The Exorcist (2016-2017): Unfinished Shows, Canceled Dreams

jan 20 2024

So, I don't know if anybody has noticed... but I like Interview with the Vampire (2022-)... a lot. I've been religiously keeping up with the production of the show, waiting for season two to air, and part of that was keeping up with casting. I noticed some of my friends celebrating when it was announced that Ben Daniels had been cast as Santiago, and started doing some poking around to find out why my friends were so excited. I saw a good amount of discussion about a 2016 TV show Ben Daniels had starred in, The Exorcist. I had never seen the original Exorcist (1973), but the show looked interesting enough, and I queued up the first episode. A couple months and two seasons later, I'm now converted to the number one Exorcist (2016-2017) fan, and I'd like to share that enthusiasm with you all!

To get my criticism out of the way first, the foremost (and really only) problem with the show is that it was canceled prematurely. Only two seasons were made, and the end of season two makes it clear that they wanted more seasons, ending on a semi-cliffhanger with unresolved plotlines. But declining ratings and a Fox-Disney merger meant the show was unceremoniously axed— the show never got finished. Season two could never be fully satisfying because it wasn't really meant to be a standalone season, it was meant to lead into something bigger. Season one is quite self-contained, but season two is working overtime to expand the world and the plot, meaning that it feels... incomplete, and vaguely dissatisfying. I really loved season one, and I liked large chunks of season two, but I certainly had a lot of complaints, mainly about pacing and tension. I can't help but wonder if I would still have the complaints if the show had been able to actually be completed— after all, it's hard to fairly judge an incomplete show on its pacing. I have similar complaints about the BBC zombie drama In The Flesh (2013-2014), which I also watched recently. Season one is short, self-contained, and feels satisfying. Season two is clearly setup for something else, so it ends up feeling weirdly paced and slightly unsatisfying when viewed on its own.

To actually start talking about The Exorcist (2016-2017), season one worked really really well for me. I obsessively watched season one, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't watch a lot of TV because I feel like it takes too much time (call me weird, I know). But I really couldn't stop watching this show. It's engrossing, tense, smart, and tightly paced. Season one focused on a tight cast of characters— the Rance family, their family demon, and the priests Marcus Keane (Ben Daniels) and Tomas Ortega (Alfonso Herrera). The Rance family have an interesting family dynamic that is shown right away: troubled older daughter Katherine (Brianne Howey) is struggling with moodiness and depression after a car accident killed her best friend (and perhaps girlfriend), overlooked younger sister Casey (Hannah Kasulka) turns out to be the show's sleeper villain, mom Angela (Geena Davis) is hiding a complicated supernatural past, and father Henry (Alan Ruck) is struggling after a traumatic injury caused him major brain damage. The family are already familiar with one of our main protagonists, Father Tomas Ortega, which allows the audience to get to know both the Rances and Tomas through their interactions with one another.

The relationship between the two priests, Tomas and Marcus, is really the star of the show and one of the most compelling dynamics on television. Marcus is an older priest and well established exorcist, who has been through a crisis of faith and basically sent to priest retirement as punishment. He failed to save a victim of demonic possession and no longer has faith in his own abilities, and is struggling with his faith in God in general. Tomas is an up-and-coming priest, fighting for his underprivileged parish with his incredible good looks and charisma, and is full of faith and belief that things will work out. The main plot begins when Tomas is sent visions from God of Marcus at his recent failed exorcism, and tracks Marcus down after Angela Rance comes to him with fears that her family is being stalked by a demon. God literally ships these two. He thinks they're destined to be together!

