Courtesy of Netflix
In typical Netflix fashion, the monster-hunter/supernatural drama October Faction, débuted in January and was promptly canceled one week later. Based on ‘The October Faction’ graphic novels by Steve Niles and Damien Worm, the show followed the adventures of the Allen family: Fred, Deloris, Geoff, and Vivian. Acting as insurance agents, Fred and Deloris (Dee) are actually monster hunters employed by a shadow organization called Presidio. In typical stealth modus operandi, the Allen kids Geoff and Viv are totally oblivious to their parent’s actual occupations.
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Following the death of the Allen family patriarch Samuel, the family finds themselves back in their hometown of Barington-on-Hudson. With Fred and Dee on sabbatical from Presidio, they decide to make a semi-permanent move to the town. With twins in the 12th grade, it goes over as well as we all would think.
With the move into the family manor, the twins are thrust into very spooky goings-on involving each other. Viv channels something deep and dark at a fake seance and Geoff begins to see the past and ghosts. It’s a lot to take in, all while their parents are trying to stop the multitudes of monsters descending on the town.
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When Geoff and Viv find out about their parent’s supernatural mercenary backgrounds, they understandably freak out. Viv especially seems to be an empath, and her connection with a creature that seems to protect her causes her to be incensed at Fred and Dee’s deception.
It all falls apart even further for the Allens after that point.
When a powerful warlock engages Barington-on-Hudson’s occupants, all hell breaks loose. The warlock is on a mission to find something specific in the Allen home: an urn, contents unknown. Obtaining that artifact, she sets her sights on the twins. Taking them with her, the warlock tells her tale of woe. She is Alice of Harlow house. Her tribe was peaceful and isolated from the world of humans. She let her guard down and became friendly with a human woman. What happened after was nothing short of a genocidal massacre by Presidio. Alice’s family, friends, and neighbors were wiped out. Her own husband was killed by Fred Allen. To add the ultimate insult to injury, her infant twins-Geoff and Vivian-were was taken by Fred and Dee to be raised human, with no connection to their roots.
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The truth is worse than anything the twins could’ve imagined. Their very identity was carved out of murder and deceit. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but they are further unmoored when Alice shows how powerful she is and zaps her fallen warlock family into the bodies of random Barington-on-Hudson townspeople.
With Presidio breathing down everyone’s necks and just about to annihilate everyone in the town, people step up. The twins assist Alice AND Deloris. Fred makes self-sacrifice. And Alice gets revenge on the Presidio head honcho, Edith. It’s a pittance for all of the death and destruction Presidio wrought but it was a start to righting generations of wrongs.
Courtesy of Netflix
But as with so many other promising series, Netflix pulled the plug on October Faction before it could find its footing. It’s become something of a cruel joke with the streaming giant: they fund and stream a ton of material but rarely give that same material a fighting chance with a season two. As the saying goes, that’s a wrap on October Faction.
Stream all ten episodes of October Faction on Netflix
