Seasons: 3
Number of Episodes: 30
Years On Air: 2015-2018
Status: Cancelled
Distributor: Anchor Bay/Lionsgate Films
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Cast:
Bruce Campbell: Ash Williams
Ray Santiago: Pablo Simon Bolivar
Dana DeLorenzo: Kelly Maxwell
Lucy Lawless: Ruby Knowby
The legacy of The Evil Dead franchise goes back well over 35 years, when college friends Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell set out to make a small horror flick set in the woods. In spite of the costs and being relatively new to making feature-length films, Sam Raimi crafted what has since become a major cult classic in every sense of the word. From it’s really creepy atmosphere, gruesome visual effects, and guerilla-style film-making to then-up-and-coming star Bruce Campbell’s performance, The Evil Dead was a surprise hit in 1981. This was the film that would put future Spider-Man director Sam Raimi on the map and making Bruce Campbell a bonafide star in the process. Because of the film’s success, Raimi and company went on to craft a direct sequel, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn in 1987. Featuring more gore and gruesome visual effects, the sequel opted to take a more light-hearted and comedic approach to the goings-on. While it was still dark in tone, it still garnered a lot of laughs from the audience because of it’s sheer insanity. Like the original film, Dead By Dawn would become very successful in its own right, with many people declaring it to be one of the best sequels ever made. A lot of people even consider Evil Dead II to be the best film in the franchise. There were plans for another sequel that was going to be called The Medieval Dead, but distribution and name rights to the first two films were yanked from Sam Raimi, so he had to approach another studio to get the film made. A third film was made called Army of Darkness and a lot of folks consider it to be the weakest entry in the series, and….they’re not wrong. Army of Darkness pretty much eschewed the horror aspect for a more action/comedy approach set in the Dark Ages. Surprisingly enough, it actually worked and still ended up being a really fun time. Over the following 20 years or so, rumors persisted of a fourth film, and even the film-makers and Bruce Campbell were taking a look at the idea, even though nothing came of it at the time. In 2011-2012, Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi had announced a re-make of the original film that was going to be directed by newcomer Fede Alvarez and starring Jane Levy as Mia. The re-make was released in 2013 to mostly positive reviews for taking the franchise back to its roots in horror. A couple of years later, Bruce Campbell announced that he would be returning to the role of Ash Williams for a newly-conceived Starz television series called Ash Vs. Evil Dead.
One of the mistakes I feel I made when I reviewed the first 5 seasons of Game of Thrones was to tackle one season at a time. While I don’t regret doing those, my approach to reviewing a TV series needed to be refined quite a bit. For Ash Vs. Evil Dead, I’m going to be covering the entire show, because it’s only 3 seasons long. However, instead of doing a thorough season-by-season review, I’m going to an overview of a series as it stands while highlighting key moments and episodes that represent the entire show as best as possible. So, with that said, let’s get into it. Ash Vs. Evil Dead picks up 35 years after the events of the original movie, and sees aging Ash Williams as an employee of a local hardware store. While out on the town after work, he picks up a local girl for a one-night stand along with some alcohol and proceeds to have a good time. Forgetting that he has the Necronomicon Ex Mortis in his possession, he inadvertently reads passages from the book and re-releases evil on the world. That’s pretty much the gist of it, and the rest of the series is basically him and a couple of sidekicks trying to reverse what he did. What follows is surprisingly gory, yet hilarious focusing on Ash being both a complete doofus and bad-ass at the same time. We’re also introduced to new characters Pablo and Kelly as they are accidentally drawn into this horrifying situation. What happens during the show is kind of what you would expect from a show with Evil Dead in the title. People get possessed and die in unbelievably horrific and over-the-top ways, and you’ve got Pablo and Kelly wanting to actually fight the Evil with Ash just wanting to run and hide. That’s an over-simplification of course, but that is the gist of what goes on, and more often than not, it’s really quite hilarious.
What I really love about this show, aside from Bruce Campbell coming back as Ash, is how the series expands on the lore of the Evil Dead universe. We’re given more information about the evil force that’s been haunting Ash for decades as well as who was responsible for writing the Necronomicon in the first place. Over the course of the show, we’re also shown what happens to people’s souls after they’ve been killed or possessed by the Evil. It literally adds a whole new dimension to the Evil Dead universe. The show also introduces us to a new group of characters who call themselves the Knights of Sumeria, who apparently have been battling this evil for centuries. One of my favorite episodes is “Books From Beyond” in which Ash and his friends go to a bookstore that specializes in the occult and the strange and they try to summon an actual demon from Hell so they can get some answers on how to destroy evil. The episode alludes to these ancient demonic beings known as The Dark Ones, which adds a layer of mystery as to why they exists and what they want.
