A Televisual Feast

According to IMDb, “Touching Evil” is a miniseries. The second episode lends some credence to that category assignation… but not much. Sure, there are unresolved plot threads–a couple anyway–and it does pick up immediately following the first episode (and I was right about the read on the conclusion of that episode), but it’s not really a serial. There’s something missing. There’s an aimlessness to this episode, which is a manhunt and an incompetent one. The police, for instance, never distribute a picture of the dangerous suspect and big leads are never followed up on.

Most of the episode is red herrings, which is a problem, since the red herrings aren’t particularly interesting. The suspects–there are two in the episode and never the actual murderer (it’s kind of funny, even though all the cops in the special unit are supposed to be from excellent universities, none of them are really particularly smart when it comes down to it)–are only interesting in their potential and the potential is left far from realized.

The lack of cinematic storytelling also hurts the episode. It’s mostly free of music, but also free of good sound design, so there are long periods of poorly done sound where it’s clear they would have used music. The scenes with music… well, the music seems cheap.

There’s still very little bite to “Touching Evil.” This episode reveals more about Creegan’s character, but none of the information is particularly compelling. Maybe in a strong ensemble, Creegan would make an interesting addition, but “Evil” has a weak cast of characters. I still don’t remember Nicola Walker’s character’s name and she’s the second lead… so forget about the rest. They’re not interchangeable, but to some degree, their crime scene investigation dialogue could certainly be swapped without any detriment.

The series, sixty-sixty percent through, certainly isn’t urging me to see the sequel.

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