Netflix’s October Faction wants to be a dark, brooding monster-hunting drama, but it spends its ten episodes playing a different game entirely: family sitcom. The show follows Fred and Deloris Allen, a couple who hunt supernatural threats, as they move back to their hometown of Barrington-on-Hudson, New York, to bury Fred’s father, Samuel. Their teenage twins, Viv and Geoff, start showing signs of supernatural ability, and the family tries to keep their secret identities hidden from the townspeople. That setup sounds like a premise worth building a series around. Instead, October Faction turns into a slow, repetitive soap opera that never commits to the horror it promises.
Trailer, via Netflix.
The Family at the Center
Fred and Deloris are the anchors of the show. Tamara Taylor plays Deloris with a weary warmth, and J.C. MacKenzie brings a gruff charm to Fred. Their relationship is the best thing about the series, a partnership built on mutual exhaustion and unspoken affection. The problem is that the show spends far too much time on their fights and resentments, and not enough on the actual monster hunting.
The twins are supposed to be the future of the family’s legacy. Aurora Burghart plays Viv with a quiet intensity, and Gabriel Darku gives Geoff a nervous energy. But their supernatural abilities feel like a convenience, not a threat. A séance where Viv sees a creature chained to the seafloor is meant to be ominous. Instead, it reads as a setup for a later episode where the family deals with the fallout. The show never commits to the vision, and the creature remains a footnote.
The Town of Barrington-on-Hudson
Barrington-on-Hudson is supposed to be a quiet, sleepy town hiding secrets. In practice, it feels like a generic small town where nothing ever happens. The show tries to build tension through the family’s isolation, but the isolation never leads anywhere. People are suspicious, but nobody acts on those suspicions. The town exists to provide a backdrop for the family’s dysfunction, not to be a character in its own right.
The show introduces a secret organization called Presidio, which Fred and Deloris belong to. Presidio is meant to be a shadowy force protecting humanity from monsters. The show barely explores what Presidio does or why it exists. It’s a name on a card, not a living part of the world.
The Supporting Cast
Wendy Crewson plays Maggie Allen, Fred’s mother, with a sharp edge. She’s the most interesting adult in the series, a woman whose grief over her son’s death masks a simmering resentment. Megan Follows plays Edith Mooreland, a local resident who becomes involved with the family. Stephen McHattie plays Samuel Allen, Fred’s father, though he dies early in the series. None of them get enough screen time to matter.
Maxim Roy plays Alice Harlow, a recurring character. The source material doesn’t say what she does, but her presence is a reminder that the show had plans beyond its first season. Those plans were canceled, and Harlow’s arc never gets resolved.
What the Show Gets Wrong
The pacing is the biggest problem. Each episode runs long, and the show repeats itself across multiple installments. Fred and Deloris argue about the past, the twins get ridiculed by the popular kids, and the family hides their true nature from the townspeople. These beats are established in the first episode and repeated through the tenth. There’s no sense of escalation, no rising stakes. The show simply restates its premise over and over.
The humor also misses its mark. October Faction tries to balance its horror with jokes about suburban life. The jokes don’t land. The show’s tone is inconsistent, moving from grim to silly without warning. This isn’t a show that knows what kind of story it’s telling, and that confusion is felt by the audience.
The Comics Behind It
October Faction is based on a comic series by Steve Niles and Damien Worm. The show’s creators wanted to adapt that material for television. The adaptation fails to capture the comics’ tone. The source material is dark and violent, a world where monsters are real and fear is constant. The TV series softens that edge, turning the monsters into background noise and the fear into domestic drama.
The result is a show that’s neither scary nor funny. It’s a show about a family that hunts monsters, but it’s not interested in the monsters themselves. The show is more concerned with Fred’s childhood trauma, Deloris’s frustration, and the twins’ social struggles. Those are valid subjects, but they’re not what sells the premise.
A Premise Worth More
October Faction has a great idea at its core. A family of monster hunters trying to hide their true nature while raising teenagers who inherit their power. That idea could support a gripping, tense series. Instead, the show drags its feet, repeats itself, and loses focus. The final episode wraps up the season without resolving the show’s central questions.
The cancellation in March 2020 means there’s no chance for a second season to fix the problems. The show ended before it had a chance to find its footing. What’s left is a record of a missed opportunity.
- A strong family dynamic
- A weak grasp of tone
- Ten episodes that mostly repeat each other
- A premise better than the execution
The show is not without merit. Tamara Taylor and J.C. MacKenzie give committed performances, and the chemistry between their characters is genuine. The set design captures a particular version of small-town America, and the show’s attention to period detail is admirable. But none of that can save a show that refuses to commit to its own premise.
October Faction is a show that understands its characters better than it understands its genre. It’s a family drama dressed up as a monster-hunting show, and the costume doesn’t fit. The result is a frustrating watch, a show that wastes a good idea on a poor execution.
Score: 2.9 out of 10.
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