Netflix Binge: The Following

If you’ve got an extra few hours to kill and an extra pacifier lying around, it may behoove you to take a peek at season 1 of the crime thriller, “The Following”.

Kevin Bacon plays detective, Ryan Hardy, a burnout detective with a propensity for binge drinking and catching serial killers.

Playing opposite Bacon is James Purfoy as Joe Carroll, a sadistic serial killer with a love for Edgar Allan Poe, death, and everything evil in this world.

The story begins when Carroll, a college professor who moonlights as a killer of teenage girls, is captured by Hardy. As the story progresses, we come to find that Hardy was having an affair with Carol’s ex-wife, Claire Matthews, played by Natalie Zea. Carroll’s rage and angst while imprisoned crafts an elaborate plot to exact his revenge.

And how does Carroll do all of this? Oh he’s just the leader of an occult with hundreds of followers. No big deal.  Throughout each episode, Hardy is caught up in the world’s worst game of where’s Waldo. Through every twist and turn, we see just how demented, and connected Carroll’s followers are…As most members of occults aren’t wrapped too tight from what I hear.

Hardy discovers that Carroll’s followers are in every walk of life. Doctors, lawyers, cops, teachers…Everyone is a potential killer. We’re assuming this could be the reason he doesn’t sleep much. There is no one to trust and no one that can be trusted. Anyone close to Hardy is a target for death, and anyone Hardy doesn’t know, and some that he thinks he might know, could be one of Carroll’s followers.

“The Following” is an engaging, sometimes, and by that I mean most times, terrifying look into the mind of Joe Carroll and his band of misfit toys.

It’s a well crafted, gruesome storyline that will not only intrigue, but disturb your watchful eye.

The  second season of “The Following” airs January 19th on  FOX.