Official Synopsis
Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons – personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.
Having grown up on the Evil Dead series, including a very odd and out of place Army of Darkness, but nonetheless welcomed, I tried to get back into the mindset of Ash’s world of evil, destruction and outlandishness. In movies, the boundaries are set with ratings, meaning that you can only kill so much, spill so much blood and say the sacred F word (fuck) so many times before the MPAA pulls the plug on your happiness with an insane rating. Most movies oversell their blood in hopes of getting an R rating without much cutting to be done. Yes, most of those movies are horror related. So, color me surprised when I didn’t realize the lack of boundaries a premium cable channel had and what that meant for Sam and Ivan Raimi’s Evil Dead creation. A world without boundaries doesn’t keep people in check and that is quite evident here in Ash vs. Evil Dead. I’m not sure I would have had it any other way, though. So much blood, yet so appropriate.
Let’s get this going.
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The first part of season one doesn’t take time to swaddle the past films or re-establish who Ash (Bruce Campbell) is, although that is briefly implied, in fact it doesn’t want to waste time with the obvious. It just simply wants to get to the crux of the story, which is Ash went on a bender with a chick he doesn’t remember and unleashed evil back into the world via the words from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis or what is simply called The Book of the Dead.
Anyway, as the story rolls on we see Ash remember who he once was (literally takes 45 minutes to get there) and we see him arm himself with a hand, a chainsaw and a shotgun. Also, he acquires two things he didn’t have in previous movies – two helpers named Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), who escaped from their former employment at a value shop with Ash, as well as are hell bent on putting the evil back into hell where it came from. The majority of the season has the trio following a trail of dead bodies, evil beings and grotesque situations in hopes of finding a solution to reversing the destruction that Ash idiotically released. You get things like the trio running into a trippy shaman, who helps to uncover the true evil form of what the crew is hunting for in their adventure. You get some emotional callbacks to family and friends, as well as new characters that are out to help/hurt the progress of the trio.
By the way, if I haven’t emphasized this enough, there is a lot of violence and destruction in these episodes. When I say destruction, I mean dismemberment, people blowing up, bodies exploding and burning, eyeless demons that look like angry buttholes and just everything that the Raimi’s hearts desire without any sort of rating or restriction on content.
Who would have thunk that the cable industry could do something right these days?
As the mystery of the evil starts to unfold as the gang progresses, as well as the presence of the Dark Ones (huh, this sounds familiar — see Once Upon a Time for details), all is not what it seems for Ash and crew. This is especially true when Ruby (Lucy Lawless — did you know she was Ron Swanson’s squeeze in Parks and Recs? Me neither) shows up and helps to push someone’s agenda along. The final episode is incredibly bloody, violent and a cliffhanger that is pivotal to the next season of the show. You have to love shows for that, right?
I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll stop there.
Story aside, the best part of the show, at least in my opinion, is how Raimi captures his former and original style that made the series such an visually awkward hit. From his days at Michigan State, where being creative with the camera was a necessity because a non-existent budget didn’t offer much room for special effects, Raimi takes that established style and bridges his old movies with the new series. This means extreme zooms, literally running handheld cameras and fish-eyeing to the extreme when the moment calls for it. His camera trickery is only rivaled by his lighting graces, which are purposely extreme and starving in certain instances.
All of this consistent production value adds to the joy of the main returning character and overall storyline. It’s just an absolute joy to see in motion once again.
Overall, Ash vs. Evil Dead is a wonderful destructive fest that breaks the boundaries set by the movies in regards to grotesqueness, lewd humor and scope of how evil the bad guys can get in the story. And this reviewer wouldn’t have it any other way.
Beyond the show, the Blu-ray release features some solid content. You get audio commentaries on all the episodes. That’s a lot of chit-chat about the production, actors and stories. You also get three additional features that help compliment the experience. Here is what you get:
– Inside the World of Ash
– How to Kill a Deadite
– Best of Ash
Seriously good stuff that makes an already fun show more interesting.
Anyway, onto the summary!