But on a serious note, the dynamic between Marcus and Tomas is just ultra intriguing. They're mentor and mentee, but also partners, friends, rivals. Both have something to teach the other— Tomas wants to learn how to be an exorcist and needs to learn how to give up what he wants for what he needs, and Marcus needs to learn from Tomas' fresh ideas and unwavering faith. They're so willing to learn from each other, but also clash in interesting ways due to the differences in the ways that they both think and act. There's conflict in their dynamic but it feels like the good kind, the productive kind, that makes people think about why they act the way they do and if it's necessary or just a habit. Marcus' emotional arc throughout the season is him learning that love and kindness are just as powerful a weapon as fire and brimstone during an exorcism, and that love and kindness are not just weapons. Marcus learns that he doesn't need to be just a weapon, which is what the Church has wanted him to be for his whole life. Seeing him ultimately come to trust Tomas and want to be with him is a genuinely heartwarming and satisfying emotional arc.

And this arc is expertly weaved throughout the season. In general, season one is really good at building and sustaining tension— each episode feels so tense, and the tension builds steadily over the season. Almost every episode ends on some kind of revelation or cliffhanger, but also so seamlessly flows into the next episode. So many times while watching I would tell myself I was going to go to bed after the next episode, and then be totally smacked in the face by the ending and be like, "Ok, just one more couldn't hurt..." The family history slowly unfolds over the course of the season, and their unfolding plotline is also smooth and well paced. We learn more about the demon as we learn more about the family, and each member of the Rance family is unpacked, dissected, and put back together for the audience. By the end of the season, you understand each Rance and what makes them tick.

There's also a subplot about a demonic conspiracy within the Church, and it also feels very well paced, gradually unfolding to the audience as it becomes relevant. At first, all we know is there's some kind of organ harvesting going on, then we learn why they're doing that, then we learn who is doing it and why, and what their larger goals are, culminating in the plot to kill the Pope. The information is divulged in a satisfying way, and feels dangerous and mysterious while still staying a threat that it feels like our heroes can realistically solve.

And describing this as "realistic" is high praise for a show where God and demons are real. Another thing I think the first season does really well is its balancing of fact and fiction, as well as its acknowledgement of the real corruption within the Catholic Church. For a show where Catholics are, objectively, Right About God, there is a fair amount of criticism against the Church, and this criticism is completely separate from the demon infiltrators. In fact, the demons are only able to infiltrate the church because of the corruption and greed that is already there.

Similarly, demonic possession is a pretty clear metaphor for grooming and/or sexual assault, and I felt it was handled sensitively and with care. Over and over again, Angela and Casey are assured that what happened to them was not their fault, and the show focuses on their struggles to feel like their bodies belong to them after what happens. Watching them connect over such a traumatic and life-changing experience is difficult, but comforting. This allegory can be hard to watch at times, but again, I personally didn't feel like it was distasteful or exploitative. I would be interested to hear what other people thought about this aspect and whether or not they found it exploitative or in poor taste!

On a technical level, I also found the show to be really strong. All the actors are firing on all cylinders, but Ben Daniels, Alfonso Herrera, and Geena Davis really killed their parts. Honorable mention to Hannah Kasulka, who perfectly struck a balance between cute teenage girl and terrifying demonic abomination. The show looks and sounds great as well, with a lot of enjoyable shots and amazing sound design. Overall, I found season one of The Exorcist (2016-2017) to be a super enjoyable, satisfying, and well made production.

Season two, on the other hand, fell a little flat for me, although I still enjoyed parts of it a lot. I think the problem, for me, was that the show was stretching itself too thin in an effort to expand itself too quickly. The show is basically doubled in scope and scale and it just doesn't feel natural or earned. I want to again say to take everything I say about pacing and scope with a grain of salt, considering they were clearly building to something that never got payoff because of the show's cancellation. It's definitely possible that they could have really solidly pulled everything together in a potential season three, and could have addressed all my complaints. I've seen a lot of shows with strong first seasons that then struggle to find their feet a little bit, and if I judged every TV show on their sophomore season, I probably wouldn't think any TV show was good! But taking season two just on its own, there's a lot of weird pacing and inconsistency issues, especially in the first half of the season, which made it a bit hard for me to enjoy it as much as I did the first season.

