Channel Zero was inspired by internet-based horror stories known as “creepypasta,” with this season being based on one of the most popular examples. The original story takes the form of a fictional web forum where adults are discussing an old, obscure kids show called Candle Cove, which was pirate-themed and featured weird puppets. But as the exchange progresses, the forum participants start realizing how sinister the show was, with its villain known as “the skin-taker” and one episode where all the characters just screamed. The twist at the very end of the story helps form the premise of the Syfy series, which mostly involves Mike Painter trying to figure out why Candle Cove has mysteriously begun airing again—and why it’s causing a whole new generation of children to start behaving bizarrely, even violently. Helping him to solve the case is his mother (Fiona Shaw) and his childhood crush, Jessica (Natalie Brown).

For those accustomed to the hectic, maximalist style of American Horror Story, Channel Zero might even seem boring. It’s a slow-burning but elegantly filmed watch where scenes and conversations and character personalities err on the side of understatement. This is perhaps intentional—the show, after all, features ridiculous-looking puppets, so the more dreamy pacing and visual style are a useful counterbalance. In a way, this approach suggests that Channel Zero takes children’s fear seriously, on its own terms, far more than most similar stories do. The show lets the random snippets from the fictional Candle Cove and Mike’s memories speak for themselves, trusting that older viewers will be able to viscerally empathize via their own experiences.

Over the first four episodes, a great deal of backstory is told through subtle flashbacks—some lasting for minutes, others for mere seconds. The result is a merging of past and present that brings Mike’s nightmares of Candle Cove to life, albeit in a fragmented manner. Mike’s old friends, now grown up, are also haunted by flashbacks to their youth, suggesting that Channel Zero seems intent on keeping the past close to the surface. In the first scene of the series, Mike appears on a talk show to discuss his job as a child psychiatrist. “Adulthood is just a mask,” he tells the host. “A sophisticated mask, for sure. But behind it, we’re still the kids we were.” The show has thus far taken care to treat adulthood as just that—a mask—and one that it constantly snatches away to show how age doesn’t lessen humans’ capacity to be wildly afraid.

For a show as concerned with the malevolent dimensions of childhood as this one, it’s no surprise that Channel Zero’s main monster is a silent, eyeless creature made entirely of baby teeth. The symbolism is fairly simple: The teeth are artifacts of youth and innocence, but they’re also kind of gross. While investigating some neighborhood thefts, the deputy sheriff, Amy Welch, balks at a mother who reports that the thief stole her child’s baby teeth from a memory box. Amy can’t understand why any parent would keep loose bits of their child’s bone matter, explaining, “Every time you smile, you’re showing off your skeleton.” In many little ways like these, the show imbues childhood with a sense of danger.