“Evil” was a show unlike any other

The final episode of The Best Show You Weren't Watching, "Evil, " aired this past week. The show followed Fr. David Acosta (Mike Colter), Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), and Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) as they acted as accessors for The Catholic Church. Their job was to investigate miracles, possessions, and hauntings to determine if they were real and needed the church to intervene.

"Evil" was as close to "The X-Files" as we have had. Kristen, a former psychologist, played the part of the skeptic, Ben was the tech guy always looking for how things work, and David, the priest, was the believer.

The first season aired on CBS but was moved to Paramount+ for the subsequent seasons. Typically, this would have been a death knell for a show just starting, but this move let them go crazy and tell some of the most exciting and entertaining stories on television.

"Evil" perfectly balanced the "case of the week" with an overarching narrative. Each week, the team dealt with a new case, and many times, that case made connections to the larger story. In the past few seasons, that was focused on Leland Townsand (Michael Emerson), a member of an organization preparing for the anti-Christ.

The show got weird (demon pigs this past season), but one of the more unique things was the demons. Most of the time, these were people in costume or makeup, and the effects looked incredible. I loved the show most when it got weird and embraced that.

In a world filled with "CSIs" and "Law & Orders," "Evil" stood out. It was a procedural that dared to do more than "case of the week" storytelling and had a lot to say about belief vs. skepticism. Not every case they took had a logical, scientific answer. I dare say I don't think we will get a show like it again anytime soon.