From Season 3 needs to learn from Westworld’s mistakes

With the From Season 3 finale fast approaching, there have been many standout moments (the Dale concrete debacle was one helluva twist). Still, the MGM Plus horror series hasn’t delivered answers to its ever-growing list of mysteries – and I worry it could end up like Westworld.

When From Season 1 first dropped, I was hooked. Created by the producers of Lost, the horror show served up a winning recipe of thrilling twists and turns and an epic cast led by Harold Perrineau.

Best of all, it was all genuinely scary. The premise centers on a group of people who are inexplicably trapped in a town stalked by blood-thirsty monsters at night. Much like the Smile movies, what makes these hungry hell-dwellers so eerie is the fact that they use their joyful exterior to lure people in. 

Part of the fun of From has been playing detective at home, making its fandom fertile ground for theories and speculation. However, much like a tourist’s day out at Westworld, From Season 3 has seen this once-thrilling characteristic become an increasing source of resentment. 

Westworld’s downhill spiral 

From the very first episode, From introduced a web of plot threads that kept us on our toes. But as the series has progressed, following each storyline has become more challenging – and increasingly frustrating. The latest Season 3 Episode 7 only amplified this with what felt like 50 minutes of filler.

Don’t just take my word for it. After the latest chapter, one Redditor shared an edited image of Boyd as a pensioner, writing, “Season 20 and we still don’t understand anything.” Another said, “The sum of the last three episodes makes hardly one episode. The series is not progressing at all… it’s normal for mystery series to be slow-paced, but not this much.”

Although they vary drastically in styles and tones, if we look at Westworld, we saw a similar situation unfold. The first season of the HBO show presented us with a high-brow, existential sci-fi adventure that had plenty of promise. 

Much like From, its cast and characters were rich and well thought out, whether that be our heroine hosts Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) or the villainous Man in Black (Ed Harris). 

HBO

It set up an intriguing plot, one that combined elements of Western hits and Black Mirror-esque technology. So, why did it go so downhill? Part of the criticism lies in the scale of the HBO show. 

Westworld’s first chapter kept the characters confined to the park, allowing for engaging dynamics. But as it opened up to multiple locations and timelines, their development fell by the wayside. 

However, Westworld’s biggest issue of all was its need to constantly outdo itself, layering twist upon twist like an onion that kept adding skins until it lost its core. There’s no problem with reveals; they’re one of the reasons we keep coming back. But it’s what you do with them afterwards that make them so effective. 

For instance, when we found out Maeve would stay in Westworld to save her daughter, this only undercut her development from Season 2 onwards, an angering outcome given she was arguably the strongest character of the lot. 

Then there were the many inexplicable twists shoehorned in throughout, from the talking AI ball to the data-collecting cowboy hats even John Dutton wouldn’t abide by. All of this culminated in a finale that left us feeling bewildered rather than satisfied.

From needs to find its balance

From seems to be increasingly relying on this small screen sacrilege. We still don’t know who (or what) was speaking to Jim on the radio, a mystery remaining from Season 1. And the music box from Season 2 seems to have been all but forgotten.

Other threads of the second chapter are continuing in Season 3 with no resolution whatsoever: Jasper is still just a ventriloquist dummy; Jade is still hallucinating things that can’t be explained; the monsters still come out to play at night; the cicadas continue to haunt Randall; and the Kimono-wearing ghost keeps getting in Elgin’s personal space. The list goes on and on. 

Now, don’t get me wrong – there’s much to be enjoyed about this side of the series. I love hunting for clues, guessing what they could mean, and interacting with fan theories for From. But with so many filler episodes in From Season 3, I fear that many of these will go unresolved and that, like Westworld, the creators are getting too bogged down in the twists. 

Thankfully, there is a silver lining. Producers Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner said From won’t be making the same mistakes made with Lost. Rather than making it up as they go along, From’s entire story has been mapped out ahead of time. This means that creator John Griffin knows how it’s going to end. 

During an Epix panel at the Television Critics Association upon the release of the first chapter, Pinkner said, “I think that having done Lost and then taking the lessons of Lost, the storytelling lessons and sort of ran them through a filter fringe and tried to apply them here, I think we’re approaching every season like its own chapter with its own questions and its own answers.

“It’s a very contained arc. The limitations of 10 episodes force you to make harder choices. We, John and Jack and I, have been very cognizant of making sure that the characters are asking the questions that we know that the audience is asking.”

Bender added, “Six years of Lost was an amazing wave and a great learning experience… the great thing about episodic television is you can follow those roads where they take you. 

MGM+

“But our creator, John, is working to have every season be a chapter… It is worked out, and creativity may send it up and down, but the journey is clear. The map is out there. And I’m not so sure it always was with Lost, as brilliant as Lost was.”

So, at least we know there is a resolution in sight, meaning we won’t be left in sci-fi purgatory in the end (pun intended). But to avoid Westworld and Lost’s meandering, From needs to remember its previous plot points and not let them fall to the side in favor of endless red herrings and needless conversations. 

In the end, let’s just hope the only monsters lurking in the shadows are the ones with teeth, not those of narrative confusion.

From Season 3 Episodes 1-7 are streaming on MGM+ now, with Episode 8 set to drop on Sunday, November 10. Until then, check out our recaps for Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, and Episode 6.

You can also check out the new TV shows coming to streaming this month and the most binge-worthy series to watch now.