So lately I've been asking myself: Self, why are you wasting time watching "The Following" when it is so clearly awful on so many levels?
The answer is because it is so, so bad that it actually manages to punch through the metaphorical wall of television badness and into something resembling pure, undiluted awesomeness.
In other words, it's like FOX decided to take every terrible shounen thriller animu from the past five years, distill it into its purest form, and air it on primetime television starring Kevin Bacon.
That's right. "The Following" is basically JUST LIKE MY KAWAII ANIMES and it is glorious.
To wit, we have:
- maniacal supervillian with insanely convoluted, cartoonish revenge plot,
- most shocking reveals accomplished when characters sit around and try to out-exposition each other,
- a genuine real-life moe moe yandere female lead character, and
- beautiful tortured gay pretty boys
- who are serial killers
- whom the audience is supposed to empathize with the most (even though they're serial killers)
- whose interpersonal drama and romantic relationship take up most of the airtime in each episode (even though they're serial killers)
- also there are no less than two ongoing love triangles so far
- no seriously most of every episode is like romance/romance/love triangle and the serial killer characters doing cute everyday slice-of-life things
- but with occassional ridiculous shock deaths
- and then there's also the adorable precocious genius kid
- and Shawn Ashmore bishounening up the screen as the prettyboy rookie cop
- and lots of pretentious literary references and ~*deep*~ intellectual posturing on the part of our aforementioned maniacal supervillian
- and on top of all of this, the goddamn Kevin Bacon.
So basically it's like if Death Note and Future Diary and Psycho Pass and oh EVERY OTHER terrible shounen thriller anime that you can think of had a lovechild that somehow mutated into a live-action American primetime drama.
This is the show.
This is kawaii murder animu brought to life.
Like I said, it is glorious.
(Oh, and spoiler alert: The black cop is the first cop to die. Good job, FOX. Way to be twenty-first century right there.)
The answer is because it is so, so bad that it actually manages to punch through the metaphorical wall of television badness and into something resembling pure, undiluted awesomeness.
In other words, it's like FOX decided to take every terrible shounen thriller animu from the past five years, distill it into its purest form, and air it on primetime television starring Kevin Bacon.
That's right. "The Following" is basically JUST LIKE MY KAWAII ANIMES and it is glorious.
To wit, we have:
- maniacal supervillian with insanely convoluted, cartoonish revenge plot,
- most shocking reveals accomplished when characters sit around and try to out-exposition each other,
- a genuine real-life moe moe yandere female lead character, and
- beautiful tortured gay pretty boys
- who are serial killers
- whom the audience is supposed to empathize with the most (even though they're serial killers)
- whose interpersonal drama and romantic relationship take up most of the airtime in each episode (even though they're serial killers)
- also there are no less than two ongoing love triangles so far
- no seriously most of every episode is like romance/romance/love triangle and the serial killer characters doing cute everyday slice-of-life things
- but with occassional ridiculous shock deaths
- and then there's also the adorable precocious genius kid
- and Shawn Ashmore bishounening up the screen as the prettyboy rookie cop
- and lots of pretentious literary references and ~*deep*~ intellectual posturing on the part of our aforementioned maniacal supervillian
- and on top of all of this, the goddamn Kevin Bacon.
So basically it's like if Death Note and Future Diary and Psycho Pass and oh EVERY OTHER terrible shounen thriller anime that you can think of had a lovechild that somehow mutated into a live-action American primetime drama.
This is the show.
This is kawaii murder animu brought to life.
Like I said, it is glorious.
(Oh, and spoiler alert: The black cop is the first cop to die. Good job, FOX. Way to be twenty-first century right there.)
