Ash vs Evil Dead S01E10: The Dark One Discussion [SPOILERS]

Swofty said:
Each to their own I suppose, I had a lot of fun with this episode; three stooges eye poke, talking severed head drop kicked, Freddy's glove in the cellar and the gourds hanging from the ceiling, the clock going mental, flying deadites and Ash getting copious amounts of face splatter .... Ruby's starting to get boring, I can't work out why Ash didn't just stab her in the neck with the kandarian dagger once he realised she was vulnerable to it, the botd cover would have probably just fallen off Pablo's face once he'd done that being as she was the book's creator and all ... the maggot being born from Pablo's mouth has been done before in Poltergeist 2 .. A couple of friends asked me what this new series was like and I answered "It's pretty good but for some reason they've turned Ash into a complete dick head" which garnered disappointment from both of them ...

You've got to sympathise with Sam, Rob and Bruce though ... we got the more gritty remake (which I enjoyed) and people complained .. they listened and produced this series more faithful to the spirit of the original films but again people still aren't satisfied ... it's never going to be the original trilogy, that time has passed .. I'm just grateful that we get one last dance with these lunatics but again, everyone's entitled to an opinion.
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THAT'S where I saw that before.  I knew I'd seen it somewhere but for the life of me I couldn't get it.

Also I've had so many friends start the series and the nope out at the sex scene in the pilot.  Looking at the ratings I'm wondering if a lot of people did the same.

I find it hard to sympathize with them TBH.  They knew what kind of mess they were getting themselves into by opening this can of worms.  Bruce talked nonstop in Q&As for years about being "too old to be Ash" and making fun of Harrison Ford for doing Indy 4 when he's basically doing the same thing, making the same jokes.

Nick el Ass said:
Where to start with The Dark One, hmmm?!? I thought the episode was pretty good with a lot of throwbacks to the past, and we got to see Jake again plus Freddy's glove hanging by the door in the basement. I did think that Heather the hiker got nailed (like in the remake) before being dragged off was kind of weird, but the little kid was kind of cool... and Ash's reluctance to blast him on the count of three before he went apeshit was great. Not to mention the "someone needs to wash your mouth out kid, and that someone is me" part was a fitting end for the little bastard. The ending left a lot open for Ruby as the God(mother)Father of evil and/or Jacksonville for what is to come in season number 2, and I wouldn't be to rash in writing this show off as someone above. No offense. Season 2 can't get here soon enough no matter when it will air. I saw that they were in the process of writing for it, and I'm sure Starz will make an announcement at some point in the not so distant future.
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The little subtle Raimi focus pull during the pause was fun.

The official Twitter reblogged my comment that it'll likely be back in October.  Which will be an unwise because they were totally slaughtered during this time frame but yeah.
 
Here's a small teaser that played for season 2. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAEwNCHwkNE/


(Currently typing up my indepth review right now, got alot of stuff to say and give my two cent's on the finale as a whole and what season 2 will bring, so stay tuned  :) )
 
If you have the time, go back and read the previous episode threads. Look at all the ideas and speculation you and the rest of us Deadites come up with, and all the "yeah, that must be it!" and "wow, that'd be cool!" moments.

Then re-watch the season.

I highly doubt anyone would come away from that experience feeling that this show lived up to even half of its potential.

Sloppy writing, SO much filler, and plot holes abound. A big mix of acting talent, and Bruce's eyebrows deciding they weren't paid enough to act along with the rest of him. ALL I WANTED WAS ONE SILLY SINGLY EYEBROW RAISE, BRUCE. JUST ONE. Just one stupid eyebrow raise and all would have been forgiven.

Anyway - individual thoughts:

The Deal - Honestly, I'm sorta okay with it. The trailer scene was a waste of time (story-wise) since Ruby offered the deal again later in the episode, but the big bad offering an easy way out is a normal plot point, if overused. And considering that everyone else was dying, it was his easiest way to get out of there, and he was smart enough to claim the knife as insurance, knowing that it's the one item that can hurt ruby and the book. Really, that sort of puts him ahead of the game.

The writing in general - THAT SAID - any and all fan theories are better than the writing in this show. Every time they throw a neat plot suggestion our way, we eat it up and fill the internet with a bunch of theories, scouring over previous lines of dialogue and our knowledge of the Evil Dead mythos. And then we get shit upon by the show. Here's the lesson to be learned, kids: if the show says something, we have to take it at face value. Ruby says she's a Dark One? That's it. That's all we get. No back story, no explanation, just "Ruby's a Dark One." It sucks, and it's frustrating as hell as a fan for them to dangle a snippet of mythology at us like that, but it's clear that there's no show bible or notebook somewhere with the "real" history of the book or the Evil Dead universe. It's all made up on the spot with no thought given to the past films/episodes or future problems with plot holes.

PLOT HOLES:
- Ash - hero from the sky or "El Jefe?" Why the change? And why does a Spanish term suddenly show up in a Kandarian book?
- Brujo's necklace - does it like evil then? Is that why it's drawn to it? Is that all it does? Why didnt it work that way for the Brujo?
- Pablo - I guess I'm okay with him not suddenly becoming a shaman, but why bother with all of that backstory if it doesn't come into play AT ALL in the final episode? They didn't think know they'd be getting a second season, right? So why waste time setting something up and not letting it pay off?
- Ruby - All of the plot holes. Possessed? Dark One? Lesbian? Deal-maker? Super-powers? Knowby? WTF!?
- The book - The rest of the plot holes. Talking, backstory, abilities, self-writing, rules for ownership... the list continues.

I've said it before, and I'll probably keep saying it until I give in and do it myself - someone needs to take this show and edit it down into something digestible. I think there's enough there to at least attempt to cut something worthwhile out of it, even if it means turning all of the middle filler crap into a montage of deadite-slaying.

I think the real problem here is that there are some genuinely great beats, where we get some fan service or start moving to the edge of our seats, but every time that happens we get let down - by the writing, by the acting, or by things like bad CGI or too much light for a night scene. Some of us are able to look past those things and genuinely enjoy the show for what it is, but I think the majority of us are having issues seeing past the flaws and letdowns.

You know what'd be great? If the show, which claims to cater so much to the fans and pay attention to the fan's desires, would take the time to head to that big Evil Dead fan site (gee, which I could remember what it's called... wish they would have printed it in the back of one of the film DVDs or something) and spend a few hours/days reading through reactions and even knocking a few ideas around with fans. No one here is claiming to be a professional writer (spoiler: I'm a professional writer), so we're not saying we'd be better at writing the actual scripts for the show, but as fans who have poured over the films, books, games, comics etc, we may be the people to turn to for help figuring out some main plot details and general direction. I just have a feeling that when they talk about paying attention to fan reaction, they really mean they glance at Twitter every once in a while.

