Ash vs. Evil Dead - Season 1 (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Directors: Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-man 1-3, Drag me to Hell), Rick Jacobson, Michael J. Bassett (Wilderness, Salomon Kane, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D), David Frazee, Michael Hurst, Tony Tilse
	Actors: Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead 1-3, Bubba Ho-Tep, My Name is Bruce), Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Horror, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 29-31.07.2016, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: 30 years after awakening and defeating evil forces, Ash (Campbell) is living a simple life between a work at the supermarket and one-night female conquests. But inside, he always knew Evil would come back for him.
Review: Bruce Campbell is some icon of Horror and SF thanks to the cult The Evil Dead directed by his buddy Sam Raimi, and which they released at a very young age. Followed Evil Dead 2 (a disguised remake) and the very different Army of Darkness. His fans were expecting for a long time new adventures for this anti-hero, and they finally came in the shape of this TV-series produced by the American online channel Starz. This is probably the best that could have been done because an Evil Dead 4 would not have succeeded in the current cinematographic landscape. Just see how the spirit of the movie was changed when producing the remake Evil Dead (2013) to fit the expectations of the new young audience that goes to watch such movies. I can tell it was a pleasure to see Ash getting beaten up by the Forces of Evil once more, and taking his revenge with a shotgun and a chainsaw-hand. In the first episode El Jefe we get quickly introduced to the couple of characters (co-workers at the supermarket) that will accompany him in his adventures. In this pilot and throughout the season there are a couple of moments that are really excellent, like when he steps on a button in his trailer that propels his shotgun into his hand, or when action and camera shots getting crazy remind us very much of the original movies we love. Episodes that contain memorable gore moments are Ep2 Bait with the family scene, Ep3 Books from Beyond, and Ep9 Bound in Flesh taking place (spoiler, highlight to read) in the famous Cabin, but in fact most episodes deliver the expected quota of blood and/or reference (even extracts) from the original movies. Storywise, the two sidekicks are OK and we get to meet other strong character like the policewoman, the witch and the Uncle, all leaving a mild impression. The series is definitely more focused on Bruce Campbell showing off (a lot!) as Ash. But in spite of being a good idea, I found one fatal flaw to the series: it is too slow. Each episode runs 30 minutes which is better than 40 for this kind of series but would have been more efficient being 20, or being packed with more action and crazy ideas. I found this slowness to really kill the mood sometimes. On top of that the end-of-season cliffhanger is really poor and unsatisfactoy. This will not prevent me from watching the second season currently in the making...
Rating: 5 /10