The TV offerings from Netflix for 2026 have expanded with the addition of Fox’s crime thriller show starring Golden Globe winner Kevin Bacon. As of today, all three seasons of Bacon’s The Following series are now available to stream on Netflix, a decade after Fox decided to cancel the show.
What do we know about Kevin Bacon’s The Following series?
The Following was created by Scream writer Kevin Williamson. In the show, Bacon played the leading role of former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, who was enlisted to help track down an escaped serial killer. The ensemble cast also featured Shawn Ashmore as Mike Weston, James Purefoy as Joe Carroll, Natalie Zea as Claire Matthews, Valorie Curry as Emma Hill, Jessica Stroup as Max Hardy, Connie Nielsen as Lily Gray, Valerie Cruz as Gina Mendez, Felix Solis as Jeff Clarke, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Olivia Warren, and Mike Colter as Nick Donovan, among others. Since its debut in 2013, the show garnered an average approval rating of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The official logline states: “The FBI calls on Ryan Hardy, a former agent with physical and emotional scars, when Joe Carroll, a notorious serial killer he apprehended years earlier, escapes from death row. Carroll, an English professor and novelist fixated on Edgar Allan Poe, mutilated and killed 14 women before he was imprisoned. Hardy and the FBI learn that while he was incarcerated, Carroll spent his time gathering a collection of cultlike followers. The recruits prove themselves willing to commit murder, facilitate abductions, and even sacrifice themselves to help Carroll with his deadly objectives and achieve his ultimate goal – to exact revenge on Ryan Hardy.”
