand new mystery box full of horror imagery that wouldn’t have worked on network television in 2004, but is a delight to watch now.
Hiding in the depths of Amazon Prime is MGM+, an add-on subscription previously known as Epix. Past that paywall is a treasure trove of groundbreaking sci-fi, like Beacon 23, based on a book by Hugh Howey, who also wrote the source material for Apple’s hit dystopian thriller, Silo. But the most interesting MGM+ show is From, a supernatural horror series worked on by a slew of Lost alumni and executive produced by Marvel veterans Joe and Anthony Russo.
The premise is simple: unlucky travelers are trapped in a mysterious town where strange creatures run wild at night, keeping locals stuck in houses protected by talismans. There’s simply no way out, as anyone who enters the city limits is stuck there forever.
The tight-knit community is run by Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau, a Lost alum), who’s appointed himself mayor, but the series also follows a family as they try to adjust to this life, even as they search for a way out. Now, in Season 3, the entire show’s scope has changed. The townspeople are taking bigger risks as they explore outwards in search of food, and one citizen has even found their way to the outside world, only for their discovery to ask more questions than it answers.
The talent overlap makes the Lost comparisons obvious, but there’s also something about From that harkens back to a bygone era. Every episode is its own mini-adventure, rather than contributing to a serialized story like most modern streaming dramas. The seasons are still short — just 10 episodes each as opposed to the 20-odd episode seasons of network TV’s heyday — but it still feels like a portal to a world where Netflix was just a way to watch I Am Legend via mail order.
It’s also a notably creepy show, and one that doesn’t shy away from gruesome special effects. It’s not a straight-up horror series in the vein of, say, American Horror Story, but it finds a lot of fun in suspense and tension. Anchoring all this is a push and pull between two masters of the mystery box: Perrineau, who sets the tone in his gritty and vulnerable portrayal of Stevens, and Jack Bender, a veteran TV director who was behind the camera for many of Lost’s best episodes (and its divisive finale).
Between the two of them, the looming question of what’s controlling this town and the lurking monsters doesn’t become too frustrating. Instead, the more we learn about the town and its occupants, the more the draw is just seeing what comes next, not finally getting answers to frustrating mysteries. Lost may have come and gone, but its long legacy is still in good hands.
