Here’s another batch of reviews and comments of “The Following” gathered around the web courtesy of the lucky bastards journalists who got to see the pilot in advance.
TV For The Rest of Us had the chance to watch it during a Warner Bros screening in Sydney and blogged:
Written by Kevin Williamson, “The Following” automatically got my attention. The premise is, Ryan Hardy, retired FBI agent, played by Kevin Bacon is called back into the field when a serial killer he put away, Joe Carroll played by the always charming, yet disarming James Purefoy, escapes custody in a bloody rampage. Carroll is an ex-English professor/novelist, who killed 14 of his female students by cutting out their eyes. He has a thing for Poe. In his original killing spree, one of his students got away. Now the fear is he’s trying get to her to finish his story, which is his version of Poe’s last unfinished work.
“The Following” feels like it’s going to be a bit of a stock standard FBI, hunt them down procedural, but it’s not. Carroll is so charismatic that over his years in prison, he has gathered a following; students as such, people who will to go to any length to help him. No one knows how far his tentacles have reached into society.
“The Following” was excellent. I usually don’t dig this kind of show but Kevin Bacon is as wonderful as ever, Purefoy is handsome and creepy, it’s INCREDIBLY gory and violent and just when you think it’s all sort of wrapped up, the last 5 minutes are an ABSOLUTE CORKER. The last 5 minutes made me go, oh wow! I’m not telling you anything else. It’s just a really neat idea, really well done and though I see this as probably playing out as an episodic show with an overarching serialised plot, it’s different enough from the usual procedural cop stuff, to stand head and shoulders above it. Williamson has shown again why he is one of the best and most original writers out there. “The Following,” you got to see it just to enjoy the cleverness of the bad guy and what he has in store. Watch itpossibly with your hands over your eyes here and there.
Tiffany Vogt, reporter for the TV Addict, wrote on her Twitter account:
Fox’s #TheFollwing starring Kevin Bacon was excellent too, but scared the beegeebizes out of me. Horror fans are going to love it.
The pilot episode will be screened during Comic-Con 2012, an annual pop culture convention held in San Diego. According to the official press several new Warnes Bros pilots including “The Following” will be screened on Preview Night on July 11, while a panel session with Kevin Williamson (creator and writer), Marcos Siega (director) and actors Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy will be hosted on July 14.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11 BALLROOM 20
For the fifth straight year, WBTVG gets Comic-Con off to a dramatic start by hosting a special sneak peek, world premiere screening event on Preview Night. […]
The Following (Midseason Mondays FOX): Golden Globe winner/Emmy(R) nominee Kevin Bacon and Rome’s James Purefoy star in this cat-and-mouse thriller from Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries) about a diabolical serial killer (Purefoy) and the psychologically scarred ex-FBI agent (Bacon) called in to stop him and the cult of serial killers he has created.
[…]
SATURDAY, JULY 14
The Following: Series stars Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy join executive producers Kevin Williamson and Marcos Siega. Room 6BCF
