"Evil" Ends

On September 19th, 2019, a new creepy drama called "Evil" premiered on CBS, and my obsession with the show began.

Created by Robert and Michelle King ("The Good Wife," "The Good Fight"), "Evil" followed the scary stories of three vastly different people (played by Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, and Aasif Mandvi) hired by the Catholic Church to investigate supernatural incidents.

After the show's first season, it switched from the CBS network to Paramount+  streaming (owned by CBS), where the Kings were no longer bound by FCC rules and regulations. The show got raunchier, sexier, funnier, and a lot more gross—and I loved it even more!

"Evil" is also the show that truly got me through the pandemic and helped me deal with my firing from a certain joke of a radio station that will not be named here. So, watching it was not only entertaining but also oddly comforting and very therapeutic.

The show's similarities to things like "The X-Files," "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," and "Twin Peaks" did not go unnoticed (or unacknowledged by the creators) and only added to my interest.

From the first episode, in which we are introduced to forensic psychologist Kristen Bouchard (Herbers) as she is consulting for the D.A.'s office on a case involving the mental state of a convicted murderer, I was hooked.

The smart, scary, and funny pilot was a unique, startling, and powerful mix of genres. It was part horror, part black comedy, and part legal procedural (the genre that the Kings were so very successful at creating), and somehow that weird combination worked flawlessly.

This is George, one of the many demons that haunt the characters of "Evil." This guy also happens to be hilarious.

Each week, the skeptical Kristen and her two partners, Catholic seminarian David Acosta (Colter) and tech expert/fellow skeptic Ben Shakir (Mandvi) encounter possessed humans, hideous demons, unexplainable terrifying events, and bloodcurdling challenges, many of which are aided by the main villain Dr. Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson).

All of this madness is juggled with the main characters' personal stories, such as David's crisis of faith, Ben's faltering relationships and struggles with dubiousness, and Kristen's chaotic family life with her four daughters (the terrific young actresses Maddy Crocco, Brooklyn Shuck, Skylar Gray, Dayla Knapp) estranged husband (Patrick Brammall), and mysterious mother (the GREAT Christine Lahti).

These disparate elements have no business working together, but they do. Brilliantly.

This being is actually a psychiatrist. Yeah...that's the world of "Evil."

The show had an uncanny ability to freak me out on a weekly basis. Freaking out a jaded horror fan like me is not an easy thing to do, but "Evil" did it consistently. Episodes involving horrifying hospital stays, haunted elevators, demons on the road, evil kids, dead bodies coming to life, and a couple of Halloween episodes that are top-notch in terror, provided me with much-needed thrills and satisfied my horror fix every week.

From the legendary Christmas episode of "Evil." I couldn't shake this episode for days after I watched it.

Don't even get me started on the deeply disturbing Christmas episode from Season One in which groups of children are obsessed with a troublesome, creepy earworm of a song (with video) that invaded my mind, head, and dreams for weeks after the episode aired. Scary, funny, and weird as hell, it's one of my favorite episodes of television ever.

The show also took on technology, social media, the internet, and other modern topics with brutally effective satire and brilliant plotting. "Evil" was a timely show that said more about the current zeitgeist than virtually any other show on television, and it did so while both scaring the shit out of the audience and making them laugh their heads off.

The complicated relationships between the characters and the possible love triangles, betrayals of trust, and mysterious shifting allegiances added depth to the proceedings. They made you all the more invested in the people on screen, and the smart, dense writing balanced reality, fantasy, and satire with aplomb.

Over the years, the show featured some wonderfully varied and immensely talented actors including Kurt Fuller, Boris McGiver, Wallace Shawn (!!), the late, great Peter Scolari, Li Jun Li, Darren Pettie, Tim Matheson, Joe Grifasi, Dylan Baker, Paul Guilfoyle, Richard Kind, Denis O'Hare, Kenneth Tigar, Vondie Curtis-Hall, John Glover, Anna Chlumsky, Tony Plana, and in the final few episodes, the hilarious John Carroll Lynch.