Hell, even George RR Martin turned to his biggest fans for help writing his books - they even co-wrote the World of Ice and Fire with him because they know so much about the world in his books. Can't say I'd hate a similar opportunity.

Anyway, final thoughts on the season finale: really liked the bits that were obviously Evil Dead in style and flavor, but all of the underlying crappiness in terms of plot continued to irk me despite my intention not to focus on those elements. I also thought Bruce's acting was all over the place once again. Some great reactions, and some weird deadpan stuff that would have sold better with more expression. Get those eyebrows moving in season two, and then we'll see.
 
The more I think about it, the less I like it. There's even more stuff in this episode that I didn't pay enough attention to in my first viewing that you guys are bringing up now, like the Brujo's amulet and Pablo's character arc also leading nowhere and Kelly's half-assed burning down of the cabin. It's like they couldn't decide which way to go with the story so they decided to throw every single idea they came up with in it while committing to absolutely nothing. It truly feels like the writers never talked to each other and with each episode they were free to disregard anything the previous writer had already established. It looks like all they had to work with was a basic premise and short, superficial character descriptions. The show is an incoherent mess. Nothing amounts to anything. Everything they set up for every character was completely abandoned halfway through. It really feels like they were changing things and making stuff up as it went along. Ruby is a different character in every episode she's in and even now we still have no idea who or what she is or what she wants. I said it before that I felt like the characters were constantly resetting back to their initial states with each new episode. This was very apparent on this episode when Ash mistakenly calls Pablo "Pedro". That's episode one Ash talking. It doesn't make any sense to do that in this episode, after all they went through. Wouldn't it be cool if Ruby was the one to call him Pedro at some point and Ash goes "His name... Is PABLO!" before attacking her? It's the same thing with the necrophiliac quip Ash made last episode. This season truly feels like a gigantic waste of time. So much stuff happened in it, but in the end it feels like nothing actually happened.

KingRob said:
Some of us are able to look past those things and genuinely enjoy the show for what it is, but I think the majority of us are having issues seeing past the flaws and letdowns.

You know what'd be great? If the show, which claims to cater so much to the fans and pay attention to the fan's desires, would take the time to head to that big Evil Dead fan site (gee, which I could remember what it's called... wish they would have printed it in the back of one of the film DVDs or something) and spend a few hours/days reading through reactions and even knocking a few ideas around with fans. No one here is claiming to be a professional writer (spoiler: I'm a professional writer), so we're not saying we'd be better at writing the actual scripts for the show, but as fans who have poured over the films, books, games, comics etc, we may be the people to turn to for help figuring out some main plot details and general direction. I just have a feeling that when they talk about paying attention to fan reaction, they really mean they glance at Twitter every once in a while.
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I would be perfectly capable of ignoring some flaws and questionable decisions (I do it when it comes to the films) if there was anything else to cling to. The problem is the bad outweighs the good far too much and there's very little to hold on to. Even the little stuff they got somewhat right feels underwhelming and lifeless to me. They said they were doing this for the fans. Bruce said the only reason he caved in and decided to return to the character was so that fans would stop nagging him about it. That was my first red flag about this show. Those aren't the right reasons to make it. They're making a rushed, subpar product just to sell it to fans. Unnecessary callbacks to the past, useless references to other films (like Freddy's glove on this episode), lots of over the top blood and gore and how nice it is to see Bruce playing Ash again. That's the stuff a lot of people keep bringing up as qualities and that's all the creators think fans want to see. That's what they think Evil Dead is. Personally, I couldn't care less about any of that stuff if the writing, directing, story and character work aren't good enough. That's what I really care about. I really hope they take a serious look at what all the fans are saying (not only the ones that are praising it) and take the time to fix what's wrong with it for the second season.

MaidOfKandar said:
* And then we come back to the deal.  i spake my piece about that several threads up, but I'll be damned if it doesn't still grate on me.  When your team says they're willing to die for you, you have to trust them.  Ash is a world-weary self preservationist, not that much of a naive idiot.  I think it was DyD who noted that they keep using Ash's 'stupidity' as an excuse/plot point.  He is not this naive.  Also at some point he's going to have to develop beyond this no matter how priapic Sam is for an Ash who never learns and grows.  We can't have Ash screw up and learn nothing every damn season, or it's going to turn into a form of monomania.  
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Pretty much. Every time they needed something to happen to set up something else and didn't know how to get there, they just had Ash do something stupid to cause it, character consistency and development be damned. Ash's stupidity is this show's Deus Ex Machina. Ash was never this stupid or naive. Ash screws up for being careless, not paying attention to details and due to being fate's plaything, not because he's stupid. Basically, he tries to do things right, but it blows up on his face every time. He was never this actively stupid. Ash on this show is borderline mentally challenged when it comes to intelligence and a borderline sociopath when it comes to behavior. If they keep doing this, it's gonna get repetitive and predictable pretty soon. Why should I care about Ash if he doesn't grow or change in anyway and just acts like a buffoon and an asshole all the time? That gets old pretty quickly.
 
