Trying to get to the root of Evil
The new drama Evil reflects its creators’ decades-long debate on religion, the nature of evil and demonic possession.
MICHELLE and Robert King are best known for creating The Good Wife (2009 to 2016), widely praised as one of the smartest courtroom dramas on television.
The series, which won five Emmys, reflected the husband-andwife team’s unending curiosity about the law, politics, technology and media – which is why fans would probably never have guessed their next show would be about, of all things, the supernatural.
Yet the new drama, Evil, has the Kings’ intellectual fingerprints all over it, and the couple say it reflects a decades-long debate they have had about religion, the nature of evil and whether demonic possession is real.
The series follows a sceptical psychologist, Kristen (Katja Herbers), as she teams up with trainee priest David (Mike Colter) and technology whiz Ben (Aasif Mandvi) to investigate a supposed demonic possession.
They go on to look at miracles and other unexplained cases to see if there is a scientific explanation or something else at work.
Speaking at a press day in Beverly Hills, California, the United States, the Kings – who write and executive-produce the show – say they once tried to pitch a drama set in Vatican City exploring the inner workings of the Catholic Church.
But “we found, in the streaming world, there’s no interest in religion, pro or anti, because they’re afraid of the controversy and afraid that audiences won’t accept it”, says Robert, 59.
“We were frustrated by that. But we thought another way to get at religion as a question is through the darker side of it – because people are more engaged by darkness than they are by light.
“Obviously, this is well fought over ground because of (the 1993 to 2018 science-fiction and supernatural drama) The X-Files, but we thought we could do it differently.”
One unique facet of the show is how several cases are linked to darker corners of the Internet.
“In America, there’s a lot of struggling with social media as a contributor to people doing villainous things and that seemed like an interesting way to follow the issues,” he says.
Unlike The X-Files, however, this is not a classic sci-fi or “pure genre” series, says Michelle, 60.
“It does touch on the metaphysical and there are elements of mystery and horror.”
“But if by science fiction you mean, ‘Do we take science seriously?’ We do,” her husband adds.
“There’s a whole episode about quantum entanglement. And when you look at very mysterious things, you may think it’s going to be a supernatural answer but it can be a very logical answer.
“What we want is a show that will always surprise you as to which way it goes.”
As a result, there may not always be clear-cut answers provided as conclusions will be “a little more vague” and “not just binary”, he says.
“The show wants to have two parallel tracks: One where you can answer everything you saw scientifically and then, if you were of a supernatural bent, you could kind of see there was something beyond science going on.”
There will also be a different spin on exorcisms.
“(The 1973 movie) The Exorcist has done so much here – you have to start anew to take it in an interesting direction. So there will be exorcisms but we’re going in a different direction with it,” says Robert.
“The emphasis is on the investigation and trying to figure out what caused the evil more than how you ultimately get rid of it,” adds Michelle.
The couple, who have been married since 1987 and have a daughter, say Evil reflects discussions they have had about religion and science.
Informing those is the fact that Michelle is an agnostic Jew who does not believe in demonic possession, whereas Robert, a practising Catholic, does.
“We’ve been writing it for the last year and researching it for the last 30,” she jokes.
“You’re looking at the result of a conversation we are still having.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
Evil airs every Friday at 9.05pm on Fox HD (Astro Ch 724/unifi TV Ch 453).