Ash Vs The Evil Dead: the Complete Collection (Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Oct 24th, 2018
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ray Santiago, Dana Delorenzo, Jill Marie Jones, Lucy Lawless
Created By: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Tom Spezialy
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay / Lionsgate
Buy On Amazon.com
Ash Vs the Evil Dead lasted 3 seasons on Starz and while it was a fun show, I can see why it wasn’t renewed for a 4th season. Still, fans of the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness will like these seasons and certainly be happy that they even got 3 more seasons of Ash.
The series is set 30 years after the events of Evil Dead movies. Ash (Bruce Campbell) works at Value Shop with his friend Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Pablo’s crush Kelly (Dana Delorenzo). Like usual, Ash does something stupid and the Necronomicon is open again. He then has to become the hero once again and fight the evil dead. Pablo and Kelly join his side in the fight. That’s pretty much all you need to know for the 3 seasons. Anything more than that is probably pointless really.
I’ve already reviewed the first season on the site, but haven’t talked about the other two seasons. I thought the first season of the show was the best despite the frequent revolving door of characters for each episode. That was my main problem with the show, is characters you grew to like, didn’t last long on the show. Some shows have the monster of the week, but Ash Vs Evil Dead had red shirt characters of the week. Each episode they’d introduce someone new to interact with Ash, Pablo and Kelly, and then get killed and then turned into a Deadite. Then just as you think things are getting better, they don’t and Ruby (Lucy Lawless) comes a strolling by to do some more damage.
The second season wasn’t as good. Ash did have some funny moments and some good lines, but sometimes things felt forced a little bit. I didn’t really like the way they handled Pablo in season 2 but they did bring him back to life in Season 3 somehow. It’s all a bit silly so you have to turn off your brain before watching this. Joel Tobeck as Baal was terrifying at times and was a nice break of Lucy Lawless character. Those ashy demon looking creatures in the third season were pretty frightening too. I still felt second season was a the weakest of the seasons. The third season was improved and was similar in tone with the first season. I liked that we found out that Ash had a long-lost daughter so that added something new in Ash’s life.
I’m not sure what I would have done differently in the show though. It was dark, but not too much that I couldn’t watch it. I’m not exactly into horror but it offered up the right balance of gore, action and humor. The violence and gore was Monty Python-ish to me, so much blood and guts that you had to laugh at it. I guess it would have been fun to have Ash time travel back in time again, but with Pablo and Kelly. I’ve always been a fan of Army of Darkness more than the Evil Dead movies. Would have been great to have him return to the 1300s.
The Blu-Ray set extras include all the extras you had on each season’s Blu-Rays. The set also has a digital HD code with it which is definitely something I was interested in having.
Ash Vs. Evil Dead was a fun show with some flaws but for the most part it was highly entertaining. Fans will be disappointed there wasn’t a 4th season but I was happy they got 3 seasons out of this. Now you can own the entire show in one convenient set!
Features:
Season 1:
Inside The World of Ash
How To Kill A Deadite
Best of Ash
Audio Commentaries
Season 2:
First Look
Inside the World of Ash Vs Evil Dead
Up Your Ash
Women Who Kick Ash
Puppets Are Cute
Dawn of the Spawn
Bringing Henrietta Back
The Delta
How To Kill A Deadite
Fatality Mash-Up
Audio Commentaries
Season 3:
Season Overview
Inside the World of Ash Vs Evil Dead
Audio Commentaries
Video:
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audio:
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish
Bottom Line: Fun, cartoonishly gory good time but I could see why the show ended.
Running Time: 860
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
