[Abyss]

Watched the premiere and second ep of THE FOLLOWING, new drama starring Kevin Bacon.

Not bad... held my attention, predictable in parts but manages to twist things every so often.

I like the central idea ...James Purefoy plays Joe Carroll, a Poe-obsessed a serial killer with elements of Hannibal Lechter, David Koresh and Bruce Wayne, running a long game involving a legion of wannabe serial killer followers who are carrying out his plans for him.

Kevin Bacon plays Ryan Hardy, the FBI agent who almost died catching Carroll the first time.

A nice twist is that Carrol's game is so meticulously planned that he has 'sleeper serial killers' all over the place. I picked the first few out easily enough but the show plays out in such a way that ANYONE could be another Carroll acolyte, which can throw off the good guys at any point.

On the one hand, two great episodes held my attention, it's a neat premise and the action and tension are nicely done with a surprising for prime-time body count. Bacon' can't carry this alone - his character at the moment is pretty straightforward and physically limitted by an injury - but the cast, especially the killers, were delivering solid work.

On the other hand this could be the next ALCATRAZ... neat idea, not sure if people will be watching long term.

SPOILERS for eps 1 and 2 - don't read if you haven't watched or intend to...

Spoiler

Totally called the gay neighbors as sleepers, but did not see the 'not-gay' twist, nicely subverted by one of them actually getting too into the role.

Called the babysitter too but i enjoyed the development they gave her in the second ep. Lots of potential for scene chewery there.

The second i saw Maggie Grace i knew she was dead meat but even so the way they did it, Hardy being utterly too late, was nicely done.

Am seriously suspicious of Clare, cult-specialist FBI lady and jr profiler guy.

They managed to tead the edges of Poe's work without really digging, at least in part i suspect to give the show a guise of sophistication without losing the audience who skips to THE BACHELOR on commercials.

I seriously hope every episode doesn't feature Bacon a) getting the crap kicked out of him, b ) running out of breath due to his heart injury, c) losing his temper and going off on random cop and d) going off on his own or charging in somewhere first without a weapon.... both episodes included those things and it will get old REALLY fast

So i'm in. Anyone else watching?

[QuickTidal]

Not in, but I'll point out what an author I follow said online...."When anyone can be the killer, and everyone is the killer...how is that not boring?" And she'd watched it with an open mind.

I've got other stuff on my plate and CTV advertised the absolute HELL out of that show (on TV in every commercial break on every show...AND even in the theatre before movies)...and to me that always stinks to high heaven of a show that they are worried no one will watch because it's not good enough. At least that's been historically the case.

So unless I hear that it pulls a second season and that it's phenomenal...not for me.

[Abyss]

I agree it's been marketed to fucksville and back again but the network paid a lot for it and CTV paid big dollars for the transmit so that's to be expected.

It didn't put me off any more than it made me want to watch, rather i thought the central concept was neat enough to check out and it turned out to be that.

Put a different way, no amount of marketing was going to prompt me to watch TOUCH.

[QuickTidal]

LOL! Fair enough.

I like James Purefoy...but not enough to give this a chance out of the gate. Been burned too many times.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Only had first episode broadcast in the UK - second is tonight.

So far quite enjoyable, will see how it progresses.

[Cedz]

Argh Kevin Bacon is ruining this for me after the first episode and that one particular over acted scene! I hope he gets better in future episodes.

[Abyss]

Watched ep 3 (last week's ep). Nice twist which i did not see coming for a change

Spoiler

with the wife being a co-serial killer to firebug

. Bacon is getting better, toned down the over-acting a bit, didn't go out of breath tho he's still doing silly things without a gun

Spoiler

like opening the closet door instead of calling for someone who was armed

. Also like the development they're giving Emma and the not-Gays' storyline... parts of it are obvious but whatever they're up to with the kid is just twisted.

I like the fact that not only can anyone be the killer, but, aside from Bacon, anyone can die.

Spoiler

Poor Riley that SUCKED. And now we need a new tough guy.

...mind you, it would be a brilliant twist if they offed Bacon and Shawn Ashmore had to step up against Carroll...

[Tyrant]

It's pretty good, doesn't bring anything new to the genre and full of the usual tropes, but it's entertaining enough. James Purefoy is almost enough alone.

Spoiler

The creator is a massive fan of 24 so you just know one of the FBI will turn out to be a follower, I reckon Iceman

[Tyrant]

Although one thing that threw me was when it was advertised, they pegged it as Carroll being a charismatic killer who 'uses special technology' to create a cult of killers, which I thought meant it was going down the sci-fi route - turns out it was just him social networking on the prison computer. I'm not sure which one I find more believable.

This post has been edited by Tyrant: 12 February 2013 - 09:40 PM

[Abyss]

I didn't see any ref to tech in the ads... may have been a local market thing because here they went with uber-creepy and played up the Poe angle in the ads.

This week's ep was quite good. I really liked how

Spoiler

last week's frumpy victim turned stealth serial killer Maggie turned out to be super-killer, even if her evil plan for Ryan was pretty silly in the end because any idiot would have known he'd bring backup.