A STELLAR line-up, indeed.

The great Andrea Martin played a badass nun on "Evil." She deserves a spinoff.

The best addition to the show happened during Season Two when the great Andrea Martin joined the cast as Sister Andrea, a petite 70-something nun with a simple philosophy and a mysterious connection to the supernatural.

Martin was simply magnificent in the role, and watching her walk the tightrope between comedy and drama was a blast. Watching her kill various slimy demons with shovels, hedge shears, and hammers was a damn delight. Perhaps a Sister Andrea spinoff is in order? What do you think, Robert and Michelle King???

The show had very few clinker episodes, and even though some pretty large loose ends did not get tied up in the end (remember when Kristen killed a guy?), the show ended on a reasonably satisfactory note, with some nice closure for the main characters, even if the final moment involving a new baby and some possible evil “complications” was a bit wacky and weird. Overall, I was quite happy with how it turned out.

The fantastic Katja Herbers, seen here in a dream sequence tempting a seminarian.

What I really want to see is more of the terrific and lovely Katja Herbers, who you might remember from “The Leftovers” and “Westworld.” Herbers, a Dutch-born actress, is a very quirky, uncommonly charming, and immensely talented performer who can do just about anything while always maintaining a core of vast intelligence. She was my favorite part of “Evil,” by far.

By the way, if you enjoyed Herbers in “Evil,” then you MUST see her in the terrific 2019 horror/satire “The Columnist” in which her titular character goes on a killing spree to rid the world of assholes on social media. Yeah, it’s as cool as it sounds, and she is absolutely terrific in it.

"Evil" was a very special show, but it never really took off like it should have. It definitely had a very passionate fan base and will continue to be loved for years to come. If you have yet to watch it, all four seasons are on Paramount+, and the first three seasons are on Netflix.

Get to it before the Vatican sends a cartel to exorcise your demons and send you back hell!!

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"BIG BROTHER!!!" Why Do I Watch This Show? Seriously....Why?

My Guilty Pleasure: "Expect the unexpected."

I have watched a lot of TV. That's a fact. I don't watch as much TV as I used to, but I still watch a lot of TV. In the past, I have been known to watch some really, really terrible stuff.

I was on board for the very beginning of MTV's "The Real World" (when it launched in 1992, it was a truly great, groundbreaking, and important television show), and watched it until the Las Vegas season, when it just became about drunk, hot twentysomethings screwing in hot tubs...then, I stopped watching.

For a brief time, I was particularly fascinated by, and kind of obsessed with, the extraordinarily terrible programming of early aughts VH1.

I watched crap like "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" - In which D-List celebrities like Gary Busey, Daniel Baldwin, Tawny Kitaen, Amy Fisher, Leif Garrett, and others, would allow themselves to be recorded while spending time in rehab.

"The Flavor of Love" - Which featured Public Enemy hype-man: Flavor Flav, living with a group of crazy women, who were all vying for his affection

"The Surreal Life" - A reality train wreck in which a group of D-List celebrities like, Christopher Knight, Vanilla Ice, Tammy Faye Messner, Verne Troyer, Charro and more, lived together in a house for a few months.

There were many more (I can't even accurately describe my indefensible love of a thing called "Mob Wives"), and all of them were pretty rank, and I am reasonably embarrassed to admit that I watched this dreck. Now - and this is by no means an excuse - I was drinking pretty heavily at the time, and often watched these things deeply under the influence....but, even under those conditions, I should have known better.

I will say this, even at my drunkest, I never, ever watched a single minute of ANY of those Goddamn Kardashian things...and I still haven't seen a second of that nonsense. I suppose I had to draw the line somewhere, and the Kardashians seems like an appropriate place to draw that line.

Now, during that foggy period of "Nick Watches Craptacular Television," I discovered, and began watching the American version of "Big Brother" (we can actually thank the Dutch for creating this thing, their version aired first) on CBS.

It was (and is) a reality show that takes it's name from the character in George Orwell's "1984," and, incredibly, it debuted on July 5th, 2000...which means that it's been on the air for over 24 years, and it's in it's 26th season.

