A New Cult Following

Last night was the premiere of Fox's newest television show, The Following. Created by the hit-and-miss Kevin Williamson, the series is the dark tale of a former FBI agent whose life spiraled downward after his efforts eight years ago to capture a vicious serial killer.

I found the pilot quite tantalizing, a success on a number of levels. The casting is excellent. Kevin Bacon stars as former agent Ryan Hardy, forced back into action when the killer he apprehended escapes from prison. He plays the character as tortured and haunted, but certainly not hollow. Where many actors would play this kind of role from a distant, withdrawn place, Bacon makes it clear that his character suffers because he cares deeply.

James Purefoy, best known as Marc Anthony from the short-lived HBO series Rome, plays Joe Carroll, the charismatic but deeply twisted killer that was the object of Hardy's manhunt. The pilot presented scenes both from the present and from a decade earlier, before the killer's capture, and Purefoy portrayed both the smooth and oily sides of the character convincingly.

The supporting cast includes a number of other recognizable faces. Genre fans will probably spot Maggie Grace from Lost (and the Taken movies), as well as Shawn Ashmore (Iceman in the X-Men movies).

That said, it's not the acting, but the storytelling that I found particularly compelling in this first episode. The series is relentlessly dark, so much so that it feels more like a cable series than a network show. There are moments that come about as close to the twisted images from the movie Seven as you could get on prime-time television. The pilot also did a wonderful job of thwarting expectations. I was developing my idea of what the show would be throughout the hour, and something that I was supposing might figure into the season finale actually ended up happening at the close of the penultimate act.

That said, there were a few flaws too. Or at least, the potential for flaws. The pilot makes a brief moment of a mysterious letter written from prison by the killer, and keeps the audience in the dark as to the contents. My hope is that they don't try to play out that mystery for long on the show, because I'm fairly certain that's a puzzle I've already unraveled. (Then again, the show has already surprised me once, so we'll see.)

The series also has baked into it the potential to indulge in one of the elements that in my opinion caused the decline of 24: the bad guy's plan may be too elaborate. Season 4 of 24 was the one that crossed the line for me, where villain Marwan seemed to have backup plan after backup plan, a veritable Russian nesting doll of evil plots all ready to go the second some other scheme was thwarted. Frankly, it felt like Homeland might be starting to go that way too near the end of season 2. The Following sets up its villain Carroll as a sort of cult leader, with an untold number of disciples out in the world willing to do his bidding. If The Following makes smart, sparing use of this device, I think it could soar as a series. If it becomes the "catch the groupie of the week" series, and makes the villain out to be impossibly clever with an operative always in the right place at the right time, I fear it could get old quickly.

But the stylish distopia of the pilot caught my attention enough that I'm going to want to sample what comes next. And I'll be hoping the show continues to surprise me in good ways. I'd give the pilot a B+.