The Future's Not Ours To See.
I've been watching From, because I keep finding myself tempted to rewatch Lost, which seems silly when it's only been a year since I first watched it. I often see From recommended to people who enjoyed Lost, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Having watched the first nine episodes, I haven't entirely worked out how I feel about From. I think part of my issue is the way it deals with its mysteries.
Lost obviously had an 'ooh, what does this mean?' mystery aspect, but I feel it mainly used its mysteries to tell stories about its characters and their relationships. I never felt that the mysteries were the most important part of Lost, which is probably just as well, because, from the discussions I've seen, it sounds like people who watched Lost primarily for the solution to the mysteries had a much less satisfying experience than I did.
From leans very hard on its mysteries, and I don't think they can take the weight, because they don't really feel like mysteries to me. When the characters strip the protective coating off the cables leading to lamps in the town, they find there are no wires inside! So how does the electricity work? They're going to dig a big hole to follow the cables! Ooh, what will they find?
I'm not invested in trying to work out where the electricity is coming from, because the answer obviously isn't going to be anything that makes sense by real-world standards. If there are no wires, there's no electricity, which means the lamps work by magic. Unless someone is pulling an Umineko, there's no mystery here. What's going on is clearly impossible. Therefore: magic.
How does the road out of the town just lead straight back to the town despite not looping around? How can you enter a hole in a tree and emerge from a basement on the other side of town? Magic; there's no other possible explanation. I have solved all the mysteries.
There might be more intricacies to the magic, of course. Maybe the cables lead to a sentient ball of lightning that sends electrical zaps to the lights; maybe they lead to a gigantic frog that whispers magical electric incantations along the empty cables. But I'm not going to spend time trying to work it out, because, whatever it is, it's not going to be something that fits into any set of rules I understand.
There's nothing wrong with weird, inexplicable things happening in a story, of course! But I feel From is focusing too heavily on presenting these things as a mystery to be solved, when its audience does not have the tools to even try to solve these mysteries. I didn't start watching this show about people being trapped in a weird town because I want to know all the intricacies of the town's weirdness; I started watching because I'm interested in how people cope with being trapped together.
I don't know if I have any coherent conclusion to draw here. 'If you're telling a story that includes mystery elements, be aware of whether you're telling a mystery story or a story about how people cope with mystery', maybe. Either is a valid choice, but, if you're telling a mystery story, you'll probably want to make sure it's actually possible to solve it.
Even if I'm a little unsure of how successful From is as a show, though, the title sequence is pretty cool! Very atmospheric and creepy.
Having watched the first nine episodes, I haven't entirely worked out how I feel about From. I think part of my issue is the way it deals with its mysteries.
Lost obviously had an 'ooh, what does this mean?' mystery aspect, but I feel it mainly used its mysteries to tell stories about its characters and their relationships. I never felt that the mysteries were the most important part of Lost, which is probably just as well, because, from the discussions I've seen, it sounds like people who watched Lost primarily for the solution to the mysteries had a much less satisfying experience than I did.
From leans very hard on its mysteries, and I don't think they can take the weight, because they don't really feel like mysteries to me. When the characters strip the protective coating off the cables leading to lamps in the town, they find there are no wires inside! So how does the electricity work? They're going to dig a big hole to follow the cables! Ooh, what will they find?
I'm not invested in trying to work out where the electricity is coming from, because the answer obviously isn't going to be anything that makes sense by real-world standards. If there are no wires, there's no electricity, which means the lamps work by magic. Unless someone is pulling an Umineko, there's no mystery here. What's going on is clearly impossible. Therefore: magic.
How does the road out of the town just lead straight back to the town despite not looping around? How can you enter a hole in a tree and emerge from a basement on the other side of town? Magic; there's no other possible explanation. I have solved all the mysteries.
There might be more intricacies to the magic, of course. Maybe the cables lead to a sentient ball of lightning that sends electrical zaps to the lights; maybe they lead to a gigantic frog that whispers magical electric incantations along the empty cables. But I'm not going to spend time trying to work it out, because, whatever it is, it's not going to be something that fits into any set of rules I understand.
There's nothing wrong with weird, inexplicable things happening in a story, of course! But I feel From is focusing too heavily on presenting these things as a mystery to be solved, when its audience does not have the tools to even try to solve these mysteries. I didn't start watching this show about people being trapped in a weird town because I want to know all the intricacies of the town's weirdness; I started watching because I'm interested in how people cope with being trapped together.
I don't know if I have any coherent conclusion to draw here. 'If you're telling a story that includes mystery elements, be aware of whether you're telling a mystery story or a story about how people cope with mystery', maybe. Either is a valid choice, but, if you're telling a mystery story, you'll probably want to make sure it's actually possible to solve it.
Even if I'm a little unsure of how successful From is as a show, though, the title sequence is pretty cool! Very atmospheric and creepy.