A move to TV must have seemed like a no-brainer after his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, found immense success with TNT's The Closer, winning both the Emmy and a Golden Globe as she carried the show over seven seasons. The Following airs Mondays on Fox and his character, Ryan Hardy, is complicated. We'll come back to that.
Ryan was a top FBI agent. Ten years ago, he tracked down a serial killer who was obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe. Or maybe the proper wording there is: He stumbled upon the serial killer. It was college professor Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) and not only was Ryan in love wtih the professor's wife Claire (Natalie Zea), he even sought help from the professor. It was only when the serial killer was in the process of killing a college student that he discovered Joe was the killer.
It was during that attack that Joe stabbed him in the chest. As a result, Ryan now has a pacemaker. As a result of whatever the relationship was with Claire, he's no longer with the FBI.
But ten years later, Joe breaks out of prison. The FBI needs Ryan. And Ryan catching Joe doesn't change that need. It turns out Joe's been building a cult over the last years. And one of them, the nanny for Joey -- Joe and Clarie's son, kidnaps Joey.
Claire is where the show's at its best. Zea's at the stage that amazingly beautiful people reach where they only look more beautiful when you try to dress them down or try to make them look tragic. That's not taking anything away from her acting, Zea's a wonderful actress and we've praised her talent before. But she's reached a moment -- one that usually doesn't last long -- where her beauty enhances every gesture, every emotion. The written page doesn't really matter at this point. Claire's supposed to be haunted and Natalie Zea's making her haunting.
That's the show at it's best. At it's not so good? Remember we said Ryan was complicated? He is complicated and dark and tortured and brooding. With a difficult past. So naturally, he doesn't want to talk about it -- especially not to FBI agent Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore).
Mike doesn't know how lucky he is. In a flashback (in episode four), Ryan was more chatty in bed with Claire after the two had made love.
Claire: C'mon, Ryan, just talk to me.
Ryan: It's kind of a downer.
Claire: I don't care.
Ryan: Alright. You asked for it. Uh, my mom got sick when I was a kid. Leukemia. And she fought for years but it got her. And then she died when I was 14.
Claire: Ryan, I --
Ryan: My dad, uh, was a street cop. Albany PD his entire life until he retired. Then one night, he walked into the wrong corner store at the wrong time and he tried to be a hero.
Claire: Ryan, I'm -- I'm so sorry. So it's just you and Jenny.
Ryan: We had an older brother. Ray. New York fireman.
Claire: Oh, God, if you say 9-11 --
Ryan: Okay, I won't say it. Told you it was a downer.
Downer? As Thelma Ritter says in All About Eve, that story had "everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end."
And that's the major problem with the show.
The overkill.
Bacon, Zea, Ashmore and Annie Parisse are great actors. A cast like that is one you want to spend time with. Which is why the bits and pieces, starts and stops and false-starts are so maddening.
Years ago, before TV, there were movie serials. There were sci-fi serials (Flash Gordon), super heroes (Batman), westerns, Pearl White's The Perils of Pauline and so much more. They weren't the main attraction. They were shown before the main attraction. They were weekly chapters of a serial. To hold your interest, they would end with a cliffhanger that would make you want to catch the next instalment.
You could argue it was like a TV show and that's true if a TV series just lasted 13 or so episodes. We're not even sure you can take ten episodes of The Following.
Everything is too much. Ryan's personal tragedies are only the tip of the iceberg.
For example, in the first episode, Joey was kidnapped. It appears that episode six will find Joey rescued. In the meantime, episode five saw Joey's mother Claire kidnapped.
The roller coaster never ends. And that can be great for a soap but The Following wants to mess with your head, wants to put you in the place of the victims, you're supposed to identify. So it's all just too much. The writers never insert breathers where the audience can catch a breath.
It's not entertainment, it's an onslaught.