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Watched the finale last night, and I’m still digesting it.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I was enjoying episode 10 it up to a point, then everything just kind of fell apart in the last 5-10 mins. Sorry, but that ending was complete garbage.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]As I understand it when they wrote AvED, there was no guarantee that the show would continue beyond a single season, and we were lead to believe the season was supposedly written in a way which wraps things up, while leaving room to continue. The following things don’t feel wrapped up to me, but maybe someone who has been paying closer attention this season has the answers?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Amanda – I’m still scratching my head over this one. Amanda’s story began on an interesting note. She was someone outside of Ash’s inner circle investigating the Deadite plague on her own, and that was something I was looking forward to following until she would undoubtedly cross paths with the Ghost Beaters. They also hinted that there was possibly more to Amanda and her connection to the Deadites, as evidenced by what wrist tattoo Deadite says, and the vision of the child deadite in the diner. I was interested in this story, I wanted to hear this story, but it never happened. Instead, she’s thrown into another plotline with Ruby which again remains unresolved. Finally, at the last minute she’s seemingly shoehorned in as a tragic, romantic interest to Ash, and there is never any satisfying payoff for her character before she dies, both times. Did they re-write her character arc mid-season?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Cabin – So the cabin is alive now? I always thought the cabin was just a place where some bad things happened, and the structure itself and its location were pretty insignificant. I assumed that laughing sequence and mirror gag in ED2 were all in Ash’s head, but apparently not, and the evil force can now possess a building. Does anyone else find this odd?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]El Jefe – Is it me, or did this also go nowhere? We learn about the story of “El Jefe” in the pilot, and we get a little more of this in the Brujo ep, but halfway through the season they abandon it completely. Where’s the payoff? Who ended up being the true El Jefe? I always assumed it was going to be Pablo and I thought that's where they were headed when he took the pendant. [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Brujo Pendant – Maybe I missed it, but what was the significance of this again? It was attracted to the book for some reason earlier in the season, as it was when Pablo had his “The Mask” moment at the end of Ep 9, but what is its connection with the book? It was supposed to provide protection, but since he’s been wearing it, it hasn’t protected him, or the group, and no Deadites have reacted to it negatively. What did I miss here?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]ED1 – Ash has alluded to losing “people” he cares about and we’ve seen some images from ED1 used, but I still can’t tell where Cheryl, Scotty, and Shelly fit in? We’ve seen ED2 Linda’s head, and Jake’s bones, but no evidence of the rest. Who are the people he’s referring to? Linda and Annie? Annie would be a stretch. Who else has he lost according to the show’s continuity?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Necronomicon – Seriously, why the heck does Ash have the book in the first place? There’s another thread where I’ve shared my own theories on this as well, but I’m wondering if this was touched on at all in any of the dialogue? Again, I may not have been paying as close attention as some others on the board. [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Ruby – This character is such a complete and utter mess that I honestly don’t even know where to begin. She’s hunting Ash for the book, she gets the book, ok they followed through on that one.  She’s also Annie’s sister, but we never go into that backstory. Oh, but she’s also one of the dark ones, but we never go into that backstory. She also authored the book, but we never go into that backstory. Oh and she has Ash’s possessed hand, but we never go into that backstory. Let’s not forget she has the kandarian dagger but, well, you see where I’m going with this. Oh, and we also never found out wtf went on with that funeral pyre she fell into and phoenixed herself out of, terminator style. Was anyone of this already explained earlier in the season?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]When I think back to what I’ve enjoyed about the season, I hate to admit that it mostly comes down to the deadite slaying scenes, and some of Bruce’s one-liners. I can’t say that I really care about the story at this point, which is a shame.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I’m sort of holding out for an extended edition of this season on bluray, followed by longer episodes next season, and more consistent writing of course. Fingers crossed![/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
 
The show had many (many!) faults, but I've gotta say that finale was an almost perfect half hour of entertainment. It was like nothing else on television and comparable, perhaps, only to the original trilogy. I can see my self watching the pilot and episodes 9 and 10 again and again.

EDIT: Reading the last 3 posts makes me hope that people involved with making season 2 join this forum and start sharing opinions and ideas with you Deadites. They could use the inspiration, I think.
 
KingRob said:
If you have the time, go back and read the previous episode threads. Look at all the ideas and speculation you and the rest of us Deadites come up with, and all the "yeah, that must be it!" and "wow, that'd be cool!" moments.

Then re-watch the season.

I highly doubt anyone would come away from that experience feeling that this show lived up to even half of its potential.

Sloppy writing, SO much filler, and plot holes abound. A big mix of acting talent, and Bruce's eyebrows deciding they weren't paid enough to act along with the rest of him. ALL I WANTED WAS ONE SILLY SINGLY EYEBROW RAISE, BRUCE. JUST ONE. Just one stupid eyebrow raise and all would have been forgiven.

Anyway - individual thoughts:

The Deal - Honestly, I'm sorta okay with it. The trailer scene was a waste of time (story-wise) since Ruby offered the deal again later in the episode, but the big bad offering an easy way out is a normal plot point, if overused. And considering that everyone else was dying, it was his easiest way to get out of there, and he was smart enough to claim the knife as insurance, knowing that it's the one item that can hurt ruby and the book. Really, that sort of puts him ahead of the game.

The writing in general - THAT SAID - any and all fan theories are better than the writing in this show. Every time they throw a neat plot suggestion our way, we eat it up and fill the internet with a bunch of theories, scouring over previous lines of dialogue and our knowledge of the Evil Dead mythos. And then we get shit upon by the show. Here's the lesson to be learned, kids: if the show says something, we have to take it at face value. Ruby says she's a Dark One? That's it. That's all we get. No back story, no explanation, just "Ruby's a Dark One." It sucks, and it's frustrating as hell as a fan for them to dangle a snippet of mythology at us like that, but it's clear that there's no show bible or notebook somewhere with the "real" history of the book or the Evil Dead universe. It's all made up on the spot with no thought given to the past films/episodes or future problems with plot holes.

PLOT HOLES:
- Ash - hero from the sky or "El Jefe?" Why the change? And why does a Spanish term suddenly show up in a Kandarian book?
- Brujo's necklace - does it like evil then? Is that why it's drawn to it? Is that all it does? Why didnt it work that way for the Brujo?
- Pablo - I guess I'm okay with him not suddenly becoming a shaman, but why bother with all of that backstory if it doesn't come into play AT ALL in the final episode? They didn't think know they'd be getting a second season, right? So why waste time setting something up and not letting it pay off?
- Ruby - All of the plot holes. Possessed? Dark One? Lesbian? Deal-maker? Super-powers? Knowby? WTF!?
- The book - The rest of the plot holes. Talking, backstory, abilities, self-writing, rules for ownership... the list continues.

I've said it before, and I'll probably keep saying it until I give in and do it myself - someone needs to take this show and edit it down into something digestible. I think there's enough there to at least attempt to cut something worthwhile out of it, even if it means turning all of the middle filler crap into a montage of deadite-slaying.

I think the real problem here is that there are some genuinely great beats, where we get some fan service or start moving to the edge of our seats, but every time that happens we get let down - by the writing, by the acting, or by things like bad CGI or too much light for a night scene. Some of us are able to look past those things and genuinely enjoy the show for what it is, but I think the majority of us are having issues seeing past the flaws and letdowns.

You know what'd be great? If the show, which claims to cater so much to the fans and pay attention to the fan's desires, would take the time to head to that big Evil Dead fan site (gee, which I could remember what it's called... wish they would have printed it in the back of one of the film DVDs or something) and spend a few hours/days reading through reactions and even knocking a few ideas around with fans. No one here is claiming to be a professional writer (spoiler: I'm a professional writer), so we're not saying we'd be better at writing the actual scripts for the show, but as fans who have poured over the films, books, games, comics etc, we may be the people to turn to for help figuring out some main plot details and general direction. I just have a feeling that when they talk about paying attention to fan reaction, they really mean they glance at Twitter every once in a while.

Hell, even George RR Martin turned to his biggest fans for help writing his books - they even co-wrote the World of Ice and Fire with him because they know so much about the world in his books. Can't say I'd hate a similar opportunity.

