If you think we’re living through a unique period of hell, you might find something strangely related. Are froma no-nonsense show about living through a unique period of hell.
In the John Griffin-created TV series, the horror is literal and possibly supernatural: Its characters are reluctant citizens of a town they can’t leave, which is haunted. besieged by bloodthirsty monsters night after night.
Are from
Key point
An uneven ‘Missing’ copy.
But the feelings of burnout and despair that haunt the film’s characters may be familiar to those facing tougher struggles, as well as their conflicting views on how to prepare for a rescue. future leisure may never come. If, that is, you can first overcome the slowness of all these ideas playing out, and the unevenness of the characters and the engaging dialogue with them.
Are from opens up on a nameless little town that looks plain at first glance, if a bit old fashioned. As dusk falls, pedestrians hurry back home past faded buildings and overgrown lawns, salute Sheriff Boyd (Harold Perrineau) while he walks the streets and rings bells.
But the obvious is very flawed when, before the credits appear in the first episode, a little girl and her mother are attacked by a monster through her bedroom window. The full extent of the carnage won’t become apparent ‘until the next morning, when the missing father comes home to find his family’s bodies ripped and empty of organs, blood splattered on the walls almost ceiling. Are from don’t skimp when it comes to gore.
Meanwhile, the Matthews family – mother Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), dad Jim (Eion Bailey), teenage daughter Jessica (Hannah Cheramy) and young son Ethan (Simon Webster) – are inquiring about their economic status. other royals of the town the hard way. Stumbling across the town while getting lost on a road trip, they discover that no matter how carefully they follow Boyd’s directions to the highway, the road only circles them back to town – as Boyd knows. . It was the same experience he and everyone else in town had at some point, because anyone unlucky enough to stumble across it would be stuck there indefinitely.
Who or what monster are they, where do they come from, why are these people, can they find their way back: These are the mysteries that are driving Are from moving forward, and this series will spend time looking for answers. Like its spiritual predecessor Pass away – with whom it shares a star (Perrineau), two executive producers (Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner) and a taste for Google’s hard-to-find single-syllable titles – Are from seems to be playing a long game. Each new answer only seems to bring more questions, the final answer will inevitably still bring more questions. The fourth episode relives the bloody tale of the town’s first and oldest resident, the vaguely destabilizing Victor (Scott McCord), striking the ideal balance between mystery and unraveling, at least especially if the idea is to revolve around this story for sequels.
Because Are from To get there, however, it will first have to convince the viewer to stick with the ride. In that respect, the series’ intentional speed becomes a liability. After four four-hour episodes were sent to critics for review (out of a total of 10 episodes for the season), Are from it still feels like it’s just beginning to set out how this world works and the people who live within it. The size of the cast ensures that Are from there’s never a shortage of new avenues to explore, but also makes the show’s attention spread so thin, that even protagonists like the Matthews family are seen as generic stereotypes.
In the end, the series matches them up with a sad history that makes them more sympathetic in retrospect. But Jim and Tabitha’s marital tension or Julie’s teenage tantrums aren’t much of an interest at the moment. Less patient viewers may be tempted to skip ahead of any rewards, and less optimistic viewers may find rewards unlikely. Given the mystery box’s long history suggests it’s better to tease ideas than to present them, such skepticism is not necessarily unfounded.
And yet, Are from makes enough promise that it’s hard to get rid of it completely. The brightest is Perrineau, whose performance of Boyd is so authoritative and heartbreaking that whenever he’s on screen, no other omission seems to matter. Near the end of episode three, Boyd silently tries (and most fails) to force himself to witness a violent tragedy, and Perrineau conveys the chaos with his body language vividly. more than most Are fromother characters do in dramatic dialogues. Almost compelling, if not intense, is Elizabeth Saunders as Donna – the no-nonsense leader of the community’s other main faction who occupies a ramshackle mansion called the Colony House on the outskirts of town. .
Boyd’s Town and Donna’s Colonial House represent two sides of a deeper conversation Are from is being achieved – about both the necessity and inability to learn to tolerate an intolerable situation, and about the different ways people can do so. The subject is not a delicate subject. Established citizens are constantly telling newcomers that they will need to adapt to circumstances, or die trying to cling to their old ways. Episode three clearly revolves around the choice of newcomers in the midst of town life, where the citizens try to do their best until they can find their way home and life in the Colony House, where their residents put their faith in “living for today, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. ”
Where Are from intends to take these ideas, however, remains unclear after four episodes. Perhaps the best way to approach it is the same way its characters do: Either you approach to learn its rules, hoping for a better time, or you try to enjoy it. for what it is now – a slow-recording show that in its early episodes was more likely to be engaging than genuinely enjoyable.
Good news, in that case Are from can’t be done, it’s that leaving the town behind is going to be a lot easier for the viewer than for the characters. All we had to do was reach out and turn off the TV.