This season starts off really slowly, which is funny to say considering the first scene of season two is a car chase through a cornfield while Marcus and Tomas attempt to exorcise some lady in their truck bed, which sounds incredibly exciting and fast paced. But overall, the beginning of this season has all these disparate plots that the show is only able to weave into one coherent plot about four episodes in, and even then it feels like it's wrestling. Season two is set six months after season one, and opens on the aforementioned cornfield car chase. After dealing with a real exorcism in episode one, where it's revealed that Tomas can open himself up to demons and have visions, his visions lead Tomas and Marcus to a girl named Harper (Beatrice Kitsos), whose mother is convinced she's possessed.

Through Harper, they eventually meet foster dad Andy Kim (John Cho) who lives on an island with his foster kids, currently being visited by the social services worker Rose (Li Jun Li). Andy and his family are struggling after the recent suicide of his wife Nikki (Alicia Witt). Her unexpected death was obviously tragic and really hard on the family, but it also could potentially lead to the foster home being shut down, since foster homes require at least two guardians. From there, we slowly learn more about a demon that has been haunting the island for centuries, possessing parents and tricking them into murdering their children.

It feels like a lot of stuff in the first three episodes could have been trimmed or cut entirely. There's genuinely no reason to have the exorcism in the first episode and Harper's "exorcism," especially because the first exorcism ended up being so pointless that I can't even remember the name of the victim or the demon. The first exorcism only serves to establish Tomas and Marcus' new dynamic (which I'll get to) and Tomas' ability to open himself up to demons, which could have easily been established in Harper's exorcism alone.

All the extra stuff in the first couple episodes do is build character, which is fine in the case of Andy, Rose, and a couple of the kids (Verity gets the most to work with, Shelby gets the least), who are pretty well established through subtle interactions and character moments, but the Tomas and Marcus stuff feels a bit... off? Like I couldn't really put my finger on it, but their interactions in the first couple of episodes just don't feel like them, especially considering where we left them at the end of season one. In the season one finale, they're super close, trust each other, and are excited to work together. In the first episode of season two, it's like they've regressed to a level of animosity that they didn't even really have for each other as strangers in season one. They're constantly snipping at each other, arguing, not trusting the other's methods, and at one point Marcus says he wishes he had never taken Tomas on. It feels super weird and out of character on both sides.

I get that living on the road with someone in close proximity for six months as you exorcise demons, run from the church, and just genuinely live in shitty and uncomfortable circumstances would make anyone short-tempered, even with someone they really love, but the problem is that we as the audience don't get to really feel this time on the road. We only get a "six months later" flash forward. I guess the purpose of the exorcism in episode one is to set up the new "status quo" in regards to the characters and their situation, but without knowing how we got to this point, the animosity just feels strange. Especially because it's not like they boil over and have a huge fight and then everything goes back to normal, they just randomly start acting like their average selves again, with their old character dynamic, about three episodes in.

Alongside the main plot about the foster family, the show intermittently cuts to season one returning by-the-book priest Devon Bennett (Kurt Egyiawan) and new character, the badass leather jacket wearing nun-turned-exorcist Mouse (Zuleikha Robinson), fighting against the widespread demonic infiltration of the church, which has gotten so bad in six months that Devon has to flee the Vatican in the middle of the night. Unlike season one, this subplot also just feels really poorly paced and not well integrated into the rest of the plot at all. Again, this feels like a symptom of the suddenly increased scope and focus of the show.

The demonic infiltration of the church goes from just one or two highly placed bishops and their lackeys to literally every single high ranking priest in the Vatican being possessed or working with the demons, and Devon having to go on the run in the middle of the night while basically every other exorcist is killed or retired. The demons go from feeling like an appropriately dangerous threat that could potentially be beaten by our heroes with a smart plan and teamwork to a ridiculously powerful unbeatable force. How did the demonic corruption of the church get this bad this quickly, and how can four exorcists hope to stop it? It doesn't help that again, this is not very well paced. Devon and Mouse just kind of pop up once every couple episodes to do something with the demon cult like they're reminding the audience that the threat still exists.

