Let me clarify what I mean by the title of this as many series are plagued by this. When I say filler it should be obvious that I am referring to things that are done in order to make an episode or a film reach a certain amount of runtime or length that doesn't really have anything meaningful to add to the overall point of the story. This can come in many forms such as relationship squabbles which are very common in series in particular or the main thing that really guts under my tits, is having extremely long conversations about something that is actually pretty simple in order to eat up as much time as possible.
From does these things a lot and I get the feeling it is because there isn't really a huge amount of overall source material and the producers want to drag this thing out as long as possible. It becomes clear to me when a series has a plan of keeping as many audience members on board for as long as possible and once those numbers dwindle to a certain amount they will wrap things up and pretend as though this was always their intention. The show that did this kind of first in my memory was the series LOST, which was a great show but they just kept it going and going with absolute nonsense until people weren't watching it anymore... they they rapidly wrapped up the entire thing in an ending that didn't make any sense to anyone.
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I find it amusing that when I formed this opinion, and when I made the comparison to LOST, I had no idea that the producers from LOST actually produced this as well. So it shouldn't be that surprising when it turns out to have the same formula. One of the main characters of this show is Harold Perrineau in the role of town sheriff "Boyd" and he was also on the show LOST. He just so happens to be, in my opinion, one of the only untalented people that was on that LOST. To be fair he is a lot better in this one but much of this is only because he was so terrible in LOST that the bar was set pretty damn low.
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Initially, the premise or plot of the show is actually pretty unusual and fresh although it is easy to see how a lot of this is inspired or just outright copied from LOST. A bunch of people end up in a place and they have to adapt in order to survive. There is no plane crash in this one though. All of the people ended up there at different times and none of them knew one another before arriving here. All we know is that they cannot leave and there are some sort of deadly creatures that come out at night that have a lot in common with traditional vampires. Whereas vampires cannot enter a place unless invited, the creatures in From cannot break a window or knock down a door in order to gain entry, but they can go into a place if a door or window is left open. Once inside they can wreck havoc on the people that are inside but they also don't seem to be compelled to do this in a rapid or efficient manner. They seem to thrive on the fear of their prey rather than being really interested in simply killing all of them.
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So at least from my perspective and in my opinion, this is a decent amount of plot point on which to build a pretty gritty and nice series around but unfortunately we get wrapped up in the personal relationships between the various inhabitants of the town - which seriously drags things out rather than getting to the point and having some sort of definitive timeline towards a goal which would be figuring out what is going on here and getting people out. This is obviously the objective of everyone involved just like it was in LOST but they really drag this out over a long period of time and I believe it is intentional. The premise between the two series is nearly identical, including having a 4-letter name for the series. I believe all of this is intentional.
Now don't get the wrong idea here; From is not a terrible series. I would say that it is almost certainly worth some of your time but to me it lulls a LOT and I find myself getting really bored with it because each episode is rather formulaic. Something happens in the first 4 minutes that is rather exciting, then basically nothing other than talky-talk happens for 40 minutes, then the last 4 minutes are also exciting. They know what they are doing here: They want to get you excited about the next episode to explain what just happened at the end of the one you just watched, so you fire up another one even though you were quite bored for 70% of the episode you just watched.
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This is just a personal thing but for me, I really don't like child actors for the most part. They simply, with very rare exceptions, just aren't very good. So when "Ethan" became a central character it was a bit annoying to me as he whines his way through every scene he is in. This is a minor point I suppose and it is based on my personal experience. Perhaps you will actually enjoy this portrayal of a whiney brat that turns almost anything he is involved in into a problem.
There are good sides to the show though, so I don't want to seem as though I am totally bashing it. The various characters have certain theories as to what this place actually is and have different ideas about what they can do to help everyone get out of here. So when they are all working on their own "side-missions" it actually does help to keep things fresh since we can now focus on multiple storylines at once. It is just unfortunate that a lot of these side missions are just a ton of talking and very little action happening.
The ratings for this thing on ratings sites that I actually believe in are around the mid 60's out of 100 and I think that is probably a pretty fair rating to have for it. It isn't fantastic, but it does have enough intrigue to keep you wondering what the deal really could be here. It's just a shame that they are dragging it out so long and likely will continue to do so as long as people continue to watch it.
Should I watch it?
This one is going to be very subjective. It may appeal immensely to some people and others are going to absolutely hate it. I keep watching because I keep hoping that at some point we are going to get some sort of streamlined progression in the story but I fear that because of the way in which these episodes are intentionally designed to just carry on in perpetuity, that things are kept a bit stale on purpose. It's a slow drip of a show with only a handful of major events taking place in the 7 episodes I have watched thus far. Since there are 3 seasons in existence already and a 4th has been green-lit, I believe that just like LOST that they are going to keep this going for as long as they possibly can. I believe that most people are going to be reasonably interested in this and should give it a shot, but I also believe that your interest will wane over time. Prove me wrong I guess, but for me this is a show that I am watching only because there isn't anything better at the moment.
This series can be legally streamed from a wide variety of platforms such as Amazon, Roku, MGM, and Spectrum