At a Glance... Touching Evil

Since graduation, I've spent a lot of time catching up on various TV shows in my spare time. For the most part, I've stuck to watching whatever's on USA, which means I've pretty much been watching a lot of Law & Order: SVU and CI. USA airs other programs, of course, but I generally switch the channel at that point to either TNT or Bravo to check out whatever L&O episodes they might be showing. Late one night, I got too lazy to get up and grab the remote, though, which forced me to watch an episode of Burn Notice. I had avoided watching this show last summer when it premiered, thinking it was just another lame detective/spy show not worth my time. But boy am I glad I finally gave in. Did you know this show is actually pretty clever and fun to watch? It's not so much the writing or the plots that make this a pleasure to watch, though the dialogue is generally pretty good as exemplified with Mike, the spy who received the titular burn notice, and his voice-overs, and Sam, Mike's best bud, and his one-liners. What really keeps this show a cut above the rest is the performances, particularly from Jeffrey Donovan, who plays Mike, and Bruce Campbell, who plays his best bud Sam. Campbell is delightful and slightly campy as always, that comes as no surprise. But Donovan brings life and charm to his character in such a way that it's hard to imagine any other actor playing Mike as successfully.

But I'm not trying to write a review of Burn Notice here. My point in mentioning it is that it's Donovan's performance in that show that got me interested in watching another show of his, Touching Evil, which was an American take on a British show. Though it only lasted a season on USA (of course) back in 2004 due to lacking ratings, it was still generally well-received by critics. The show is about David Creegen (Donovan), a detective who, after a gunshot to the head, is left without the ability to control his impulses or his sense of shame. It's not too surprising that despite churning out better stories and more fleshed out characters, Touching Evil never gathered as big of an audience as Burn Notice. The show is considerably darker. For example, the main characters work in a unit that specializes in catching serial killers, which puts them in contact with all sorts of creepy characters. Meanwhile, Creegan's best bud is a schizophrenic homeless man. His relationship with his family isn't much better ever since his near-death experience.

Despite all his angst, it's Creegan that keeps the show grounded and keeps it from going too far into the dark side. His lack of shame and impulse control has turned him into a very quirky character, one who has no problem, say, taking his shirt off while spewing poetry. He also has no problem breaking a few rules every now and then. Like any great television character, Creegan's TV DNA consists of that of other memorable characters. Part loveable oddball David Addison (Moonlighting), and part tortured genius Bobby Goren (Law & Order: CI), it's a wonder that viewers didn't at least stick around to watch him. Especially considering that only months later, television audiences would fall for another similar character. I'm speaking, of course, about Dr. Gregory House. Though considerably more misanthropic than Creegan, House still shares some similarities with him. They both died for a few minutes, but miraculously survived. After their near-death experiences, they both found themselves distanced from the ones they love. They both break rules, neither caring what anyone else thinks. They say whatever's on their mind. They wear whatever they want on the job instead of what everyone else does. I could go on, really, but I won't. The reason House was successful is because it was lucky enough to have American Idol as its lead-in show, guaranteeing that a good amount of people would at least tune in to check it out. Touching Evil was not so lucky.

Even though Touching Evil no longer airs, and even though the series was never released on DVD, you can still catch the pilot episode on YouTube.