Kevin Bacon doesn't usually do TV, or at least he didn't until 2013. When he signed onto the Fox thriller The Following, it felt like a massive shift in the television landscape. You had a legitimate A-list movie star playing a broken, alcoholic ex-FBI agent with a pacemaker. It was gritty. Honestly, it was pretty gross at times too. But that was the draw.
The show basically revolves around Ryan Hardy (Bacon) being pulled back into the field because his old nemesis, Joe Carroll, has escaped from prison. Carroll, played with a terrifyingly charming English accent by James Purefoy, isn't just a serial killer. He’s a cult leader. He spent his time behind bars using the "early days" of the internet to recruit a massive network of killers who treat his murders like high art.
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What Made the Kevin Bacon TV Series The Following So Different?
Most crime shows back then were "case of the week." You know the vibe. A body drops, the cops find a clue, and by the 42-minute mark, the bad guy is in handcuffs. The Following threw that formula into a woodchipper.
It was serialized, meaning one long, exhausting story. Ryan Hardy wasn't a hero who always won; he was a guy who was constantly two steps behind a man who had turned Edgar Allan Poe's poetry into a blueprint for slaughter.
The violence was... intense. I remember people talking about the pilot episode where a woman stabs herself in the eye in a public space just to send a message. It was a lot for network TV. It felt more like a "prestige" HBO show that somehow snuck onto Fox.
The Cult of Joe Carroll
The most realistic (and scariest) part was the cult itself. They weren't wearing robes or chanting in a basement. They were your neighbors.
- The nanny who had been living with Carroll's ex-wife for years? Cult member.
- the "gay couple" next door who seemed perfectly nice? Cult members.
- The tech specialist at the FBI? Maybe a cult member.
This created a sense of paranoia that really worked. You couldn't trust anyone. Ryan Hardy spent half the series looking at his own colleagues like they might pull a knife at any second. It was stressful to watch, but you couldn't look away.
Why Ryan Hardy Was the Perfect Role for Bacon
Kevin Bacon has this way of looking absolutely exhausted that fits a haunted character perfectly. Ryan Hardy wasn't just a "troubled cop." He had literal physical scars and a heart condition from his first encounter with Carroll.
He was vulnerable.
Most TV leads at the time were these untouchable geniuses, like Sherlock or House. Hardy was a mess. He was drinking vodka out of water bottles. He had an affair with the killer's ex-wife, Claire Matthews (played by Natalie Zea). It made the stakes personal. It wasn't just about the law; it was about a guy trying to fix the biggest mistake of his life.
The Dynamic Between Bacon and Purefoy
The chemistry between the two leads was the heart of the show. Even when the plot got a little bit "out there"—and it definitely did in season 2—the scenes where Bacon and Purefoy just talked in an interrogation room were electric.
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It was like a dark version of The Silence of the Lambs. Carroll wanted to be a writer, and he viewed Ryan as his protagonist. He wasn't just killing people; he was "writing a novel" in real life, and he needed Ryan to play his part.
The Evolution of the Show Across Three Seasons
If you’re planning to binge it, you should know that the show changes a lot after the first season.
Season one is a tight, focused cat-and-mouse game. It’s all about the Poe-inspired murders and the search for Carroll’s son.
By season two, the show goes into "resurrection" mode. Everyone thinks Carroll is dead after a massive explosion, but (shocker) he isn't. This season introduces Lily Gray, played by Connie Nielsen, who leads her own family of killers. It gets weirder. We get twins played by Sam Underwood who are legitimately creepy.
Season three moves away from Carroll a bit and looks at a new threat: a tech-savvy killer named Theo. It tried to ground itself more in reality, but by then, the "anything goes" spirit of the show had already taken root.
Was it actually realistic?
Honestly, no. Not really. The FBI in the show is... let's say, not great at their jobs. They get ambushed constantly. They miss obvious clues. But if you can get past that, the psychological thrills are top-tier.
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The show was created by Kevin Williamson. He’s the guy who wrote Scream and Dawson’s Creek. You can see both of those influences here—the slasher-movie tension mixed with a lot of heavy character drama and complicated romances.
The Legacy of the Kevin Bacon TV Series The Following
The show was canceled after three seasons in 2015. Why? Mostly because the ratings started to dip as the plot got more convoluted. But its impact stuck around.
It proved that you could do "horror-adjacent" content on a major network and find a huge audience. It also helped pave the way for other dark procedurals like Hannibal or Prodigal Son.
If you're looking to watch it today, it’s usually available on streaming platforms like Hulu or for purchase on Amazon. It's a great "weekend watch" if you want something that moves fast and doesn't hold back.
Tips for your first watch
If you haven't seen it yet, here is how to get the most out of it:
- Watch the Pilot First: Don't skip it. It sets up the entire mythology and the relationship between Ryan and Joe.
- Focus on the Background: Half the fun is trying to guess which background characters are actually part of the cult.
- Don't Google Spoilers: The show loves its "shock" deaths. Several main characters don't make it to the end.
- Pair it with Poe: If you're a literature nerd, reading The Raven or The Tell-Tale Heart beforehand adds a cool layer to the season 1 imagery.
The Kevin Bacon TV series The Following remains a weird, dark, and highly addictive piece of television history. It’s not perfect—sometimes the logic is a bit thin—but for raw tension and a stellar performance by Bacon, it's hard to beat.
To dive deeper into this world, check out the official series trailers or look for the behind-the-scenes features that detail how they choreographed those intense cult "reveal" scenes. Start with Season 1, Episode 1, and see if you can handle the paranoia.