They tried to sell this as a serial-killer-of-the-week series but it's nothing of the sort.
The first third of The Following is actually pretty interesting. You have people committing suicides or killings with a message and the FBI is trying to figure out what is going on.
What is going on is that a former literature professor named Joe Carroll, now imprisoned, somehow managed to create a following of lunatics ready to kill and/or be killed for him/his ideas. His ideas amount to a bunch of self-help yet self-destructive pronouncements on life, death, beauty and E.A. Poe-inspired imagery. What Carroll is after is a reunion with his wife and son and to write his reality-based masterpiece.
The FBI reluctantly recruits a reluctant disgraced former agent, Ryan Hardy, who was responsible for the investigation that put Carroll in jail in the first place- since Carroll was a serial killer himself.
And at first things are interesting and mysterious. But once Carroll gets what he wants and plays hide-and-seek with the FBI, things go downhill fast. And the inevitable confrontation between the good guy and the bad guy is anything but the mind blowing ending they promised. Sure, the final outcome is unusual, but nothing to rave about.
The Following should have been a strong series, it looks like it has a budget, cast, crew and some interesting ideas. But put together it doesn't work. James Purefoy's villain is terrible. There's the obligatory British accent, because you know, he's a professor and really smart, so he's got to be British. But his delivery of that accent is awful. His character is supposed to be super charismatic, he manages to get a bunch of people to die for him, yet Purefoy just can't convey an ounce of that supposed charisma. He's awfully dull, slow, lethargic, lame, and not at all brilliant.
But it's not just Purfoy's acting that is off. It's almost everyone else's too. Most actors are giving us their B or C game here, including the likable Shawn Ashmore, who makes a good sidekick to Hardy. The exception here are Bacon and Zea, who give truly outstanding performances and whose characters are the only compelling thing The Following. But they can't save the series from all its other faults.
Casting isn't convincing either. What is it that casting directors see in Annie Parisse? I didn't care for her in Person of Interest, nor in this. She did act a whole lot better in Person of Interest though. Then there's another secondary villain, in the person of the tiny Valorie Curry with a boy's haircut. Hollywood insist on this fantasy of minuscule anorexic females beating up on big guys.
Then there's the routine in which the series eventually settles. And that is that the bad guys are in constant god mode. They are everywhere, know everything, are always several steps ahead of the FBI, in fact, for every one step forward the FBI takes they end up taking two steps back- in each episode. Law enforcement has some goofy spanking new uniforms, but they are astonishingly clueless. Granted, the Boston events took place while the series had already been filmed I presume, but it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure that a post-9/11 manhunt for an escaped serial killer and his killer cult followers wouldn't look anything like the pathetic amateur operation shown on The Following. As a viewer rooting for the good guys, this show doesn't give you any reason to tune in to the next episode. You have one smart guy and a bunch of bozos going after an omniscient genius with an army of competent followers who are everywhere.
Some other annoyances I found, the whole big fuss made about homosexuality/bisexuality, which I guess is now mandatory in Hollywood but doesn't amount to anything in the end in this show. If crazy cultist killers aren't bad enough, you get crazy cultist killers who are of course militia members, too. I guess Kevin Williamson never really outgrew the 90s.
I finished watching this season just to see how it all turns out, not so much because I was compelled by its greatness. The Following could have been an edgy fascinating show, but instead it settled for widespread mediocrity.
The first third of The Following is actually pretty interesting. You have people committing suicides or killings with a message and the FBI is trying to figure out what is going on.
What is going on is that a former literature professor named Joe Carroll, now imprisoned, somehow managed to create a following of lunatics ready to kill and/or be killed for him/his ideas. His ideas amount to a bunch of self-help yet self-destructive pronouncements on life, death, beauty and E.A. Poe-inspired imagery. What Carroll is after is a reunion with his wife and son and to write his reality-based masterpiece.
The FBI reluctantly recruits a reluctant disgraced former agent, Ryan Hardy, who was responsible for the investigation that put Carroll in jail in the first place- since Carroll was a serial killer himself.
And at first things are interesting and mysterious. But once Carroll gets what he wants and plays hide-and-seek with the FBI, things go downhill fast. And the inevitable confrontation between the good guy and the bad guy is anything but the mind blowing ending they promised. Sure, the final outcome is unusual, but nothing to rave about.
The Following should have been a strong series, it looks like it has a budget, cast, crew and some interesting ideas. But put together it doesn't work. James Purefoy's villain is terrible. There's the obligatory British accent, because you know, he's a professor and really smart, so he's got to be British. But his delivery of that accent is awful. His character is supposed to be super charismatic, he manages to get a bunch of people to die for him, yet Purefoy just can't convey an ounce of that supposed charisma. He's awfully dull, slow, lethargic, lame, and not at all brilliant.
But it's not just Purfoy's acting that is off. It's almost everyone else's too. Most actors are giving us their B or C game here, including the likable Shawn Ashmore, who makes a good sidekick to Hardy. The exception here are Bacon and Zea, who give truly outstanding performances and whose characters are the only compelling thing The Following. But they can't save the series from all its other faults.
Casting isn't convincing either. What is it that casting directors see in Annie Parisse? I didn't care for her in Person of Interest, nor in this. She did act a whole lot better in Person of Interest though. Then there's another secondary villain, in the person of the tiny Valorie Curry with a boy's haircut. Hollywood insist on this fantasy of minuscule anorexic females beating up on big guys.
Then there's the routine in which the series eventually settles. And that is that the bad guys are in constant god mode. They are everywhere, know everything, are always several steps ahead of the FBI, in fact, for every one step forward the FBI takes they end up taking two steps back- in each episode. Law enforcement has some goofy spanking new uniforms, but they are astonishingly clueless. Granted, the Boston events took place while the series had already been filmed I presume, but it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure that a post-9/11 manhunt for an escaped serial killer and his killer cult followers wouldn't look anything like the pathetic amateur operation shown on The Following. As a viewer rooting for the good guys, this show doesn't give you any reason to tune in to the next episode. You have one smart guy and a bunch of bozos going after an omniscient genius with an army of competent followers who are everywhere.
Some other annoyances I found, the whole big fuss made about homosexuality/bisexuality, which I guess is now mandatory in Hollywood but doesn't amount to anything in the end in this show. If crazy cultist killers aren't bad enough, you get crazy cultist killers who are of course militia members, too. I guess Kevin Williamson never really outgrew the 90s.
I finished watching this season just to see how it all turns out, not so much because I was compelled by its greatness. The Following could have been an edgy fascinating show, but instead it settled for widespread mediocrity.