Review of Season One:
I'll make it clear now that I'm not a fan of Kevin Williamson. I know the guy made his name writing SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, but I find his writing style immature and slapdash, relying on coincidence and contrivance. It rings hollow for me, so that people like Craven can make excellent films of his work is a surprise.
THE FOLLOWING is a serial killer thriller written and created by Williamson, but to my surprise I didn't hate it. It's heavily flawed, with many episodes featuring characters who do dumb things, but on the other hand it's well acted and fast-paced, so that you never have time to dwell on the shortcomings.
I know Kevin Bacon is an ubiquitous actor these days but he's very good as the flawed hero character here. The scene-stealer, of course, is James Purefoy, as the Messianic serial killer who inspires a cult following. As a lover of Gothic literature, I enjoyed all the Poe references, and there's so much incident that this is hard not to enjoy. THE FOLLOWING suffers from being a bit back-and-forth-ish in the narrative and having poorly written (and annoying) female characters, but I liked it enough to want to check out the second series.
Review of Season Two:
The good news is that Season 2 of THE FOLLOWING is a definite step up in quality from the first series. This is much faster paced, more involving, and has a lot more action and incident to keep it moving along quickly. The various sub-plots are also a lot more interesting and the annoying characters like Emma and Claire are either not as annoying or get far less screen time.
The plot kicks off from the get go with the addition of new, rival serial killers who pick up where Joe Carroll left off. The twins are great characters and bring the screen to life whenever they're around. This is one of the stabbiest shows I've ever seen, with multiple knifings seemingly every episode, although it's not excessively gory.
Bacon feels more assured in his performance here, more world-weary, and definitely more human. Jessica Stroup is a great addition to the cast, but best of all is the returning James Purefoy, who's given time to really flesh out his character and even make him likable on occasion. He's the best thing in this and the writers know it, giving him all of the finest moments. The last episode of the series is particularly well written, giving us an unexpected plot development, but overall it's the superior quality of the writing throughout the season that makes this so enjoyable.
Review of Season Three:
So, here we have the final season of the show. It's a step down from the last series and the reason for that is that James Purefoy's character takes a back seat here. Instead we get some returning killers and a whole bunch of new ones, none of whom have as much as impact as the ones depicted previously.
There's a definite sense of repetition in the show by now with lots of near-misses and the constant escape of characters being more than a little wearying. THE FOLLOWING still keeps you watching with some very dark elements in the script but I did feel it was going through the motions at other times.
Still, every scene involving Purefoy is very good, and the pacing is a lot faster than in the first series, which makes this superior to that. I have to say that it does feel like it finishes in the right place and anything more would probably have driven it into the ground.
