Review: Evil – ‘N is for Night Terrors’ s02e01

After an excellent first season, ‘Evil’ returns for its second season with more menace than before, and a lot more of a sinister, creepy tone.  Episode 1, ‘N is for Night Terrors’ also introduces their new episode naming convention, where each one has a ‘lettered’ introduction from the ‘Pop-Up Book of Terrifying Things MMXXI’, like some twisted Sesame Street sketch.  *Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*

As before, the setup consists of trainee priest David Acosta (Mike Colter – Luke Cage) heading a team whose mission is to investigate supposed supernatural or religious events, on behalf of the Catholic Church.  Also on the team are sceptical forensic psychologist Dr Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers – Manhattan, Westworld), and the rational, scientifically minded Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi – The Daily Show, The Brink), who handles all the tech.

During the first season, the show established a couple of main villains: Orson LeRoux (Darren Pettie), a serial killer, and more significantly Dr Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson – Lost, Person of Interest).  While the story between Kristen and LeRoux came to a head at the tail end of last season, the battle with Leland continues to rumble on.

At times the story with Leland has bordered into the slightly irritating, as they have pushed the agenda where he ingratiates himself into the main characters lives a little too much and relied on that old trope of doing things that he will never be caught for, which our heroes will never be able to prove.  Or at least be considered insane for suggesting.  There’s only so much of that old playbook you can take before it gets tiresome.

It was because of that element, that as ‘N is for Night Terrors’ began there was some apprehension, as it was going to be heavily dependent on the Leland angle.  Primarily, they’ve pulled it front and centre, with him asking for an exorcism.  Much like all his other interactions with the team, it puts them firmly between his obvious deception and the unbelieving powers that be.

This could have spelled disaster, but somehow in this case it hasn’t and there’s something of a tonal shift in the show that helps to accommodate this development.  There seems to be a more playful element now that keeps things moving along, and they haven’t spent lots of time with the team looking helpless, foolish, or isolated.  There has also been a brisk pace about it, so the narrative has remained firmly on this investigation, and not veered off too much.  Although there is a detour into the ongoing issues of Kristen potentially having a ‘devil child’.

One of the key factors in this working is the continued creepiness of Michael Emerson, who has revelled in being a mischievous entity in many shows, and who manifests a psychopathic, ruthless presence again here.  The other main ingredient is the absolute excellence of Katja Herbers, who gave Kristen a real depth across the first season, and now has added another layer on top after her actions against LeRoux.

This first episode, along with the series move to Paramount+ has set the show up for an intriguing second season, that won’t be necessarily as straightforward as the first.  Everything is a lot more nuanced and complicated, especially in the relationships, even between the main team.  There is also a freer hand given to language and potentially the gore, although it will probably never be that bloody.  The likelihood is that there will probably just be more elements of suspense and disturbing imagery as we progress.  Then they’ll layer on more humour, if the tonal shift continues.  We can’t wait.