Anyway, final thoughts on the season finale: really liked the bits that were obviously Evil Dead in style and flavor, but all of the underlying crappiness in terms of plot continued to irk me despite my intention not to focus on those elements. I also thought Bruce's acting was all over the place once again. Some great reactions, and some weird deadpan stuff that would have sold better with more expression. Get those eyebrows moving in season two, and then we'll see.
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Bolded points responding again!

Ugh, yeah, I agree.  Bruce said recently that there comes a point where he checks out of a production when he thinks the director's wrong (see also his comments about writers); I wouldn't be surprised if he engaged well with some directors and poorly with others.

The thing about Ruby and the dagger is that she isn't quite afraid enough of it; certainly not enough to avoid opening sinkholes up all over hill and dale.  

I bet the excuse RE the book is going to be that it's being rewritten by the present.  

And I honestly feel like they rewrote Ruby's arc in mid-stream, the more we talk about it.  It feels like there was supposed to be more of Amanda and Ruby and that Ruby was supposed to be some kind of luckier version of Ash.  If they intended this from the very beginning, to surprise the audience then they should've taken a step back and thought about it.

I'm completely frustrated with Pablo's arc.  After he took the mantle from Uncle Brujo that should've led somewhere important - but instead they conveniently forgot about it so we could get more Pablo/Kelly wishy-washy stuff that went nowhere.

There apparently is already some kind of fan edit out there, but I have no idea what it is made of.

This is precisely how I felt, and precisely how my friends I talked to about the show feel about it.  You'd get a flicker of just-so writing or good gore or action...and then it would flatline for one reason or another.

Didn't they say something about avoiding fan reaction in an interview?  Was that Bruce?  I know if they are, Bruce lied about it because he blatantly admitted to reading reviews and clinging to the negative ones in the pack. I bet he reads the hashtag.  I know Jill, Dana and Ray do because they reply to people in there.  It's a short read every week, Twitter is basically a dead zone for the product.  

DyD said:
The more I think about it, the less I like it. There's even more stuff in this episode that I didn't pay enough attention to in my first viewing that you guys are bringing up now, like the Brujo's amulet and Pablo's character arc also leading nowhere and Kelly's half-assed burning down of the cabin. It's like they couldn't decide which way to go with the story so they decided to throw every single idea they came up with in it while committing to absolutely nothing. It truly feels like the writers never talked to each other and with each episode they were free to disregard anything the previous writer had already established. It looks like all they had to work with was a basic premise and short, superficial character descriptions. The show is an incoherent mess. Nothing amounts to anything. It really feels like they were changing things and making stuff up as it went along. Ruby is a different character in every episode she's in and even now we still have no idea who or what she is or what she wants. I said it before that I felt like the characters were constantly resetting back to their initial states with each new episode. This was very apparent on this episode when Ash mistakenly calls Pablo "Pedro". That's episode one Ash talking. It doesn't make any sense to do that in this episode, after all they went through. It's the same thing with the necrophiliac Ash last episode. This season truly feels like a gigantic waste of time. So much stuff happened in it, but in the end it feels like nothing actually happened.

KingRob said:
Some of us are able to look past those things and genuinely enjoy the show for what it is, but I think the majority of us are having issues seeing past the flaws and letdowns.

You know what'd be great? If the show, which claims to cater so much to the fans and pay attention to the fan's desires, would take the time to head to that big Evil Dead fan site (gee, which I could remember what it's called... wish they would have printed it in the back of one of the film DVDs or something) and spend a few hours/days reading through reactions and even knocking a few ideas around with fans. No one here is claiming to be a professional writer (spoiler: I'm a professional writer), so we're not saying we'd be better at writing the actual scripts for the show, but as fans who have poured over the films, books, games, comics etc, we may be the people to turn to for help figuring out some main plot details and general direction. I just have a feeling that when they talk about paying attention to fan reaction, they really mean they glance at Twitter every once in a while.
Click to expand...

I would be perfectly capable of ignoring some flaws and questionable decisions (I do it when it comes to the films) if there was anything else to cling to. The problem is the bad outweighs the good far too much and there's very little to hold on to. Even the little stuff they got somewhat right feels underwhelming and lifeless to me. They said they were doing this for the fans. Bruce said the only reason he caved in and decided to return to the character was so that fans would stop nagging him about it. That was my first red flag about this show. Those aren't the right reasons to make it. They're making a rushed, subpar product just to sell it to fans. Unnecessary callbacks to the past, useless references to other films (like Freddy's glove on this episode), lots of over the top blood and gore and how nice it is to see Bruce playing Ash again. That's the stuff a lot of people keep bringing up as qualities and that's all the creators think fans want to see. That's what they think Evil Dead is. Personally, I couldn't care less about any of that stuff if the writing, directing, story and character work aren't good enough. That's what I really care about. I really hope they take a serious look at what all the fans are saying (not only the ones that are praising it) and take the time to fix what's wrong with it for the second season.

MaidOfKandar said:
* And then we come back to the deal.  i spake my piece about that several threads up, but I'll be damned if it doesn't still grate on me.  When your team says they're willing to die for you, you have to trust them.  Ash is a world-weary self preservationist, not that much of a naive idiot.  I think it was DyD who noted that they keep using Ash's 'stupidity' as an excuse/plot point.  He is not this naive.  Also at some point he's going to have to develop beyond this no matter how priapic Sam is for an Ash who never learns and grows.  We can't have Ash screw up and learn nothing every damn season, or it's going to turn into a form of monomania.  
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Every time they needed something to happen to set up something else and didn't know how to get there, they just had Ash do something stupid to cause it, character consistency and development be damned. Ash's stupidity is this show's Deus Ex Machina. Ash was never this stupid or naive. Ash screws up for being careless, not paying attention to details and due to being fate's plaything, not because he's stupid. Basically, he tries to do things right, but it blows up on his face every time. He was never this actively stupid. Ash on this show is borderline mentally challenged when it comes to intelligence and a borderline sociopath when it comes to behavior. If they keep doing this, it's gonna get repetitive and predictable pretty soon. Why should I care about Ash if he doesn't grow or change in anyway and just acts like a buffoon and an asshole all the time? That gets old pretty quickly.
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To be semi-fair, they did say that she's after the Nec to return things to the way they were - when the Dark Ones ruled the earth.  Why the hell she wants that when she doesn't get along with her fellow DOs is beyond me.  It's just another plot hole TBH.

