The Following: Even Serial Killers Have Friends

If you know me at all or if you've read this blog, then you know I LOVE a good scare. But sometimes a movie or television show in this genre will reach into a dark place that feels...too scary, too real. Kevin Bacon's new show, The Following is pushing that boundary with me.

Can we just all agree that if we see someone wearing an Edgar Allen Poe mask, we run?

The premise of the show is as follows: Kevin Bacon is a former detective turned writer. Let me just stop there for a moment and reiterate a crucial detail that makes this show legit. Bacon is a FORMER DETECTIVE TURNED WRITER. This is not Castle. This is not some random fiction writer with no credentials helping to solve crimes. Nope. THAT show is ridiculous, and I will not stand for it. But THIS...this makes sense. Moving on...Bacon's character has to come back into the crime solving scene to face a former nemesis and serial killer who happens to have a cult following outside of prison. The story arc for this season is that the serial killer has had his ex-wife's (and Bacon's romantic interest) son kidnapped. Bacon and fellow officers are looking for him, but have very few clues to go on, as this crime has been well thought out and crafted over time. But the episodic formula is that each week someone close to Bacon is the victim of the cult followers. This of course is sprinkled with flashbacks of how each cult member came to serve the serial killer, as well as "random" members of society being victimized.

It's intriguing to say the least. Because you never know who is working for the serial killer. They could be policemen, teachers, nannies, students, even detectives. Pretty sure that'll preach.

Scariest pixie cut ever.

Anyway, all that is fine and dandy and not that different from any other crime drama. BUT...this one dances up to a line of sadism that is cringe worthy. The pain that is inflicted on the victims from week to week is surprising and drastic. Last week's episode featured electromagnets placed on a person with a pacemaker's chest. Eyes have been gouged, mothers have been stabbed, and my personal fear...a man was lit on fire. The thing is, the pain isn't limited to the victims. The cult followers are also susceptible to the torture. When one man ends up caught and in the hospital, he eats the gauze...let me repeat, HE EATS THE GAUZE around his wound until it chokes him.

Of course, maybe the most traumatic kind of pain is emotional. The three followers who are keeping the kidnapped child, have a strange threesome/romantic triangle thing going which creates its own kind of head games. But one of the three has never actually killed anyone. He allows a girl escape and the other two find out. Rather than killing her FOR him, they just bring her back and set her up again, slightly wounded and ready for him to try it again, to kill her. These types of mental/emotional challenges must be overcome to bring about the kind of devotion necessary for a cult to exist and succeed.

Why is it whenever I write about cults, I am reminded of a church I once attended?

The best revenge story since The Cask of Amontillado.

Anyway, The Following is really good. But it will push your limits. It will make you squirm and gasp at times. The show has the potential to go on for a long time. I predict ending this first season with a trade of some kind. Get the kid back for the wife. Or let the serial killer go free for the kid. Once that happens, the game will change, and new characters will come in. Whatever choices they make, I imagine that there is no end to the sadistic tactics that we as watchers will endure.

Are you watching The Following? What do you think?

The Commissioner Gordon Maneuver

POW! So much color. 

I love a good superhero movie. I have never been a comic book reader, but I know the movies I enjoy have a respectable and historical origin. One of my favorite series of superhero movies was the Batman movies of the 80's and 90's. You know the ones...Michael Keaton was Batman, Jack Nicholson was The Joker. There was enough cheese to honor the original TV show, with enough darkness to appeal to my adolescent melancholy. My brother loved them too, but since he is 5 years younger than me and a boy, I imagine it had more to do with car chases and guns.


When I was in high school and my brother was old enough to recognize actors and actresses, we heard about the game, 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. We never really knew the details of how to play it, and though I could make an educated guess, I can't say I ever really bothered to learn the rules. We had our own version of the game. We would name two random celebrities and connect them through movies. We would see who could connect them in the fewest "moves." In doing this, we learned perhaps one of the greatest connectors of all times. We called it, "The Commissioner Gordon Maneuver."

Holy Nipples Batman!

Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin were some of the most star studded movies of the decade. Now before you groan, I never said they were GOOD movies. I love them because they are fun, but there is no argument that Christopher Nolan's recent Batman franchise put these oldies to shame. Still, like I said, they were a fun middle ground between the cheese of the old TV show and the goth of the new Nolan movies, and they fit in perfectly with the excess and fun of that time period.


More to the point, almost every substantial star from that time was in at least one of those 4 movies. Just take a look: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Jerry Hall, Billy Dee Williams, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Drew Barrymore, Chris O'Donnell, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Uma Thurman, George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone, Elle Macpherson, Vivica A. Fox....and those are just the "main" characters. 

You look like an impostor...I thought Keaton was Batman!

The role of Batman and the villains changed from movie to movie, but one thing stayed the same was Commissioner Gordon, portrayed by Pat Hingle. My brother and I discovered that Commissioner Gordon was a surefire way to connect any two movie stars.


Want to connect Brittany Murphy and Diane Keaton?
1.Brittany Murphy and Alicia Silverstone in Clueless
2.Silverstone and Commissioner Gordon (we never called him Hingle) in Batman and Robin
3.Commissioner Gordon and Jack Nicholson in Batman
4.Nicholson and Keaton in Something's Gotta Give 
Boom.


Okay okay, so it's not always the most efficient way to get it done, especially in light of all the movies that have been made since we started playing the game 15 years ago!  But the maneuver can ALWAYS get it done. Upon reflection, it turns out that we could have just as easily used the "Alfred Maneuver," as Alfred is played by Michael Gough in all 4 Batman movies. But it doesn't sound as good. 


Of course there are other actors that this works with. Regina King, Kevin Bacon (the original connector), Clint Howard, and now with more epic trilogies in play, there are more simple helps like the "Snape Segue," or the "Jacob Junction." But as for me and my brother, we will always remember the Commissioner Gordon Maneuver as one of the defining tricks that helped us to grow into our obsession love for movie trivia.