Joe Carroll, a former University professor who killed a bunch of female college students, escapes from jail. Ryan Hardy, the man who caught him, is brought in after leaving the FBI to team with a Mason, a tough female FBI Agent, to recapture Carroll. It turns out Carroll had help on the outside from a network of wanna be serial killers.
In an interview with Collider, Kevin Williamson had this to say about his upcoming serial killer show on Fox:
You’ll be routing for the FBI agent who is going to bring him down. It’s very emotional. It’s this huge, big, hybrid show like The Vampire Diaries, where it relies on the twists and turns, and the tears, where you just get so invested in the characters and you’re like, “No, not that one,” and then they die. It’s one of those shows.
The Vampire Diaries is probably my favourite show on TV right now, so a comparison by Williamson to that show piqued my interest. After reading the pilot script by Williamson I see hints of his description, but I don’t know how it will develop into a “huge, big, hybrid show”. To me it comes across as a standard kinda dark procedural. I did experience a “no, not that one” reaction whilst reading the script, and I think if it can generate that reaction in me without any of the sensory factors which go along with actually watching a TV show, I think this reaction may be a common occurrence should the show end up running for a while.
I thought the flashbacks to when Ryan was tracking and caught Joe were done well, as well as the ones featuring other character like the student who survived, and Carroll’s wife, and they helped to introduce some of the characters who I assume will be major players going forward.
Whilst reading the script I couldn’t help but picture Carroll as being played by Jere Burns (Duffy from Justified). He’s not written in any particularly definitive way, but it was the first actor that came to mind and I couldn’t shake it. Likewise, I couldn’t help but imagine Robin Tunney playing Mason, in no small part because I don’t like Robin Tunney and I didn’t like Mason.
My initial impression whilst reading was that it will probably need to be toned down a bit. First of all the language, ‘cos I’m fairly certain Fox doesn’t want a bunch of f-bombs being dropped each episode. Plus it’s a little bit too gruesome in its depiction of violence against women. I like violence in movies but I don’t like my TV shows to be too gratuitous.
I can say right now that I’m not going to enjoy the initial feeling that every new character introduced could be a potential serial killer. That shit will get old real fast.
I’m also not too sure about the potential longevity of a show based in essence on tracking serial killers controlled and motivated by someone behind bars, especially if the authorities do what they should and place Joe in solitary to avoid him influencing people on the outside. It seems rather limited and a bit freak-of-the-week to me. Still, it’s just a pilot, and shows typically develop and evolve as time moves on. The thing I always come back to is Seinfeld, which I thought was pretty damn ordinary for the first season and a half, and then developed into arguably the best TV show of all time.
I think that casting, and a commitment for the show to be something more than an ordinary procedural, will ensure that it develops an audience. This in turn should keep the notoriously cancellation happy Fox from axing the show prematurely. If both of those factors are covered then I can see myself losing interest like I did with Prison Break and Fringe.
