Good. Bad. He’s back with the gun.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for Ash vs Evil Dead: Season 1 below.
Lovingly ushered back into our lives decades after the third installment of the Evil Dead film franchise, Deadite destroying half-hero Ash Williams brought his chiseled chin, chainsaw, boomstick, and pillow talk to Starz for an awesomely gory and goofy TV sequel. One that – despite being coddled and coached by original Evil Dead trio Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and star Bruce Campbell – had a rocky time delivering on consistency of tone and story momentum.
Despite the pacing problems though, when Ash vs Evil Dead was on point – it was on point! And the entire season started and ended on very strong notes. With the writers of the final two episodes, Rob Wright and Craig Digregorio (also EP/showrunner), being the best at matching Sam Raimi’s “balanced jackass” version of Ash. So bookend-wise, this first season gave us some damn fine hilarious carnage. The opening one-two punch of “El Jefe” and “Bait” kicked the series off right while “Bound in Flesh” and “The Dark One” closed things out with some truly stupendous works of mayhem and mirth. Leaving room for more colossal works of gruesomeness next year.
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Digging into some of the issues this season had, however, the first thing that springs to mind is the half-hour format, which gave us 10 episodes, but often also cut the cord on some cool story stuff right at the end of an episode, right when things were getting good. Cliffhangers are one thing, but the way some of these chapters ended felt abrupt and jarring. Sometimes it was right when an episode was starting to cook and sometimes it was even mid-brawl. Or mid-demon possession. Those who binged the season probably didn’t feel this as much (or at all) but weekly 30 minute chunks weren’t the right call here. If one were to watch, say, Evil Dead II in small portions I’d imagine it’d be equally bumpy.
The second thing that took me out of the story a bit was the uneven treatment of Ash. He seemed to drop his smartass, selfish shtick somewhat early on and by the time everyone got to Pablo’ uncle’s ranch, he’d matured into a guy who was low on quips and high on respect for his team. Enough to offer heartfelt condolences to Pablo when said uncle was killed. The diner episode – “The Killer of Killers” – felt like more of a return to form, Ash-wise and Deadite-wise, making it a very satisfying midway point.
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But then Ash sort of evened out again and became a guy who – while definitely hitting on cop-in-tow Amanda (Jill Marie Jones) – wasn’t as piggish about it. He was actually more charming than Ash usually is. Enough to actually make Amanda fall for him. And then, when Amanda violently bit the dust in “Ashes to Ashes,” he seemed earnestly sad she was gone.
The very next episode, however, he’d rebounded and wanted to catch one last look at her boobs before he chopped her up. The lesson here being not only to pay more attention to the consistency of the Ash character, but also that keeping him as the smarmy, quasi-racist buffoon was the better call here. It’s fine to have him care about his new team, but there are ways to do it that still keep his Ash-ness intact.
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That being said, Bruce Campbell was tremendous this season. As I mentioned back in are review for the pilot, this is really the first time Ash has been an actual character. This was the first time we really were introduced to Ash in his real life. In the Evil Dead films, we knew very little about him other than his girlfriend, his occupation, and the fact that he flops around like an awesome cartoon when fighting Deadites. So Campbell actually had to bring layers to this character for the first time and he did a great job.
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Lucy Lawless, even though her Ruby character didn’t really pay dividends until the finale, made for a fresh and formidable foe while Ray Santiago’s Pablo and Dana DeLorenzo’s Kelly provided fun, spirited support for Ash in his battle against the agents of hell. Overall, the team-building aspects of the series worked well. Ash needed backup and who better than a couple of do-well drips from work. One who worshipped him and another who, at first, would’ve rather broken his arm than suffered his cheesy inappropriate advances. And while the romance angle never quite worked out between Pablo and Kelly (she still left the finale angrily adamant that he wasn’t her boyfriend), it’s still a viable arc to play out over Season 2.
Ash vs Evil Dead often delivered solidly in the blood and guts department, but in some special cases it really went awesomely above and beyond. Definitely harkening back to the Evil Dead days of old. And Bruce Campbell was a joy to watch as he comfortably slid back into the role that fans had been hounding him to return to for years upon years. Tonally, the show skipped around a bit too much, but here’s hoping Season 2 will provide a more consistent, and confident, ride.