That highlights another huge problem for me.  It's almost like they're afraid to let Ash feel true sustained serious emotions.  See: his sarcasm RE Linda's "Rocking bod", the gross necrophilia shit and everything attendant to the Amanda situation, his steamrolling over the team's feelings and treating Pablo basically like a stolen possession while forgetting his name.  He seems to have changing/developing feelings RE Kelly which is the sole improvement we've had since the pilot.  In ED2 Ash could be utterly devastated that Linda had died and still be a kickass man of action; in AOD he could be concerned about Sheila and their relationship is handled seriously, especially in the UK cut.  It's the tone of the show that drags it down.  It's too snide, too weirdly mean-spirited, which guess what?  AOD is not, and ED2 is not entirely.  This is what happens when you hire people who work on Workaholics.  There's a way to combine humor and horror and do it right and the show is just floundering trying to do it.

All of this could have been ignorable if the gore was especially interesting or the camera work was inventive, or if the dialogue was especially interesting or creative.  It pretty much failed on all of those aspects; the only time the effects work ever looked good was during the cabin arc and the diner scene; the rest of it didn't match up with their nonstop bragging about pus canons and huge drums of blood.  None of it showed up onscreen. Visually, the show was never interesting except during Ash's acid trip; the cabin arc tried to replicate the movie' look, and at that it was successful, but there was nothing new there.  This is the most visually interesting horror franchise, arguably in film history and the whole thing was bland.  The dialogue was painful to fully - I think the only thing anyone will remember is "Shoot first, ask never" and Ghostbeaters, which will be the series "I didn't want to be the devil's bitch"

Y E P.  Also him miscounting the drops is perfectly legitimate and I will maintain that forever; after what he's been through he has the right to be jumpy.  (And I'll always say that it comes off as sheer stubbornness that he doesn't remember the words, versus "Stupidity" or maliciousness.  He does not want to take orders from these people who just tried to kill him, understandably).  A lot of this "Ash is stupid" stuff came from Bruce and Sam as an afterthought (like Bruce saying repeatedly Ash killed "thousands" of people, which pre-series was patently untrue in the theatrical cut where we directly hear that there are but fifty men left at Arthur's castle) because it amuses Sam.

eViL DeAdiTe said:
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Watched the finale last night, and I’m still digesting it.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I was enjoying episode 10 it up to a point, then everything just kind of fell apart in the last 5-10 mins. Sorry, but that ending was complete garbage.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]As I understand it when they wrote AvED, there was no guarantee that the show would continue beyond a single season, and we were lead to believe the season was supposedly written in a way which wraps things up, while leaving room to continue. The following things don’t feel wrapped up to me, but maybe someone who has been paying closer attention this season has the answers?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Amanda – I’m still scratching my head over this one. Amanda’s story began on an interesting note. She was someone outside of Ash’s inner circle investigating the Deadite plague on her own, and that was something I was looking forward to following until she would undoubtedly cross paths with the Ghost Beaters. They also hinted that there was possibly more to Amanda and her connection to the Deadites, as evidenced by what wrist tattoo Deadite says, and the vision of the child deadite in the diner. I was interested in this story, I wanted to hear this story, but it never happened. Instead, she’s thrown into another plotline with Ruby which again remains unresolved. Finally, at the last minute she’s seemingly shoehorned in as a tragic, romantic interest to Ash, and there is never any satisfying payoff for her character before she dies, both times. Did they re-write her character arc mid-season?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Cabin – So the cabin is alive now? I always thought the cabin was just a place where some bad things happened, and the structure itself and its location were pretty insignificant. I assumed that laughing sequence and mirror gag in ED2 were all in Ash’s head, but apparently not, and the evil force can now possess a building. Does anyone else find this odd?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]El Jefe – Is it me, or did this also go nowhere? We learn about the story of “El Jefe” in the pilot, and we get a little more of this in the Brujo ep, but halfway through the season they abandon it completely. Where’s the payoff? Who ended up being the true El Jefe? I always assumed it was going to be Pablo and I thought that's where they were headed when he took the pendant. [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Brujo Pendant – Maybe I missed it, but what was the significance of this again? It was attracted to the book for some reason earlier in the season, as it was when Pablo had his “The Mask” moment at the end of Ep 9, but what is its connection with the book? It was supposed to provide protection, but since he’s been wearing it, it hasn’t protected him, or the group, and no Deadites have reacted to it negatively. What did I miss here?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]ED1 – Ash has alluded to losing “people” he cares about and we’ve seen some images from ED1 used, but I still can’t tell where Cheryl, Scotty, and Shelly fit in? We’ve seen ED2 Linda’s head, and Jake’s bones, but no evidence of the rest. Who are the people he’s referring to? Linda and Annie? Annie would be a stretch. Who else has he lost according to the show’s continuity?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Necronomicon – Seriously, why the heck does Ash have the book in the first place? There’s another thread where I’ve shared my own theories on this as well, but I’m wondering if this was touched on at all in any of the dialogue? Again, I may not have been paying as close attention as some others on the board. [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Ruby – This character is such a complete and utter mess that I honestly don’t even know where to begin. She’s hunting Ash for the book, she gets the book, ok they followed through on that one.  She’s also Annie’s sister, but we never go into that backstory. Oh, but she’s also one of the dark ones, but we never go into that backstory. She also authored the book, but we never go into that backstory. Oh and she has Ash’s possessed hand, but we never go into that backstory. Let’s not forget she has the kandarian dagger but, well, you see where I’m going with this. Oh, and we also never found out wtf went on with that funeral pyre she fell into and phoenixed herself out of, terminator style. Was anyone of this already explained earlier in the season?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]When I think back to what I’ve enjoyed about the season, I hate to admit that it mostly comes down to the deadite slaying scenes, and some of Bruce’s one-liners. I can’t say that I really care about the story at this point, which is a shame.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I’m sort of holding out for an extended edition of this season on bluray, followed by longer episodes next season, and more consistent writing of course. Fingers crossed![/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
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Yep, that's apparently correct.  

Amanda's arc was a total mess - I pretty much pegged that she was going to die from the way they wrote her in the pre-show press - she felt like the least formed of all of the characters.  If they did I wouldn't be surprised.

i didn't mind the stuff with the cabin so much, since the walls do literally bleed all over Ash in TED and ED2.  The flying nails were a bit much, a little too Carrie-esque.  It was like the cabin developed ESP.

There's another thing that never properly paid off.  It was supposed to be a torch-passing thing - supposed to mark Pablo as the next Brujo and the next mystic.  And instead the pendant just kept being chronically attracted to it.  

I assume that Scotty and Cheryl completely melted away and were absorbed into the wood of the floor, but it's pretty inexcusable that we never find out what happened to Annie's body.  If we're supposed to infer that Ruby claimed the body (and the hand and the dagger) as a cover story then they need to, y'know, SAY so, but that would mean addressing whether or not Ruby was Ruby before she became a host body or if Ash conjured her up when he said the words.  That lends credence to the possession stuff but it's never, ever going to be addressed, I'll bet you that much.  I'm guessing he referred to Amanda there, but even she's pushing it (Sorry writers, wanting to motorboat somebody's tits does not even out to true love).

