History Series / Brimstone

* ExposedToTheElements: {{Inverted|Trope}}. Zeke wears long sleeves and a [[BadassLongcoat trenchcoat]] in the middle of the day in LA. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] with FridgeBrilliance when you realize that he spent the last fifteen years in Hell and consequently summer in southern California is ''much'' colder than he's used to.

* FiveYearPlan: Zeke has 113 damned souls to hunt down.

A kind of satanic version of ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}''. Detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Stone (Peter Horton) was damned to {{Hell}} in [[TheEighties 1983]] for killing, in cold blood, Gilbert Jax, the man who raped his wife, after he got OffOnATechnicality. Fifteen years later, [[EscapedFromHell 113 of the most vicious damned souls in Hell escaped to Earth]]. Satan (Creator/JohnGlover), furious at having been "beaten," [[InfernalFugitives sent Stone back to Earth to track them down and kill them, returning them to Hell]]. If he succeeds, he gets the greatest reward of all: A second life on Earth, and thus a second chance at {{Heaven}}.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Zeke had $36.27 on him when he died. Just so happens, [[Literature/TheBible Ezekiel 36:27]] is a fitting verse for his situation:

A kind of satanic version of ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}''. Detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Stone (Peter Horton) was damned to {{Hell}} in [[TheEighties 1983]] for killing, in cold blood, Gilbert Jax, the man who raped his wife after he got OffOnATechnicality. Fifteen years later, [[EscapedFromHell 113 of the most vicious damned souls in Hell escaped to Earth]]. Satan (Creator/JohnGlover), furious at having been "beaten," [[InfernalFugitives sent Stone back to Earth to track them down and kill them, returning them to Hell]]. If he succeeds, he gets the greatest reward of all: A second life on Earth, and thus a second chance at {{Heaven}}.

* AffablyEvil: ''Definitely'' Satan, which is unsurprising, considering who played him: The ever-sarcastic and witty Creator/JohnGlover.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: A repeating plot element, at least on the supernatural side: You sin, you go to Hell. ''[[ThereIsNoHigherCourt Period]]''. No mitigating circumstances considered. A couple of the 113, not to mention Zeke himself, are actually quite sympathetic, basically decent people who made one big error in judgement...but that doesn't save them from eternal torment. This is revealed to be the cause of the entire plot--it doesn't even matter if you follow a different religion; if your people were [[MightMakesRight conquered by Abrahamics, then you're judged as one]]. [[spoiler:Ashur Badaktu AKA Detective Ash was a high priestess of a pagan religion which Abrahamics ''exterminated to the last man'', meaning there was no one left to carry on her beliefs and condemning her to Hell by default. You cannot ''imagine'' how pissed off she is.]] However, this is offset by the fact that no matter what crimes you have committed, you can still repent and be redeemed, as the 'good' Creator/JohnGlover points out.

* DivinelyAppearingDemons: Satan visits at least OnceAnEpisode, played by Creator/JohnGlover and wearing a good-looking business suit. When an ''angel'' appears later on, Creator/JohnGlover is dressed in a very worn-out whit e painter's out. Zeke first mistakes him for Satan, wondering why the new outfit. In the alternate ending, Satan finds the angel's doorag in his coat pocket.

** The murderous lovers of, well, "Lovers", seem to be a lethal verson of Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet.

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Undergoes a dizzying GenreShift when [[spoiler:Detective Ash, the LAPD policewoman who had been Zeke's inside track with earthly authorities is revealed to be Ashur Badaktu, the ringleader of the 113 souls and a dead Canaanite priestess who had engineered the escape from Hell, possbily by seducing Satan. (The policeman had, unwittingly, been helping her to eliminate members of her "gang" that had gone rogue.) Her plan is to systematically eradicate belief in the God of Abraham from human culture, thereby causing God, Heaven, and Hell to all blink out of existence. Zeke realizes that Satan had been desperate to retrieve the escaped spirits, not out of some altruistic desire to restore the cosmic balance, but because if Ash were to succeed in her agenda, Satan, being part of the Abrahamic religion himself, would blink out of existence as well.]]

A kind of satanic version of ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}''. Detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Stone (Peter Horton) was damned to {{Hell}} in [[TheEighties 1983]] for killing, in cold blood, Gilbert Jax, the man who raped his wife after he got OffOnATechnicality. Fifteen years later, [[EscapedFromHell 113 of the most vicious damned souls in Hell escaped to Earth]]. Satan (Creator/JohnGlover), furious at having been "beaten," sent Stone back to Earth to track them down and kill them, returning them to Hell. If he succeeds, he gets the greatest reward of all: A second life on Earth, and thus a second chance at {{Heaven}}.

