The Following: the complete series
DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:
Like all crime shows, The Following is in essence a battle of good vs. evil. The twist in this well-told, well-acted story is that good is damaged and faltering and evil is clever and deeply depraved — and for now, winning the battle.
Making a welcome debut as the lead of a TV series, Kevin Bacon stars as Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent famed for capturing serial killer Joe Carroll (Rome’s James Purefoy) — whose signature style of evisceration included removing his victims’ eyes, sometimes while they were still alive. For Hardy, the price of that capture was a stab wound, a pacemaker, and alcohol-fueled guilt over his affair with Carroll’s wife (Justified’sNatalie Zea), which is why he’s a former agent.
Carroll, however, has escaped from prison – and Hardy has been called back to help recapture him. As if a deranged murderer on the loose weren’t terrifying enough, Carroll has gathered followers, uniting them around his cult-like worship of Edgar Allan Poe and using them to rewrite the ending of his own story.
Thus begins this Poe-infused contest. On one side, you have Hardy, a young agent who worships him (Shawn Ashmore) and a cult expert (Annie Parisse) who’s not sure he can be trusted. On the other – well, outside of Carroll, it’s not fair to tell you who’s on the other side, as his followers’ identities are some of the show’s best revealed surprises.
The driving creative force behind The Following is Kevin Williamson, who proved he knows horror in Scream and something about the mechanics of stretching out a TV soap in Dawson’s Creek. He doesn’t always play fair; some plot twists seem implausible at best, others are overdone or gratuitous. But some implausibility comes with the horror/suspense genre, and there’s no question Williamson has mastered it — just as there’s no question that the match of wills between the wounded Bacon and malevolent Purefoy is exceedingly well played.
Whether it’s a game you want to see played is a different matter. Some may grow tired of following a hero who always seems to be a crucial step behind, while others will be uncomfortable with the joy the show seems to take in mayhem.
For The Following, it’s not enough to simply slit a throat; we have to see the victim bleed out on the floor. Nor is it just the explicit violence: There’s a scene involving a child and a mouse that is as warped as any you’ll see this year.
Whether you let your own child see it is up to you, though I can’t help hoping the answer is “no.” Still, if what you want for yourself is a network series that will effectively and efficiently chill you to the bone, here it is.
-Robert Bianco
DVD Wholesale Main Features:
Genre: Television, Drama
Edition: Box Set, Widescreen
Leading Role: Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy
Audio: English
Format: DVD
Number of discs: 12
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Release Date: 10/13/2015
Sub-Genre: Drama
Region Code: Region 1
