The first season of The Following was one hell of a roller coaster ride. If The Vampire Diaries‘ Julie Plec is the queen of killing of characters indiscriminately, then her partner-in-crime Kevin Williamson is the king. Chasing Joe Carroll cost the FBI — and the cast — several recurring characters in the first season, and that’s not even counting the civilians, family members and countless other collateral damage caught up in the wake of his “following.”

They couldn’t reveal very much — something that became a running joke as we spoke — but they did share a couple of interesting nuggets. I was particularly impressed with Valorie Curry’s take on Emma Hill, one of the more interesting characters on television. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little excited to see where Ryan Hardy finds himself one year later, but a little apprehensive about what might happen to that calm when he gets dragged back into Carroll’s world.

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Yesterday, at the end of a very long day of San Diego Comic-Con festivities, I shared the highlights of the con’s first jam-packed day.. It was jammed packed, and I was especially appreciative of getting to see the Ender’s Game and Divergent panels in the usually difficult to get into Hall H.

Friday was a much different day. I spent the majority of the day in press rooms, talking to the creators and casts of The 100, The Following and The Blacklist. As planned, Keith and I also attended the Veronica Mars Fan Event – which I live-tweeted at CliqueClackTV – which was pretty awesome. The big surprise of the day was getting a last-minute opportunity to sneak into Hall H for the Game of Thrones panel.

As with yesterday, I just want to go over some of the highlights of the day. Next week when I’ve had more time to process them, I’ll post videos from the roundtable interviews I participated in.

• After two – and a half I guess – years of attending Comic-Con, I finally participated in one of fellow Clacker Michael Noble’s most treasured San Diego traditions: breakfast at Perry’s Café. It’s a little off the beaten path – and certainly not within walking distance of downtown – but my pancakes were outstanding.
• The 100 (Pronounced, for clarification as “the hundred” and not “the one-hundred”) pressroom was first up. It’s always a nice treat when there is a member of the cast there that you didn’t expect, and I wasn’t aware that Isaiah Washington would be joining us. He had some interesting perspectives on his character, especially in the context of President Obama, whose campaigns he’s helped with in the past.
• Next up was The Blacklist which, along with The 100, is one of my favorite pilots of the new season. I spoke with Diego Klattenhoff – who made a comment while in the press line reminding us that he was in Mean Girls – and Megan Boone, who is sure to be one of the breakout new stars this year.
• I’ve been fortunate enough to see the Game of Thrones panel now two of the three years I’ve been at the con. Sadly, the year I missed was the one year they were able to announce casting for the upcoming season. The panel was great, but looking at the actors that were on the dais, the only thing running through my head was, “Dead, dead, going to die, dead, going to die.” The hilariously prepared “In Memoriam” video of all of the characters – including “Baratheon Soldier #680” – probably put me in that mindset. Update: Look what the official Game of Thrones YouTube account just shared:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m4ZPULXJKw

• Last year, The Following’s pressroom was one of my favorites. This year, we had the bonus of having Valorie Curry in attendance. She clarified that last year, while she was at the con promoting the final installment in the Twilight series, she was asked to stay far away from this pressroom for Spoiler’s sake (While I would have love to have spoken with her then, it would have ruined a pretty great reveal in the pilot).
• A long time ago, we used to be friends … with a show called Veronica Mars. The Kickstarter campaign has re-launched the fanaticism. While there was no way I’d be able to make it into the show’s Hall H panel first thing this morning, I did fund in Kickstarter to a level that guaranteed me a seat. Hopefully, I’ll be able to dedicate a full post to the goings on at the event, but in the mean time check out the official sizzle reel Rob Thomas featured at both events embedded below.

• Finally, I guess you’re probably looking for an explanation about the picture at the top of this post. Sadly, I’m not going to be able to provide one for you. There’s just some things that you just have to come to Comic-Con to understand. I will say, if you’re wondering — and I know you are — that my sweet Cap shirt is available here (Hat tip to my buddy Jason Fitchko who did the art) … or, I mean, whoever that masked man wearing the cool shirt is, because it isn’t me. Not even a little

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVJhjV3EOY4

James Purefoy is absolutely delicious. He’s like butter, a cashmere sweater and warm liquid scotch all rolled into one. Slinking into the New York Comic Con press room interview dressed like the serial killer he is, I miraculously restrained myself from dropping trou for him. However, I enjoyed a mini-tete-a-tete as he slipped into the persona of his Joe Carroll serial killer. James Purefoy is the human embodiment of sin. He’s pure seduction on a stick. If I could order him off a menu at a restaurant, I’d have two plates to go for life.

James is definitely a theatre actor who can improv the hell out of things. Having just seen his serial killer Joe Carroll portrayed in the pilot minutes earlier, I couldn’t stop blurting out my utter fear of sitting beside him. And, he couldn’t not take advantage of that. Luckily, one of the other interviewers stopped our delectable serial killer meets shrinking violet comedy act to start the interview round. Like Kevin Bacon, Purefoy clearly channeled parts of himself into the role of charismatic English professor Joe Carroll. Part of me wanted to cry bull when I initially saw the pilot. Academic types aren’t exactly that dexterous or believably violent. But, then I remembered the utter charisma of a couple college instructors and remembered in the 1970s Cornell had its own serial killer. One of the undergraduates, stalked, assaulted and killed his fellow students and continued the pattern long after graduation.

