Thrillers make for an interesting genre of entertainment. They are often made up of numerous overlapping genres, including sci-fi, crime, and horror, blended with twists and pacing that deliver powerful emotions to the viewer. Suspense, anticipation, and even anxiety are just a few things that thriller audiences feel when digging into a movie or television series in the genre, diving into stories that keep them on the edge of their seat. Sometimes, those emotions linger long after a movie or series ends and now, all three seasons one of the most underrated and chilling tv thrillers of the past 20 years is coming back to Netflix.
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On January 3, The Following is set to return to Netflix after an eight-year absence. The series, which stars Kevin Bacon, was at one point a staple of the streaming platform in the mid-2010s but departed in September 2018 to head to other streaming platforms. The series has popped up in various places in the years since, most recently on The Roku Channel.
The Following Is A Great, But Unsettling Watch
Airing on Fox for three seasons between 2013 and 2015, The Following stars Bacon as former FBI agent Ryan Hardy who finds himself pulled back into the field to help recapture serial Killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) who has not only escaped prison but has created a cult of fanatical killers. The series was created by Kevin Williamson, who also wrote Scream (and launched the franchise) as well as created Dawson’s Creek and The Vampire Diaries.
While most thrillers are certainly by no means easy to watch — nor should they be as tension is a key part of the storytelling — The Following is very much on another level. The series is very violent and frightening with some very wild twists and genuinely dark, horrifying moments. The show has been described as relentlessly scary and it’s a fitting description. There is no humor to soften the violence and terror of this series. Purefoy and Bacon are both very intense in their roles, and the cult that Purefoy’s Carroll sets up is honestly deeply unsettling. It goes beyond dark, but it’s put together in a way that sticks with you and makes it incredibly difficult to turn off because you want to know what happens next — even if you’re watching with your face hidden behind your hands because of how gory the series really is. Now that the series is finally back on Netflix, fans can experience the chilling series all over again — and new viewers can find out just how great and disturbing this underrated gem really is.
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