The stabbiest show on television is also one of the best; based on its first season, I’d give “The Following” a 9 out of 10.

The premise is a goddam creative and scary mashup. Cults exist (and are frightening) in real life; serial killers exist (and are frightening) in real life. Why not base a horror series on a cult of serial killers? With the advent of the Internet (as the show wisely incorporates) it seems so obvious that you wonder why it hasn’t been written before. 

Other aspects of the story are also highly creative and original. The cult’s “literary” ideology (as opposed to a strictly religious one) is a nice twist, and nicely plausible. Adding in the domestic terrorist angle also makes sense and makes for a scarier group of adversaries.

In the real world, I imagine such a marriage would be more difficult than the show depicts. I was a mediocre psychology student, but I do remember some things. Serial killers tend to work alone. Many are sociopaths who are incapable of empathy, and they’d therefore be actually less likely to be attracted to a cult out of a need to “belong.” Sociopaths are also egotists who aggrandize themselves; they would be less likely to idolize a cult leader than you or I would. Finally, they actually do not come from “all walks of life.” There is a preponderance of white males in their 20’s and 30’s, and they’re usually of above average intelligence.

All of the above are forgivable in exchange for a great story device.

This show has good acting all around, but especially from Kevin Bacon (of course) and Valorie Curry as “Emma.” Shawn Ashemore is really good. James Purefoy is great as the Big Bad — I’ve liked this guy as far back as his turn in “Resident Evil” 12 years ago.

If the show does have a problem, it’s that it spends too much time following characters that are thinly drawn and neither interesting nor likable. Does anyone really care about Emma, Jacob and … that other guy? Episodes devoted to them are less enjoyable. Clare and Joey are so thinly drawn that they’re usually boring. The most interesting character is Annie Parisse’s Debra — especially after we discover her motivations via flashback. The show might actually be stronger if it were centered around her, instead of Kevin Bacon’s Ryan Hardy.

There is an overused and predictable story-arc plot device. Various characters are kidnapped by the bad guys only to be rescued — I think the show went back to the well one too many times with this story concept.

There is also the occasional cliché, like the reluctant hero and the killer’s “we’re the same” speech.

Still, this is good stuff — it isn’t NBC’s superior “Hannibal,” but it’s still a terrific show.

“There are no compacts between lions and men, and wolves and lambs have no accord.”

Homer

ODE TO INSOMNIA:

O, Insomnia!
I thought I’d lost you,
You reappearing keeper of sleeplessness,
You ever awakening angel,
You fickle little midnight affliction …
(Seriously, though, fuck you.)

A friend e-mailed me and mentioned her diet, and I immediately read “Diet,” as in the Japanese legislature (which is controlled by the bad guys in “Debt of Honor.”)

Seriously, I love that book.

“Good little sunbeams must learn to fly,
“But it’s madly ungay when the goldfish die.”

— Adrian and Francisco, from W.H. Auden’s “The Sea and the Mirror”

“There was once a time, in decades not too long ago, when life for a young artist consisted of living in a threadbare apartment while trying to create great art, instead of trying to live in a great apartment while creating threadbare art.”

– Roger Ebert.

I’m pretty sure “The Boogeyman” was my favorite story. (I might have borrowed it from my brother without his permission.)

For some reason, however, it was “The Tommyknockers” (and not “The Stand!!”) that really made me want to become an author. I read that one on a long car ride to visit my sister at college in Boston.

$1 movies at Dodd Auditorium. (What a cheap date.)

Anyone else remember “Fantasia” or “The Birds?”