Candy Land

"'I'm truly sorry I retweeted a spoiler."--  Kevin Bacon, local boy.

Why my tolerance is tested during episodes of The Following is something not entirely clear to me. The series shares other Fox family values where evil is clearly delineated, with hard edges, whatever commonality Ryan Hardy shares with Jack Bauer. I made an effort to watch one early episode of 24, the one with Mrs. Bauer in sweater and on cell phone, and that was it. Not that I never watched any other segments, just this, that its immediacy never held my interest.

Hannibal has style, but The Following triggers scar tissue, despite the fact that I was never raped by a megalomaniac. The series is certainly not as exploitative as Dexter, nor does it echo Cassavetes, and yet I need to keep my distance from it in modes of vulnerability, perhaps because it was a cult, a Catholic charismatic off shoot (not quite a true cult, but as close as I came in adolescence to it) which sheltered me from my stepfather.

What gifts we receive when heavy weights like Fishburne grow too old to be Morpheus.