Ryan/Bacon and Weston/Iceman play off each other nicely. I liked their scenes in the stairwell and car.

Interesting developments at the house too. Who knew serial killers

Spoiler

get performance anxiety?

.

I'm expecting them to get busted and then Carrol reveals that he has 'cells' like them all over the country.

[Gnaw]

Annie Parisse is in it. That was enough to get me to give it a try.
It's a compelling story for me but I'm hesitant about getting too attached to it. I can't see this continuing for long with the plot. There has to be a limit to how many acolytes the psycho has. It's much better than the 'evil guy of the week', but it seems to be a very constraining plot. Mini-series material maybe.
But I'll probably keep watching it. But I think I'm going to be disappointed in the long run.

[Tiste Simeon]

Anyone else look at the title of this thread & think it was a movie about how Twitter started, ala The Social Network?

[Gnaw]

Briar King, on 20 February 2013 - 05:42 AM, said:

Haha no but I can see that issue if someone didn't see the trailer with title.

Last night epi was pretty fucking good to.

It was. This Roderick they were talking about; has that been around?
'Cause the two he sent to the farm seemed more "soldier/criminal" than "psycho" to me.

[Abyss]

SPOILERS UP TO LATEST EP

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

The two-parter was great. Bacon really upped his acting game and i loved how he intimidated the absolute fuck out of Gay and Gay/Not-Gay Killer by just standing there with a gun aimed at him.

The addition of military serial killers was seriously fucked up game-changer and a totally logical one... where else but discharged soldiers would they get seriously dangerous unstable Followers... and apparenly a LOT of them from the way that played out.

And despite the fact that the show keeps reminding uis that anyone can be a killer, cop girl's switch still caught me by surprise.

The insight into Parker's history with cults was interesting (...and i always knew Buffy's Mom was a head-case...). I remain suspicious of her.... am wondering whether she may actually be Roderick.

[Abyss]

SECOND SEASON CONFIRMED BY FOX TODAY!!!


And last night's ep was solid, if a bit predictable in parts.

I enjoyed how Purefoy showed Carrol resisting the temptation to kill Ryan and Ryan's near lack of care.

I like the ambiguity we're getting from Charlie even tho he is one of Carroll's followers. The scene with the followers emerging from the big house was nuts.

Does anyone else giggle when the post-commercial break screen reads 'The following presentation includes violence.'...?

[Gnaw]

Abyss, on 05 March 2013 - 04:36 PM, said:

SECOND SEASON CONFIRMED BY FOX TODAY!!!


And last night's ep was solid, if a bit predictable in parts.

I enjoyed how Purefoy showed Carrol resisting the temptation to kill Ryan and Ryan's near lack of care.

I like the ambiguity we're getting from Charlie even tho he is one of Carroll's followers. The scene with the followers emerging from the big house was nuts.

Does anyone else giggle when the post-commercial break screen reads 'The following presentation includes violence.'...?

I had the opposite reaction. I like the actors. Production values are great. My 'willing suspension of disbelief' started losing break fluid at the "we're transferring you to the Buford County Jail in Georgia". And it hit the wall with the scene at the house. I'll keep watching for now because it has some excellent acting. And Annie Parisse.
But it's going to have to be on a "the timeline is unimportant" basis.

[Gnaw]

I've never been one for looking at television through the "<show name> proves our society is going to hell in a hand basket " lenses. But...

Is there something that I'm missing about this show that raises it out of the closest thing to snuff on television?

[Battalion]

The Following in a nutshell:

FBI's most wanted fugitive keeps escaping from them. His arch nemisis, Bacon, who isn't in the FBI, but is merely a consultant with a bum ticker, keeps finding him/one of his followers/ his son/ his wife, before the entire FBI/local police/state police/army/CIA or anyone else arrives. Goody turns into baddy, other goody gets killed/wounded, Bacon (civilian) kills shit loads of people without consequence, FBI's most wanted escapes.

Having said that, I love it.

[Abyss]

Yah i think those are totally accurate comments on the last few eps.

That said, i like the rising tension between Carrol and Roderick, which will ideally turn into full-on serial killer war in the house with all the little psychos running around filleting each other with kitchen utensils.

Also, Clare is an idiot.

3 eps to go in the season and a second season confirmed, so here's hoping they can end on a high note.

[Abyss]

I initially intended to post something positive about this week's ep, and then i realized how much of it was archetypically stupid...

Roderick's entire plotline was sheer tv scriptwriting by committee craptastic, and that last action scene could only have been sillier if the Followers had been wearing red shirts and Stormtrooper helmets to the fight.... "I'l hold them, take the kid somewhere safe.".... "Wait right here while i go check the house.".... SERIOUSLY?????

I'm actually starting to hope that Carrol or Emma or someone kills Clare. Also Jacob, who is about as badass as a Kermit-The-Frog finger-puppet.


I did like Hardy's news conference idea (and how the FBI found out about it), and the last 'surprise' was a nice touch plus boss guy now gets to wear a cool eye patch. Everything else in between was time-killer at best. Those last two eps better bring it.