Evil (2019) s03e03 – The Demon of Sex

This episode ends with an odd, incomplete feeling. There’s no oomph to any of the storylines, and the resolutions are all put off until next time. There’s not even a cliffhanger, just Katja Herbers and Andrea Martin not being shitty to each other. It feels like a long episode cut up, but it also feels like the first really streaming episode of “Evil.” Whenever there’s an F-bomb, it’s a good F-bomb, onscreen, in scene, not tacked on later to flex.

The investigation plot this episode involves a newly married couple—Freddy Miyares and Freddy Miyares—having troubles in the martial bed. They’re both virgins, and whenever they try getting busy, he gets nauseous and she breaks out in hives. Initially, now priest Mike Colter thinks they just need a couples’ counselor, but nun Martin convinces him there’s a demon. Because she can see and talk to the demon. I’m not sure if it’s a new demon costume, but it’s not a good one. It’s like “Evil” knows it’s got its audience; it doesn’t need to try anymore.

Colter calls Herbers in to consult, then disappears for the episode, presumably off on secret Vatican secret service business like covering up more Indigenous Canadian child murders or something. Herbers and Martin don’t hit it off, but they agree to work together—there’s a weird “we’re being condescending to another woman” stand-off they do, but it’s well-acted weird, so it’s okay.

Will Herbers figure out how to keep the demon out of the martial bed? Will Martin get in trouble for talking during the meetings? It’s high-stakes stuff.

Aassif Mandvi’s got the other main plot. He’s suffering from depression thanks to his job; specifically, the mysteries of “Evil” leaves unresolved after the episode finishes. His sister, Sohina Sidhu, decides she’s going to help him out of his funk. It’s a good character episode for Mandvi, who gets to do more and different things than usual. His semi-breakdown starts when he can’t fix Herbers’s toilet; her husband flushed a shrunken blood sacrifice to Satan head down the toilet in the first episode of the season, and it’s been causing plumbing problems since. It gets to be too much for Mandvi.

Then there’s some stuff with Herbers and her kids being mentally abusive to one another. It’s unsuccessful except for tying into Christine Lathi’s superior workplace subplot. Michael Emerson tasks her with selling demonic crypto, only he really puts her millennial drones in charge. Lathi’s not going to take their shit and has to figure out how to succeed selling nonsense. Crypto and religion. “Evil”’s got all the nothing for sale.

Lathi’s great this episode, Mandvi’s great this episode. Martin’s only okay, which isn’t great. And Herbers is only okay, too; despite being around a bunch, she’s got nothing to herself.

It’s a peculiar episode. If it’d had some kick, it’d be one of the better this season. But, instead, makes you wonder if they know what they’re doing. Like when Monsignor Boris McGiver comes off like a total rube and draws attention to him always being a total rube, which is a problem since he’s the patriarch.

Nelson McCormick’s direction is fine; it’s the dramatically stalled script, credit to not new-to-“Evil” Aurin Squire.

Evil (2019) s02e11 – I Is for IRS

There are a few enormous, series-changing swings in this episode. It starts right at the beginning, a montage set to Andrew Bird’s song, Fake Palindromes (I Shazamed it to see if it was an original song since the action fits so closely); the montage ends with one of the regular cast apparently murdering someone. Doesn’t matter the rest of the episode; it’s just all in a typical day at “Evil.” The other big swings come at the end of the episode, which turns out to be—seemingly—a conclusion to the arc Katja Herbers has been on all season.

She, Mike Colter, and Aasif Mandvi are investigating a new church of Satan for the IRS (the Catholic Church does favors for the IRS, which leads to a handful of muted wry remarks about the Church being a pedophile land-grab operation but a lot less pointed than usual; maybe Paramount+ finally got their Standards and Practices division in order). The church is a thinly veiled riff on the actual Satanic Temple, but instead of fighting for women’s rights, the “Evil” version just uses Satanic mumbo jumbo to score chicks and sell t-shirts. Gus Halper plays the frontman disbeliever—his character’s name is Graham Lucian, which is close enough Lucian Greaves ought to make a t-shirt mocking the show—and John Sanders is the creepy believer Satanic preacher who threatens people.