Devon is really criminally underused this season, which is saying something considering he wasn't in the last season for very long at all. But in season one, he had his own goals and worked to further them, ultimately becoming a pretty important character in the last couple of episodes despite his relatively few moments of screentime. It doesn't help that the climax to his storyline this season is literally just a copy paste of his arc last season, Devon facing the threat of demonic integration (which in the show is one step up from possession). In season two, Devon is technically onscreen a lot more, but a lot of that time is just him propping up Mouse and asking audience surrogate questions so the audience can get to know Mouse— and by extension, her history with Marcus.

I find Marcus and Mouse's relationship to be complex and interesting, but it's soured by the fact that we're simply told a lot of this information and shown it through flashbacks before the two actually interact in the show at all. It feels like cheating, or a copout. Once they actually get on screen together, their relationship is fantastic thanks to the amazing actors involved, with all this bitter tension yet fondness for each other. It's a shame that they don't actually interact with each other until the season finale, because we didn't need all those flashback backstories. The actors are so good they're able to convey that history through interactions and body language alone.

Weirdly, this subplot about Mouse and Marcus' past is treated as if they had a romantic relationship, despite all the actual flashbacks of their relationship feeling more like friends/family (maybe I was just distracted by Ben Daniels' horrible wig). This weirdness is compounded by the fact that Marcus being queer goes from subtext to outright text during this season, and listen— bisexual here. I know Marcus can be interested in men and women. But thematically and narratively, it feels weak to be flip-flopping between, "Marcus and Mouse had this tragic hetero whirlwind romance that they never came to terms with," and "Marcus has been repressing his desire for men because he's always been brought up in the church and told it was wrong, but is now finally allowing himself to admit he's attracted to men" at the same time.

The Marcus/Mouse backstory takes up a lot of time that could be better spent actually showcasing Devon and his trauma at almost being integrated and what has happened to his church. His feelings are never really explored or given that much weight, which is sad because he has a lot of interesting stuff going on that he never really gets to deal with. And also... guess who the audience actually has seen having a complicated past with Marcus... Devon Bennett! And a potential past romantic relationship between Marcus and Devon would have synergized perfectly with the current day plotline of Marcus coming to terms with his sexuality!

Here's how I wish this dynamic had gone: Mouse is still a nun-turned-exorcist who briefly met Marcus and was inspired to become an exorcist by him. She can still have a complicated past with him, and once she finds out that Devon also knows him pretty well, she's really intrigued and starts asking a lot of questions about Marcus and Devon's relationship with him. We slowly learn that Devon and Marcus used to be exorcism partners and be very close, but grew apart as they realized they just wanted different things from the church and life— Marcus to be a traveling independent exorcist and Devon to become a powerful, rule-abiding member of the Vatican. Then, right before the scene where island resident Peter (Christopher Cousins) and Marcus kiss, we learn that Devon and Marcus actually had a brief romantic and/or sexual relationship, but convinced themselves it meant nothing/"didn't count." Can't you see how good that would be?

To talk a little bit more about Marcus and Peter, and Marcus' sexuality plotline in general, there is also a lot less criticism of the church this season, and when it comes up it's handled quite clumsily. It felt like season one went through a lot of effort to extensively show the weaknesses of the church and not shy away from the real problems within its structure. Whenever you make a show where a certain religion is objectively true and real, you have to confront the reality that the structures of that religion can harm people, and that people can have fair and righteous grudges against the church.

For example, take foster child Verity (Brianna Hildebrand), whose biological parents sent her to conversion therapy to "pray the gay away." Verity talks about how she was literally tortured in this camp, waterboarded so she would "stop" being gay, and due to her experiences, Verity is understandably pretty anti-Christianity. But whenever she brings this up, either to religious fellow foster kid Shelby (Alex Barima) or Marcus and Tomas, she's met with the same tepid pushback of, "I'm sorry that happened to you, but they weren't really religious, they were just evil! So it's not really our fault at all!"