Nope, never addressed.  The question ended up spawning multiple threads but nothing makes sense at the moment.

And nope, that was never addressed either.
 
I get the feeling that the connections to TED that were made in the show came last-minute.

Think about it, there's a 'special thanks' to Lionsgate in the end credits, which means ED2 was their primary source of rights to call back on. They started making the show with that in mind. Toward the end of production, they must have suddenly worked out a deal with whoever holds TED, so they were able to sneak in a few minor tweaks that allow TED into continuity. The footage from TED in the pilot when he's telling Pablo his story are accompanied by a voiceover from Ash mentioning "his friends." That's easily alterable in post. On-set, I'll bet you he only mentioned Linda. Also, the flash of Cheryl in the cellar was probably scripted to be a flash of Henrietta instead.

Issues like the whereabouts of the bodies of Scotty, Cheryl, Annie, Henrietta and Ed (and how parts of the cabin got put back together) I can let slide. Bodies decompose (some of them did on-camera) and I am willing to assume that if Ruby really IS a Knowby, she dealt with the body of her sister and mother when she came to cabin and learned what had happened (which explains her claiming the Dagger and Ash's hand). Maybe she repaired the front door and cellar door? She did get itchy about Ash being on 'her' property in Episode 9.

But outside of my two cents there, everyone is right about the show's flaws. They need to step up their game next season, big time. And they need to up the marketing game and get the show to a wider audience if they want a season 3, becuse the franchise is STILL too underground.
 
This is gonna be a short but sweet in-depth review since i'm really burnt out and exhausted  on evil dead right now, i will probably be taking a leave of absence from the forum for a good while to fully gather my thought's on ash's choice, His character growth/de-growth, how pablo and kelly see ash in a different light now and will probably be seeing them be more strict of his decision making as leader from now on and how there going to act towards him in season 2 ETC ETC, so stay tuned for my observations and theory's later on down the line. 


*fair warning, there's going to be minimal middle's and cons*


Pro's 

-Rick and Craig need to do more episodes together, cause they blend really well together like bread and butter as they really went all out for this finale episode, they got the evil dead's chaotic and unpredictable nature down to a tee.

-Ash and The demon child scene (The facial reactions from bruce during this scene had me on the floor plus it's probably one of my favorite kills from this show) 

-Pablo and Kelly really came into there own in this episode as both actor's really give it there all in this finale, and really got me more invested into there characters heading into season 2. 

-Bruce and Lucy's scenes together were fantastic, seeing these two play off each other in this episode made me even want more ruby ash interaction's. 

-The ending for me at least, made sense for the series and for the character's moving forward, it's open ended, it's bleak and your not quite clear on what season 2 will be like.




Middle's 

While some of the callback's were good but some of them felt abit ham-fisted in and didn't really need to be there, mostly it being jake's callback was what threw me off.

*Petty Nitpick*
They really should have used highway to hell rather then back in black as it fit's more in line with ash's mood at the moment in lyrical sense but hey it's ac/dc. 

(but seriously though listen to the lyrics and you'll get what i mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKggnBh2Mdw )


*No con's* 


Some Prediction's for season 2/and season 1 in retrospect 

Prediction's for season 2 

Pablo and kelly are now more aware of ash's bad decision making and are probably going to be having some resentment towards him about the whole situation, notice how in the final scene pablo is usually upfront with ash riding shotgun but instead his in the backseat with kelly looking very distraught and has a slight hint of disappointment in his face.


I have a good/strong feeling ted raimi will be brought in for season 2, but what role he would he play in season 2 ? What i would love to see is him be one of ruby's lackey's that she has under her control and act almost like her right hand man/sidekick, it would be a serious/comedic role, he would be the one to keep a eye on ash and his crew for ruby. Now i could see his character dieing multiple time's in many different way's but would have a similar abilities to his sam character in regeneration and can never truly die, or ruby has a spell put on him to were he can regenerate himself almost like her but is much slower in regenerating his corpse.


Since ash now has the kandarian dagger in his possession, i'm wondering if pablo won't use it as his go to weapon for season 2, it would be the most fitting weapon for him in my opinion. 


While it was disappointing kelly and pablo didn't get together in the finale i'm kinda glad they didn't pull the trigger too soon on them, i have a feeling the two will get closer some were in season 2, we'll see what happens.


Season 1 Retrospect

All in all i thought this first season was one helluva ride and boy getting to the end of this journey was well worth it and got me pretty invested in all three character's for there journey going forward, yes it does have A LOT of rough edges that need smoothing over for season 2, so hopefully they have a good grasp on what they wanna do for season 2 then playing the tip toe game they were doing for season 1.


Things i noticed from the finale and subtle references.

-Eli is on the dash in the final scene of this episode, his out of focus but his there. 

- this could be me looking too much in this line but when ash says "The fuck was that ?" i was wondering if that wasn't a slight nod to the evil dead musical but that could just be me looking too much into it

-The demon children weren't really there to tango with ash and kelly, it seemed more like they were trying to escape more then anything and are they new dark one's or a new type of deadite that ruby can control, we'll see what happens there in the next season.

-I think pablo's pendant was protecting his soul from being overtaken by the book so quickly which would explain somewhat why he was having his internal struggle with the book. 
 

That's about it from me for now, i'll come back later on down the line with more thought's on this finale at a later date, i'll see you guys later in Jacksonville  :cool: *cue highway to hell*
 
DocLathropBrown said:
I get the feeling that the connections to TED that were made in the show came last-minute.

Think about it, there's a 'special thanks' to Lionsgate in the end credits, which means ED2 was their primary source of rights to call back on. They started making the show with that in mind. Toward the end of production, they must have suddenly worked out a deal with whoever holds TED, so they were able to sneak in a few minor tweaks that allow TED into continuity. The footage from TED in the pilot when he's telling Pablo his story are accompanied by a voiceover from Ash mentioning "his friends." That's easily alterable in post. On-set, I'll bet you he only mentioned Linda. Also, the flash of Cheryl in the cellar was probably scripted to be a flash of Henrietta instead.

Issues like the whereabouts of the bodies of Scotty, Cheryl, Annie, Henrietta and Ed (and how parts of the cabin got put back together) I can let slide. Bodies decompose (some of them did on-camera) and I am willing to assume that if Ruby really IS a Knowby, she dealt with the body of her sister and mother when she came to cabin and learned what had happened (which explains her claiming the Dagger and Ash's hand). Maybe she repaired the front door and cellar door? She did get itchy about Ash being on 'her' property in Episode 9.

