Not counting a brief, end-credits cameo from 2013’s very unsatisfying remake, it’s been almost 23 years since Bruce Campbell, from “The Evil Dead” (1981), “Evil Dead II” (1987), and “Army of Darkness” (1992), has elected to reprise his role as the most groovy and beloved B-movie character of Ash, created by Sam Rami, the director of “Spiderman” (2002), “Drag Me to Hell” (2009), “Oz: The Great & the Powerful” (2013). Only instead of another feature film this go around, the boomstick-wielding wise-cracker has found a new neck of the woods to hunt apart of Starz new television-series titled “Ash vs. The Evil Dead.” After 1992’s “Army of Darkness,” which is a cult-classic in its own right but unfortunately steered the franchise toward an irreparable timeline confusion, leaving it stuck in a rut in regards to canon, television seems to be the new most fitting home for the blood-splattering deadite destroyer. Ash Williams is back, and after all this time, it feels as if he’s never really left us.
“Ash vs. The Evil Dead” picks up 30 years after the events of the first film after he and his group of college friends laid to waste to an accidentally spawned host of murderous deadites by reciting the unknown language of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, otherwise known as “The Book Of The Dead.” In the series’ first episode, we find the middle-aged, chainsaw-handed, unwilling hero hasn’t been up to much outside working as a stockboy at the local Value Stop and trying to score with questionable women, who may be deadites themselves, at the town bar just outside of his trailer park, which Ash now occupies. Upon inviting one of these new friends home, the party gets a little too out of control once the pair begin hitting the reefer and mistakenly decide to reopen the book to read aloud once again for who knows what time. Consequent to that, the dead are released once more and it’s up to Ash and his co-employees Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago), as well as rookie cop Jill Jones (Amanda Fisher), to dispatch them for what’s hopefully the final time. Ash has always been sort of an overconfident bozo when it comes to women so it’s good to see two strong female characters to put him in his place.
Despite its undeniable flaws, which mainly points to its intermittently shockley CGI and open to doubt set-production design, “Ash Vs. the Evil Dead” is almost an entirely triumphant return to the self-aware slapstick comedy gold of “Evil Dead II.” Campbell hasn’t lost his touch one bit, and hearing Ash spout off one gut-bustingly hilarious one-liner after another, even if his slightly pudgy waistline, which he uses a concealing corset to cover up says otherwise, hasn’t gotten old at all. If there’s one thing the show gets right, it’s the comedy. Outside a somewhat sluggish, weirdly overly-serious in tone subplot featuring Officer Jill (that I can only assume will connect to Ash in the episodes that follow and improve), the buffoonery comes in spades, is equally sharp witted, and hardly ever calls it quits. To be completely honest, as good as side coworkers DeLorenzo and Santiago are, much like the “Evil Dead” films themselves, Campbell pretty much carries the entire show, at least the comedy portion, on his shoulders. But that’s all it needs to be deemed great by me.
The first two episodes of “Ash vs. the Evil Dead” have successfully washed the bad taste of Fede Alvarez’s 2013 remake, which delivered in promised violence and gore, but little else worthy of recognition, out of my mouth. Rami, having only written and directed the series premiere, has taken a hands-off approach for the rest of the 10-episode run, but through the power of Campbell’s farcical bouts of accomplished quipping and clowning around, I’m confident the rest of the series will likely be worth tuning in for. Ash is back, so give him some sugar, baby.
Rob Gabe is a fifth-year student majoring in communication studies. He can be reached at RG770214@wcupa.edu.