The Following - Season 1 (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Creator: Kevin Williamson
	Actors: Kevin Bacon (JFK, Death Sentence, Super, Stir of Echoes), James Purefoy (John Carter), Shawn Ashmore
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: May 2017, VOD, 10" tablet & 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: Ten years after former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Bacon) has put away the serial killer Joe Carroll (Purefoy), this one makes himself heard of through members of a cult to his person.
Review: This TV-series was promising some thrills and stars Kevin Bacon that I find too rare (I always liked him in Hollow Man, Stir of Echoes or Super for example), and he does a good job at playing this man with a dark and troubled past. James Purefoy is not bad either as his archenemy, although I got a bit tired of his character towards the end of the season. I quickly noticed that the series was created and produced by Kevin Williamson that I remember vividly as being the successful writer of the Scream franchise (directed by Wes Craven) as well as other movies of the Neo-slasher period that nurtured my young adult years: I know what you did last summer, Teaching Mrs. Tingles, The Faculty. After some years of absence, he is back with the Scream TV-series and The Following among others. This one bears his mark, in a format maybe more adapted nowadays than a full-length feature, and that was a good find from him! Most of all are the knifes: he does like to show a good stabbing and what best for that than a serial killer inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The romantic writer is more than quoted in the series, he is at the heart of the cult's beliefs. Stabbings then, killers as well although not masked but in pair (like in the original Scream) or more, and the sadistic pleasure of killing people in front of their friends or loved ones. After watching too many episode in a row I got in fact sick of too many such scenes, as I don't like to watch much torture in movies. The whole story of serial killer, stabbings, punishments and references (to books instead of movies this time) borrowed from the Neo-slasher period is wrapped into a new context based not on the teenagers suffering from the murders but on the FBI investigation and in particular the former agent Hardy that plays a central role and is deeply connected to the maniac: he arrested him but got almost killed in the process, now needs a pacemaker, he was very close to the wife of that one at some point, and has a back-story that makes him believe he is cursed to see all of his close ones get hurt. A very interesting character. I enjoyed the series that uses the modern trend that anything can happen at any moment and in particular any of the main cast can get killed. Unfortunately some weaknesses of the Neo-slashers transpire as well, for example the usual scenes of chase in a house where characters get separated and one ends up going outside alone without looking behind, this kind of things. I will probably take a break before starting with the fifteen more episodes of that in the second season.
Rating: 5 /10