It's the no true Scotsman logical fallacy, but it feel hollow when Christianity is still against gay people and their "lifestyles," and conversion therapy is still a widespread practice within the Church. Only twenty six states in the United States have made conversation therapy illegal and in the UK, it's still completely legal (despite the Church of England disavowing the practice in 2017, the same year this season came out). Furthermore, only twenty six countries worldwide have bans on conversion therapy, and of those countries only eleven actually ban conversion therapy by any person as opposed to just by medical officials, which means religious institutions can easily dodge the bans.

This would be a great moment to actually dive into religious trauma in regards to sexuality and queerness. It's strange to me that the show doesn't take a harder stance, especially when a major subplot of this season is Marcus coming to terms with his sexuality and realizing it's okay to like men. Like I said, Marcus has always felt, at least to me, queercoded (the demon possessing Casey's body taunts him by saying girls "aren't his flavor"), but season two takes it into explicit territory with Marcus flirting with and eventually kissing the minor side character Peter. I don't think Peter was ever meant to be a serious romantic interest for Marcus, just based on how little screentime he actually has, but I think he serves his purpose for this subplot pretty well. But we never really see Marcus struggle with his faith versus his sexuality and what it means to be an excommunicated Catholic exorcist who likes men. Again, this would have been such an interesting topic to actually explore, and maybe see Marcus and Verity bond over, but the show really drops the ball on it and it feels mostly brushed over.

The show also deals heavily with foster care, but it feels like their portrayal of the foster care system is extremely shallow. Andy and Nikki are good foster parents, who sometimes get overwhelmed, but they really love their kids and consider them their actual children. This is great, and I'm not saying that this doesn't happen in real life, but there's a ton of research done on the abuse that happens within the foster care system, and brushing it off and acting like only biological parents can be abusive is just unrealistic. Not to mention the fact that caseworker Rose is constantly complying with harmful mandatory state guidelines, like putting an autistic child in a psychiatric facility against his will for a crime he didn't commit. Like... this sucks??!?!?! But the show just treats it like a necessary evil and Rose is just doing her job.

But I don't want it to sound like I absolutely hated the second season, because I didn't. I still liked it a lot! It started out slow, sure, but there was a moment in the third or fourth episode where I actually sat up and clapped my hands in delight when I figured out where a certain plot was going. The characters are (mostly) fleshed out and interesting, if not likable. The last couple of episodes are super good and engaging, and the season ends on a really interesting note. This isn't the kind of season that makes you throw up your hands in exasperation and not want to see the next season. It's the kind of season that makes you go, "Huh, I didn't love that as much as season one, but I'm really excited to see where it goes next!" ...But then in this case, you never get to see where it goes next because life is pain and the show got canceled.

Overall, The Exorcist is good, but disappointing. Not disappointing because the show and its writing are bad, because they're not. The show is disappointing not because of what it does, but what it never got to do. I literally lie awake at night thinking about what this show could have been. What did they have planned for season three? A season four? Maybe even a season five? This show, at its core, has such a good concept, and such good core characters and writing that I could see it going on indefinitely. This show has what Supernatural (2005-2020) wanted. Shows like this and In the Flesh (2013-2014) ultimately deserved so much more than what they got, and it sucks to see so much passion and work go to waste. Fox canceled The Exorcist so they could keep pumping out shitty American copaganda shows. Lucifer (2016-2021) ran on the same network and was canceled at the same time, but Lucifer got resurrected onto Netflix whereas The Exorcist still lies dead in the ground. Again, life is pain.

I hope this review doesn't discourage people from checking the show out, because that's not what I want to do— I deeply wish more people would watch the show! It's brilliant, fun, scary, well written, and so well executed. I absolutely loved this show and think if you have any passing interest in well made horror stories, definitely check this out. It got canceled, but so what? Lots of shows get canceled and still become cult classics.