‘The Following: Season 3’ Blu-ray Review

The Series

The Following, now three seasons deep, has developed a pretty decent fan base with a solid plot and a perfectly cast set of characters, but it has since fallen short of high expectations for the series. In season 1 the cat and mouse plot was nothing short of riveting, but now in season 3 the plot has become weak. The constant capture-escape capture-escape plot has become dull, and even the amazing cast can’t make up for the glaring plot holes that developed over time.

Following

The Kevin Bacon-led cast looks pretty and makes the overly forgettable plot bearable to watch, but it eventually devolves into jump scares and macabre slaughters. When blood and gore are used well in a series it can elevate a good show into a great show; but when over-excessive blood and gore are constantly thrown into the viewer’s face for the sole purpose of keeping one’s attention, it loses me very quickly. The first season we saw proper use of blood and gore. Now in season three, the murders are a grand show of dancing blood being flung about apartment complexes, factories, nightclubs etc… but have no substance. Sex, sex, and more sex is thrown around as two of the main serial killers tend to be having it about every time they are on screen. Not counting the rest of the cast, I counted the serial-killing lover duo having sex or close to it six times in their seven appearances. So as you can imagine, it felt as though the writers were counting on boobs and gore to keep its audience interested in their dull plot.

If I were to compliment one great thing about the series, it is absolutely the all-star cast. Kevin Bacon is a very versatile actor and leads his investigation team perfectly. The actors who played the cultists brought very interesting and deep additions to the show. If their actions and cause for blindly following serial killers wasn’t so ridiculous they may have even brought the show together with Bacon’s amazing performance.

The Presentation

The presentation for The Following: Season 3 looked pretty good. This Blu-ray disc definitely delivers amazing looks in 1080p quality.

Presented in high definition via a strong Mpeg-4 encode, the show at least looks amazing with the blood and gore, which easily used to be some of the greatest drawing factors of the series. The lighting of the series was really good, as it enhanced scenes on this Blu-ray release that offered plenty of depth and detail. There are few series that have used light to set tone and mood quite as well as The Following and you see it pay off in this release.

The audio for The Following: Season 3 was also strong. Being a firearms enthusiast, I thought the use of guns in the series sounded a little off target. However, the detail on the speakers were loud and full of pop. Sometimes television series pump out the action sequences and quiet down the dialogue, but The Following does a great job keeping a strong balance across all the speakers. Other than that, the sound crew did an amazing job capturing the sounds of the city, swat raids, and even the sounds of wounds happening on human beings–wonderfully replicated for this high-definition release.

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Special Features

The special features were pretty standard on this release of The Following: Season 3. They had plenty of behind-the-scenes footage and a few featurettes.

I found ‘The Art of the Crime Scene Photo’ and ‘Ryan and Romance’ sections very interesting. Another section worth watching for any nerd is the ‘New York Comic-Con Panel 2014’ section. Overall the special features seemed much like the series. Worth a watch if you’re bored for an afternoon, but nothing that stands out from any other serial killer drama out there.

Final Thoughts

If you like serial killers, blood and gore, sexuality that is akin to rabbits in spring, and can put up with dull plots you will like the third season of The Following. If you are looking for something with a bit more substance and an amazing plot, you may be better served by some of the other shows on TV at the moment.

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