The Following

It is not secret that Kevin Bacon is the best cliche character player of all times. Maybe not, but he always seems to be playing the extreme cliche of one character but somehow making it work. The role he plays in The Following is just -urgh- so typical. He's an out of business FBI detective who doesn't play by the rules and who is called back after 10 years to catch a serial killer he has put in jail. Oh, wait! he had an affair with the killer's wife? He has never gotten over her? He feels personally guilty and emotionally attached to the outcome f this case? Well, as Stephanie Tanner from Full House would say, "Pin a rose on your nose."

Oh, but it gets better, he is an alcoholic. I know. The good thing they did was add a flaw to the old man so Kevin Bacon doesn't pull a Tom Cruise and start running around after he hit the big Five-O. Ryan Hardy (Bacon's character) has some heart problem after being shot in the chest and he has a pacemaker that keeps his heart beating. I literally have no idea what that is, except the makeup artist did a great job with the healed wound shot. It looked real.

Speaking of how good of a job the makeup artist pulled off with the main character's wounds, look at the amazing job they did with Sarah's -the victim that got away- wounds.

As for the show itself, it starts out with the outline of an action movie starring Liam Neesson or Bruce Willis, and you wonder how this is a TV show and not a movie, then BAM! It's not about the serial killer anymore, it is about a cult he created. I know.

Anyways, the serial killer's escape triggers a set of actions he's planned and devised with a group of his "devoted fans" who paid him frequent visits in prison. Basically, The main serial killer, Joe, worships Poe, and his fans worship him, so, by extent, they worship Poe. I don't know why, put crime dramas love the idea of psychos obsessed with Poe's work. Well, I know why, but still.

I never wanted any of this.

What happens is, the FBI don't know there is a cult or anything, they just think Joe is getting some help from accomplices. There is a help/information public HQ, one woman walks in, says she has information about Joe, takes a seat and waits her turn. While she's waiting she gets a text message that says: "now." She gets up, takes off her shoes, takes an ice pick -or whatever you call it- gets naked, and holds the ice pick to her eye. The FBI turn to see her there and try to calm her down and talk her into reason. She doesn't seem to respond and starts reciting Poe's alleged last words, "Lord help my poor soul" over and over again, pushed the ice pick through her eyes, and drops dead on the floor. Right then the FBI realized the whole cult thing was going on. The fact that she had an Edgar Ellen Poe poem written all over her body might have been a clue.

fun tongue twister: poe poem

The main members of the cult are three young, beautiful, and completely psychotic individuals. Two guys, Jacob & Paul, pretended to be a gay couple for three years to deceive Joe's survivor victim into trusting them until Joe makes his grande escape. The woman, Emma, who has a very choppy pixie cut, has an alias and works as a nanny for Joe's kid and is Jacob's lover. Except wait, are the feelings between Jacob and Paul real? Does Emma truly love Jacob or is she manipulating him? So many high school/ college love triangle drama going on it is not even funny or relevant.

we have no idea why Emma said we HAD to be the gay couple.

Iceman from X-Men is actually a junior FBI agent on the team and his role is very basic and so-so, yet he pulls it off and delivers a semi-good performance. Another member of the team I'm really not digging is agent Deborah Parker, head of cult & religion division in the FBI and head of this investigation. I really don't like the whole put-a-woman-as-head-of-an-investigation-so-we-don't-seem-sexist theme that is going on with crime and law dramas. It needs to stop.

A recurring them in psycho characters on TV is that they are all poetic artists, which is dumb, because it is turning into a cliche and it lost its theatrical effect.

They own multiple creepy Poe masks? I don't know. Their walls have drawings? BINGO

I'm still not fully sold on the show just based on the story itself and some of the cast options, but the way the episodes are executed is brilliant. The theme of each episode carries on in the dialogue, the plot twists, and most importantly the soundtrack. The soundtrack of this show is spot on, not only for each episode, but for each scene as well. I will risk sounding like an idiot if and after the show fails, but the soundtrack could almost be as good as Breaking Bad's. Yeah, I went there.

My favorite scene so far is the scene at the end of the first episode, when Ryan (Kevin Bacon) confronts Joe at prison and discovers that Joe is planning a sequel to his criminal story. The background music is just epic, a hard rock cover of Sweet Dreams Are Made of This. The moment Joe confesses to setting up Ryan to be the main character of his next "criminal adventures" you hear the classic lyrics: "some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you." Genius.

My favorite character so far is Claire Matthews, Joe's ex-wife, and Ryan's ex-lover, and Joey's mom. Her storyline is character driven, complex, and relate-able. My least favorite character is probably Joe or Deborah, I'm not really sure at this point.


final rating: 5/5 (2 points solely for the soundtrack)