The Following 3.1: Miasma of Terror

The Following was back for its third season last night, with an episode entitled "New Blood".  The acting was strong as always, the scenes lurid as expected,  little about the story was new - but it still had something indefinably unique.

Mark, the surviving psycho from Season 2, is masterminding a series of tableau recreations, most importantly of his beloved mother Lily, replete - of course - with suitably freshly killed bodies and all.   Ryan Hardy, predictably wanting to get away from all of this, is drawn back in.

One nice change is that he decides not to push his love interest away from him to protect her, as he wanted to do, at first, and indeed did on and off with other women in previous seasons.  Hanging over everything Ryan does, of course, is the possibility that she's a follower of some lunatic herself.   That, too, has happened in previous years.

Still and all, The Following has something very compelling going for it.  The combination of the acting, memorable characters - good to see Mike and Max back, if not (yet) together - make the horror and paranoia of these stories almost believable, and certainly more than enough to carry the narrative.

The question now is where will Season 3 go from here?   We were given an inkling last night, with the revelation that the couple working for Mark are really serving some other master.   Would that be Joe?   Or some other demented genius who gets his or her kicks from clever murders.

The key to The Following, what makes it different from other shows about criminal psychos, such as Criminal Minds, is that The Following creates a miasma of terror, on the verge of erupting any time, in supermarkets, park benches, and book stores, permeating every moment of the show, which is somehow believable and thereby worthy of further watching, which I'll certainly be doing.

And see also The Following Is Back for Its Second Season ... The Following 2.2: Rediscovering Oneself ... The Following 2.3: Coalescing ... The Following 2.4: Psycho Families and Trains ... The Following 2.5: Turning Tides ... The Following 2.8: Coalescing? ... The Following 2.9: The Book Signing ... The Following 2.11: Lily not Joe ... The Following 2.13: The Downfall of Mike ...The Following 2.14: Twists and Deaths ...  The Following Season 2 Finale: The Living

And see also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5:  The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... The Following 1.9: All in a Name, Or, Metaphor in the Service of Murder ... The Following 1.13: At Last Something of a Day for the Good Guys ... The Following Season 1 Finale: Doing Dead

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