Widescreen: Nightmarish, naughty 'Evil' is a show on the cusp of greatness

Investigator David Acosta (Mike Colter), a priest-in-training who drops psilocybin in his tea to induce divine visions, sees himself in a golden field of wheat. Walking toward him is his atheist co-worker Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), a psychologist dealing with her ever-darker impulses, four hyperactive kids, a mostly absent husband and visions of her own - hers involve a demon named George.

As Kristen approaches, a humanoid goat appears, culling the wheat with big swings of his scythe. She walks closer and closer to the devilish abomination until ... Kristen's conniving rival Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) pops up in the foreground, dancing like a hyperactive kid trying to get on the Jumbotron. This shakes David awake.

This pre-credits scene from the Season 2 premiere of "Evil" feels like a renewed mission statement for a show that began in 2019 on CBS, became a sleeper hit during the pandemic on Netflix, and now hopes to be a subscription-selling summer blockbuster for Paramount+.

The premise: Kristen, David and third-wheel Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) try to debunk supernatural occurrences at the behest of the Archdiocese of New York. Think "The X-orcist Files." Created by Robert and Michelle King ("The Good Wife"), "Evil" nailed its characters in the first season. Kristen is a Scully skeptic with no filter and very few inhibitions. David is a true believer who can't deny his ungodly impulses. Ben is a snarky but good-natured pragmatist. In the hands of three very good actors with instant, palpable chemistry, that trio kept the show on the rails.

That's the problem with Season 1 - it kept threatening to come off the rails. It suffered from that curious problem that many network shows seem to have where no one behaves like an actual human being, something not helped by sudden shifts in tone. Is this a comedy? Is this a thriller? Does it believe anything it's telling me?

But that absurd dream sequence in the Season 2 premiere suggests there are no rails. "Evil" can be anything and everything, which is especially true now that it's on a paid streaming service. Kristen suddenly adds a certain four-letter word to her vocabulary, Ben has a revolting, risque nightmare and the episode culminates in a trip to the orthodontist that elicited screams in my living room.

Emerson is the car parked across the train tracks. As Leland, a psychologist who undermined Kristen in her previous job at the D.A.'s office, Emerson creates utter chaos in every scene, much to the audience's delight.

He became famous as "Lost" villain Benjamin Linus, whose sad eyes revealed the scared boy beneath the menacing exterior. Leland has no sadness. He gleefully seduces Kristen's mother (Christine Lahti), encourages a young incel to commit mass murder and delivers every razor-sharp word as if it might be his last. Season 1 left us wondering if Leland might be a bona fide demon. Season 2 begins with him enthusiastically asking the church for his own exorcism.

"Evil" feels like a show on the cusp of greatness. It takes its next steps over the next 12 Sunday mornings, when new episodes premiere on Paramount+.

• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who also recommends you watch Jean Smart's "Hacks" on HBO Max, because it's going to get about a million Emmy nominations on July 13.