Except when Colter clearly shows the church brochure to “in league with Satan” Michael Emerson, Emerson freaks out. So hopefully, if Sanders comes back as threatened, it’ll be to Emerson exacting whatever. I really hope they don’t team them up.

The investigation is mostly an excuse for Herbers’s arc to wrap up with the assistance of good-looking sexual predator Halper and for “Evil” to have a few half-naked women in the episode. And for Herbers, Colter, and Mandvi to talk a lot about financial technicalities. Catholic boss man Peter Scolari (it’s hard to imagine what the show would be if Scolari weren’t such a twerp) doesn’t want them giving the IRS a thumbs down on the Satanists for religious reasons; instead he wants them to get the thumbs down for secular ones. It’s ever unclear if “Evil” realizes the commentary it’s making on the Catholic Church, especially when Herbers and Mandvi are so clipped in their pushback.

The second big swing is going to involve a great scene between Herbers and Colter, maybe one of Colter’s best in ages—remember when he was going to have a subplot this season about the Catholic Church not caring about Black people, and then they dropped it—even though the new normal it helps set up is on unstable footing. “Evil” manages to make having a familiar character be a vicious murderer less shocking than Herbers actually wanting to spend time with her husband, Patrick Brammall. Brammall, despite having gone from a Mount Everest climbing guide to a Colorado truck company owner, still manages to be a hipster cultural appropriator; it’s sort of impressive.

There are some good scenes with Kurt Fuller (though he’s now playing Brammall and Herbers’s marriage counselor even though they said he wouldn’t be because of conflicts of interest) and Christine Lahti. Emerson has a bunch to do, but it’s unclear how much is acting and how much is editing.

It’s a strange episode, and there are only a couple more this season, so they may not have time to do anything but shake more things up. If so, it’ll be a disservice to otherwise rather solid second season. Fingers crossed.

Evil (2019) s02e05 – Z Is for Zombies

I’m surprised to see Nelson McCormick is this episode’s director. I don’t remember his previous directorial efforts on “Evil” being… well, being any good. And this episode’s pretty well-directed. It’s all over the place, and McCormick keeps up the pace.

The episode opens on series regular Skylar Gray and her friend Gloria Manning watching scary movies and seeing scary things out their windows. Gray’s always been a regular on the show, but I still had no idea it was her, no idea I was supposed to recognize her. Because without the three sisters, she’s not bulk annoying and instead gets to have some personality. She and Manning are going to have the actual A plot.

The B plot is for Katja Herbers, Mike Colter (even though he brings the case to the group, he still basically gets squat), and Aasif Mandvi is regularly practicing exorcist Brian Stokes Mitchell needs help. He’s possessed–possibly by Michael Emerson–and his gambling problem is back. So the team tries to help him but discovers more to it than just some online poker. With the dueling C plots of Mandvi still recovering from his ordeal last episode and Emerson’s ongoing exorcism sessions.

They’re going to involve new sort of regular Andrea Martin, who’s a nun in Colter and Mitchell’s church, and she knows lots of things and has good ideas, but no one listens to her because she’s a woman in the Catholic Church. There’s a subtle character development thing for Colter, who doesn’t realize he’s been oblivious to the women around him in the church because literal patriarchy. Martin’s excellent and brings some real fun to the show, which it needs. Even when “Evil” is wry, there’s something contaminated about it.

For example, Gray and Manning’s YA adventure—which has them going into the city to get actual zombie cures from awesome guest star Patrice Johnson. The episode doesn’t shy away from its slavery history lesson; instead, it showcases it and does so reasonably well; it’s still a little weird to have them throwing around the term “slave driver,” but it’s much better than expected.

See, it turns out Manning’s dad, Francois Battiste, works at an Amazon competitor, and they treat their workers even worse. It’s topical, empathetic, and profoundly cynical, especially for a world where there’s no such thing as Covid.

Still, a good episode, especially for Gray, Manning, Herbers (who’s spectacular when she gets to be a shrink), and Mitchell. Season two is working out.

Evil (2019) s02e01 – N is for Night Terrors

“Evil” is back and it hasn’t been gone anywhere near as long as I thought. The last episode of the first season aired in February 2020, pre-Rona lockdown, pre-Catholics killing babies and dumping them in mass graves (well, pre-discovery of it, but “Evil” won’t care). But it’s only felt like a while. The episode picks up right where we left off, with lead Katja Herbers being very suspicious after serial killer nemesis Darren Pettie ends up dead. We get some very quick resolution on whether she did it or not, with Herbers more concerned about getting a rash from a rosary when talking to her sometimes boss and also therapist Kurt Fuller. I forgot how much I like Fuller on this show. He just has a good time. Effortlessly.

