Good vs. Evil
Posted on July 7, 2000Good vs. Evil (aka. GvsE) is the best show that you’ll probably never see on television. That’s because, as of two weeks ago, that on-again-off-again champion of original genre programming the SciFi Channel canned what is probably the funniest, most original show on television. What’s so insane about their decision isn’t that Good vs. Evil didn’t have the ratings to warrant keeping the show – it quite frankly wasn’t doing too hot. What’s so insane is that Good vs. Evil actually ranked higher than several other shows that the SciFi Channel have decided to renew. Two shows in particular come to mind – Lexx and First Wave. Both are abysmal, horribly written pieces of excrement that shouldn’t even be aired against the infomercials at 2:00am on Sunday morning! But they were both renewed for additional seasons, to sit comfortably beside the glorious sci-fi epic series Farscape.
But what’s Good vs. Evil about anyway? In style, Good vs. Evil is comparable to the buddy-detective shows of the 1970’s, mixed with Touched by an Angel and tons of great lines and cool characters. Chandler Smythe, a slain journalist is brought back to life to fight in the Lord’s ongoing war against the Devil. This spiritual war is fought between the Corp., a pseudo-FBI of ass-kicking agents, and the Morlocks, a underworld organization of demons out to take your soul. The agents of the Corp. are all given a second chance on life in fighting against evil; however, many of them find it difficult to abide by the rules of the Corp. First, they cannot contact family members or friends from their previous life. Second, they are forbidden ANY sexual contact. If they serve the Corp. faithfully, they will eventually be allowed into heaven. But if any of them break these rules or drop out of service, it’s a guaranteed one-way ticket down into Hades.
Whew…there are a lot of things that Good vs. Evil needs improvement on. However, as with most other shows, time must be given for the cast and writers to find their own niche and perfect it. Look at any successful show – Seinfeld, Buffy, X-Files, Simpsons, Farscape, Babylon 5, etc – all mostly sucked their first seasons on the air. Thankfully, some network execs had faith in each of those shows to let them survive into at least a second season. I sincerely believe that we’ll see less and less quality programming as the new network execs have less and less patience with new shows. If a new show doesn’t hit the ground running in under three episodes, bang, they’re gone! And with them go the future of the medium…
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