Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Evil’ On Netflix, Where A Skeptic Joins A Priest-In-Training To Investigate Possession Cases

Robert and Michelle King have been one of the handful of network drama producers who have proved over the past decade that network dramas still have the potential to be layered, smart, surprising and funny. The Good Wife got a lot of Emmy attention in an era where cable then streaming started dominating the drama categories because the Kings knew the potential of the form, despite the restrictions. Last fall, their new show Evil debuted on CBS, which continued the formula they used on Good Wife, with some religious (and demonic) overtones mixed in. Now that the show is on Netflix, new audiences have caught on. Read on for more…

EVIL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A pristine, empty modern house, with a man saying in voice over that he likes houses before they move in. Then we cut to a prison interrogation room.

The Gist: Kristen Bourchard (Katja Herbers) is a psychologist who the Queens DA office pays to interview defendants and give expert testimony. In this particular case, she talks to a man accused of serial rape and murder, who claims he blacked out when those murders happened. Her interview, including 567 true or false statements, susses out that he’s likely lying about blacking out.

But, after her testimony, she’s called back to the interrogation room by David Acosta (Mike Colter). She thinks he’s working for the defense. The defendant is claiming that he’s possessed, and Acosta is there to investigate whether or not that’s the case. He’s pretty convinced, but he wants Kristen to find out for herself. When she goes to question him, he looks like something takes him over and he attacks her. That leads her to tell the DA that she needs to investigate further. He promptly decides to work with a new expert.

Kristen, now without her prime source of income, has to scramble to figure out how to take care of her daughters; she’s a single mother and her primary babysitter his her party-hearty mother Sheryl Luria (Christine Lahti). She’s still married, but her husband is out doing climbing tours and is never home; Kristen used to be a climber, but stopped when they started having kids.

Acosta pays her a visit and wants her to work with him. He doesn’t actually work for the defense; he works for the Catholic Church, investigating claims of possession. Though she’s a lapsed Catholic, Acosta wants Kristen’s skeptical eye when it comes to questioning this defendant and his wife, who claims to have heard a growling noise when her husband first showed that he was overtaken by something. She also meets Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), who also works with Acosta; he’s a contractor who finds and fixes what could possibly make the noises people report as proof of demons.

But Acosta is a true believer, especially after dropping out of his career as a globetrotting journalist. While Kristen thinks everything can be explained by science, Acosta has seen too much to think that science can explain everything, especially one-off phenomena like a shaman transferring his soul or someone coming back to life. But Kristen remains skeptical. She is surprised to find out from Ben that Acosta is training to be a priest.

That is, until she sees a demon named “George” in her sleep, wanting to look at her C-section scar and do all sorts of other heinous things. She tells this to her therapist, Dr. Boggs (Kurt Fuller) about it, but no one else. Which is why she’s surprised when the defendant comes back and, under “possession,” mentions everything she told the good doctor about those dreams. She’s almost convinced the guy is possessed, but her skepticism leads her to find out someone stole Dr. Boggs’ notes on her sessions from his office. She finds it’s a forensic psychologist named Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson), who Acosta tells Kristen is a psychopath who encourages people to murder, finding people on social media.

Our Take: It’s amazing how good a network drama can be in the hands of experienced writers who know how make shows that aren’t completely stupid. Robert and Michelle King, of course, did non-stupid TV for years with The Good Wife, which was a deft combination of case-of-the-week stories, heavy character arcs, buzzy deaths and departures, and more than enough humor to keep things from getting too heavy. They are applying all of that to Evil, while mixing in a bit of scary demons and stuff.

But the demons aren’t that scary. The shadow creature Kristen dreams about calls himself George and talks like a chatty professor before doing his nasty stuff. And there’s a reason why the very funny Mandvi is there as Ben; he’s there to find a squeaky dishwasher valve, for instance, that would be making a sound that someone may think is demonic, and his skepticism is funnier than Kristen’s, citing how much business has increased since Ghost Hunters came on the air.

What we like about Evil is that the Kings are going to balance Kristen’s skepticism with Acosta’s belief, with the two of them often vacillating towards the other’s point of view, like a religious-based version of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. And Townsend is there to be a real-life nemesis, so what Kristen and Acosta are chasing aren’t just literal or figurative ghosts. Of course, Michael Emerson plays creepy mystery men quite well, so his presence will be welcome as the season goes on.

But the show will come down to the chemistry between Colter and Herbers, and that’s pretty well established in the first episode. You can imagine their characters working together, and Kristen following Acosta’s lead, despite the fact that she doesn’t believe what he does. As long as the Kings keep that relationship right where it is now, and make the surrounding characters as well-rounded as the side characters on Good Wife, Evil should have a good run.

Sex and Skin: Aside from George the demon assessing Kristen’s underwear and C-section scar, nothing.

Parting Shot: To celebrate closing the serial killer case, Kristen drinks canned margaritas in her house with Acosta and Ben, and the next case they look at (there’s a backlog) isn’t a possession, it’s a “miracle”. When Ben says, “Is she joining us?”, Kristen says, “I can take a look.”

Sleeper Star: We’ve been Christine Lahti fans for decades (at least since Chicago Hope) so we’re glad to see her here as Kristen’s unconventional mother.

Most Pilot-y Line: The serial killer, having been found out, says to Kristen, “You’re a bitch,” as if that would faze her. That’s the bad line; Kristen’s response is priceless: “Oh, boy, do you have that right.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Evil was one of our favorite network pilots this fall, for the simple reason that it’s not stupid, which is more than we can say for most of the dramas that have been foisted on us this week.

Your Call:

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, and elsewhere.

Stream Evil On Netflix