->''"I never loved anyone but ''God''. And that was a long time ago."''
--> -- '''Satan'''

* MainVillainByDefault: Averted in "Repentance". The Hell escapee, Martin Benedict, was a Dutch Nazi sympathizer during World War II, [[spoiler: but has repented of his "sin" and isn't the killer as Ezekial first believes him to be.]]

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Undergoes a dizzying GenreShift when [[spoiler:Detective Ash, the LAPD policewoman who had been Zeke's inside track with earthly authorities is revealed to be Ashur Badaktu, the ringleader of the 113 souls and a dead Canaanite priestess who had engineered the escape from Hell, possbily by seducing Satan. (The policeman had, unwittingly, been helping her to eliminate members of her "gang" that had gone rogue.) Her plan is to systematically eradicate belief in the God of Abraham from human culture, thereby causing God, Heaven, and Hell to all blink out of existence. Zeke realizes that Satan had been desperate to retrieve the escaped spirits, not out of some altruistic desire to restore the CosmicBalance, but because if Ash were to succeed in her agenda, Satan, being part of the Abrahamic religion himself, would blink out of existence as well.]]

** When Satan appears, he typically does some kind of minor prank to an innocent bystander around him.

* When Satan appears, he typically does some kind of minor prank to an innocent bystander around him.

* JerkassHasAPoint: In one of the later episodes, the Devil calls Ezekiel out on stuff he did in his life.

* DivinelyAppearingDemons: Satan visits at least OnceAnEpisode, played by Creator/JohnGlover and wearing a good-looking business suit. When an ''angel'' appears later on, Creator/JohnGlover is dressed in a very worn-out shirt and pants outfit. Zeke first mistakes him for Satan, wondering why the new outfit.

* EvilIsPetty: Whenever Satan drops by, he will engage in some petty prank of anonymous evil, such as ticketing a legally-parked car, loosening a salt shaker, or tying shoelaces together.

* {{Expy}}: Sally [=McGee=], the villainess of "Carrier" does a pitch-perfect [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Harley Quinn]] impression. Given the episode also makes a reference to Zeke being Batman, this seems fully intentional.
** Her situation is itself an expy of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon historical Typhoid Mary.]]

* {{Expy}}: The villainess of "Carrier" does a pitch-perfect [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Harley Quinn]] impression. Given the episode also makes a reference to Zeke being Batman, this seems fully intentional.

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Undergoes a dizzying GenreShift when [[spoiler:Detective Ash, the LAPD policewoman who had been Zeke's inside track with earthly authorities is revealed to be Ashur Badaktu, the ringleader of the 113 souls and a dead Canaanite priestess who had engineered the escape from Hell by seducing Satan. (The policeman had, unwittingly, been helping her to eliminate members of her "gang" that had gone rogue.) Her plan is to systematically eradicate belief in the God of Abraham from human culture, thereby causing God, Heaven, and Hell to all blink out of existence. Zeke realizes that Satan had been desperate to retrieve the escaped spirits, not out of some altruistic desire to restore the CosmicBalance, but because if Ash were to succeed in her agenda, Satan, being part of the Abrahamic religion himself, would blink out of existence as well.]]

* AnywhereButTheirLips: Typhoid Mary insisted on this, [[KissOfDeath for good reason]].

* ColonelMakepeace: Detective Ash [[spoiler:who turns out to be [[TheMole one of the 113]].]]

* PsychoLesbian: [[spoiler:Ash. When she's going to kill Roz to become her, she keeps sniffing her like she like-likes her. However, she says she's doing it for her (Ash) and Zeke. Maybe she's [[BiTheWay bisexual?]]]]
** [[spoiler:Earlier that episode, she did sleep with Roz (albeit in a shape-shifted male form), suggesting she may well be bi.]]
** FridgeBrilliance when you recall that [[spoiler:Ash is over four thousand years old; her approach to sexuality would be closer to Ancient Greece than modern societies]].

* GoForTheEye: The eyes of the fugitives from Hell are their only weak spot (because eyes are the WindowsOfTheSoul), thus Zeke has to shoot their eyes to send them back. Interestingly enough, he's also immune to everything except the eyes.

