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Ash VS Evil Dead premiered on Halloween.  Surprised no posted here about it yet.

Well, I saw it.  It's a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it to fans of the series.  Even though it doesn't directly reference it, the tone is closer to AoD than ED2, though it looks like the scale will be more like ED2.  Bruce is great as ever, and I laughed out loud at a number of his bits.  The ending moments are truly great.  Visually, it's a Raimi pilot, and his experience on low budget productions shows.  I wish he had done the whole series.  The writing is generally sharp, too. 

Weak parts?  Probably more CG than some will like, but I honestly don't hold that against a show like this - they probably didn't have the time to do all practical work, though there definitely is a good amount of that too.  I'm not totally sold on Pablo or the girl yet, though they aren't bad.  The side character of the cop feels like she is almost from another series, but it's a well-done series, so it's alright.  When it ties together, maybe it'll be great. 

I'd give the pilot a 9/10.

Yeah...Pablo and his girlfriend are the weak points, but Ash really makes up for it with his unique humour. Laughed out loud when he realized he screwed up ("What's that doing in there?" -> "f**k!").

I really liked it.  I heard it's already renewed for a second season.  So. 

Yeah, I read it was renewed for a second season before the first season even aired.  That's always a good sign.  The first episode was great.  My son was rather disappointed that he had the wooden hand and not his gauntlet prosthetic hand.


I think Pablo has potential but the girl... I don't have high hopes for her.

Evidently, they don't have the rights to concepts or footage from Army of Darkness, which is why he doesn't have the hand.  The writers consider it canon internally though.  Weird situation for sure.  I hope they can secure the rights in-between seasons; that'd be nice.

Also, the first episode is free on Starz Play now, if you want to watch it!

http://www.starzplay.com/PlayMedia?id=md:cid:org:bydeluxe.com:d78f710e-5495-4587-94b6-9311b05b926a (http://www.starzplay.com/PlayMedia?id=md:cid:org:bydeluxe.com:d78f710e-5495-4587-94b6-9311b05b926a)

Also, expect a bit of a shift in tone and feel (and maybe quality) after the pilot.  Sam Raimi got a little extra time (it's 10 minutes longer than the other episodes), and is a hell of a director.  The next director, who did episodes 2 and 3, did the Solomon Kane film which is a decent horror flick; but, NO ONE knows and can do this material as well as Raimi.  Raimi was involved in story/writing/producing to some extent, so I'm hopeful the remaining episodes will still be good though.

Really?!  They don't have the rights to the hand because it's from Army of Darkness?!   :lookingup: :lookingup:

I have enough faith in Bruce as a professional that if they tried to get screwy with the Ash character that he would set them straight.  Let's be honest without Bruce there is no show, so I'm sure he can help to keep them on track.

I think Darkness was done with a separate production company, so they could own it.

Dead 1&2 were independently done.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/07/ash-vs-evil-dead-showrunner-on-ashs-zero-progression-his-time-travel-history-and-more?page=2 (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/07/ash-vs-evil-dead-showrunner-on-ashs-zero-progression-his-time-travel-history-and-more?page=2)

The writer here mentions it a bit off-hand here. 

But yeah, you've got it.  I think Universal may have the rights still, as they were the distributor for AoD.

Maybe they'll include stories from the video games like Degeneration where Ash gets thrown into an insane asylum for telling his story etc. :teddyr:
But I kinda doubt it.

I doubt it'll happen too..  They also definitely can't include Fistful of Boomstick as its events have hugely world altering consequences.  I think Regeneration's storyline is workable though, as a backstory reference ("I got committed once" sort of deal).  That reminds me, I should buy Regeneration and Hail to the King.  Hail to the King is AWFUL, but as a fan I'd like a copy anyway.  I remember Regeneration being alright, and Fistful is fun (a lot of great voice acting from Bruce too).

I just watched episode 2.  It's fun and entertaining, but as I was guessing, can't maintain the quality of the pilot.  It's still gory, funny, and a bit creepy, and well worth a watch for fans of Evil Dead.  But yeah, it really shows you how good of a director Raimi is.  He does more with an old trailer than the guy on episode 2 can do with a house.  Raimi is also clearly a better action director.  To be fair though, it looks like he had more money to work with (I'm guessing, considering there are way more locations in the pilot, characters, etc) an an extra ten minutes of runtime.  As an aside, Raimi mentioned in an interview he had about three weeks principle shooting for the pilot, which seems insanely short for such an effects heavy show - so I'd say he did NOT have more shooting time (which surprises me).

I'm wondering if we're going to get several low key episodes like the second one that build towards a larger finale - the third episode looks to again be a mostly single location episode based on the preview after episode 2.  I should add this isn't a bad thing, and makes them feel like the films, and actually feel like "Mini-films" themselves, rather than purely episodes of a show.  But I do want some expansion in the long run. 

Also, looks like Raimi is just a story credit after the pilot, I had thought he was was writing the whole series.  The writing is still fine though, Pablo gets a couple of laugh out loud moments in the episode.  Bruce is still excellent.  Mimi Rogers looks like she is having fun, and did a good job in her guest role this episode.  I thought the callback with her character to Evil Dead 2 was kind of awkward though.  Kelly gets a good moment towards the end (she's definitely a solid actress, just hasn't had a lot of meat so far).  Overall, I'd rate this episode a 7/10.

Oh, and an extended canon notes.  Ash makes an oblique reference to events beyond Evil Dead 1 and 2 (well, that's how I interpreted it anyway).  It'd be a very minor spoiler, so I'll leave out details, but the reference makes it fairly clear there were more Deadite encounters in-between Evil Dead 1/2 and the series (and more than just Army of Darkness as well).

I loved the trailer: "Yo Granny! Let's go!"  :teddyr: :teddyr:

I've enjoyed the first three episodes. Nothing too fancy other than great amounts of yelling and gore but its tacky silly fun so I give it a  :thumbup:

Characters and plot needs a bit of work and to get a head of steam, the formula isn't quite landing for me yet but I could watch Bruce Campbell watching paint dry so I'm not complaining too much

I'm loving this show.  Yes, there's new writers/producers involved and Raimi only really did the pilot, but having a guy like Campbell around who's been there since day 1, and him as a producer, he can say his piece as in "Ash wouldn't do this" or "This wouldn't work for this reason." 

Episode 8 features the cabin from the first two films, and is easily the best episode since the pilot. Terrific performance from Bruce, some gore, actual horror atmosphere, full marks. If they can maintain this til the end, I'll be real happy. Felt much more polished than episode 7, which was fun but a bit slipshod.

have really enjoyed both seasons thus far. And i think season 3 isn't too far from being aired now.

I do prefer season 1 over 2 though. The latter consists mostly of very samey episodes with the gore and fx suffocating the story arcs. It's just as well Bruce is there because without him the show would die on its feet.

Hope S3 offers something a little more fresh and original. There are rumours it may get cancelled very soon, and to be honest I wouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't see the light of a season 4 day.

I thought it was great. I liked Lee Majors as his Dad.

Yes, he was great, and I loved the little injoke when he says to Ash  "I'm better, stronger..." and Ash quips "Faster?" which is a direct reference to Majors' "Six Million Dollar Man" show