The Following: The Alternative Hannibal?

[Perpetual Man]

A backstory is something that comes with the territory of new beginning. Whether it is a novel, film or television series, giving a character a past gives them depth and allows the viewer to understand who they are and where they have come from.

So when the backstory is: An eccentric FBI agent who is known for unusual methods finds himself working on a case that is unique and different. In order to give him greater understanding he finds himself with an expert in the field he needs. They bond, form an uneasy alliance, perhaps even the starting point of a friendship and then the FBI agent realises that the serial killer is in fact the man he is working with. He manages to orchestrate the killers capture but in doing so is critically knifed, enough to nearly kill him and end his career.

Until years later something connected to the now imprisoned killer forces the agent out of retirement.

Of course the above is the relationship of Will Graham and Hannibal Lector.

But it isn't.

It is also the relationship of Ryan Hardy and Joe Carroll, the central characters of the recent television series The Following. Like many things the seed and roots might be similar but the way it flowers is totally different.

The Following is a mid-season series, starting halfway through the US main television season which means it has only 15 episodes as opposed to the average of 22. In keeping with another thread I started recently I'm going to ask the question whether this qualifies as SF or Fantasy, and answer it quickly with a resounding 'No.'

But there are other ways that shows can be of interest to the Chronicles audience and in this instance it is the fact that the show and plot has very strong links with Edgar Allan Poe and his works.

Carroll, the serial killer, is a published writer and a teacher specialising in Poe's works, and when the killings begin, with fragments of Poe's writings oh them, he seems to be the perfect go to guy for Hardy. It may be young women that Carroll targets, but upon capture he does not to stab Hardy through the heart. He does not die but has to live with a pacemaker for the rest of his life.

And that could have been the end of the story with Carroll behind bars, Hardy living the quiet life.

Until the killings start again, complete with the Poe quotes...

The series is a procedural drama, but it plays fast and loose with the rules, making you forget that much of what you have seen is on the edge of preposterous, by ramping up the tension, episode after episode. Both opposing leads Kevin Bacon as Hardy and James Purefoy as Carroll and spot on, Purefoy especially as he follows his story arc. There are good guys to like, bad guys to hate and more than a few who sit in the blurry bit in the middle.

And it all culminates in a final episode that dominated Twitter for hours after showing in the US as it trended. Why? Because it was so grippingly stressful, that it could not help but keep you locked on the television for it's transmission, with an ending to die for.

Quite literally.

As a whole there may well be plot holes, there may well be some unbelievable jumps of logic, but the one thing The Following has going for it is the ability to ramp up the tension episode after episode, meaning that you overlook so much just because you can't let go of the chair. In a show that has about ten regular cast members, and by the last episode only two are still on their feet it shows that the ability to give you character mortality just adds to what they are capable.

And no one is safe.

It's well worth a watch, if only to make it to the last episode.

 

[svalbard]

I loved the The Following for many of the reasons you mention above. It was at times 'preposterous' and at times utterly gripping. Agree on the two leads, they were spot on, with Bacon at his very best. The last few episodes of the season, whilst stretching the shows credibility to the very limits, were what I would call 'unmissable TV'. I sincerely hope they leave the series as it ended because it can only go downhill from this point onwards.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I sort of agree, that perhaps ending it where it does would be the best option.

I cannot help but think of Prison Break which had a phenomenal first season but then was left treading water for the next four years.

For better or worse though The Following has been granted a second series so we shall have to see.

Maybe a show that sees the murders start again, but with the nebulous 'is Joe still alive' as the main theme could work.

Or kill it!

 

[Jonathan C]

I watched this and while I enjoyed it, looking back, it was not really a good series. If I rewatched it I think I would dislike it more. Peel back its tension and plot twists and its pretty lacking in some key areas.

You can tell this was influenced by 24. Torture always works (on bad guys at least-though Joe's followers are even wimpier than those terrorists); nobody who is not the main character is safe; traitors and moles are everywhere; the good guys are incompetent (inc. the hero, but somehow he's always right); everyone is messed up; etc.

The only way forward for a show like this is to go bigger. For it to work you'd probably need a bigger cult or a more elaborate network of killers who are all much more dangerous and who have more nefarious plans. Probably the best bet would be to eject Joe as when it comes down to it he was just a loser who became a serial killer because he failed at being an author, and his cult collapsed on itself (one of the more believable aspects of this show, granted). I think they hinted that he had some grander plan in mind that he never got round to doing because he was too obsessed with his book and family- maybe they could focus on that. But if this show is going to last it has to move beyond Carrol some point soon.