So the dreams of many have been fulfilled. Ash Vs the Evil Dead is real, and the first season has started. Unfortunately, it is on Starz, so I will have to wait for the season 1 DVD release. (or Amazon Prime, or iTunes). I don’t have cable (at all), so it would cost me $100 per month to get a cable package and Starz. Assuming this will be a weekly show, that comes out to $25 per episode. I could go see it in theaters for cheaper. However, the premiere episode is available to stream for free, so I did just that (right after coming home from the Feast of All Souls Mass…).
This episode had everything an Evil Dead fan could want, just not enough of it. I get it, this is the first episode of a series. More of everything is sure to come.
The show picks up 30 years after the original Evil Dead. Ash is living in a trailer trying to enjoy his life. He goes out drinking, and while banging some woman in the bar bathroom, she turns (momentarily) into a deadite and exclaims that they are coming for Ash. When Ash returns home, he pulls the Necronomicon from a shelf and finds a bag of weed between the pages. This leads him to remember a stoned night of parting where he reads from the book. (thus unleashing the new deadite menace).
We cut to a cop and her partner arriving to check a disturbance at a house. Inside, the find the girl that Ash had his stoner romp with. She is a deadite. The female cop (Amanda) is the only one to make it out alive, but not before the deadite tells her they know who she is… The cop thing is a little weak right now, but we will see how it progresses through the series.
Ash has to head to work to pick up his paycheck before he can go see a guy about translating the Necronomicon (to find a passage to dispel the evil… didn’t we do this already?). His boss throws a monkey wrench in the plan when he tells Ash that he needs to finish his shift before he gets paid.
At Ash’s job (which is no longer S-Mart) we are introduced to Pablo, and Kelly. These two are destined to be Ash’s sidekicks through the series.
After being attacked by a doll at work, Ash reveals his backstory to Pablo. The backstory combines the first two Evil Dead films into a single narrative, and leaves Army of Darkness out of the mix completely. Then Ash heads home to his trailer. Kelly gets a facetime call from her dad who insists that Kelly’s dead mom has returned. Kelly needs to get home, and Pablo offers to give her a ride. He makes a pitstop at Ash’s place to try and recruit him to help, and after facing off against a couple more deadites, he obliges.
And so the story of the new series is under way.
I am excited to see the rest of the series, and a bit disappointed that I will have to wait to do so. Did you watch Ash Vs The Evil Dead? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below.