[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
After a 511-day hiatus, From is back on MGM+ this Sunday, and if you’re looking for a nice way to wind down your weekend, this is not your show. If you’re ready for the Sunday scaries to take on a whole new meaning, welcome to the #FROMily!
Season 4 comes out swinging, beginning at the exact moment Season 3 ended and quickly ripping the Band-Aid off those OMG WTF final moments that marked the return of Smiley and the departure of Jim at the hands of the Man in Yellow. Once everyone makes it topside out of the tunnels and back into town, more horrors–and new arrivals–await. PTSD manifests in startling new ways, and Elgin still needs medical attention after his interrogation went wildly off the rails.
So, per usual, not a moment’s peace for anyone. Before they can wrap their heads around the things they already know, a new discovery rocks them even more, alongside the introduction of the season’s throughline warning that “Knowledge Has a Price.” Jim was just the opening volley in a frightening new war on the citizens of Fromville.
At the helm once again and trying to remain calm when almost everyone around him is decidedly not calm is Big Daddy Boyd, played by Harold Perrineau, who’s a captain of the ship behind the scenes, too, as one of the series’ producers.. This week, I caught up with him to chat about the show, which was just renewed on Wednesday for a fifth and final season to air next year.
If you’ve read me a while, you may recall that I loved when Killjoys got to write its own ending on its own terms, and I’m just as happy for this cast and crew to wrap things the way they want without a surprise ending. Perrineau and I talked the day before the renewal was announced, so I don’t have his official hot take on that fantastic news, but he did share some great nuggets about what he hoped for whenever that day came. Here’s the first part of our conversation.
Since the series has been off the air for 16 months, you could be forgiven for not remembering the previous season’s minutiae. Thank goodness for the “previously on From” clips. We’re not the only ones who need a refresher now and again. Before starting work on each new season, Perrineau typically rewatches the prior seasons to shore up where Boyd stands and get back into his headspace, but the S4 shoot began last summer, so he didn’t get to do the same degree of a deep dive.
“Last year was a tricky summer for us with kids going off to camp and doing stuff, so I didn’t really get to watch them all. I had to keep ingesting things as we went on, because those things were really, really, really important for how we start off season four. They really go to Boyd’s state of mind, if he even has any mind left at the beginning of season four,” he laughs.
That said, he doesn’t do a forecasting debrief with the production team at the beginning of each season to learn what’s coming, either. “I don’t want to know anything before I need to know it, because I think it makes it feel really visceral. You can feel that I [Harold] feel uncomfortable because I don’t know what’s going on, therefore Boyd feels uncomfortable because he doesn’t know what’s going on,” he explains.
“The return of Smiley is mind-splintering and I have to contemplate that. If I was thinking about, ‘Oh, it leads to this other thing,’ then what you’ll miss is how fractured Boyd is at the very beginning of season four. I always try to make sure that I can get to the truth of those moments.”
“My most important job as a producer is to preserve what the actor has to do. That’s what I try to do. I don’t sit down with the [showrunners]. I don’t do anything until they send [the scripts] to me. And if I have questions about how [something relates to something else], which is very rare, then I’ll ask. But other than that, I’m figuring it out just like we’re all figuring it out.”
From has benefitted from the synergy of airing linearly on Amazon-owned MGM+ and getting a second run on Prime Video, where it has grown its audience via streaming. Coming into Season 4, that’s likely to mean an even bigger uptick in people who watch the show live—and take part in the raucous live-Tweet. Perrineau is excited for that, and it’s part of his larger joy about engaging with the #FROMily as they share their insights and theories and give him a fresh POV on a world he’s been entrenched in for four seasons and five years.
“That’s why I love doing this show. If they’re gonna binge all the first three seasons’ episodes, I’d say ‘Welcome to the real #FROMily, when we go week to week to week and we try to figure this out.’ Because that’s where the fun is. If you got to binge it, cool. I’m really happy for you. And if you’re coming in now, now you’re going to come into the fun part where I get to talk to you because y’all are my people,” he says.
“We’re all sitting there figuring this out every week. That’s the part of it that I love. As great as the show is, those parts are really, really fantastic. Getting to talk to everybody when the show is coming out, talking to them throughout the year. That’s the groovy part.”
“And then hopefully one day, whenever the show is done, whenever that is, because we know it’s going to end, which I think it should … I think it should have an ending, and I hope it lands great … But one day we’ll have a really great book that you’ll always be able to pick up and go, ‘You know what, I’m gonna read that From book again. And then you’ll go through, and even though you know all the answers, finally, you’ll still enjoy that ride.”
Yes, yes we will.
From Season 4 airs Sundays linearly at 9pm/8c on MGM+ in the US and streams Mondays in Canada on Paramount+ via Prime Video subscription channels. New episodes drop on the MGM+ app at 12:01 am ET Sundays. All S1-S3 episodes are available in the US on MGM+ online and via the app, and on Prime Video, and in Canada on Paramount+. ICYMI, all of our previous coverage — over 40 pieces — is here. Check back next week for more of my chat with Harold Perrineau.
Here’s a sneak peek of Season 4. Strap in.
Photos and video courtesy of MGM+.
