3 out of 5

Created by: Jeremy Slater

covers season 1

With remake frenzy ever in fever pitch and the world seemingly slowing down on the horror thrills incited by The Walking Dead in favor of more psychological fare, I don’t think many of us were expecting much from The Exorcist: just another basic cable attempt at nabbing viewers through a mix of nostalgia and trend-baiting, tossed into a mid-season slew of shows you figured wouldn’t be around for very long.  But there was something intriguing about the oblique, grimey, unbeautiful first episode.  The fact that it avoided outright gloss or papering things over with a pretty cast was notable, as was the way it nodded to the source material’s visuals without straining its neck; it took our notions of what a show like this could be and nursed them, swaddling them in its own look and pacing.  That approach took a while to produce, and was unfortunately curtailed by an uncertain future, but it was undeniably a unique feeling for a major series and for myself and certainly for others, provoked enough curiosity to keep us coming back.  Which became a fantastically satisfying payoff when the show had somewhat set its tone and tested its gritty boundaries; now it could get down to the story – a solid stride of tight writing and shooting and wonderfully disgusting makeup effects that carries us through almost to the series’ two-episode bombastic conclusion.

In this Exorcist, Ben Daniels is Father Marcus Keane, the grizzled, always-on-his-last-leg Priest who’s done his tours as an exorcist and been in the shit, doing what he can to keep afloat amidst what feels like ever-present evils, even from within his organization, which refuses to acknowledge or encourage his work.  Alfonso Herrera is the green Father Tomas Ortega, pretty-boy darling of the current ruling caste, doing the lord’s work in the less-politically savvy areas, and seeming a bit too pious to be true.  Father Tomas has been getting concerned appeals from the matriarch of the Rance family, Angela (Geena Davis), as one daughter – Katherine (Brianne Howey) – has become a shut-in post some trauma, and her isolationist behaviors are of much concern to the religious Angela.  Other daughter Casey (Hannah Kasulka) does her sisterly best to cheer up Katherine, while father Henry (Alan Ruck) seemingly putters about on the sidelines, quite at a loss in conversations post an accident which affected his mental capabilities.  The elements are there – old and young priests, the acting-odd daughter – and we get cryptic visions and shots of long staircases that absolutely put us in the right frame of mind.  But it’s still a question of: Where are we going from here?  And for a few episodes, The Exorcist has the tough job of giving us what we want without giving us exactly what we expect, pulling its various pieces into position before letting them fall into place with an awesome thud.

But the delay can take a toll.  It’s so much better and more compelling than one could have guessed, but there’s a bit of back-and-forth before an official Holy Shit moment; basically once everyone is on the same page with what’s happening.  After that, though, you get several of those, and episodes are held in fever pitch for their entire runtime.  Hype started to build, and the show got some much deserved attention.  …Perhaps a bit too late.  It’s fate thus unclear, the creators decided, it seems, to try and wrap things up with the final two episodes.  On the one hand, the conclusion is appreciated, and some of the visual concepts should be commended for not just going for excessive blood and gore but trying to find something that matched the tone of the series, which relied more on dread than outright guts-slinging.  At the same time, there is a necessary speeding up of things to get to this point, and the sudden escalation kills some of the suspense.

It should also be said that Geena Davis doesn’t sell crazy all that well.  As a troubled Angela Rance, as a deeply concerned, haunted mother, she’s fantastic.  But when the emotions have to edge out of that spectrum you just don’t see it in her eyes, and so it’s unfortunately unconvincing.  The other actors, though – particularly Hannah Kasulka, Ben Daniels, and Alan Ruck – all bring insane range to their roles, making their individual plights, which are very different, all compelling.  This show wouldn’t have worked without the strong dramatic backbone brought by the cast.

So don’t let the three stars mislead: this is absolutely worth your time.  However, the slow start and sudden end have to be acknowledged, leaving us with only the middle run of the show as the true highlight.  Thankfully, that’s right when things need to get good to keep us invested.  A wonderfully bleak mood and smart balance of old and new Exorcist ideas made this show into what will probably be a short-lived positive addition to the TV lineup.  While another season would be nice, it’s good that we did get a successful wrapping up of things in the final two episode, making it something easier to consider as a whole.