Here’s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media:<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Evil<\/em> premieres this Thursday @ 10:00 PM ET on CBS.<br \/>\n<\/strong>Cast: Katja Herbers (<em>Westworld, Divorce<\/em>), Mike Colter (<em>Luke Cage<\/em>), Aasif Mandvi (<em>The Daily Show<\/em>), Michael Emerson (<em>Lost, Person of Interest<\/em>)<br \/>\nTeam: W\/EP Robert and Michelle King (<em>The Good Wife<\/em>, <em>The Good Fight<\/em>); EP Liz Glotzer; D Robert King<\/p>\n<p><strong>My review: An interesting premise hand-tied by its title<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here’s the description of <em>Evil<\/em> per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/live-feed\/tv-pilots-2019-complete-guide-1172633\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> when it was still in the untitled pilot stage:<\/p>\n<p><em>Logline: A drama about the battle between science and religion,\u00a0Evil\u00a0focuses on a skeptical female clinical psychologist who joins a priest-in-training and a blue-collar contractor as they investigate supposed miracles, demonic possessions and other extraordinary occurrences to see if there’s a scientific explanation or if something truly supernatural is at work.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Evil<\/em> has an excellent cast, producers with a strong a pedigree and a premise that could go on for ten years. Unfortunately, it also has a title that would seem to lock it into a dark tone that limits its potential. While the pilot deals with the question of whether a serial killer might actually be demonically possessed, the second episode will apparently have the team investigating a purported miracle. The show’s very name hints that something sinister is afoot. I could be wrong but a truly inspirational and heartwarming storyline would, it seems to me, create cognitive dissonance with that dark title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6798262720MsoNormal\">To me, a potentially more expansive, creatively-freeing title is found in the show’s logline. If it was called <em>Extraordinary Occurrences<\/em>, for instance, the door would be opened to a wider selection of stories and tones. I also think that on a psychological level, the word <em>Evil<\/em> will put off a lot of people – particularly people of faith – who may not necessarily wish to spend their last hour before going to bed exploring the dark side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6798262720MsoNormal\">You may be thinking I’m making too much of the title but titles have a lot to do with how people perceive a show and, therefore, have a profound effect on its prospects for success. I’m reminded of some years ago when ABC had a show co-created by a Jesuit priest named Bill Cain. The series was about the relationship between a young, idealist priest (Kevin Anderson) and his older, more conservative pastor (Brad Sullivan). It was sort of the Catholic version of the classic gritty-but-inspirational TV medical drama <em>Ben Casey.\u00a0<\/em> It was excellent and, perhaps, the most consistently positive portrayal of Catholicism in the history of TV. But it was called <em>Nothing Sacred<\/em>, an edgy and irreverent title that did not match its actual tone. The result was that the conservative Catholic League jumped to all sorts of negative conclusions about the show and launched a campaign against it, shooing away its natural audience. A show that should have lasted a decade instead didn’t even make it to the end of its first season. It was a real loss for television – and for the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6798262720MsoNormal\">I’m, also not personally drawn to shows about darkness and evil, whether they’re overtly religious in nature or not. That’s why I always much preferred <em>NYPD Blue<\/em> (perhaps the best drama series in TV history) to darker crime dramas like <em>Criminal Minds<\/em> and the <em>Law & Order<\/em> franchise that focused on serial killers, pedophiles and rapists. <em>NYPD Blue<\/em> was every bit as gritty as they were but, at its core, it was about the redemption of Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz). That’s what made it great.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6798262720MsoNormal\">The premise of <em>Evil <\/em>has a surface similarity to <em>Mysterious Ways<\/em>, the best original drama ever to air on the now-defunct PAX Network.\u00a0 It too was about the exploration of unexplained phenomena involving faith but it centered its attention on miracles. That show developed a strong fan base and ran for two years on PAX before the entire network closed shop. If it was on CBS it might have enjoyed a <em>Touched by an Ange<\/em>l-length run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6798262720MsoNormal\">I’m, basically, not a fan of shows and films about demonic possession. I don’t think they tend to bring out the sanest aspects of faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6798262720MsoNormal\">All that said, the cast is likable and the basic premise works. I’d just suggest quickly changing the title and lightening the tone.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>My 12 Favorite Faith-Themed Shows of all time (in alphabetical order)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><em>The Big Bang Theory <\/em>(CBS)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em><strong>Everybody Loves Raymond<\/strong><\/em> <strong>(CBS)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Highway to Heaven<\/em> (NBC)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>M*A*S*H <\/em>(CBS)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Mom <\/em>(CBS)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Mysterious Ways <\/em>(PAX)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Nothing Sacred<\/em> (ABC)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>NYPD Blue <\/em>(ABC)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Quantum Leap <\/em>(NBC)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em><strong>Star Trek: The Original Series <\/strong><\/em><strong>(NBC)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Touched by an Angel <\/em>(CBS)<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Young Sheldon<\/em> (CBS)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I’ll have more on why these shows made my list soon.<\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up – <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here’s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: Evil premieres this Thursday @ 10:00 PM ET on CBS. Cast: Katja Herbers (Westworld, Divorce), Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show), Michael Emerson (Lost, Person of Interest) Team: W\/EP Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife, The Good Fight); EP Liz…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,9,14,9247,31,1],"tags":[9489,9490],"class_list":["post-8178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-gratitude","category-miracles","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-cbss-evil","tag-the-big-bang-theory-highway-to-heaven-mash-mom-mysterious-ways-nothing-sacred-nypd-blue-quantum-leap-touched-by-an-angel-young-sheldon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TV Review: CBS' "Evil" + TV's 12 all-time best faith-themed shows<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/tv-review-cbs-evil-tvs-12-time-best-faith-themed-shows.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TV Review: CBS' "Evil" + TV's 12 all-time best faith-themed shows\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here’s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: Evil premieres this Thursday @ 10:00 PM ET on CBS. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8178"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8197,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178\/revisions\/8197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}