I recently got into this series a few months ago. My first reaction was this was basically a continuation of the premise started by 24. I was shocked to find out that the concept for this series was originally the idea Howard Gordon pitched for Season 6 of 24 after Jack Bauer was brought back from China, in an effort to reboot it.

Craziness. Turning Jack heel would've breathed so much life into the show later on, and it would've been insane the year after Kiefer won an Emmy for best actor. Total balls. Fox pussed out tho, because of "the movie" that never came to be.

Of course recently it was announced 24 was going to be revived by Fox, in large part to the lack of quality dramas on Fox since it's cancellation, and the fact of Homeland's massive success for HBO, has made them reconsider retooling 24 into a 12-episode cable-like series, with basically Homeland's premise but with Bauer.

Homeland itself is a quality show, and in alot of ways seems like a continuation of 24 with a different set of characters. Even the feel is similar.

All of the acting is absolutely stellar. SAUL IS THE MAN! And although I haven't watched more than a couple episodes of Season 2 so far, it's definitely a quality show.

I stayed interested throughout, but after awhile it became kind of samey. It's basically what I described earlier, Bacon's character is Loomis meets Jack Bauer. 24 meets Halloween.

Great concept, but it does get tiring. The fact that the fucking cunt with the red hair is still alive didn't irritate me enough to come back, it just made me hate it.

The ending of if was total Kevin Williamson, and totally predictable. I thought at times I was watching Scream 5, but without Neve Campbell.

I think Season 2 needs some re-tooling. Despite it's strong promise, and quick Fox renewal, the show started suffering a ratings dip, so much to the point re-runs of Hawaii Five-O were surpassing it.

I think the show needs some re-tooling, but in some ways it gave away too much too fast. They have a huge uphill battle now to use Season 2 to out-do Season 1.

Personally, here's my wishes for Season 2:

1) Claire
-- Kill Claire perminately. Let the end of Season 1 be the actual ending. Have Claire be dead-to-rights, Joe ends up getting his kid back, Ryan kills Wendy and survives to open the door for Joe's book to be done and new characters to be introduced. Claire's death will be a far bigger motivator and affect on Ryan & Joe, as well as her kid, than her being alive.

2) Kevin Bacon
--- Have Ryan go completely off the deep end as well as the grid. Real late-Halloween 5 & 6 Dr. Loomis. Crazier than friggin' Joe. Ryan becomes a bit of a wild card, as well as nomadic. The F.B.I., nor even Joe's people know where the fuck he is. Ryan should also become an almost laughable unstoppable force as he tries to take out Joe's people one-by-one.

3) Neve Campbell
--- I don't know if it's a Kevin Williamson thing, or just the tone, but I could easily see Campbell on this show as an F.B.I. profiler. Whether it's her or another actress, a bigger and better character than the previous cult-expert should be brought in to track down Ryan, and wrap up Joe. She is assigned with finding Ryan, and slowly learns that Joe's cult is still around, getting stronger and bigger than ever. The character should be the anchor at the F.B.I. smarter than Ryan, but weaker, giving her balance. She also could set up as a future love interest for Ryan, especially when she starts escaping death on a regular basis and she begins to understand Ryan specifically better than anyone, including Ryan.

4) Joe
-- Joe should be battered, bruised, lost, and disillusioned. It should leave him vunerable to attack and other threats from those in the Following who want to take his place, as well as other psychos (from high profile character actors -- Lance Henriksen anyone?) who want to steal his throne

These changes, and more character development, and the series should be fine. The hyper-violence, and killing of already beloved characters too soon imo was a mistake. Otherwise it's still a series with an intriguing story to tell.

I downloaded all of these, and have yet to watch them. I gotta admit they retooled the show from their original premise. The show is set firmly in the present day, and oddly enough a direct-reboot of the concept for Psycho IV believe it or not.

Saw the finale, thought it was a piece of shit.

Imo, this show just cannot handle 16 episodes a year. I know it gets 11-12mil viewers a week when it's in-season, but in reality, the show just does not have the material, nor the writers to handle the amount of shows it does a year. They need to drop the 2-part season shit, and cut the season's by 3-4 episodes, depending on the material. Tighten it up, and just fucking knock the bottom out of it for like 12-13 episodes a year. It'd easily be the best show on TV.

Unfortunately it's the highest rated, but it's not the best. Sons extends all of it's episodes and reminds the best series on TV.