Ash vs Evil Dead (Complete Series Review)

Ash vs Evil Dead
2015-2018 Starz
Season 1-3 (Complete Series)
The Nicsperiment Scores:
Season One: 8/10
Season Two: 9/10
Season Three: 8/10

Ash Williams has tried his best to put his demon-fighting days behind him. Now well into his 50's, and in obvious denial of his past, Ash spends his days slacking at his job at a local value store, and his nights partying like a teenager. One night he parties a little too hard, gets a little too high with a local lady, and reads to her from his poetry book. Unfortunately, his poetry book is the Book of the Dead he acquired so many years ago, and with his inebriated utterance of an incantation, evil is once again unleashed upon the world. Ash never asked to be the Book of the Dead's keeper. He never wanted to have to fight evil in the first place. Now the aging anti-hero's got to strap on his chainsaw-replacement hand yet again. At least this time, he's got two eager value store co-workers with which to share the burden.

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At this point, Evil Dead has got to be one of the most consistent franchises out there. The first three films from 1981, 1987, and 1992 are classics in their own right, and a 2013 remake of the first film stands just as tall. Now, with Ash vs Evil Dead, the franchise can add "successful television series" to its repertoire. Here's a brief rundown and take on each of its three seasons:

Season One does a great job of re-establishing Ash's character. He's narcissistic and lazy, and an emotionally-stunted underachiever, but he's also loyal and a total badass. The series gives him two great sidekicks in Kelly, essentially his younger, female parallel, and the eager Pablo, who trusts Ash implicitly, but also acts as the show's moral center and heart. Season One also does a great job of immediately establishing the show's tone as a totally over-the-top splatfest, loaded with inappropriate, but hilarious humor. Living legend, and Ash-actor, Bruce Campbell, assured viewers the Starz network wouldn't censor the show, and it's tough to see how Ash vs Evil Dead could be any gorier...or funnier. I laughed my head off (what a violent expression!) for the entirety of Season One's ten episodes. While the show's complete irreverence throughout this first season almost entirely ensures a lack of emotional connection to what's happening onscreen, Ash vs Evil Dead is so fun, it doesn't matter.

It's a wonder then that Season Two somehow amps up the show's gore and total disrespect for the human anatomy even more, while increasing the darkness of its tone, yet remains just as funny as the first. While the first season essentially works as a long road movie and a not-so-happy reunion between Ash and the cabin where his horrors began, Season Two takes Ash back to his hometown of Elk Grove. Elk Grove never believed Ash's story about what happened all those years ago, when he had to chop up his demonically possessed friends. The town instead gave him the nickname "Ashy Slashy." Ash not only has to deal with Elk Grove's misconceptions, but with a new, excellently menacing demonic foe named Baal. The season's standout moment, and the high point of the entire show...er, if a highpoint can involve all the aspects of anatomy, male genitalia, and bodily fluids this scene contains--comes when Ash must fend off a demonic attack in a morgue full of fresh corpses. Its a virtuoso display of bad taste in the best way possible. Really, that previous sentence could describe the entire show in general.

A first viewing several episodes into Ash vs Evil Dead's third season gives the impression that the show's budget has been slashed. Those big, beautifully disgusting splatter sequences seem to come less frequently, and are on a less grand scale when they do. The season also at times feels like a lesser season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel, with wicked villains often taking the guise of our heroes in order to sow discord and confusion. Thankfully, as the last sequence of episodes kicks in, it becomes clear why the budget seemed lower early on: so that the show could finish with the biggest bang possible. Indeed, the last few episodes up the scale of the show on such a grand level, they feel like part of a big-budget blockbuster that would never be made because it is too awesome. The show is also able to tone down the irreverence just the right amount to start making the emotional components stick, as they should by this point. The actors really show they've got these characters mastered here, as Ray Santiago fills Pablo with even more charming righteousness, Dana DeLorenzo imbues Kelly with even more charismatic badassness, and Bruce Campbell gives Ash more heart than ever before, as the aging warrior finds out he's not the only surviving Williams. The series really ends on the highest note possible, with all of the characters feeling true to themselves, the main storylines of the show closed satisfactorily, and intriguingly fun new future possibilities opened for fans' imaginations. Yes, "imaginations" because the show has ended, and Campbell has said that he's retiring the "Ash" character. Thankfully, it's tough to think of a better way for Ash Williams to ride off into the sunset.