As a fan of Poe's writings, the two main actors and the 'serial killer' genre in particular, I was naturally stoked for this series. After only two episodes, it might be a bit early to form a definitive opinion, but the show has been nothing less than disappointing up 'till now; let's just hope that the writers get their stuff together some time soon.
For instance: at the end of the show's pilot, Hardy (Kevin Bacon) breaks Carroll's (James Purefoy) hand in three places; later on in the second episode, which is supposed to take place immediately afterwards, Carroll tries to strangle his ex-wife. For a show that boasts 'nothing is as it seems' as a tagline, that's just plain lazy writing: a hand with three broken fingers is exactly what it seems - completely useless to strangle anybody with. And that's just one of many examples of poor plotting I've noticed after watching only two episodes of 'The Following'; I won't get into any other ones to not spoil too much of the storyline.
Being an avid reader, this would've been plenty of reason for me to disregard the show from now on, but that's not where the misery ends. This show also has some of the worst editing I've ever seen, and I've watched a lot of truly nightmarishly cut B-films, so that's saying something. Furthermore, they did manage to choose some really good music (Deftones, a Massive Attack cover and so on), but they've been slapped onto seemingly random scenes, without any sense of pacing.
Bacon and Purefoy are great, as is most of the supporting cast, but up 'till now, they didn't have much to work with.
So, thus far: five out of ten. I'll give it another two or three episodes, but if things haven't picked up by then, I'm out.
For instance: at the end of the show's pilot, Hardy (Kevin Bacon) breaks Carroll's (James Purefoy) hand in three places; later on in the second episode, which is supposed to take place immediately afterwards, Carroll tries to strangle his ex-wife. For a show that boasts 'nothing is as it seems' as a tagline, that's just plain lazy writing: a hand with three broken fingers is exactly what it seems - completely useless to strangle anybody with. And that's just one of many examples of poor plotting I've noticed after watching only two episodes of 'The Following'; I won't get into any other ones to not spoil too much of the storyline.
Being an avid reader, this would've been plenty of reason for me to disregard the show from now on, but that's not where the misery ends. This show also has some of the worst editing I've ever seen, and I've watched a lot of truly nightmarishly cut B-films, so that's saying something. Furthermore, they did manage to choose some really good music (Deftones, a Massive Attack cover and so on), but they've been slapped onto seemingly random scenes, without any sense of pacing.
Bacon and Purefoy are great, as is most of the supporting cast, but up 'till now, they didn't have much to work with.
So, thus far: five out of ten. I'll give it another two or three episodes, but if things haven't picked up by then, I'm out.