Reviews of Movies, TV shows & metro Detroit Restaurants

Short movie & TV show reviews and metro Detroit restaurant reviews

Thursday, May 2, 2013

TV Show Review: "The Following"



OK, I orginally wasn't going to write a review of this show, but changed my mind...

When I first heard about "The Following", I thought it sounded like it could be a good, intriguing show. I have always been a fan of shows, movies or books regarding serial killers. So when I heard that this was a show about a serial killer (Joe Carroll played by the always excellent James Purefoy) with a cult following being hunted by a former FBI agent (Ryan Hardy played by Kevin Bacon), I was interested.

Unfortunately THIS particular show about a serial killer just isn't that good. It's cheesy, predictable and just plain lame. It really wasn't even that suspenseful or scary. Its usage of Edgar Allan Poe's writings as influence was a bit intriguing at first...until the show mis-credited an Alexander Pope quote to Poe. The Poe references quickly became tiring. And depicting Hardy as an alcoholic was very cliche.

One aspect of the show that I found almost comical was its portrayal of every law enforcement agency shown as being bumbling idiots. There is no way that the FBI is consistently as stupid as they are depicted on this show. I did like Hardy's quick trigger...if you crossed Ryan Hardy in any shape or fashion, he shot you. He had almost as many deaths on his hands as Joe Carroll.

A promising cast (Bacon, Purefoy and the beautiful Natalie Zea as their common love interest) was basically wasted as these characters were thrown into scenes & situations that were not worthy of their talents.

This is another example of a broadcast drama falling short where cable dramas do not. There are exceptions as shows like "Person of Interest" & "Elementary" are well-done network dramas that require some intelligence to watch. "The Following" does not have such depth and pales in comparison to cable dramas such as "Game of Thrones", "Mad Men" and the best of them all..."Breaking Bad." As an example, at the same time "The Following" started, FX started airing "The Americans" which is an excellent drama that I most certainly be tuning into when its second season starts. I will not be doing that with "The Following"...

I guess I will rate "The Following"...4.0/10 stars

1 comment:

Tim said...

I agree with you!! The show should have been a lot better. There is no excuse for writing this bad.