The (Qualified) Triumph of <em>Evil</em>: Popular Culture Representations of Religion and Science in CBS/Paramount’s Paranormal Drama

The popular CBS/Paramount drama Evil most clearly falls into the genre of horror, while it uses tension caused by the differing scientific and religious worldviews of its three main characters for dramatic and humorous effect. Kristen Bouchard, a psychologist; David Acosta, an ex-journalist training to be a priest; and Ben Shakir, a science and technology expert, are hired by the Catholic Church to assess reported paranormal phenomena, often of a religious nature. Their respective faith backgrounds—a former Catholic turned agnostic, a previously lapsed Catholic turned seminarian, and a Muslim turned atheist—further inform their responses to the phenomena they investigate. The series, because of the demands of the genre and the limits of popular understandings of what science and religion are, circles the question of how to responsibly face these phenomena while at the same time implying the possibility of a more courageous, undogmatic, and responsible approach to the paranormal through its minor characters.