The apt description from Wikipedia reads:

The show broadly follows the premise of other versions, in which a group of contestants known as "HouseGuests" live together in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world for a cash prize of $500,000 (or $750,000 in the 23rd season onwards). The HouseGuests are continuously monitored during their stay in the house by live television cameras as well as personal audio microphones. Throughout the course of the competition, HouseGuests are evicted by being voted out of the competition. In its inaugural season (which followed the original Dutch format and audience voting determined evictees and the eventual winner), ratings declined and critical reaction grew increasingly negative, prompting the series to be revamped for the second season, which focused on competition and gameplay.

That's about it....and I have been watching it religiously since 2004. Yep, I have been watching it for 20 years now. It's the only surviving example of crap-reality-shows that I still watch, even though I am now sober.

It started out as an outrageous five-nights-a-week commitment, and has gradually turned into an outrageous three-nights-a-week commitment (not counting the Live Feeds you can watch anytime, 24-hours-a-day).

I LOVE "Big Brother." I know it's stupid. I know it's a waste of time. I know that it's NOT the least bit real. I know that everyone thinks I am a loser...but, I don't care, I love it.

I love the set-up, the execution, the games, the drama, the twists & turns. I love the Houseguests (kudos to CBS's Casting Department for consistently choosing hilarious, awful, funny, charming, attractive, weird, and varied people to live in the house), and I love rooting for certain goofballs, and watching each episode leading to the ridiculous finale.

It makes my summer go by more entertainingly, and it's given me a TON of material to talk about on my radio show in the past, and on The Nick D Podcast currently.

If you're a fan (and I know A LOT of people who are), you know how much fun this thing is, and just how addictive, hilarious, annoying, stupid, maddening and delightful it can be.

You LOVE things like ZingBot, OTEV, BB Comics, Caged Eggs, Pressure Cooker, and The Wall. You remember classic Houseguests like: Dan Gheesling, Derrick Levasseur, Will Kirby, Cody Clafiore, Rachel Reilly, Danielle Reyes, Jordan Lloyd, Taylor Hale, Nicole Franzel, and of course, "Evel" Dick Donato.

You follow every "Showmance," bitch about the outcome of competitions and evictions, laugh at the fights, and root on the "good guys." You complain about the stupid "Battle Back" competitions, and roll your eyes at the decisions made by the dumber houseguests.

And you continue to watch, even though you're just watching a bunch of half-naked dipshits, whispering in bedrooms for hours and hours.

All the while, you wonder how in God's name the TERRIBLE Julie Chen Moonves got the gig as host (umm, just look at her last name), and why people love her so much....or maybe all of that stuff is just me.

Big Brother 26! The new Housguests arrive...and I'm watching it all.

We are currently just four episodes into the latest season, and it's too early to pick a favorite house guest to really root for (although I like Joseph - The Mustachioed Video Store Clerk, Rubina - The Bubbly Filipino Bartender, and, especially, T'Kor - The Former Chicago Southsider Crochet Enthusiast), and the drama hasn't really started, but I am totally on board.

As I was preparing to write this, I thought I'd go to Paramount+ and watch the very first episode of "Big Brother" from July 5th, 2000. Wow...you need to check it out, because it's incredibly weird and HUGELY different than what the show is now.

I won't ruin any of the fun you can have simply by watching it, but I will share THESE THREE PHOTOS:

Julie Chen (as she was known then) looking SLIGHTLY (?!?!) different.

Oooooh cool....A camera above the toilet! WHAT?!?!?

Uuum....who the hell is this guy?!?!

And, that quickly sums up some of the weirdness that was on display 24 years ago.

Trust me...it's worth watching.

So, to all my fellow "Big Brother" fans: have a blast watching Season 26, and, of course:

Expect the unexpected.

Thanks, and please SUBSCRIBE to my weekly NEWSLETTER, and consider joining me on Patreon as a paid subscriber to help keep this thing going. Thanks again!