What Bothers Me About "Evil"

After being recommended CBS's supernatural crime procedural "Evil" multiple times by multiple people, I watched the first two episodes. And I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that they were pretty good and absolutely not for me. I understand why people thought this would be a show I would like. I'm a big "X-files" fan and I'm an especially big Agent Scully fan. The main character of "Evil" is the outwardly similar Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), a forensic psychologist and working mom who is recruited by the Catholic Church to investigate claims of supernatural activity such as possessions and miracles. She works with a priest in training, David Acosta (Mike Colter), and an atheist technical expert, Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi).

On a surface level, the show tries to balance the views of the skeptics and the believers. More often than not there's a rational explanation for supernatural activity in each week's case - technical glitches, medical anomalies, and plenty of human error and wishful thinking. The first episode's possible demon possession is being faked by the episode's baddie. However, much like "The X-files," it's made very clear that this is a universe where the supernatural exists and actively affects everyday people. Kristen experiences disturbing night terrors where she's visited by a chatty demon named George (Marti Matulis). The show's real world big bad is Dr. Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson), a cartoonishly evil psychopath who is guided by demons to enable others to follow their worst impulses. And by the second episode he's already wormed his way into the District Attorney's employ to wreak havoc on the justice system.

It's ironic, but the show's overtures toward even-handedness are what's putting me off the most strongly. I have no issue with religious supernatural shows featuring demons and angels. I have no issue with crime procedurals. I do like that sometimes the culprit is just regular old social ills, bad mental health, or human prejudice. However, I feel like "Evil" is being coy and trying to maintain a veneer of plausible deniability about its supernatural themes that is misleading. I mean, "The X-files" was always clearly on Mulder's side, and Scully's skeptical explanations were mostly a storytelling device to further along Mulder's theorizing about the Flukeman or Shroomdude of the week. "Evil" showing that sometimes science does have the answers just seems to emphasize that sometimes science doesn't, which strikes me as a troubling message. If you're going to be a fantasy show, just embrace being a fantasy show.

Part of my negative reaction is also due to me having watched these episodes right after seeing Netflix's "Horse Girl," which had a great parody of a supernatural crime procedural, not too unlike "Evil." The heroine of "Horse Girl" was obsessed with the parody show, and it fed into her growing inability to tell reality from fiction as she experienced a mental break and destructive downward spiral. I'm not trying to suggest that the creators of "Evil" have any particular nefarious aims in making a program that puts forth some themes of scientific skepticism. However, it does bother me that the show maintains such a paranoid atmosphere and puts so much emphasis on questioning rational systems of inquiry, while clearly not being all that scientifically rigorous. It makes the whole thing feel a little disingenuous and distasteful.

To its credit, "Evil" is a very well made piece of genre television. Episodes are fun and exciting, with content that pushes at the usual restrictions of network television. There's some real intensity to the shocks, disturbing themes and outcomes, and the pilot features George cutting Kristen's fingers off in a dream sequence. The leads are tremendously appealing - Katja Herbers has no trouble selling all the contradictory parts of Kristen, I'm so relieved to see Mike Coulter in something so high profile after "Luke Cage" ended, and Michael Emerson in anything is always a treat.

Part of me wishes I could just turn off those nagging parts of my brain that keep seeing the problematic parts of the show, and just enjoy the slick, goofy melodrama for what it is. However, there's an awful lot of television out there, and plenty of other wacky demon horrors if I'm in the mood for them. Speaking of which, I'll be trying the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Outsider" next.

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