* GottaKillThemAll: Zeke gets a seconds hot at Heaven if he catches all 113.

* SociopathicSoldier: Hasdrabul Skaras, a Canaanite mercenary who gets Zeke's attention by targeting police widows for murder.

* Hellevator: [[RunningGag Every time]] Zeke meets Satan in an elevator, it's always going ''down.''

%%* GottaKillThemAll.

%%* HunterOfMonsters

* DeadpanSnarker: The Devil. Zeke manages to get in a few as well.
* DeadToBeginWith: Involves a deceased cop making a DealWithTheDevil to catch 113 souls that had escaped from hell.

* DevilsJobOffer: Ezekiel Stone, a tough-as-nails cop who went to Hell for the cold-blooded killing of the man who had raped his wife, is allowed to return to Earth to hunt down 113 damned souls who've {{escaped from Hell}}...
* DivinelyAppearingDemons: The series follows Detective Ezekiel Stone, as he is sent on a mission to hunt down 113 damned souls that escaped from Hell. Satan visits at least OnceAnEpisode, played by Creator/JohnGlover and wearing a good-looking business suit. When an ''angel'' appears later on, Creator/JohnGlover is dressed in a very worn-out shirt and pants outfit. Ezekiel first mistakes him for Satan, wondering why the new outfit.
* DontTellMama: [[spoiler:Gilbert Jax, the guy who raped Stone's wife is one of the 113 who escaped. Stone doesn't have the heart to tell Gilbert's mother what the guy was ''really'' like, and lets her believe he sent Gilbert back to Heaven.]]

* EvilIsPetty: Whenever Satan drops by, he will engage in some petty prank of anonymous evil. Such as ticketing a legally parked car, loosening a salt shaker, or tying shoelaces together.
* ExposedToTheElements: Inverted: Stone wears long sleeves and a [[BadassLongcoat trench coat]] in the middle of the day in LA. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] with FridgeBrilliance when you realize that Stone spent the last fifteen years in Hell and consequently summer in southern California is ''much'' colder than he's used to.
* {{Expy}}: The villainess of "Carrier" does a pitch-perfect [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Harley Quinn]] impression. Given the episode also makes a reference to Stone being Batman, this seems fully intentional.

* FakeGuestStar: John Glover, who played the Devil on every episode, was always credited as a guest star. In fact, the only name in the opening titles was Peter Horton.
** He was originally supposed to only appear in the pilot, but the chemistry between Glover and Horton was so wonderful that they decided to make him a regular in all but name.
* FemmeFatale: [[spoiler: Detective Ash.]]

* FiveYearPlan: Zeke had 113 damned souls to hunt down.

** Between Zeke and [[spoiler: Ash]]. It started off as mutual attraction, until she got his shirt off and saw her name tattooed on his chest. She still seems to have some interest in him, however.

* FriendOnTheForce: Detective Kane in the pilot. But then from the second episode onwards the series takes place on the West Coast, and he's replaced by Ash.
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Undergoes a dizzying GenreShift when [[spoiler:the LAPD policewoman who had been his inside track with Earthly authorities is revealed to be the ringleader of the souls, a dead Canaanite priestess who had engineered the escape from Hell by seducing Satan. (The policeman had, unwittingly, been helping her to eliminate members of her "gang" that had gone rogue.) Her plan is to systematically eradicate belief in the God of Abraham from human culture, thereby causing God, Heaven, and Hell, to all blink out of existence. The protagonist realizes that Satan had been desperate to retrieve the escaped spirits, not out of some altruistic desire to restore the CosmicBalance, but because if the priestess were to succeed in her agenda, Satan, being part of the Abrahamic mythos himself, would blink out of existence as well.]]

