The Following “Chapter 2”

"Do you smell that?"

Two episodes into The Following and I’m already finding problems.  This show suffers from ineptitude.  I like the premise of the story where a serial killer creates a cult to do his bidding while he’s locked up.  I even like some of the characters despite their lack of originality, but I can’t overlook the fact that everyone in that world (except for an exceptional few) is completely idiotic.  The police are the worst offenders.

In the first episode when Joe Carroll escapes the prison.  He kills four guards in one room and then wears a guard uniform out of the prison with nobody asking questions.  I one major problem with that: more guards are on duty outside of that room and I would bet money that those guards know their co-workers and probably have gone out for drinks with them before.  That being said, how does somebody not get noticed as he leaves?  Sure, he was in a cop’s uniform, but wouldn’t somebody say “hey, that’s not Steve,” and stop him?  Someone would notice.  Other occasions raise eyebrows as well.  When a police officer is guarding the bedroom door of Joe’s ex-wife, why would he pace the hallway leaving himself open to being flanked?  I’m not a cop, and I haven’t been trained in this field, BUT if somebody told me to make sure nobody got into a room, and the door to said room was at the end of a hallway, I would stand in front of the door looking down that hallway.  Why?  Nobody could possibly sneak up behind me unless they came from inside the bedroom (which he checked dismally: Seriously, who doesn't check the bathroom?  THAT’S CLASSIC KILLER HIDE-OUT ZONE).  Instead of following logic, this cop clomps up and down the hallway like an idiotic robot when the killer, in this case a police officer named Jordy, lowers himself from the ceiling (seriously, he hid against the ceiling of a hallway) behind the cop and kills him.  Do I need to tell you that if the cop would have used my advice he would have seen the hefty Jordy lower himself from the ceiling like a sweaty bowl of jello?  No, you guys are smart.

Pictured here: Jordy aka "Killer Ninja"

The police aren’t the only people at fault, though.  At the beginning of the episode Jordy uses his status as a cop to awkwardly search a sorority house to “keep them safe.”  The girl allows this cop upstairs, for no reason, and lets him into a sorority sister’s room.  The girl, not satisfied with her level of idiocy yet, doesn’t respond when Jordy says he knew her sister was away because he’d been watching the house for awhile and lets him open a window and bring in a bag of knives before she asks what he is doing.  I don’t know about you fine readers, but if a cop says he’s been watching my house for a while I have some freaking questions.  And I’m certainly not letting him bring in a bag of knives before I start running.  I can suspend disbelief to a pretty great extent, but when the writing is this lazy I have a hard time forgiving it.

That is who is to blame in this scenario, the writers.  This show has some very strong scenes and some great character work, but important conversations are breached with more awkwardness than a sixteen year old asking for a BJ and the killers succeed, not because of their ruthless ingenuity or cunning plans, but because everyone around them obviously has no danger radar or logic processors.  They act like robots with overloaded circuit boards.

Oh, and what was the deal with the guy in the Edgar Allan Poe mask?  He escaped earlier in the episode because of, yet again, police ineptitude then shows up casually setting a man on fire at the end of the episode…in public.  Who lets a guy in an Edgar Allan Poe mask just walk around with a can of gas and a lighter?  Doesn’t that scream crime?  One look and you can tell that guy isn’t stable.  CALL THE COPS!  Okay, I’m having too much fun.  I need to move on.