Kevin Bacon
TOUGH: James Purefoy (with Natalie Zea, Kevin Bacon, inset) stars as a serial killer. (
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Ummm . . . so what outrage?
Kevin Bacon’s new Fox series, “The Following,” got killer ratings in its Monday-night premiere — but failed to ignite an expected backlash over its violent content.
The series, in which Bacon stars as an FBI agent tracking a nationwide network of murderers — cultishly devoted to an escaped serial killer (James Purefoy) — snared 10.4 million viewers as the night’s most-watched show.
It also won the night in adults 18 to 49, the demographic most coveted by advertisers.
But after all the ink was spilled over whether “The Following” overstepped prime-time boundaries in its depictions of violence — including a scene in which a woman commits suicide by plunging an ice pick through her skull — the social media universe, particularly Twitter, was mostly laudatory of Monday night’s series premiere.
“Daaaamn the first episode of #thefollowing was good,” tweeted 2 Bucks. “Not that many shows make me want to actually watch TV these days.”
“Impressed by #thefollowing, especially for a US network show,” read a tweet from Alfred Hermida. “edgy, unsettling —- killing off a key character in first episode.”
Others were downright effusive — even about the graphic violence.
“A show about serial killers, torture and literature? Why hasn’t this happened already? I’m in love,” tweeted M. Millis.
Purefoy, around whose serial killer/cult leader Joe Carroll “The Following” revolves, told The Post, even before the show aired, that he thought the on-screen violence would not be a factor in whether people tuned in — and, in fact, could help spur viewership.
“I think we as a human race are titillated and love to watch dreadful things happening to other people,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s anything new to ‘The Following’ or to now. I think it goes back as long as drama itself.
“The horror, the horror, the horror — it goes way back. There’s nothing new,” Purefoy said.
“It will just continue going on because it makes the hairs on the back of our necks stand up — and we, as an audience, like that.
“I’d love to say that [the level of violence] is getting worse, but it really isn’t,” he said.
“That kind of level of macabre has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, and this is really no different.”
— Additional reporting by Eric Hegedus