The Following is the Kevin Williamsoniest Kevin Williamson project yet. It's like a Greatest Hits compilation of all his favorite tricks and tropes teased into an episodic serial and set to the running pace of 24. Like many of his works (the Scream films, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty), it's brutal, cleverly nasty, and bizarrely self-aware. It is not a show for people with aversions to random acts of violence, ocular trauma, or close-ups of Kevin Bacon.
It's also pretty awesome.
Mashing up the police procedural genre (a genre I personally can't stand) and the serial killer/slasher horror movie genre results in a pretty potent package: the show is lighting-paced, genuinely scary, and wonderfully macabre. And if my hunches are correct, we've only seen the tip of the icepick.
Anyway, let's get down to discussing the show's first episode. I have to admit that I'm a few episodes ahead (I could not. Stop. Watching.), so I'm going to forego a traditional recap here so as not to accidentally spoil anything. I'll leave any and all speculations to you kids in the comments.
For now...
What We Know
- Hardy (Kevin Bacon) is a functioning alcoholic, like Jamie Lee Curtis in Williamson's Halloween: H20. He is extremely bad at (or entirely unconcerned with) hiding this fact.
- Stabbing yourself in the eye in a busy police station while covered in the words of Edgar Allen Poe? That's SO Raven.
- We, as a culture, have an insatiable need to place Maggie Grace (Taken, The Fog, Lost) in mortal peril. For whatever reason, we absolutely love to see that girl suffer. She and Naomi Watts (Funny Games, The Impossible) should just go ahead and apply for sainthood, because there's no way either of them is getting out of Hollywood alive.
- The FBI is armed to the teeth with totally doable agents:
Billy Brown and Shawn Ashmore
- Hardy is a loose cannon and there's just no telling what he might do at any minute! It's downright unbelievable that he's the only person that can handle this investigation, isn't it?!
- I've said it before, and I'll say it again: you cannot trust gays that live in townhouses in Virginia. I actually dated one in college, and I always suspected that he was up to something. Will (Nico Tortorella) and Billy (Adan Canto) serve as proof positive.
Nico Tortorella and Adan Canto
What We Don't Know
- Speaking of Bill and Willy, why do you think Hardy implied that the gaybors weren't even gay? Was it because actual gay dudes would never be a part of such a nefarious plan? Was it because gay men are, by their nature, not a threat to the public good? Or was it because real gay guys would never tolerate such a shoddy custom closet job?
- How many of these nutjobs are there out there? And if they're all truly sociopaths, isn't it going to be difficult for them to get along with one another?
- What's the deal with Hardy and Claire's affair, and why are they so certain that there's no way Carroll could know about it?
- At least one of the Feds is going to be part of the Following, right? The only question is who. My bet is that this will be revealed at the end of the mid-season cliffhanger.
Natalie Zea
- How does the ex-wife of a failed novelist who probably lost everything on legal fees and was (is?) an English teacher by trade afford such a kickin' crib and a full-time, live-in nanny?
- Exactly HOW adorable is Shawn Ashmore? I mean, scientifically speaking?
- Um ... basically everything else.
Notably Dead: A gaggle of sorority girls, a peck of prison guards, Maggie Grace (hooraaaay! Wait, now WHY WOULD I SAY THAT?), Raven Lady, the cast of All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Notably Gay: Billy and Will. For now, anyway.
Notably Following: Carroll, the Sitter, the Maybe Gaybors, Jordy
If this thing takes off and people keep tuning in for the twists and terror (trust me, there is PLENTY of both in store in the next few eps), we'll kick around the idea of a full-on recap. For now, what'd you think of The Following? Too much? Not enough? Nevermore?
New episodes of The Following air Mondays at 9/8c on FOX