I must say James Purefoy is the most gregarious character I’ve ever met. He’s utterly confident in his own opinion and feels no remorse in mocking his own show, Americans and serial killers in general. Quite frankly, he is his character. Like Bacon, he spent time researching his back story. But, it sounds like a majority of his research incorporated watching DVDs of previous serial killers. He believes serial killers create a “fantasy bubble” around themselves and mocked Ted Bundy’s explanation for his acts: “I don’t know about you but I’m pretty damned sure porn in the ’70s was pretty damned tame.” For Purefoy, serial killing is about “power” and “powerlessness.” He views good and evil as overtly religious but believes in “nurture” where abusers are created. Ironic, considering his character nurtures serial killers in The Following.

He specifically watched the taped interviews of actual serial killers to avoid regurgitating the fictional performances of other shows like Dexter. He finds his character fascinating, “complex” and “ambiguous.” He believes “all the best characters are gray, not black and white.” He hopes that week after week, they’ll peel back the “very thin layers” of his character, like an “onion,” to “understand where he’s come from.” He believes his character is a “cultured,” “erudite” man who “tells a good joke.” Hopefully, we’ll learn how Carroll became the killer he is. Was it a case of nurture, catalyzed by a history of abuse? Or was it his literary ego searching for recognition? Only Kevin Williamson knows for certain. The rest of us will have to guess.

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So, I’m currently crushing on Kevin Bacon and his portrayal of the rangy Ryan Hardy in Fox’s The Following. If you haven’t checked out Ivey’s preview post or watched the premiere this week, The Following follows English professor turned serial killer, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy). Kevin Bacon plays Ryan Hardy, the FBI agent who eventually captures him, but deals with Carroll’s continuing presence in his life and ongoing menace to the world through his cult-like following.

When I initially watched the preview I absolutely fell in love with Kevin Bacon’s portrayal from minute one. The writing, his acting and the directing all collaborated to construct a believable hero figure through his anti-heroics. Even without speaking, watching his character gulp from the water-less water bottle and shower more in shame than water itself, I fell in total love with both the character and the actor. When I interviewed Kevin Bacon at NYCC in the Fall, I saw the modern day man who gave life to Ryan Hardy’s frame. He’s incredibly genial with intense blue eyes that made me blush when trapped beneath their gaze. I said this before, but most of the actors at NYCC proved incredibly chivalrous. Every time I asked Bacon a question, he moved his water bottle out of the way and turned to face me fully. While I didn’t have a crush on Bacon during his Footlose days, I now have a full-fledged crush on him after spending ten minutes beneath his unrelenting gaze and, of course, watching his on-screen portrayal. Some actors, like a vintage wine, just get better. If you’re my age, you have to see Kevin Bacon’s portrayal. Ryan Hardy isn’t the man-child inspiring a town to dance.

Although normally I hate comparing actors with their characters, I couldn’t help but see the similarities between the two during the interview. Like Hardy, Bacon has an average guy accent, by way of Philly, with a lean, rangy feel. He views his character and Purefoy’s character as polar opposites. He describes Purefoy’s Joe as “seductive,” “cerebral and methodical” against his character’s “instinctual” approach. I wonder if that also includes his approach to acting. Although he views his character as more street smart and less book smart, I viewed the character as more intellectual overall. He revealed they initially scripted Ryan as a profiler, but he feels his character was more of a “grunt” from a cop family. He loves that his character “messes up a lot” and has “anger issues.” He also has a healthy sense of humor about his character’s screwed up sensibilities. After all, dude sleeps with a serial killer’s wife barely minutes after putting the guy in jail. Like most actors, he looks for the humanity in his character no matter how “evil” and looks for flaws in the good characters no matter how heroic.

For the transcript, video interview and photos, keep on reading. If you haven’t watched the pilot, Bacon’s character returns to assist the FBI in capturing a newly escaped Carroll. Of course, this occurs in the wake of publishing a book on his experiences. Kevin Bacon is as awesome as his character, Ryan Hardy. And, as my friend pointed out, there is now one degree of separation between myself and Bacon. Check out The Following every Monday at 9 with repeats on Friday. With Bacon in the lead, this is one show you’ll want to follow.

Do you feel a covert parallel between your character and the Carroll character? You said otherwise in the panel. However, both appear to have the ability to inspire acolytes including the Jr tech agent who quotes your character’s book word for word.

Maybe, but I feel I’m a little bit more reluctant to that. My idea about the book is that I left. The FBI kicked me out. Someone came to me. I’ve never written anything. And said “write this book, it’s no big deal. You’ll make a little money.” I think I really regret having done it. I think I regret having had to go on and be a talking head. It’s something the FBI does not look kindly upon. Even though there are agents on the show that have read it. I know from my research that people from the bureau that go on and become talking heads, they’re not really heroes. I think I have a certain amount of shame about that. I think that my relationship with the Weston character continues to be one of somebody looking up to me. But, as you’ll see, I’m really not comfortable with that at all. That’s the really big difference between me and Joe. I think that I would like to be happy living a life of quiet desperation, alone. He’s the opposite. He wants as many people in his life as he can possibly get.

