The Following Season 1

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

The first episode was rough. they got too emotional to fast with characters no one was attached to. gave it a chance and kept watching but its just too predictable. and the most unnerving part is how incompetent and downright stupid they make the FBI out to be it’s ridiculous. I gave up at the point where the FBI called in new leadership and was concerned with one of the protagonists being too emotionally involved. so when one of the agents is abducted by a team of at least 4 people the FBI sends 2 frigging agents one of which being the emotional moron, with nothing more than Glocks, to an abandoned shipyard and no intel on the location. like really? and really it’s sad because I really liked the concept I think it had a lot of potential. I liked the serial killer perspective but the execution of it was just bad. also what I’m assuming is a 9mm hollow point out of the Glocks they were using apparently make more sparks on concrete than a fire starter on steroids.-Zachary Vogel

This series has a lot of potential. It tries to be like Hannibal Lecter/ Criminal Minds. I can understand why there are a lot of 1-star reviews because, I was leaning that way too. The 3 main protagonists seem always lacking manpower and often ambushed by the more organized cult/criminals and it does seem implausible. Perhaps in season 2 they can correct a lack of manpower and the lack of tactical competence shown by the SWAT members, as they too are often ambushed and quickly executed.

I think this Hannibal-&- Edgar Allan Poe like criminal as more realistic, since Joe Carroll shows a lot of monomaniacal impulses and weaknesses of a typical sociopath. He is not perfect like Hannibal Lecter nor as brilliant, but he is often several steps ahead of the FBI…I thought it might have had potential but it doesn’t…Season 2 was a failure. Too much stabbing, shooting, screaming and mindless characters…to sum it up…it goes from Edgar Allan Poe to religious cults…or Jesus Christ cults….how original.

– Master Ma

A word of caution up front, this will contain some spolierish material from season one, although nothing major will be given away.

The Following is a show about a serial killer that focuses not only on the killer himself (played wonderfully by James Purefoy), but the cult of followers that assist him. He kills based on literary references, and has set up a religious cult based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The show starts with him breaking out of prison and sets in motion a plan to kill the agent that arrested him (played by Kevin Bacon), and be reunited with his ex wife (Natalie Zea) and young son.

The first half of the season consisted of many twists and turns mainly focused around who was a cult member and who was not. Some of that got kind of ridiculous because there were cult members insulated almost everywhere. The cult ended up being very large, although the story tended to focus mainly on just a few of the “main” members. Like any dramatized cop show they had the agents making very stupid decisions in order to put them in more danger when trying to catch the cult members. Some of those things did die down by the end of the season however.

The story is told both in present day and in a series of flashbacks to tell the back stories of the characters and reveal how Joe was originally caught. The show is very violent but not ultra gory. Yes there is blood, killing and some gory moments, but if you compare the level of gore to a show like Hannibal it is very tame. What I think the show does best is make all the characters flawed in some way. The good guys are not always good, and the bad guys are written in a way that they are not always just pure evil so you can find some compassion for some of them. It is also a show where no character is safe. All of the main characters are point in death defying situations, and not all make it alive.

If you get the blu rays, the season will come not only on blu ray, but for some reason on DVD. It does give you more options for when and where you can watch the show, but I would rather just have the blu rays and keep the set a little less expensive. Like is the case with most new shows, it looks and sounds great on blu ray. And given some of the wonderful visuals that the show gives on location shots you can really enjoy the picture quality. Like many of the dramas are doing the season was shorter, 16 episodes in all covering 4 discs.

As far as the bonus material goes, there are commentary and deleted scenes on selected episodes. There are also “in movie” experience mode on some where you get video pop ups where something about a scene will be explained. Along with that there is just over an hour of behind the scenes and making of features included. So if you are one who likes to go through that material it will be enough to make you happy. The only real drawback to the blu rays is that there is no true season play mode. The episodes will play back-to-back, however if you stop in the middle of an episode it will not start playing from where you left off when you turn the player back on. It reloads to the main menu (which thankfully is pretty quick if you have a newer player and have updated your firmware) but you have to go back to the episode you were on and either do chapter selections or forward through it to get back to where you left off.

Overall it is a well written (for the most part) well acted drama. As I said above some of the twists early in the season are a bit silly, but once those let up, and it becomes more of a chase/manhunt thriller it works well. If you generally like those kinds of shows and movies then this one is worth checking out.

-Mike S.Top Contributor: Star Wars

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Various
Directors: Various
Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: French, Spanish
Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 4
Rated: NR Not Rated
Studio: WarnerBrothers
DVD Release Date: January 7, 2014
Run Time: 653 minutes
ASIN: B00BGI076M