But outside of my two cents there, everyone is right about the show's flaws. They need to step up their game next season, big time. And they need to up the marketing game and get the show to a wider audience if they want a season 3, becuse the franchise is STILL too underground.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting theory (and it suggests that Ren Pic/Ghosthouse has primacy over Evil Dead 2 and not TED)

The thing is that the show's marketing was pretty loud and spot-on; they did about everything they could do to get word out there and it still failed.   There were giant bilboards on Sunset strip, giveaways, star-studded premieres, Bruce did the talk show circuit, etc.

See, I can let everything slide but the fact that we never see Annie's body, and the fact that Ruby never says anything about it.   We've established that Deadite flesh only melts when the Evil's been dispersed, so I don't know if Annie's body would fall under that jurisdiction since she didn't go Deadite.   Either they need to establish whether or not she's 100 percent an old one or they need to blatantly say she made up her ID.

Joem1k said:
This is gonna be a short but sweet in-depth review since i'm really burnt out and exhausted  on evil dead right now, i will probably be taking a leave of absence from the forum for a good while to fully gather my thought's on ash's choice, His character growth/de-growth, how pablo and kelly see ash in a different light now and will probably be seeing them be more strict of his decision making as leader from now on and how there going to act towards him in season 2 ETC ETC, so stay tuned for my observations and theory's later on down the line. 


*fair warning, there's going to be minimal middle's and cons*


Pro's 

-Rick and Craig need to do more episodes together, cause they blend really well together like bread and butter as they really went all out for this finale episode, they got the evil dead's chaotic and unpredictable nature down to a tee.

-Ash and The demon child scene (The facial reactions from bruce during this scene had me on the floor plus it's probably one of my favorite kills from this show) 

-Pablo and Kelly really came into there own in this episode as both actor's really give it there all in this finale, and really got me more invested into there characters heading into season 2. 

-Bruce and Lucy's scenes together were fantastic, seeing these two play off each other in this episode made me even want more ruby ash interaction's. 

-The ending for me at least, made sense for the series and for the character's moving forward, it's open ended, it's bleak and your not quite clear on what season 2 will be like.




Middle's 

While some of the callback's were good but some of them felt abit ham-fisted in and didn't really need to be there, mostly it being jake's callback was what threw me off.

*Petty Nitpick*
They really should have used highway to hell rather then back in black as it fit's more in line with ash's mood at the moment in lyrical sense but hey it's ac/dc. 

(but seriously though listen to the lyrics and you'll get what i mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKggnBh2Mdw )


*No con's* 


Some Prediction's for season 2/and season 1 in retrospect 

Prediction's for season 2 

Pablo and kelly are now more aware of ash's bad decision making and are probably going to be having some resentment towards him about the whole situation, notice how in the final scene pablo is usually upfront with ash riding shotgun but instead his in the backseat with kelly looking very distraught and has a slight hint of disappointment in his face.


I have a good/strong feeling ted raimi will be brought in for season 2, but what role he would he play in season 2 ? What i would love to see is him be one of ruby's lackey's that she has under her control and act almost like her right hand man/sidekick, it would be a serious/comedic role, he would be the one to keep a eye on ash and his crew for ruby. Now i could see his character dieing multiple time's in many different way's but would have a similar abilities to his sam character in regeneration and can never truly die, or ruby has a spell put on him to were he can regenerate himself almost like her but is much slower in regenerating his corpse.


Since ash now has the kandarian dagger in his possession, i'm wondering if pablo won't use it as his go to weapon for season 2, it would be the most fitting weapon for him in my opinion. 


While it was disappointing kelly and pablo didn't get together in the finale i'm kinda glad they didn't pull the trigger too soon on them, i have a feeling the two will get closer some were in season 2, we'll see what happens.


Season 1 Retrospect

All in all i thought this first season was one helluva ride and boy getting to the end of this journey was well worth it and got me pretty invested in all three character's for there journey going forward, yes it does have A LOT of rough edges that need smoothing over for season 2, so hopefully they have a good grasp on what they wanna do for season 2 then playing the tip toe game they were doing for season 1.


Things i noticed from the finale and subtle references.

-Eli is on the dash in the final scene of this episode, his out of focus but his there. 

- this could be me looking too much in this line but when ash says "The fuck was that ?" i was wondering if that wasn't a slight nod to the evil dead musical but that could just be me looking too much into it

-The demon children weren't really there to tango with ash and kelly, it seemed more like they were trying to escape more then anything and are they new dark one's or a new type of deadite that ruby can control, we'll see what happens there in the next season.

-I think pablo's pendant was protecting his soul from being overtaken by the book so quickly which would explain somewhat why he was having his internal struggle with the book. 
 

That's about it from me for now, i'll come back later on down the line with more thought's on this finale at a later date, i'll see you guys later in Jacksonville  :cool: *cue highway to hell*
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Hope you'll be coming on back soon, Joe! I think it's been a long ride for all of us this season.

I agree about the demon child kill (we really needed more goop in the show of that magnitude, the only scenes that ever got close enough were the bottle stab in episode 2 and the diner stuff)

I'm guessing they went with what they could afford RE song rights but I was surprised they didn't go with Highway to Hell too.

My guess RE Ted is close to yours; he'll probably be a junior demon and there'll be a lot of Joxer and Xena throwbackery. Either that or they try to find refuge with Ted's S-Mart character.

Huh, I figured Eli was back in the trailer. Weird/touching that Ash would even bring him up front.  Probably because Pablo refused his offer of shotgun?

And that was definitely a reference, that was Bruce's favorite song in the musical.

ETA: KingRob: Bruce replied RE his lack of eyebrow acting.
 
eViL DeAdiTe said:
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Cabin – So the cabin is alive now? I always thought the cabin was just a place where some bad things happened, and the structure itself and its location were pretty insignificant. I assumed that laughing sequence and mirror gag in ED2 were all in Ash’s head, but apparently not, and the evil force can now possess a building. Does anyone else find this odd?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]

[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]ED1 – Ash has alluded to losing “people” he cares about and we’ve seen some images from ED1 used, but I still can’t tell where Cheryl, Scotty, and Shelly fit in? We’ve seen ED2 Linda’s head, and Jake’s bones, but no evidence of the rest. Who are the people he’s referring to? Linda and Annie? Annie would be a stretch. Who else has he lost according to the show’s continuity?[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]




Well, to me, in regards to the cabin being alive? Remember in Evil Dead 2 when we see an overlay of eyes over the cabin, with "Join Ussss......" spoken over the top of it? And the fact that the cabin bled in the original movie?
You could take that as showing that the cabin itself is possessed.