* GottaCatchThemAll: Or, rather, GottaKillThemAll.
* HumanNotepad: Zeke Stone has the names of the 113 damned souls he's hunting tattooed on his body, 'penned in [the Devil's] native tongue'. When he sends a damned soul back, their name is removed, painfully.
* HunterOfMonsters
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Zeke's pretty good at hitting targets in the eyes. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that a soul escaped from hell gains supernatural powers related to the individual's history and/or mental condition. As a former cop, it's entirely conceivable that superhuman shooting accuracy is Stone's power.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: "It's a Helluva Life," uses this to some extent. Since Ezekiel Stone is already dead, it involves the Devil showing him how all the things he'd done during his life had led to bad outcomes, and pretty much doomed him to Hell, even without him killing his wife's rapist. Luckily, an Angel turns up to point out all the good he'd done as well.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: [[spoiler: Pulled in the last episode.]]
* JacobMarleyApparel: Zeke always has exactly what he died with on him -- including his handgun and its bullets, and the $36.27 USD he had in his pockets, both of which are replenished each day.
* JerkassHasAPoint: In one of the later episodes, the devil calls Ezekiel out on stuff he did in his life.
* KnightTemplar ''AND'' SinisterMinister: Father Edward Salinas, one of the 113 escapees. Sacrifices boys to ''prevent'' the Apocalypse.
* TheLegionsOfHell
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: TheDevil wears an expensive Victorian suit, complete with a red tie and a pocketwatch. In contrast, an angel is shown looking exactly like him but dressed as a blue-collar worker (a ceiling painter).
* MonsterOfTheWeek
* NightSwimEqualsDeath: A young woman (who went to Hell after she murdered the families of the men who raped her) goes swimming at night with her new boyfriend. When he gets a little too frisky and triggers her, her demonic powers kick in and she boils him alive in the water.

*** "Carrier": An episode about a {{Plaguemaster}}, aka a "carrier of disease".

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Undead are for the most part invulnerable versions of who they were in life, don't need to eat or sleep (the Devil berates Ezekiel for this "indulgence") and any DNA sample taken reveals itself to be dead.
** Ezekiel himself could be considered a Revenant with the task of one of the Furies.
* {{Plaguemaster}}: The [[MonsterOfTheWeek damned soul of the week]] in "Carrier".
* {{Portmantitle}}: Brimstone's etymology is likely a fusion of Old English words for 'Burning' and 'Stone'. The show's plot relates to Hell.
* PostRapeTaunt: The main reason Zeke was in Hell in the first place. He tracked down his wife's rapist. The guy bragged about it. Zeke opened fire.

** [[spoiler: Earlier that episode, she did sleep with Roz (albeit in a shapeshifted male form) suggesting she may well be bi.]]
** FridgeBrilliance when you recall that [[spoiler:Ash is over four thousand years old; her approach to sexuality would be closer to Ancient Greece than modern societies.]]

--> "I'm more old testament. You go your way, I go YAHWEH".

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Det. Sgt. Ash is really [[BigBad Ashur Badaktu]], the mastermind behind the mass breakout.]]
* RunningGag: Whenever Ezekiel met Satan in an elevator, it would ''always'' be on its way down.
* {{Satan}}: Played by John Glover.
* SatanIsGood: The Devil isn't necessarily evil. In fact, he's in charge of punishing evildoers, hence his need to get the 113 escapees back to hell. He is, however, an unrepentant {{Jerkass}}. [[note]]His need to get the souls back is ''entirely'' motivated by self-interest: if Ash succeeds in her ultimate goal of wiping out Abrahamism, he'll disappear with it.[[/note]]
* SelfInflictedHell: An unusual example: It's implied that, prior to the rise of Monotheism, people were judged by whatever deity they worshiped. After the Christian God wiped out the pagan gods, however, everyone was judged together. The show makes both options look equally unappealing: Either everyone is judged by a single authoritarian cosmic power, who often ignores context when dishing out punishments, or people face no consequences for atrocities because they're judged by the deity who ordered the atrocities.
* SinisterMinister: In [[spoiler: the pilot episode]].

* SociopathicSoldier: Hasdrabul Skaras, a Canaanite mercenary who gets Stone's attention by targeting police widows for murder.

* WaterSourceTampering: In "Carrier", Stone has to stop a PoisonousPerson before she can throw up in the local reservoir.
* WithThisHerring: Zeke is to track down damned souls who have been in hell since the beginning of time, and who thus have amassed fantastic powers. To accomplish this mission, he has a handgun and $36.27, the amount of money in his pockets at the moment he was killed. Luckily, that gun has a [[BottomlessMagazines Bottomless Magazine]] and that wad of cash is replenished each day; it's essentially his salary. Just for fun, go grab a Bible and look up [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%2036:27&version=9 Ezekiel 36:27]]. We'll wait.

->''"I never loved anyone but'' God. ''And that was a long time ago."''