When Michael Emerson is having a good time camping it up, it’s not effortless. They try really hard to make Emerson a notable villain; the A plot this episode has Catholic boss Peter Scolari wanting Herbers, Mike Colter (who’s got zip to do this episode), and Aasif Mandvi (who gets more but not really) to evaluate Emerson for an exorcism. Seems Emerson has been donating big time to the Catholic Church—again, “Evil” has a problem with itself. Not to mention having now moved to Paramount+—sorry, CBS having decided to move it to Paramount+—it’s now a show for people who wish Rona doesn’t exist, the Catholic Church is the good guys, and who pay for Paramount+. Fragile white Democrats?

There’s even an f-bomb from Herbers at one point and I swear it was looped in because they can do it now (all of the season, presumably, filmed thinking they’d go on TV not streaming—the commercial fade outs are annoying now and are just going to get worse as it goes along).

So the team decides they’re going to play with Emerson to see what he’s going to lie about because they’ll still learn stuff about him. Or he’ll just get into their heads and infect Mandvi with a dream sex demon dominatrix (possibly played by “Legends of Tomorrow”’s Hawkgirl, Ciara Renée), which is kind of amusing until they do a “is Mandvi dreaming or not” with the subplot for the cliffhanger.

Herbers should have a tough episode and doesn’t because the show doesn’t want to really get too tough. Mandvi’s good. Colter’s present. Scolari’s a really shitty dude (not sure if it’s intentional, but the character’s definitely a shitty dude and Scolari’s definitely good at being a shitty dude). And Emerson’s… much better than his worst on the show.

It’s a somewhat easy start to the season—one of Herbers’s likable but interchangeable kids grows vampire molars and gives some decent Martin vibes—but it’s, you know, fine. Especially for “Evil.”

With all the standard “Evil” asterisks, of course.

Hunters (2020) s01e09 – The Great Ole Nazi Cookout of ’77

“Hunters” must’ve had the same thought I did about hammering in the point “Operation Paperclip” was a real thing as this one starts with another of the show’s overly stylized, retro PSA videos. But it doesn’t need the history lesson for this episode, because this episode is where everything comes together. “Hunters” does the penultimate episode as a wrap-up, presumably so next episode can establish what the next season’s going to be like. A ground situation refresh. Love it.

And there’s a lot in the episode. A lot of it is even good. Jerrika Hinton having a showdown with Dylan Baker, then ending up dragging Baker along as a prisoner. It’s fantastic. All of a sudden Hinton comes to life again. She’s not moping about her love life, dying mom, uncaring dad, indifferent—at beast—colleagues (though Sam Daly appears again as her only office bud), or doing a purely expository investigation thing. She’s in a suspense thriller and she’s got to deal with Dylan Baker, who’s such a wonderful bastard.

There’s a good scene for Louis Ozawa, which is just an okay one for Tiffany Boone, but Ozawa gets some nice material this episode. Josh Radnor, it turns out, is able to make Kate Mulvany a lot more than she is on her own. It’s Radnor and Mulvany who find out the Nazis are going to execute their evil plan that night. No blackout from this one, however. Just a wanting John Woo movie.

It doesn’t start like a John Woo movie, it starts with Nelson McCormick almost able to direct an infiltration sequence. The team has come together. It’s time to stop the Nazis once and for all. Al Pacino’s going after Lena Olin and Logan Lerman wants to take out young Nazi Greg Austin, which leads to a painfully bad scene between Lerman and Austin. Lerman, doing his tough guy act this episode, is really not working out with this character development. He’s not able to do any of the stuff he needs to do. Meanwhile Austin’s able to weather the weirdest stuff in this episode and still get in some great deliveries.

But when it comes to action, McCormick certainly seems to be trying to do big action and he does it rather poorly. He’s seemingly confused, with the actors armed like it’s a John Woo movie, but the costumes still the seventies stuff, and the production values wanting. If they couldn’t do it, they shouldn’t have tried. “Hunters” has its definite moments, just rarely when it really needs them.

