I think you are completely wrong, your looking at it as two random killers. Joe Carroll was never the "hidden" bad guy with a "hidden" story like Sylar. It took half a season to even SEE Sylar and his biggest problem wasn't humanisation but over powering and swinging back and forth between anti-hero and villain.

We meet Joe before we meet any of the "good" guys. We see that he's a manipulative, impressive and resourceful killer. We have constant reminders of how intelligent and well spoken he is. We get to know his family and his desires. And that, THAT is all within the first half of season one!

All that changed in season two is where he was being held captive! In season one he's in prison, in season two he "escapes" from his hiding place to end up "captured" by Lilly before moving to a Cult hideaway. The only difference being it was someone else's Cult and he had to kill the two leaders.

The Following works on a simple formula rejiggered in season two to tell a slightly (not completely) different story. The characters grow a little and change a little but the story is fundamentally the same and the motivations are the same.

It works because the story is just that little different and you have the newer characters like Lilly and her family (specially Luke/Mark) to freshen it up. The first (well first as in first that wasn't set up) murder you see Luke/Mark do and the way they were introduced were completely different from everything from Season one and brought a new level of excitement for the new psycho's we were going to meet. The intrigue around Lilly and her story and how her and Joe ended up splitting up and splitting both Hardy and Mike's time and effort gives the series the new life it needed.

The ONLY thing and I mean ONLY thing I dislike at all about the series is that it never really goes too deeply into how Carroll made HIS Cult or the workings of the Cult themselves.

I will agree with Ashmore who I've never really seen the fuss about. Then again that really isn't his fault but the way they've written the character, I don't see why one bad experience with a Cult would completely turn him into a asshole but that started in season one anyway!

Actually there is another thing haha but not a bad thing. I'm just bewildered by how weak willed all the bad guys are. The good guys can stand any kind of torture and not give away secrets but half of Joe's Cult were military men and police officers etc, surely they would be the first types of people that could hold up to torture? I'm not sure why all Hardy has to do is look grumpy at one of Joe's guys and they'll tell him everything he needs to know!

That being said I love the series, I think Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy work so well together, you can see the chemistry bubbling between them when they just talk about each other. Their characters are great. I love the story and I really enjoy everything that Joe does! In fact I can't tell you how much I love Joe because he's just wonderful, Purefoy really has done wonders. I can see a little bit of Mark Anthony in the way he plays Joe, mainly in the sassy-ness. I mean I started off hating Emma and now I love her!

I've gotten to the episode where you find out :



But I'll have to go back to season one for a bit as I need to watch it through with my mum first.

Season three? I have no idea but I'd be really upset if Joe wasn't apart of it. Though all of Joe's followers are pretty much dead now so it'll be hard to see him being the main man behind it all. Maybe it'll go Hannibal on us and have Hardy go back to the FBI to work on Cults and working with Joe in the Hannibal position? That could be interesting, I mean we found out that :



And we've ALWAYS known that :



I just want Joe to be back ..