Evil: Season Three

August 24, 2022 7:59 AM - Season 3 (Full Season)

A mismatched team of assessors works for the archdiocese of NYC to assess possible demonic activity. Case by case, they are also uncovering a conspiracy of sixty demonic houses. It's an exorcism serial, an X-Files with demons, and a loopy dark comedy about a positively inscrutable female antihero.

A Paramount Plus original.

posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

My biggest sort of complaint about the season is sort of The Husband Issue. Without Andy around, Kristen and David's relationship has some room, but once Andy's back in the picture it feels like a lot of Kristen's personality gets subsumed in her role as wife and mother. So it's a good thing he got shelved almost immediately! And now that he's brought in to the conspiracy (I mean, sort of), maybe he can be more useful than he's been?

Also I think the writers finally figured out how to write the Greek Chorus in the second and third seasons. In the first season, the kids were just sort of annoying as frig and a little bit too much, but they've figured out where the line is between how overwhelming raising four kids on your own is and wondering if they could get consumed by a demon or two? And then their initiative in nailing Leland several times did a lot to make them an active participant in the story rather than a burden and a challenge for Kristen. But I still sort of forget which one is the potentially possessed IVF kid, and whether any of the rest of them have any actual defining characteristics beyond "eldest" and "youngest" and "the other one who is neither eldest, youngest, nor potentially possessed".

I think the departure from the dependence of the Monster of the Week format has helped file off the rough corners of the whole "we can't SAY it's TikTok but it IS TikTok we're referencing, geddit?" problem. I'd forgotten how ... I don't know, annoying? that was in the first season until I went to look at IMDB.

If we get more Wallace Shawn next season, honestly, could we ask for much more?
posted by Kyol at 11:02 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

And the focus on the monster of the week sort of made the first season episodes a little too busy? Trying to cram a whole horror story _and_ interpersonal development _and_ arc development into a 40 minute broadcast episode wasn't always super successful. I don't envy writers getting shows off the ground one bit.
posted by Kyol at 11:06 AM on August 24, 2022

I'm only a few eps in at this point, but there is one thing starting to bug me: Kristen should not be this skeptical at this point. It's like Scully after a few seasons of X-Files. "There has to be some rational explanation for this!" Does there? I've watched every ep and there often isn't.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:00 PM on August 24, 2022

Basically every single thing Mike Colter wears on this show is badass. Just load up his entire wardrobe and drop that biz off at my place.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:18 PM on August 24, 2022

Okay, do they really never go back to the Vanessa storyline? She made a bad deal with the voodoo lady and somehow she and her sister are occupying different space and both trying to seduce Ben, and he's all "Yo, this broad is crazy, peace out"? And that's it?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:56 PM on August 24, 2022

It sorta feels like they replaced her with Ben's sister, yeah. I mean, once they figured out what was up, I dunno, she didn't seem so bad?
posted by Kyol at 10:24 AM on August 25, 2022

I hate him just dropping her after they'd said they loved each other. That said, I maybe could have accepted that if he'd said he felt no choice but to end things. But what he actually said was that he was really upset about the Vanessa/Maggie situation and was trying to decide what he should do about it. He apparently never did decide.

Instead, she got memory holed like Judy on Family Matters.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:34 AM on August 25, 2022

Well I just finished binging the season and WOW. So I continue to love Michael Emerson being EEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVIIILLLL. And how the Brouchard girls fuck with him via Bumblebee Valley is great.

So Ben falls for a cult leader, get hosed off in goat blood and....that's it? A lot of the episodic story arcs get abandoned without much real resolution. The cult episode being a huge example of this. Like that Ben encounters a cult leader through secret science league, which he's relatively new to, doesn't damage his faith in that group? It has no consequences for him at all? To me the writing in that episode is just terrible. He deserves a lot better as a character.

I have trouble figuring out what space the writers want Sheryl to occupy for me as a viewer. Because I find her far more disgusting than a 5 eyed demon with flatulence and a shortbread obsession. But I feel like the writers are more charmed by her or want me to be more charmed by her.

Loving Andrea Martin! Excited to see more Wallace Shawn!
posted by miss-lapin at 4:33 PM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just want to come back to the cult episode. BOTH members of the team leave Ben alone in a cult, that Ben is sucked into it in hours, that there is no follow up or acknowledgement of that from either Kristen OR David. I mean c'mon people a therapist doesn't think "oh hey I should talk to my team member sucked in by a cult?" Does he talk to his sister about it? Does Ben talk to SSL about this in case cult leader shows up again? What is up with the possession? Like the lovers are reunited and that's it? WHAT THE HELL ON SO MANY LEVELS? Ben as a character deserves far better than this. But also we as viewers deserve better than this.

To me that episode encapsulates the worst of the writing.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:39 AM on July 12, 2023