For my Christmas gifts this year, I received a lot of special and deluxe editions of my favorite TV shows and movies (Scream Factory’s release of Ghost Story, The X-Files: Season 1 blu-ray, Caligula: The Imperial Edition, etc.). But the most apropos present may have been the 25th anniversary edition of Evil Dead 2. The timing couldn’t be better to watch the gonzo roots of the franchise and then dive headfirst into the penultimate episode of its TV counterpart.

In a recap, Ash’s love interest, Amanda, was bid a bittersweet farewell in the last episode by Evil Ash. And now Ash must mightily contend with his most esoteric foe: himself. To prove that Ash is actually who he says he is, Ash shouts racial epithets towards Asian babies. The quirkiest indication of Ash’s laissez-faire attitude is when he extrapolates that Kelly and Pablo shoot them both in order to conclusively end all of the Deadite contretemps. Clearly, Ash would suggest this because he always prefers “the easiest way out.”

Ash might be a clueless ignoramus however he has the clairvoyance to hastily julienne his clone (“Just the Two of Us” is an exuberantly funny touch) and Amanda before they return to reanimated terror. He also guides the backpackers away from the cabin before they are victimized by the airborne virus.

As per usual, Amanda isn’t anatomized in time and her Deadite alter-ego might be my favorite as she puppeteers the corpses into a taunting dialectic about Pablo and Kelly’s murky relationship. Finally, Ruby poisons the minds of Ash’s sidekicks with the revelation that Ash might be inadvertently culpable for the death toll as long as he still possesses the Necronomicon.

Just when the audience is certain that she isn’t the antagonist that we envisioned earlier, Ruby’s incantations begin to cause the dark-and-stormy pyrotechnics to swarm outside. The final line is an enormously breathtaking cliffhanger for who the ultimate ringleader is. The Kandorian dagger is obviously an impressive weapon against the Deadites and flaying the skin off the binding is a decadently gooey visual effect.

For Ash, the 30-plus years fighting the book still conjures some sentimental value for the lummox. The book’s statement that Ash will cease being a superhuman and just retrogress back to being a mundane stockboy isn’t a far-fetched prognosis. Until next week, the viewers will eagerly wonder how Ash can possibly save both Pablo and vanquish the remaining Knowby descendant.

Rating: 4 out of 5

When this episode began with Ash and his minions traipsing through the wilderness to a militia camp, I suspected that the show might be getting a bit stale. The formula has been Ash cluelessly bungles his way into a civilian population and the natives there pay the cost of his curse with buckets of blood. Certainly advantageous for gorehounds but it can run the risk of becoming commonplace when binge-watched back-to-back.

However, the show tweaked the ritual by having the usually unenviable circumstance of the group separating into couples with Pablo adjoined to Kelly in the surrounding forest and Amanda fused with Ash in a radioactive fallout shelter. Separation normally spells doom as Sam Raimi has shown in this franchise before but these characters are more resilient than most horror protagonists.

Kudos must be rewarded to Lucy Lawless who is resurrected Daenarys-style from the ashes of a campfire in her au naturale beauty. At her age of 47, the Kiwi’s body is still immaculate and it adds a dose of nudity to this exploitative cocktail. With her Phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes appearance, it’s crystallized that Ruby is more supernatural than human and could be an impregnable foe for Ash down the line.

In a marked progression for Ash, he flirts with Amanda once they are immediately thrust into the dark nether regions of the camp. But he is also fiercely defensive when the gun-toting chauvinists manhandle her. He is slowly returning to the dashingly romantic, Byronic hero we glimpsed in Army of Darkness. The dip when he saves Amanda was classy (“We should get handcuffed together more often.”). 

With all the bloodletting around, the writers never cease to extemporize gonzo scenarios to dismember Deadites. It elicited many chuckles when a panic-stricken Pablo continually pummeled a nearly inanimate, gas-mask-wearing demon. The raincheck for a kiss between Ash and Amanda almost seals her fate but the show-runner might be jostling with our preconceived notions.

In another maturation, Ash becomes uncommonly sentimental towards his followers but he knows, like Dirty Harry, he must “go it alone”. In the final moments, he vanishes without a trace and in a orgasmic establishing shot for fans, we see the disembodied hand crawl back to the infamous cabin. Next week will no doubt culminate the snowballing loop that Ash has been evading for 30 years.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5

Last week’s episode was a mid-season finale of sorts with Ash and his young subordinates riding off into the sunset. Only difference is the eternal wait between episodes is nonexistent. Hot on the trail blazed by the trio are Ruby and Amanda who arrive literally moments after the camper can continued on its road to salvation.

The episode fires on all cylinders from the beginning when Ruby vanishes into a fire pit after she is attacked by a demon (who is truthfully very synthetic due to the date F/X used to create it). Obviously Ruby is still a red herring who could be swaying on the fence between mankind and damnation. Although this was a conveniently expedient way to explain her absence for the next few episodes.

It was long suspected that the end game for Ash has been circumnavigating back to the cabin from Evil Dead which is stunningly fawning to the original trilogy and a perfect loop for the series to end on. Ash has always been prideful and when he insists that the cabin should be a solo affair, Pablo and Kelly are vehement that they deserve vengeance against this plague. Pablo’s obsequious streak to Ash even extends beyond death (“If I was a Deadite, I’d be honored to have you chop my head off”).

It’s encouraging that the several successors to Sam Raimi have flawlessly replicated his kamikaze lunacy with the low-angle dolly shots. Against those odds, the massacre at the Moose diner has been my favorite white-knuckle set piece so far with a rotary meat slicer and a tenderizing mallet as the unconventional tools wielded by Deadites, Pablo and an anger-ventilating Kelly who goes a little overboard on the possessed waitress. The seismic blast through the windows is a great kick-off and it only escalates to the point where political correctness is casually jettisoned when a hiding preteen is catapulted into a ceiling fan.

