The Following
2013
Original language: English
- crime
- drama
The story
Notorious serial killer Joe Carroll, after being found guilty of murdering 14 female students on the Virginia college campus where he taught literature, escapes from death row. The FBI calls former agent Ryan Hardy to consult on the case, as he was the one responsible for Carroll’s capture in 2003. Ryan, working closely with an FBI team, including Mike Weston and FBI Specialist Debra Parker, piece together the ever-growing web of murders orchestrated by the devious Carroll.
What it’s like
Cold, rain-slicked palettes of steel blue and sodium orange, with handheld close-ups that hang on faces in dim kitchens, motel rooms and campus corridors. The camera leans in during interrogations and pulls back to wide, lonely shots of empty highways and lakeside houses at dusk, while a pulsing synth score and sudden silences keep the tension wound tight. The vibe is bleak, feverish and relentlessly watchful, best suited to a late-night binge alone with the lights off. Pacing is brisk and cliffhanger-driven, with each episode ending on a turn that pulls you straight into the next. Emotionally it stays dark and obsessive, following a battered ex-agent and a circle of investigators whose lives erode under the strain of a cult-like killer who seems always one step ahead. Violence is frequent and often graphic, including stabbings, killings shown on screen and disturbing crime-scene imagery, with an ongoing undercurrent of menace, sexual threat and psychological cruelty. It suits viewers who want relentless crime-thriller suspense and don't mind a hard, unsparing darkness.
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