Season two changes things up a little bit by forcing Ruby, a new character that was revealed to be a Dark One, to team up with Ash against a new demon called Baal. Like the first season, season 2 has a lot of fantastic blood and gore and throws in a few interesting twists here and there. Some of my favorite episodes take place in an asylum where Ash is trapped by the demon Baal who takes the form of a doctor. These are interesting episodes you have no idea if whether or not Ash has been hallucinating or if everything was real. It was a very cleverly written plot device that kept me guessing. Season 2 had some really spectacular moments peppered throughout.
Season 3 is where my problems with the show start happening. The season starts off pretty strong, but it kind of sags in the middle with a lot of things just repeating themselves. Ash himself was starting to get on my nerves a bit. I understand the character was a bit of a bonehead and most of the time pretty likable, but there were moments throughout season 3 where I’m left scratching my head a little bit. The humor also ended up being pretty juvenile in some ways. We learn in this season that Ash has a daughter, Brandy and she’s become a target for Ruby and the Evil. Story-wise, season 3 is actually pretty strong. Yeah, Ash is a goofball, but we find out that he’s a father and he actually tries to be the best father he can be in the short time that he’s known his daughter, and that aspect of the season is really good. We finally get to see Ash evolve somewhat as a character and that makes for a more compelling experience. Overall, the third and final season is filled with both very strong and very weak elements, making it more of a mixed bag. I understand that the producers weren’t sure whether or not the series was going to get cancelled, so they tried to kind of cap off Ash’s story and to a certain extent, it’s successful, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Sadly, the numbers that Starz wanted to see didn’t happen and ended up going down, so they decided to cancel the show. I’m ultimately not surprised, given how the season ended and how some elements just didn’t quite work. Ruby, as a character, outstayed her welcome by at least a good season and a half. That’s no fault of the actress, though, it’s just the way the character was written, and I think that’s part of why season 3 had issues. The writers, I feel, wrote themselves into a wall with season 2, so there was no real good way to bounce back from that.
The acting is pretty good overall, with Bruce Campbell knocking it out of the park as he always does with Ash. If you haven’t seen the first three Evil Dead films, go watch them. They are fantastic. I actually like how some of the actors and characters evolved over the course of the show. Ray Santiago as Pablo is particularly interesting as this character who has a gift that he’s kind of suppressed until the demons start showing up. He begins to embrace who he is and he becomes a bit of a bad-ass in his own right by the end of the show. Same thing for Dana DeLorenzo, who plays Kelly. Lucy Lawless is the other one that also steals the show at certain points. She plays Ruby, who is revealed to be immortal. I’ve always like Lucy as an actress, even when she was playing Xena back in the 90s. She puts everything into whatever she’s doing and she’s an absolute blast to watch as a villain. Over the course of the show, we have various actors show up in some surprising roles, like Lee Majors as Ash’s father and Ted Raimi as a hard-partying old friend of Ash’s. Hell, even Ellen Sandweiss, who starred in the original movie, shows up in a cameo appearance. There’s also a lot of throwbacks to the older films that are awesome and pretty much expected in a show like this.
So…what are my overall impressions of Ash Vs. Evil Dead? I think if you are a huge fan of the original Evil Dead films, you’re going to find a lot to love about this show. Maybe not in how it ends, but basically almost everything else up until that point. Bruce Campbell is still hilarious as Ash and all the actors throughout the show are fantastic. The visual effects and the gore are absolutely awesome. It never gets old seeing Ash get hosed with blood. It’s absurd to the point of hilarity, and that’s the point. This show is freakin’ bonkers and it runs with it. Yeah, the show stumbles here and there, but what show doesn’t? I think the positives outweigh the bad and it’s just a hell of a lot of fun. It’s just too bad that we’re not going to see any more of these characters, at least not in a TV show. Bruce Campbell said at one point, that if the show was cancelled, he would retire from playing the character. Apparently, though, he’s going to be voicing the character in an upcoming video game of sorts, but I don’t know too much about that right now.
So where does Evil Dead go from here? It’s hard to say. With the exception of the re-make film, Ash has been very central to the franchise for over three decades. Replacing the character would take some serious thinking and some serious writing get it to work right. It’s entirely possible that the character’s daughter could take up his mantle and that’s a pretty promising idea, I think. I know that there’s been talk about doing a sequel to the re-make for years, but nothing’s materialized as of yet. Ultimately, there’s a lot more to the Evil Dead universe than what the movies have shown us. The show expanded on the universe in its own way, but we’ve also had video games and comic books that have told their own stories with Ash and his friends. I think there’s a lot of potential in where the franchise could go. Will we see another TV show? I doubt it. There were plans for a fourth season of Ash Vs. Evil Dead, but since the show was cancelled, those plans no longer matter. Ultimately, though, I’m just glad we got to see Bruce Campbell play Ash Williams for one last ride and what a ride it’s been. Hail to the king, baby!
My Final Recommendation:
Season 1: 9/10
Season 2: 8.5/10
Season 3: 8/10