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"The Following is back and it&amp;#039;s got something to prove - 2013&amp;#039;s first 15-part run received a decidedly mixed reaction from critics and also attracted criticism for its violent content. But it appeared that those behind the show were aware of the backlash and had set about fixing what was broken - star James Purefoy told DS that everybody had &amp;quot;learnt a lot&amp;quot; from last year&amp;#039;s episodes, even comparing the new season to the lofty likes of Breaking Bad. It&amp;#039;s disappointing then to find that The Following picks up exactly where it left off - not only in terms of plot, but also in terms of structure and tone.  Once again, any moment of real menace or genuinely inventive horror - and there are a few - is buried under a plethora of cartoonish performances, dreadful dialogue (&amp;quot;Huggy-hug&amp;quot;) and &amp;#039;dramatic&amp;#039; moments as subtle as a sledgehammer. Take the treatment of Kevin Bacon&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;hero&amp;#039; Ryan Hardy - now sober and retired, Ryan is reluctant to be dragged back into Joe&amp;#039;s world. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m done,&amp;quot; he grunts - and the cynical viewer expects some tiresome handwringing before Hardy submits to his fate. So the surprise revelation that Ryan has been working alone to vanquish Joe&amp;#039;s cult in secret works on multiple levels - it not only undercuts our expectations, but also makes a positive of one of last year&amp;#039;s biggest negatives. Season one saw the FBI portrayed as hopelessly incompetent in their hunt for Carroll, so to have that addressed within the narrative - with Ryan having lost faith in his former employers - is actually pretty smart. Ryan&amp;#039;s also allowed to embrace a little more of his inner psychopath here - the line between hero and villain is blurring and the final scene, in which Ryan dons a mask of his dark twin Joe&amp;#039;s face, is heavy-handed but undeniably eerie.  Yet for every golden nugget, there&amp;#039;s a sizeable lump of something less pleasant. Let&amp;#039;s consider now The Following&amp;#039;s sorry bunch of villains - while Sam Underwood&amp;#039;s killer caressing a dead body provides some early chills, the episode then completely eradicates any menace as the creepy corpse hugger prances around to &amp;#039;70s disco and serenades his victim.  It&amp;#039;s truly bizarre television and at moments like this, The Following doesn&amp;#039;t just veer close to parody - it takes its foot off the brakes and slams straight into it. James Purefoy&amp;#039;s dapper devil Joe will at least be back to take charge in future weeks, though the method via which he survived his apparent fiery fate is another huge face-palm moment. An escape hatch? An enormously convenient, previously unseen escape hatch? It&amp;#039;s the stuff of Scooby Doo and after nine months, it beggars belief that this was the best that the show&amp;#039;s writing team could come up with.  The Following is not the worst show on television - the cast alone elevates it above the worst TV tripe, with strong performers Bacon and Purefoy now joined by exciting new additions including Keith Carradine and Connie Nielsen. But it is among the most frustrating - precisely because it has potential that it so rarely fulfils. There&amp;#039;s still the odd glimmer of something great - a hint that The Following could be so much more - but &amp;#039;Resurrection&amp;#039; is far from the dramatic overhaul that we were hoping for. It&amp;#039;s an overhaul that the show desperately needs, because right now, The Following still has eviscerated guts where its brain should be.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-following/news/a545611/the-following-season-2-kevin-bacon-horror-still-has-guts-for-brains/>