XDA

After Diner and Footloose, who doesn't like Kevin Bacon? So I thought I'd give his new TV vehicle a try and I've watched it from the beginning. The Following is about a serial killer and the crew of followers who help him. The killer is played by James Purefoy (who was Marc Antony on Rome), one of the few Brit actors who does not adopt an American accent for his role on American TV. Purefoy was a professor at a mythical college in Virginia and a lot of the show is set in Richmond although they don't actually shoot the show there. He's into Poe. That's a mistake. Although Poe is rightly famous for inventing the short story as we know it, and a few of them, he's really not that deep. He's every schoolboy's idea of the macabre. There's no there there--hardly enough for a semester course, much less for a cult of very dedicated killers.

So the show has a large cast of characters all of whom are unlikable, including the killer's son. The killer's wife is particularly unlikable. I hope he kills her soon. On the bad guy side, Bacon should have shot the pixieish evil nanny (Emma) in the head several times, three episodes ago. But this is how stupid the show is.

The killer is a few days away from execution for the murder and mutilation of 14 college girls. He escapes, killing 5 guards, and he manages to kill the one intended victim who got away before Bacon catches him again. OK, so execute him. Escaping is no reason to stay the execution. They don't need a new trial for the new victims. Off the mother, now! No, he's back in prison and his pending execution is all but forgotten.

The FBI is peopled by idiots, with the possible exception of Parisse and the IT-geek/agent. No one in the bureau seems to have the slightest idea of agent safety including the use of body armor and back-up. They are dying like flies, completely ineffectual flies. The Marshals, prison guards and the local cops are even dumber.

In fact, the whole of the exasperating governmental hierarchy is rigidly stupid, and easily outwitted by complete idiots who follow the English teacher/killer ultra-willingly to their deaths almost exclusively dealt by Bacon, because...

Only Bacon can shoot his Sig effectively.

There are 5th graders who could come up with a more satisfying plot and there is only one plot--escape and capture, capture and escape, over and over and over again.

The show is just plain bad. It is about to slip from 'guilty pleasure' into 'what was I thinking?'

Labels: The Following