Ash vs Evil Dead season 1 opinions

Plain and simple: since season 2 is arriving, here are my opinions of each episode of the first season!

Episode 1 - El Jefe: It has a slow burn introducing the new characters and setting up the state of Ash's character after the events of the Evil Dead Trilogy, but it's a slow burn while watching Ash and Bruce Campbell has not lost it. And when shit hits the fan and we get some sweet deadite action, it's glorious. Sam Raimi directed this first episode, even if he said that he's not big on directing for television, I think he did a good job and he could've directed more, but instead we get new directors filming two episodes at turn. Oh well, this was still a great beginning.

Episode 2 - Bait: Ehhh... Not the biggest fan of this one. It's not bad enough to kill the enthusiasm the first episode gave me, but I will certainly never see it again. The homages to the films were SO fucking in your face and at times even when they make no sense, like at one moment Kelly's possessed mom starts singing the same song possessed Herietta sang to Annie in Evil Dead 2... They share the SAME bedtime song? I'll tell you what: it's just a lazy forced homage, end of the story. The only positive I can give is that it was very impressive how the actress playing Kelly's mother performed all her stunts and her performance all around was good. But not good enough, the direction was dull and didn't have the energy of Rami's, with the fast pacing and editing that made the series unique.

Episode 3 - Books from Beyond: Oh god, this was directed by the SAME director of the last one (he directed Solomon Kane, a movie that got positive reviews but frankly I found the writing in it to be complete shit) and you know what? Both "Bait" and this episode are my absolute LEAST favorite episodes of the entire season, so glad the director passed the torch to the next one. I hate this episodes because so little happens, I could literally sum it up in a few sentences (and I won't because I would spoil it). The only positive I'll give is introducing Eligos, a demonic entity which has a very cool design and fortunately would appear again. If you like this episode and the previous one, I have nothing against you, peace out. But I would still watch any other episode over these two, deal with it. Now let's just move on.

Episode 4 - Brujo: After the letdowns that episode 2 and 3 were, I was beginning to lose faith for the show, but this episode was SUCH a breath of fresh air, from the way it opened with Lucy Lawless' character introducing herself properly to Amanda, I knew things were taking the right direction. Pablo's titular uncle was a nice character and I just loved the setting and the moment we get into Ash's mind, it was pure hilarious, charming kind of insanity (Jacksonville, man!) The only true negative I can give is that I hated how they show the "Evil Dead" chasing after the protagonists at the beginning being represented as a giant dark cloud thing... Kinda ruins the point, you NEVER see what's chasing Ash or how the Evil looks like, we always see everything from the Evil's point of view. A negative, but not negative enough to spoil an otherwise great episode that gave me hope and made me want to see more by the end.

Episode 5 - The Host: I didn't really care about Kelly to be perfectly honest with you, I thought Pablo was a great sidekick but I didn't like the deadpan approach of Kelly's actress. But this episode changed that and I grew a genuine connection with her, which is all good. I wanted to see her being saved from the possession, Eligos proved to be a tough son of a bitch to get rid of therefore an effective villain, and it pays all off nicely by the end. And speaking of the end... It's amazing because it gave me one awesome picture to use for this devianation! That's what Groovy is all about.

Episode 6 - The Killer of Killers: The first time I saw this I absolutely hated the way it opened with a certain character getting killed off (THANKFULLY in the next episode they revealed that it didn't happen so this negative got removed). It's an episode with little things happening... But little things that leave a big impact. Ash's mannerisms, the fight in the bathroom and the glorious final showdown at the diner against a bunch of deadites (and holy shit I did not expect to see that little boy getting involved in the bloody madness!) and I liked seeing how Amanda finally gets what is really going on and joins the team. So yeah, despite the offputting beginning which then doesn't even count as a negative because of the next episode, this one gave me lots of joy and character development.

Episode 7 - Fire in the Hole: What's this? A militaristic story with the Evil Dead thrown in? I had mixed feelings towards the premise, but personally found the actual episode to be not bad at all. Of course I don't mean that it's perfect (Lem kinda talked too much) but it was alot better than I expected and I liked many things in it. From giving me alittle bit of a Dog Soldiers vibe, to the cool setting of the underground bunker, I really enjoyed the chemistry between Ash and Amanda as they work together to get out of there. If there's a definitive constructive criticism I can give is that there's a moment where a deadite soldier is running towards the group... IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. If you remember what sunlight did to possessed Ash in the beginning of Evil Dead 2, you know why this is a fuckup. Otherwise, fun and solid episode. The way Ash looks at the group at the very end hit me in the feels for some reason.

Episode 8 - Ashes to Ashes: I knew it, I FUCKING knew that they would've used that as the title of an episode. Besides that, it's a very good episode and it starts setting up the season finale. Even if they could've gotten an actress for Linda that resembles more the actress that played her in Evil Dead 2, they did an amazing job recreating the sets of that movie. Thankfully revisiting this old place isn't just for the sake of homage, shit is about to get real very soon.

Episode 9 - Bound in Flesh: Picking up directly from where the last episode ended, the horrors of the cabin in the woods are back and are taking the characters we've followed so far while also getting some new fresh victims. And finally we get some confrontations between Ruby (Lucy Lawless' character who is related to the Knowbys from Evil Dead 2) and Ash. Action, horror, dark fun, twists, all that awesome bloody sauce.

Episode 10 - The Dark One: Okay, okay. First of all, Rick Jacobson... You did an amazing job with the direction of this season finale episode. You tricked me into thinking that Sam Raimi returned to direct this, but I was wrong. They saved the best for last, and I couldn't be more thankful. Second of all, yes, this is a GREAT season finale and I just love the way it ends, it really couldn't end in any other way if you knew the character of Ash. Thank you for everything. I won't say what happens, go see it!

So there you go. Ash vs Evil Dead is an amazing TV show to me, even with two episodes that I found to be lesser, this was a great time to watch. If you're a fan of the franchise and you haven't seen this show already, go ahead and watch it. Personally this was a great continuation of the movie trilogy and I cannot wait to see what will happen in season 2.
In any case, season 1 was greatly satisfying, all the people who worked for it are amazing, keep it Goovy, guys. I'm loving this.

Season 2 opinions!