Like when the cliffhanger has Pacino once again acting like a complete idiot who’d never be able to track down and kill a single Nazi, much less a dozen of them or whatever. He’s always not thinking of something really obvious and important. It’s frustrating.

Hunters (2020) s01e07 – Shalom Motherf***er

“Hunters” and the secret history of July 13, 1977! It doesn’t just tie into an actual historical event, it causes an actual historical event. It also then directly ties into Summer of Sam then… I wonder if you could cut the entire movie into “Hunters” and just have it be a subplot.

The Nazis cause the New York City blackout of 1977. Maybe if the episode weren’t so wonky it’d be a better twist.

The whole episode’s not wonky, which is almost what makes it most frustrating. Yes, everything involving Pacino—who starts the episode deciding he’s going to keep more secrets from his team—and Jerrika Hinton (who knowingly lets the Nazis play her so she can close one or two open murder cases and not avert a terrorist attack) is wonky. The showdown between Pacino and Hinton is particularly bad because it’s unbelievable Pacino was able to mastermind anything. He gets painfully played in interrogation… and somehow never asks for a lawyer.

But Louis Ozawa finally gets a great moment or two, one with Josh Radnor (who’s so good) and another with Tiffany Boone (who still doesn’t get enough to do) and sort of assumes the unappreciated utility man position on the show. Radnor and Ozawa are trying to infiltrate a veteran’s hospital and Radnor mugs his way through a group therapy session talking to real vets like it’s a shitty war movie. It’s amazing stuff. Then Ozawa just tops it with his real sharing.

There’s a big suspense set piece with the team trying to avert the Nazi attack at Grand Central Station, which feels very New York movie, but then they’re laughably bad at tailing Greg Austin and it’s like… okay, the “Hunters” aren’t so much “Hunters” as bumblers at this point.

The episode ends on a very sad note–with another ghost coming in to forecast the tragedy—and it’s affecting as all hell, it’s just not particularly good. Pacino’s out of his depth, Hinton’s out of her depth… she’s continuing the U.S. Government protecting Nazis and he’s just so inept at masterminding what else would you expect from his team but disaster.

The show still works—it’s still got loads of accumulated goodwill (Dylan Baker’s amazing as always)—but it’d be nice if they could successfully execute this very important episode.

Hunters (2020) s01e04 – The Pious Thieves

The best part of this episode is Dylan Baker getting pissed off Lena Olin is cutting him out of the Nazi plans and scheming to get back into them. Baker’s stunt-casting, more so than even Pacino (who, playing a Jewish Holocaust survivor in old age is the heaviest lifting Pacino’s had to do in a mainstream part in, what, decades), and it’s great to see Baker do his thing. I mean, it’s a little iffy because you’re rejoicing in his evil Nazi bastard being angry he doesn’t get to be a more evil Nazi bastard but… Baker’s amazing at being evil. What can you do.

Baker’s plot line has him manipulating politician Becky Ann Baker, who’s fine and maybe even good, but not really enough to stand-off against Baker. I’m not sure anyone on “Hunters” is enough to stand-off against Baker. I’ll have to see Pacino do it to believe it.

Then the main plot. The main plot is Pacino and the gang breaking into Nazi banker John Noble’s bank, where the bad guys have a safety deposit box. It’s going to be an intricate plan and require a lot from the team. It feels a little like Inside Man during the heist preparation scenes but not during the actual execution because it turns out the team isn’t all that great at the heist thing. There aren’t cracks so much as the team is a bunch of amateurs. Outside Kate Mulvany, who’s a little better this episode when she’s got to narrate some Holocaust flashbacks for Logan Lerman so Lerman has another chance to realize the Nazis were actual bad guys and not just misled padawans or whatever.

Lerman also talks to Jerrika Hinton, who continues to lose presence in the show.

There’s a good showdown scene between Pacino and Noble to round off the episode.

The episode’s also got a recurring flashback with A.J. Shively and Anna Ewelina as star-crossed lovers during the Holocaust but it’s just to later emphasize Lerman’s lack of understanding, complete with some Schindler’s List black and white stylizing. “Hunters” nicely doesn’t shy away from being a lot but occasionally it’s way too comfortable about it.