1.9 Love Hurts That’s this week’s scheme du jour. In order to keep the FBI running and draw out the real Claire Matthews, one of Joe’s brilliant followers, Amanda (Marin Ireland) has decided that love hurts. Her husband cheated on her, so she killed him and the mistress. Since Joe’s wife cheated on him with Ryan, well… the natural response is to bring Joe and his wife back together by killing every other Claire Matthews she can find until real Claire comes out of hiding and the Followers can scoop her up. If that makes Ryan Hardy suffer, so much the better. Any excuse for violence from screenwriters Nora Kay Foster and Adam Armus, who seem to have turned the show into what is simultaneously a commentary and a big joke. Of course, violence is a risk pretty much anywhere you go in the world at large, and to see that kind of random pointless death on television is off-putting at best. Perhaps that’s the whole point, but I think that The Following is a show that glorifies murder a bit too much to be making a salient point about the random nature of violence and more a show that just loves to randomly shock viewers by killing throwaways. (Though that can be very fun.) That might be a great idea for shaking things up next season. Joe is the figurehead of the group, the one who leads the unholy creative writing circles, but Roderick is the man with the ability to make Joe’s desires happen. Roderick is the one who controlled the group during Joe’s time in prison, who seemingly put together Joe Carroll’s Joestown. Would the group function without him, or would it splinter? The killers are a more interesting group than the FBI agents, Hardy aside, and it might be fun to watch them slowly turn on each other while the FBI picks them off, one by one. Could a show about serial killer cultists fly without a focus on Hardy? Isn’t Hardy basically a serial killer himself at this point, given his incredible body count? Kevin Bacon remains great on the show, and if The Following continues to head down the black comedy route of having Bacon shoot folks mid-sentence and cracking wise, then I think maybe they can turn the series around in the eyes of the critics. (It’s already a big hit for Fox in the ratings.) At the very least, dropping or minimizing the FBI drama while emphasizing Kevin Bacon shooting people and the cultists fighting amongst themselves would make for a better programme. US Correspondent Ron Hogan greatly enjoys The Following’s taste in music: lots of 90s and lots of metal/industrial flashbacks. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
