Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1 Review

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-)
Season 1 -  10 episodes (2015)

Buy Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1 on Amazon Video
Created by:  Ivan Raimi, Sam Raimi, Tom Spezialy
Starring:  Bruce Campbell, Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Jill Marie Jones, Lucy Lawless
Rating: TV-MA

Plot
Ash has spent the last thirty years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead until a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind and Ash becomes mankind's only hope.

Verdict
This does a great job of connecting with fans of the original movies and new viewers. The show is incredibly funny and very gory, comically so. Bruce Campbell is the hesitant hero, wishing to avoid  danger and instead hang out at a dive bar. Campbell does a great job chewing the scenery, and you can't help but like him. He's adept at one liners and the series is incredibly funny. The dialog is great and the camp factor is over the top. What else would you expect? The hero has a chainsaw hand. The pilot is fantastic.
Watch it.

Review
The series started as two competing ideas for a fourth Evil Dead film. Thirty years later, Ash Williams is back. I loved the pilot. It bridged the gap from Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, while providing easy access to anyone unfamiliar with the original movies.
Ash hilariously or stupidly, depending on how you look at it, reawakens the curse of the Necronomicon. He was planning to skip town, but his co-workers Kelly and Pablo convince him to save the world yet again.

Ash hasn't really moved on in the thirty years since. He works at the same store, driving the same car. Ash is supremely confident despite all the reasons he probably shouldn't be. The humor is campy fun and tongue in cheek. The show isn't afraid to show that the hero has to deal with age. It's frequently used for comedic effect.

Ash tries to pick up co-worker Kelly, who is much younger, with a cheesy line about her mom. Kelly responds her mom is dead and Ash criticizes her for dropping a bomb like that on someone she just met.
I'm a big fan of Campbell, from Evil Dead 1, 2, and Army of Darkness. The first Campbell movie I remember seeing was Bubba Ho-tep. He's fun to watch.

The series captures a lot from Evil Dead and AoD while seamlessly jumping to present day. Evil Dead was traditional horror while AoD had more fun, and this series is definitely about having fun. There are so many hilarious dialog exchanges, like when Ash headbutts Kelly's mom convinced she's a deadite. Ash is unapologetic.

The production values outshine the original movies, and there is a lot of blood. It's all over the place. This show is the blue print for horror comedy, striking the perfect balance. This isn't a hero out to save the world, he's out to help himself.