I'm fascinated by Evil. The show, I mean, not actual evil. Actual evil is pretty fucking boring if you think about it. It's all the same. The only reason evil is so successfully persistent is because it's really good at convincing decent people of things that are not true. And if it keeps fooling those decent people, they eventually turn to, well, you know.
I go over all sorts of horrible shit happening in the real world in these, so it's nice to take a look at evil in a fictional setting, where if things get too fucked up you can laugh at the absurdity and hope that no one would really do any of this stuff. I'm thinking mainly of Leland training the young boy to become first an incel, and then a mass shooter. That stands out as pretty fucking fucked up.
Of course now that I'm watching Evil I saw today that this is going to be the last season. Can they really wrap this up in a handful of episodes? Maybe, but I'm leaning toward maybe not. Although it does seem that they got extra episodes this year.
What I really enjoy about it is that it doesn't preach at you. Showrunners Robert and Michelle King are smart enough to know that the show wouldn't be as successful if they went in that direction. I see Robert is a Catholic. I don't know about Michelle, but the show comes off as if written by Catholics, which makes sense. In the show the Catholic church has assessors to judge the merits of cases possibly needing exorcism: a priest (in David's case he's in training), a scientist (Ben) and a psychologist (Kristen). Whatever they recommend is usually the direction the church goes in. It's interesting because they don't focus on David, which would be the natural thing to do. Instead they focus on Kristen as we delve deeper and deeper into the nature of evil, up to and including the birth of the Anti-Christ?
Their immediate answer to the Anti-Christ is very interesting. SPOILER UNTIL YOU SEE THE WORD SPOILER AGAIN: They baptize the li'l guy! Who ever thinks to *save* the Anti-Christ? That's fucking great! END SPOILER.
The Kings also know that evil doesn't stop at Black Masses and devil worship. Evil is technologically advanced with nods to VR reality, hacking, memes, etc. And they don't flinch, either. They lean into the horror.
But what I really like is when the credits come on, and the show threatens you. SKIP THE INTRO AND YOU'LL BE HAUNTED. THE SKIPPING GHOST IS ANGERED WHEN YOU SKIP THE INTRO. DON'T SKIP OR THE SKIPPING GHOST WILL VISIT YOU TONIGHT. And so on. I particularly enjoyed JENNY PARK OF SUN VALLEY, UTAH, SKIPPED THE INTRO AND LOST ALL HER HAIR. And I can't help but hear each and every one of these in Mike Colter's voice, the guy who plays David (Luke Cage!!!!!!!)
I'm bummed out that they're ending the show, but I'm happy I found it. This year has been pretty miserable for me, and I gotta take my wins somewhere. If you want to check the show out for yourself, it's on Paramount+. For now . . .
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