PARAMOUNT PLUS’ ‘EVIL’ IS MODERN HORROR AT ITS FINEST

During its nine year run, The X-Files had more than a few missteps in its storytelling, owing to perhaps the fact that series creator Chris Carter had a rambling, anything goes sort-of structure to the story’s arc and that they had to fill up twenty plus episodes of tales as backbone to the series’ central plot, so often times in between hunting black oil and aliens, Mulder and Scully would be on the lookout for invisible zoo animals or gambling dens that use organs as currency. Fortunately, in the era of modern media, genre shows are not beholden to the old ways of small screen structure and can hammer out ten or thirteen episode season of television and call it a day. What this allows writers to do is have the ability to craft a concise narrative without having to worry about nonsense filler. This brings us to Robert and Michelle King’s series Evil, which started out as a CBS Friday night spook-show before transitioning to Paramount Plus where all the sex, violence and humor flow freely and the plot is sharp and succinct.

Premiering in September 2019, Evil is a show about three assessors – a contractor, a psychologist and a priest in training who investigate all manner of the paranormal, while trying to suss out if it’s supernatural or it’s smoke and mirrors – to the show’s credit, they often split the difference so sometimes, it’s serial killers and evil children and other times, it’s possessed toys and cursed stock tips. The production carries a decidedly wealthy Eurohorror vision of evil: Upper West Side Satanism – think the folks in ROSEMARY’S BABY with the cold, clinical production design of filmmakers like David Cronenberg. It is a show with gorgeous artistic flourishes in its precise shot compositions, by its many talented directors, and a wickedly balanced sense of humor.

An excellent genre show lives and dies by its cast and luckily, Evil delivers in spades with its actors, who all have a built in, comfortable chemistry with each other. The series’ lead, Katja Herbers is extremely multi-faceted, shifting from fierce sexiness to violently defensive mama-bear within the blink of an eye. A smart thing the show does is allow Herbers to practically relish being an anti-hero in a way, without ever feeling like the writers are judging her for committing the sometimes, murderous actions that she executes (pun intended). The way she silently and sometimes, explosively, bears the weight of the various immoral acts she has committed, like homicide or adultery, is nothing short of breathtaking. The smoldering chemistry she shares with her co-lead Mike Colter (who has this soft, heart wrenching patience to his performance) is wonderful – their conversations carry the weight of tense lovers and old friends. Their work together in the season two finale is awards worthy for how much is conveyed with how little is said.

Colter and Herbers’ rapport with the third part of their trio, Aasif Mandvi (whose morose detachment aligns well with the show’s gray morality) is robust and lived in and one could have twice as many scenes where the three sit around and banter about gods, monsters and science. The supporting cast is equally as electrifying – the four actors playing Kristen’s daughters (Brooklyn Shuck, Skylar Gray, Maddy Crocco and Dalya Knapp) imbue their characters with a sense of smarts and spitfire – talking over each other as much as they’re helping their mom combat evil. Christine Lahti is diabolical as Kristen’s mother, Sheryl who is as scary as she is warmly supportive. The big fan favorite as of the third season is Sister Andrea, played by the wonderful Andrea Martin who dispenses wisdom in between bouts of battling spirits.

In a way, it’s kind of perfect that Evil is growing popular as a television series during a pandemic – as the show illustrates how easy it is to use the Internet as an insidious tool to prime people to do … well, evil. Early on in the first season, the villainous Leland Townsend (played with slimy spirit by Michael Emerson) coerces a young incel into shooting women (a storyline which ends on a humorously gruesome note). Or how Leland is attempting to groom Kristen’s daughter to harm her mother, but is using a child’s social media game to do so. A company with a job position that specifically caters to ensuring that people will stay miserable and doomscroll? Only on Evil. It also shows the lengths people will go to to become famous – like harming their children, or harming themselves. The writers like to tackle real world issues, like exploitation of warehouse workers, or police involved shootings, but provide the plot with the show’s ghoulish sense of humor so things don’t get too immersed in darkness.

There have been some outstanding episodes in the show’s run – in particular, “S Is For Silence,” an episode where the three assessors go to a monastery where no one has spoken a word for fear that it will unleash a demon from its shackled cabinet. The episode gave major A QUIET PLACE/PRINCE OF DARKNESS vibes. Furthermore, a late third season episode, “The Demon of Parenthood,” has, not only killer practical demon effects (the series as a whole has been a boon for gorgeous creature design), but a bone-chilling ending with a pitch perfect performance by Herbers, who has a scream ideal for the horror genre. As of season three, Evil has added a new intro that is equal parts delightfully eerie (bloody climbing axes, anyone?), and cheeky (there is a “Skip Intro and You Will Be Haunted button”) with a violin piece that starts calmly before ratcheting into a thrilling frenzy. Additionally, starting in season two – every installment comes with a pop-up book that illustrates the demonic force the trio will encounter in the episode – Robert and Michelle, if you’re reading this, once the series is through, please make the pop-up book a reality. It’d be a delightful collectible.

Fans of genre television can have it rough sometimes. For every show like Supernatural that ran for fifteen years, there’s a Hannibal or The Exorcist or Ash Vs. Evil Dead – brilliant horror shows that get cut down in their prime because the viewers just weren’t there to watch. Don’t let this same mistake happen to Evil. It’s even now blessed

Nathan Smith
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