I almost feel your character is moving closer to Joe as in the flashbacks he’s barely familiar with the text but in modern day he makes connections more literate agents don’t.

That’s a good point. I think based on the fact that I’m so hell bent on finding the guy, I will read something I would never read. I do think in my family there have been people that have admired literature … when it comes up I don’t know. I think there is a little groundwork that’s laid for him. But he reads the Poe because he thinks the Poe is going to him to Joe Carroll and if that’s what’s gonna get him there he will become an expert.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U2XSJ2ZqsM

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There is nothing like The Following on broadcast television today … I’m not entirely sure there’s much like it on cable either (Dexter perhaps, but that’s a stretch). Kevin Williamson’s new drama, premiering Monday, January 21^st on FOX, is many things at once: a captivating look into the mind of a cult leader and his followers, a series of unusual love stories and an “un-procedural” crime drama. As someone who is not a big fan of the thriller/horror genre, I didn’t expect to like The Following. That preconception was easily the thing I was most wrong about in all of 2012.

Before we get going, the rules of this review: while I’ve seen the first four episodes, I’m going to try to stay away from spoilers as much as possible. There is going to be one specific instance where that won’t be the case. There’s something that was so good that I feel I must share it with you, even if it makes one particular minor twist in the Pilot easy to figure out. That spoiler will be discussed on the last page of this review, so you can avoid it if you want. Again, it’s not a particularly massive thing, especially compared to everything else that happens in the first episode, but I figure I’d give those that want to watch unspoiled the option.

The Following is amazing, but it might not be for everyone. James Purefoy plays Joe Carroll, a charismatic (former) college professor who dabbled in a second career as a serial killer. (Also former) FBI Agent Ryan Hardy, played by Kevin Bacon, captured Carroll over ten years ago, but not before he had killed 14 female students. The story of The Following is Carroll’s second act, as he plays the puppetmaster author of an epic battle of good against evil — setting up Hardy against his legion of followers.

The themes that permeate the show, like manipulation of the weak and violence as romanticism, might make the show inaccessible to some audiences. There’s a scene at the end of the third episode that made fellow Clacker Deb throw up her arms and immediately give up on the show. I don’t fault her for her reaction, but when you’re watching a story about a great intellectual evil, you should expect to see morality twisted in a ways that can really turn your stomach.

A series of flashbacks accompany the narrative. In the Pilot, they generally focus on the time of Carroll’s murders, his capture and the trial, but as the series goes on they expand, including things like Carroll’s cult coming together and the unusual relationship between Hardy, Carroll and Carroll’s wife, played by Natalie Zea. In a post-Lost world, audiences might be leery of a flashback-laden show. However, The Following’s flashbacks are an important – and impactful – part of the overall story.

If there’s a pop-cultural comparison one could make for The Following, it’s probably Silence of the Lambs – less Clarice Starling, more Hannibal Lecter. In fact, I think if Lambs was filmed today, it would look a great deal like The Following. Williamson proved in the Scream franchise that he understands the smart-thriller (though this is considerably less meta) better than anyone, and has another really good project here.

I can only find one thing to complain about The Following: Williamson’s decision to set most of the events in the pilot 10 miles from my house. I’m sure my neighbors will be more than a little freaked out with the show when it premieres. Considering just how good – and twisted – The Following is, I don’t blame them in the least (Though, they will question of of the geography, but hey … they’ll probably be too freaked out to notice).

If you’re not afraid of spoilers, visit the next page where I’ll share the best part of The Following‘s first four episodes. Also check out our interviews from San Diego Comic Con with Kevin Williamson, James Purefoy and others.

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To the untrained eye — and to those who just don’t always pay close attention to casting details for new shows — if you watch FOX’s new mid-season show, The Following, and have been watching Syfy’s Warehouse 13, you may be seeing a familiar face. Sure looks like it’s Aaron Ashmore — Steve Jinks — right? Wrong. Fun fact that, well, at least I didn’t know until the other day: Aaron Ashmore has an identical twin brother, Shawn.

Identical twins playing completely removed from each other — meaning, not appearing on the same show together — seems rather rare, but it’s been done before. What’s most interesting about this pair, though, is that they actually both appeared on Smallville, but in different roles that had absolutely nothing to do with each other. Aaron is best known for playing Jimmy Olsen on Smallville, but his brother was there first, as Eric Summers, the student who leeched Clark’s powers for a couple of episodes.

To make me feel further dumb to this fact: When I saw Aaron appear in Veronica Mars for the first time, I thought, “Hey look, it’s Iceman of X-Men.” Yeah … no. Iceman was played by Shawn Ashmore, not Aaron. And now I know that as well.

So, fret not — so far Jinx isn’t going anywhere from the Warehouse.

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