Ryan, Parker, and Weston prepare to storm the follower’s mansion, but Joe already has an escape plan in action.Download Video The Following The End is Near Episode On ABC Family Tv Online Tv Live Streaming Video. Online Watch The Following Full Episode Watch Stream HD Video on Internet TV.Meanwhile, disguised followers create a diversion at the town evacuation center, which causes panic among the residents and leads to a dangerous kidnapping of one FBI official.The FBI estimates there are currently over 300 active serial killers in the United States. What would happen if these killers had a way of communicating and connecting with each other? What if they were able to work together and form alliances across the country? What if one brilliant psychotic serial killer was able to bring them all together and activate a following? When notorious serial killer JOE CARROLL (James Purefoy, "Rome") escapes from death row and embarks on a new killing spree, the FBI calls former agent RYAN HARDY (Emmy-nominated actor Kevin Bacon, "X-Men: First Class," "Frost/Nixon") to consult on the case.
Having since withdrawn from the public eye, Hardy was responsible for Carroll's capture nine years ago.
Here's why I ask: The show's premise is that imprisoned killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) has been able to convince his acolytes to follow elaborate orders that include murder, kidnapping and a host of other crimes. Of course, there have been instances of cult leaders inducing their followers to commit heinous acts, but that persuasion has typically taken place in person.
Here, we're expected to believe that Joe, a mass murderer under lock and key, was not only able to regularly access the Internet without anyone noticing, but that he was able to use those online connections to persuade people to do his bloody bidding. Investigators, including Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon), discover that Carroll got occasional prison visits from cult members, but his influence appeared to be most effective and extensive online.
Can a number of people, even disturbed or angry ones, be convinced to murder at the click of a mouse? Can the kind of obsessives attracted to a convicted killer be trusted to follow elaborate directions and pull off complex crimes without tipping anyone off? "The Following" rests on the assumption that this is all plausible, and that's just one of the cynical assumptions at the heart of the show.
Another one is that literary allusions can class up yet another tale about people who like to torture and kill, more or less for kicks. In "The Following," there are lots of allusions to the work of Edgar Allan Poe, but it's all the kind of sophomoric, uninspired analysis that would earn a college student a B- (at best) on a mid-term.
Given that this show was created by "Scream" writer Kevin Williamson, there's the usual showy deconstruction of scary-story cliches, but that deconstruction just draws attention to how hollow this project is. The victims and their suffering really don't matter; they're just fodder for Carroll's fantasies and Bacon's obsessive need to catch him. Even Carrolll's running commentary notes that these are tired cliches.
Purefoy, Bacon and Natalie Zea (who plays Carroll's ex) are good actors, but their performances are reminders that they deserve projects that actually do examine human weakness and the dark corners of the soul, instead of one that merely takes the occasional talky jabs at those subjects.
The start of the series was off the charts, it was action filled, in a word - extraordinary! Half way through it, I immediately asked myself: How can they keep this up for at least a season?! The answer came in no time. Excellent! Now for the second part of the review. After delighting myself with this first take on "The Following", I jumped back here to see how many people felt just as excited about this new series as I was. Unfortunately, I immediately saw a great deal of idiotic, so-called reviews.
I feel I have the right to call them idiots for a simple reason. Through the magic of deduction, those who complained and rated this '1' read the description (at least the one here on IMDb). Now, I ask you this: You have to be an idiot to read "psychotic serial killer" in the plot and expect him to plant flowers and feed the children in Somalia, right? Damn right! I urge these people to go back either to "Lady and the Tramp" (which was good by the way).. or to those that paid for the disgusting reviews.