A kind of satanic version of ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}''. Detective Ezekiel Stone was damned to Hell in 1983 for killing, in cold blood, the man who raped his wife after he got OffOnATechnicality. Fifteen years later, [[EscapedFromHell 113 of the most vicious damned souls in Hell escaped to Earth]]. Satan, furious at having been "beaten", sent Stone back to Earth to track them down and kill them, returning them to Hell. If he succeeds, he gets the greatest reward of all; a second life on Earth, and thus a second chance at Heaven.

The show starts off in [[BigApplesauce New York]] but starting with as early as the second episode, takes places in Los Angeles perhaps due to the fact that a resurrected hero cop going around his old haunt, [[AccidentalPun so to speak]], might attract unwanted attention.

Unfortunately, it suffered from constant pre-emptions and never quite found its audience, and was canceled after just 13 episodes. Lasted from October, 1998 to February, 1999.

* AchillesHeel: The damned souls are mostly invulnerable, Stone included; the only way to kill them is to destroy/remove their eyes. Eyes being the "windows to the soul", of course.
* AffablyEvil: ''Definitely'' Satan - unsurprising, considering who played him; the ever sarcastic and witty John Glover.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: A repeating plot element, at least on the supernatural side: you sin, you go to Hell. ''[[ThereIsNoHigherCourt Period]]''. No mitigating circumstances considered. A couple of the 113 - not to mention Zeke himself - are actually quite sympathetic, basically decent people who made one big error in judgement... but that doesn't save them from eternal torment. This is revealed to be the cause of the entire plot - it doesn't even matter if you follow a different religion; if your people were [[MightMakesRight conquered by Abrahamics, then you're judged as one]]. [[spoiler:Ashur Badaktu AKA Detective Ash was a high priestess of a pagan religion which Abrahamics ''exterminated to the last man'', meaning there was no one left to carry on her beliefs and condemning her to Hell by default. You cannot ''imagine'' how pissed off she is.]] However this is offset by the fact that no matter what crimes you have committed, you can still repent and be redeemed, as the 'good' John Glover points out.
* TheAllegedCar: {{Satan}} gives Ezekiel Stone one of these in one episode. At the end of the episode Ezekiel [[spoiler:realises that it's the second damned soul Satan told him to reclaim that week, and shoots its "eyes" (headlights) out to send it back to Hell]].
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted: the escaped souls are often evil, and one would expect them to be, but, in fact at least a few were shown to have been genuinely good people who made horrific decisions, or in at least one case, were doing what they believed to be the best (i.e. human sacrifice), only to then be judged by another religion's values, after dying. Two of the thirteen episodes ([[spoiler:''Repentance'' and ''Faces'']]) use less violent special effects when Zeke "sends them back," leaving open the possibility that they were allowed into heaven this time.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Ezekiel had 36 dollars and 27 cents on him when he died. Just so happens, Ezekiel 36:27 is a fitting verse for his situation:

* AttackItsWeakpoint: The lost souls are all but "invulnerable", but if you pierce their eyes, they earn a one way trip back to hell.
* TheAtoner: Subverted: Zeke still believes that killing the rapist was the right thing to do
* BadassLongcoat: Zeke
* BigBad: Surprisingly, given its MonsterOfTheWeek format and being canceled after only 13 episodes, the series managed to present the mastermind behind the escape, [[spoiler: Ash. She seeks to demolish the world's faith in God and possibly bring back her own]]. This BigBad even [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly worries]] ''Satan''.
* BottomlessMagazines: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] -- every day, he wakes up with exactly what he had on him when he died. This includes his clothes, his money, and his ammunition. But it's supposedly once a ''day'', so he can and does run out of ammo a couple of times.
* BoxedCrook: The Devil releases Ezekiel Stone from Hell to capture the 113 damned souls that had escaped. If he returns all 113, he gets a second chance at life. If he fails, he returns to eternal damnation.
* ColonelMakepeace: Detective Ash [[spoiler:Who turns out to be [[TheMole one of the 113]].]]
* {{Confessional}}: The opening scene of the series uses the confessional as exposition that the protagonist has been brought back from the dead to hunt down 113 souls who have escaped from Hell. When the priest demands to know why he's telling this ridiculous story, the protagonist says: "Oh I think you know." (The priest is one of the 113).

* {{Satan}}: Played by John Glover, which just goes to show he's a ''good'' MagnificentBastard.

* {{Plaguemaster}}: The [[MonsterOfTheWeek damned soul of the week]] in "Carrier."
* PostRapeTaunt: The main reason Zeke was in Hell in the first place. He tracked down his wife's rapist. The guy bragged about it. Zeke opened fire.