Ash has been so omnipotent with slaying lately that we almost forgot about what clueless womanizer he is. It was heartening to hear his “stringing the racket” monologue to the waitress to reconfirm that Campbell is still a studly, froward hoot and he might be smitten with Amanda.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Gagging Bruce Campbell neuters his most powerful weapon: his silver tongue. But his muttering of obscenities is quite funny before it loses its luster. With Ash strung up against a post for an exorcism and possible castration, this episode is a two-hander for the romantic sprouts between Pablo and Kelly. Kelly couldn’t be more coquettish when she is smoking weed out of a shotgun with her legs akimbo and unfortunately the incorrigible Pablo is taking the bait.

Truth be told with the fireworks of the prior episodes, this one is a mellow comedown from the high. The speed of the demon extraction and Kelly’s recovery is a bit disappointing. They should’ve further teased Pablo’s blind faith in Kelly and denial of her Regan MacNeil possession. Admittedly, the projectile leech vomiting is the ickiest effect so far. Between that and Kelly’s cascading urine, Dana DeLorenzo isn’t apprehensive about looking unattractive.

It would be heartless for Ash to fling catchphrases during this bout when Kelly’s mortality is in jeopardy and El Brujo is tragically impaled. This was the most linear episode of the show with a quintessential arc and zero outrageous tangents except for Ash’s decomposed hand as a compass on the dashboard of Ruby’s car.

We’re at the midpoint of the season and Ash is finally showing some remorse over his man-child antics. The power glove should ensure that next few episodes will include some Deadite-punching brute force. While it’s the runt of the litter, I was still satisfied with the horizons for where Ash and his merry sidekicks can go.

Rating: 3 out of 5

For all we knew Ash was the only mortal capable of slicing and dicing Deadites with the greatest of ease. We were mistaken as Lucy Lawless skewers the bookstore owner like an undead shish kabob. I anticipate future interactions between her and Ash resembling the bickering of Han and Leia. However, with her family’s history with the cabin and Ash, it’s not inconceivable that she bares a grudge.

Its uncanny how congruous the musical choices are for the material. Between this and The Devil’s Rejects, Midnight Rider is a sublime song for horror carnage. Unlike the corporeal Deadites in the previous three episodes, the “drafter” hailstorm is a cheesy Galactus foe for Ash to outpace with his ineffective nitrous oxide boost.

Consequently, the pagan ritualism is a loony venue for the Evil Dead playground and Ash’s ayahuasca vision quest is a trippy collage of 80’s opo culture referenda (wrestling matches, the slogan “Just Say No”, etc.). Thankfully, showrunner Craig DiGregorio hasn’t forsaken the self-deprecating humor that Raimi prided himself on ala Ash’s preliminary slogan “When evil shows up, it blows up”.

I love the callback to Ruby preserving Ash’s sentient, severed hand and Pablo’s plan to refashion him a new one with video game components. Likewise, episode writer James E. Eagan gratifies the fanbase by sketching in the gaps before the original movie with Ash rhapsodizing about Jacksonville, Florida which was his vacation spot before he went to the cabin.

It’s a shame that Kelly is already displaying signs of demonic influence. The next episode promises a somber midpoint with Kelly’s potential sacrifice to the dark side. Let’s hope they don’t neglect the congenial vein of camaraderie the shows have been coasting on.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

In many ways, Sam Raimi has rectified the tonal problems of Army of Darkness and glum period piece atmosphere with this extraordinarily decadent, riotously funny and rollicking beginning of what I hope is going to be a long-running series. Of course, Ash Williams would be a vainglorious elder statesman who resides in a trailer at this point of his life. Ash was a stoic, but unremarkable hero in the first Evil Dead and with the advent of his affable haplessness in Evil Dead 2, he became an indelible creation.

Our introduction to a girdle-cincturing Bruce Campbell reminds me of Rocky in Rocky Balboa. It’s a familiar face with a few visible signs of aging- no camaraderie outside of a pet (a lizard), stranded in a cocoon of the past and still relishing life despite the setbacks (a rosewood hand prosthetic). But just like Rocky, we are overjoyed to see Campbell cavorting in the role again. In signature Raimi olive-black humor, Ash is a Lothario who fabricates a story about rescuing a boy from a speeding train in order to have sex with a gullible barfly.

Once again Ash is a clown who unwittingly unleashes the hounds of Hell when he recites passages from the Necronomicon while intoxicated. Raimi hasn’t lost any of his contagious anarchy. The Dutch angles and low camera dollies through the woods are back with a vengeance. For a Starz original series, it is very cinematic and the demonic-possession attacks might be more operatic than before. I love how a revolver bullet’s exit wounds shed light from them. In this day and age, the CGI blood sprays are the norm but luckily they are brief interruptions when squibs aren’t available.

Pablo (Ray Santiago) is a perfectly sycophantic sidekick to Ash who idolizes his Value Stop elder’s seemingly impossible tales of grandeur. Sometimes the minuscule details elicit laughs like the fact that the middle-aged Ash’s title on his nametag is stockboy. Campbell’s penchant for Three Stooges physical comedy is evident when he drops a box of light bulbs on the sales floor and cluelessly attempts to sweep them under pallets. He might be lark during the workday but he is a “groovy” gunslinger when the unstoppable forces are on his trailer’s doorstep.

For fans of the lore, the reprise of the chainsaw is a canny allusion to King Arthur and Excalibur. Fans of the Evil Dead needn’t worry about renewal of the show though. With the gangbusters reception for the lightning-paced pilot, Ash will return for Season 2.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5