TV Guide used to run an annual “The Best Show You’re Not Watching” feature. It doesn’t apply in this age of streaming because the viewing audience is so spread out, and because people aren’t as tied to timeslots as they used to be. But buried amid old-school procedurals on Paramount Plus, “Evil” almost fits the bill. I rarely hear anyone talking about Robert and Michelle King’s series, of which I recently watched 2021’s Season 2. (Season 3 is slated for June.)
Not your ordinary procedural
“Evil” is a supernatural procedural that branches from “The X-Files’ ” influence tree. But it’s one of the most idiosyncratic procedurals ever. Fans of the Kings’ “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” were already aware of their unique storytelling style, but I hadn’t watched those shows, so “Evil” is fresh to me.
Each episode, Kristen (Katja Herbers), David (Mike Colter) and Ben (Aasif Mandvi) investigate an odd occurrence for the Catholic Church. Kristen looks for psychological explanations within the complainant, David looks for supernatural explanations in the person’s life and environment, and Ben looks for natural explanations at the location.
“Evil” Season 2 (2021)
Paramount Plus, 13 episodes
Creators: Robert and Michelle King
Stars: Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi
Unlike with “The X-Files,” where the answer is always supernatural (making Scully look silly, if one really thinks about it), it could be any of the three on “Evil.” That provides variety and makes for a big world of possibilities.
But what really opens up “Evil” is that it takes place in the modern world we know. Kristen has four daughters, and we regularly see them loudly talking over each other (this show might have the best overlapping dialog since “This Is Us”) and lightly bickering.
They have all the issues of young girls. “Ovaphobia” (2.10) finds Lexis (Maddy Crocco) dealing with a skewed view of her physical appearance – a phase many girls go through. The thin Lexis thinks she’s fat, and sees herself in the mirror as having a lizard-like tail.
Metaphor? Literal reality? Somehow on “Evil,” that doesn’t have to be ironed out. I always understand the show on at least one of its levels; it never leaves me in the dust despite being consistently smart.
A very human trio
Further helping pull off the portrayal of a grounded world teeming with demons is that the three leads are so human. I adore them all, but objectively, they have bad traits and have done bad things. Season 1 ends with Kristen murdering a man, and Season 2 ends with her committing another act that at least the Church defines as a sin.
But context is key, of course. She murders the man to protect her daughters, and Season 2 shows her being haunted by this, but in a subtle way. Herbers pulls off Kristen being deeply troubled without many scenes blatantly showing it.
Which isn’t to say we can’t be shocked by her behavior. Season 1 was on CBS, and the streaming Season 2 allows the additions of swearing and sex, but it uses these elements judiciously. Kirsten – whose husband (Patrick Brammall’s Andy) is often out of town on long work trips — engages in an intimate moment in her car with the leader of a Satanic Church whom she openly loathes in “I is for IRS” (2.11).
Colter, who I can now say is even better here than as Luke Cage (which I had assumed would always be his most iconic role), is more of a traditional brooder as David, a former sex addict who aims for the priesthood.
Mandvi’s Ben, meanwhile, is your Everyman type. He fits the comic relief label if we were to cram “Evil” into a template, but he’s a fully formed person. In his dating life, which he approaches cautiously, he falls for a woman (Nicole Shalhoub’s Vanessa) with a psychological parasitic twin.
Control of its mood
In the “I is for IRS” scene right before Kristen’s tryst in her vehicle, the Satanist openly admits his church is a sham – he’s trying for tax-exempt status. Oftentimes, an episode’s core mystery is resolved in a simple manner like this, but “Evil” is so strong in every area that it doesn’t really matter if the mystery itself is by-the-book.
In “E is for Elevator” (2.4), Ben takes an old building’s elevator to a hidden level and thinks he’s going to die there. It becomes about the character, not the mystery.
“Evil” — which adds a non-talkie episode (“S is for Silence,” 4.7) to its resume, joining “Buffy” and “Only Murders in the Building” — always has control of its mood. Sure, that hidden level Ben discovers is bizarre and creepy, as is an abandoned college campus building in season finale “C is for Cannibal.” But what really resonates are Kristen’s home next to the rumbly elevated train tracks, David’s ascetic room in the church, and Ben’s loft apartment.
Bricks and wood, browns and blacks, dominate these spaces. Because of “Evil’s” grounded elements – the four bantering girls, yes, but also everyday things like grocery shopping – the old-world architecture sparks more than in an atmosphere-drenched spook film.
“Evil” is a nice place to visit every episode, but I wouldn’t want to live there … but – unlike a lot of work in the horror genre — I wonder if I do live there.