Television series

The Following

Name: The Following
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
Released: 2013
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shawn Ashmore, James Purefoy, Valorie Curry, Jessica Stroup

The Following is a propulsive crime thriller about an FBI agent hunting a charismatic serial killer who's assembled a cult of murderers to do his bidding. It's tense, operatic, occasionally absurd—think obsession and cat-and-mouse games stretched across an entire season. For anyone who loves their crime stories dark and maximalist.

TVMaze rating

3.5

If you liked this

MINDHUNTER2017

A methodical, intelligent crime series about the birth of criminal profiling, with meticulous character work and a patient approach to understanding evil. Methodical where The Following is frenetic, but with the same magnetic pull.

But Slower paced, especially early on. Less plot propulsion than character study—some find it too cerebral to grip.

Hannibal2013

A baroque, visually stunning show about a detective and a cannibalistic therapist locked in mutual obsession. As operatic and darkly intelligent as The Following, with even richer filmmaking.

But Arrives at similar emotional exhaustion by season three. Can feel pretentious. The body horror escalates to almost cartoonish heights.

Dexter2006

A serial killer working inside the FBI to catch others—the moral inversion and wit made this essential viewing. Addictive premise with genuine character stakes. The opening four seasons are excellent.

But Notoriously botched the ending. Quality drops sharply after season four, and the whole thing casts a shadow backward when you know where it goes.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Following

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

In a Lonely Place1950

Both are built on the question of whether a charming, intelligent man is genuinely capable of the violence everyone suspects him of. Both understand that suspicion, once planted, poisons everything.

Humphrey Bogart as a violent, volatile screenwriter suspected of murder. A noir thriller that interrogates its own protagonist's capacity for evil with psychological depth decades ahead of its time. The paranoia and obsession are identical to The Following's engine.

But 1950s pace and syntax—takes patience to enter. Black and white, gorgeous but austere. Doesn't satisfy as a thriller so much as a psychological portrait.

Killing Eve2018

A cat-and-mouse thriller about an MI6 agent obsessed with tracking a charming psychopath. Tighter, wittier, and more self-aware than The Following—it knows exactly how absurd obsession is.

But The tone can be uneven, lurching between dark comedy and genuine horror. Some seasons prioritize style over coherent plotting.

Manhunter1986

Michael Mann's film about an FBI profiler tracking a serial killer is lean, propulsive, and visually hypnotic. The ancestor to everything that followed, and still the most elegantly constructed of the bunch.

But 1986 aesthetics and pacing. Some find it glacially slow; others think it's perfect. No consensus, only devotion or indifference.

Se7en1995

A detective and serial killer locked in a battle of intellect and faith across a rain-soaked city. Operatic dread, perfect filmmaking, one of the best thrillers ever made. The ending will haunt you.

But Deeply, relentlessly bleak. Not cathartic. Difficult viewing, and the crimes are genuinely sickening. Not entertainment so much as an ordeal.

The Silence of the Lambs1991

An FBI trainee must consult an imprisoned cannibal to catch a serial killer. Psychological, taut, with a performance so magnetic it redefined the genre. Essential if you haven't seen it.

But Slightly dated in places. The Hannibal franchise that followed soured some on returning to the source. Clarice's characterization is now read by many as reductive.

Zodiac2007

Fincher's obsessive procedural about hunting the Zodiac Killer. Methodical, frustrating, almost unbearably tense. A study in obsession that knows obsession is often fruitless and rarely satisfying.

But Three hours long and ends inconclusively. No catharsis, no killer caught in the third act. If you need resolution, this will infuriate you.

Killing Zoe1993

Both build their thrills around a central act of charismatic violence that spirals outward to consume everyone nearby. The villain's magnetism is less explained than accepted as fact.

A crime thriller told in reverse, with a heist gone wrong in Paris. Stylish, kinetic, visually inventive—what The Following attempts narratively, this film does with pure cinema. Fever-dream energy that grabs and doesn't let go.

But Deliberately obscure and non-linear. The plot is secondary to mood and violence. Some find it incomprehensible; others find it brilliant. Very 1990s in its aesthetic choices.

The Killing2011

Where The Following stacks horror upon horror for propulsion, The Killing extracts maximum weight from a single crime. Both understand that obsession destroys the investigators as much as it defines the hunted.

A Danish crime series about detectives investigating a teenage girl's murder. Methodical, emotionally devastating, with long stretches of quiet investigation punctuated by devastating discoveries. Fundamentally uninterested in spectacle—only in truth and consequence.

But Very slow. Twenty hours to solve one murder, with no serial killer mythology or conspiracy to justify the runtime. Some will find it glacial; others will feel it's profound.