‘Evil’ explores why people do bad things
Robert King, who cocreated the new CBS drama “Evil,” grew up in San Jose as part of a large Catholic family. He attended Archbishop Mitty High School (class of ’78) and “went to Mass every Sunday, confession every two months.”
And then, after attending a Christian college, he married his wife, Michelle,
an agnostic Jew.
Not surprisingly, they’ve had some pretty spirited conversations over the years, some of which focused on why people do wicked things. He typically would lean toward a divine or supernatural theory, and she toward psychology or science.
“We have had these debates — and we’re just (screwing) up our daughter left and right with these debates — on the meaning of life,” he says. “But also, (about) villainy and shootings and lone gunmen and the social media presence that kind of makes evil viral. Where does that come from?”
King jokes that, rather than have “trouble in our marriage,” he and cowriter Michelle embedded their ongoing debate into a dark thriller that examines the origins of evil along the dividing line between science and religion.
“Evil” follows the adventures of skeptical forensics psychologist Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) and priest-intraining David Acosta (Mike Colter) as they investigate the Catholic Church’s backlog of unexplained mysteries, including supposed miracles, demonic possessions and hauntings.
Their job is to assess if there is a logical explanation or if something truly supernatural is at work.
King acknowledges that it’s a Mulder-Scully kind of dynamic but “Evil” isn’t exactly “The X-Files.”
“It’s about what’s going on today,” he says. “If ‘The X-Files’ dealt with social media, we’d be a little closer. … It’s not suggesting flying saucers and mysterious crop circles. It’s looking at why are people behaving this way now. Why are there more schoolyard shootings than there have been? What is going on? So it’s more based on the news.”
The cast also includes Aasif Mandvi, who plays an “even-tempered realist” — the third member of the investigative team. And then there’s Michael Emerson as an ultracreepy guy who encourages people via social media to create chaos. King has compared the latter to the Joker character played by Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight.”
“Evil” is quite a departure for the Kings, who are best known for their superb legal series “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight.” They see it as a welcome change of pace.
“First of all, not to be stuck in a courtroom is a good thing,” King says. “Also, there’s a predictability to the rhythms of a legal show. We try to break them as much as we can, but (“Evil”) is a great palate cleanser.”
Critics have been mostly good to “Evil.” The show rode high on a number of top 10 lists coming into the fall season and “Entertainment Weekly” called it “a relentlessly clever mash-up procedural, merging psychological medical mystery with techno-crime and spiritual struggle.”
Still, “Evil” drew only modest ratings for its premiere episode in late September. On the plus side, it has generated some of the best delayed-viewing numbers among the crop of new broadcast series.
This week, “Evil” serves up a chilling episode set on Halloween night. Kristen and David are called upon to assess an exorcism, but once the pair analyzes the situation, they find themselves at odds while trying to determine whether it’s a supernatural demonic possession, or a case of severe mental disease escalated by physical and mental distress.
Sounds like the debate will continue for quite some time. Meanwhile, King wants those who haven’t yet seen “Evil” to know that the show is as enticing as the best stuff in your trick-or-treat bag.
“We’re trying to do entertaining TV that doesn’t preach to you,” he says. “We’re just trying to have fun. I guess none of the scares will harm you in any way. We’re not trying to terrify people. We’re just trying to make a nice, scary story that’s also entertaining.”