In regards to Cheryl, Scotty and Shelly.
Well Scotty and Cheryl dissolved at the end of The Evil Dead, and Shelly was chopped up - so perhaps because she'd been possessed also went up with the book when it was burned. It is 30 years later, so whatever remains that were left may have just evaporated.
But then that leaves another question in why didn't the same happen to Linda. Perhaps it was because she had already been beheaded, so he body wasn't been possessed at the time of the burning of the book.,

Perhaps it will be alluded to in a future episode that Ash returned to the cabin after the events of AOD (which do seem to still be canon, but not mentioned due to copyright issues - but there have been little clues that show that it did happen - for example, when Ash comments upon chopping up the Bad Ash version of himself that "maybe someday this will feel weird", or something to that affect. Then of course in the finale we see him in the Nerconomicon, holding his chainsaw above his head, in front of the castle - and of course using the term "deadites", which he only learned from travelling though time - which of course was the ending of ED2), but not before the events of the original movies, so he couldn't save anyone (as he screwed up with his dates) and discovered that the Necronomicon had magikally been reborn after he'd previously burned it - thus discovering the book was almost impossible to destroy and then deciding it would probably be safer in his hand, as he is of course <i>the chosen one</i>....
Destroying the book in the original movie did nothing to dispell "the force" as we all remember it came straight after him, and possessed him - so perhaps destroying the book only destroyed the human host of the demons.

[font=Arial, sans-serif] [/font]
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Gotta say, even with all its flaws, I'm really bummed the show didn't take off and at least capture a big audience of people into Evil Dead. I know personal anecdotes don't really mean anything but I know a lot of people who casually enjoy the franchise and had an interest in the show. Almost all of them only watched the pilot which apparently was offered for free.

So either the pilot didn't do enough to draw them in or subscribing to Starz was just out of the question (I'm guessing the latter). Let's be honest, only a hardcore ED fan would subscribe to a pay channel just to watch this show. I actually didn't even subscribe to the channel, just the Amazon Prime add-on.

I would take no joy if the powers that be behind this show and Bruce, Sam, Rob, etc. are disappointed by performance. I hope they course correct and legitimately listen to a lot of their core fans' concerns and deliver a great Season 2. I really hope they don't consider this a failed experiment and just phone it in until a mid-season 2 cancellation.

I still see a great Evil Dead show in here, and overall I have to say I did enjoy having "Evil Dead" back in some form for 10 episodes. The show's premise has a lot of promise. The execution needs a lot of work. I'm not gonna go over what should be improved because everybody has already listed it all in great detail (kind of shocking/cool that so many of us can pinpoint exactly what's wrong and missing in an Evil Dead show).

I guess what I'm saying is, yeah, this show needs a lot of work (anybody who read my episode 'reviews' in the episode threads would know I don't think otherwise), but overall I'm happy about it being around and I'm still supporting it.
 
Guywiththegun40 said:
So either the pilot didn't do enough to draw them in or subscribing to Starz was just out of the question (I'm guessing the latter). Let's be honest, only a hardcore ED fan would subscribe to a pay channel just to watch this show. 
Click to expand...

It's the latter without question.

If within the next 3-6 months Starz can get a full featured season 1 bluray out, license season 1 to Netflix, and release their own non-cable, stand alone subscription service, then there's a decent chance we'll see a more robust season two, and possibly a third season. 

However, if they keep it inaccessible then it'll probably die after a watered down second season.
 
I think they've seriously underestimated the European market in not releasing this show yet especially in the UK and Germany. In a weird way, because my first copy of The Evil Dead was a VHS bootleg during the early 80's, I feel like this has come full circle. I'm getting sentimental .. I'm once again reduced to watching Ash covertly, this time through illegal internet streaming. Before anyone tells me off, yes .. I will definitely also be buying the Blu Ray box set and anything else that ensures the Michigan Mafia have a happy retirement fund.
 
Guywiththegun40 said:
Gotta say, even with all its flaws, I'm really bummed the show didn't take off and at least capture a big audience of people into Evil Dead. I know personal anecdotes don't really mean anything but I know a lot of people who casually enjoy the franchise and had an interest in the show. Almost all of them only watched the pilot which apparently was offered for free.

So either the pilot didn't do enough to draw them in or subscribing to Starz was just out of the question (I'm guessing the latter). Let's be honest, only a hardcore ED fan would subscribe to a pay channel just to watch this show. I actually didn't even subscribe to the channel, just the Amazon Prime add-on.

I would take no joy if the powers that be behind this show and Bruce, Sam, Rob, etc. are disappointed by performance. I hope they course correct and legitimately listen to a lot of their core fans' concerns and deliver a great Season 2. I really hope they don't consider this a failed experiment and just phone it in until a mid-season 2 cancellation.

I still see a great Evil Dead show in here, and overall I have to say I did enjoy having "Evil Dead" back in some form for 10 episodes. The show's premise has a lot of promise. The execution needs a lot of work. I'm not gonna go over what should be improved because everybody has already listed it all in great detail (kind of shocking/cool that so many of us can pinpoint exactly what's wrong and missing in an Evil Dead show).

I guess what I'm saying is, yeah, this show needs a lot of work (anybody who read my episode 'reviews' in the episode threads would know I don't think otherwise), but overall I'm happy about it being around and I'm still supporting it.
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Agreed!


eViL DeAdiTe said:
Guywiththegun40 said:
So either the pilot didn't do enough to draw them in or subscribing to Starz was just out of the question (I'm guessing the latter). Let's be honest, only a hardcore ED fan would subscribe to a pay channel just to watch this show. 
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It's the latter without question.

If within the next 3-6 months Starz can get a full featured season 1 bluray out, license season 1 to Netflix, and release their own non-cable, stand alone subscription service, then there's a decent chance we'll see a more robust season two, and possibly a third season. 

However, if they keep it inaccessible then it'll probably die after a watered down second season.
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It's interesting how many of us have friends who've either tried the show and rejected it or tried the show and just plain can't get to it.  In my case, I have friends who tried the pilot and did a U-e after sink sex.  I had a friend who was watching it and gave up during the possession episodes and found them dull.  I had other friends who were angry enough about Amanda's death to quit the show (yes people out there were way more into Amanda than I thought they'd be), and even more were turned off by the necrophilia line.  Others are waiting for any sort of legal availible streaming that's affordable (X-Box live's is exorbitantly expensive and Amazon Prime has plenty of issues that make it undesirable for them), which means buying DVDS, renting them through Redbox or Netflix, or digitally downloading in places where you can buy everything episode by episode.  Starz is basically cutting their nose off to spite their faces here.

I will say that if the viewership numbers on the official website were huge, Starz would have done a press release.  Whenever something exceptional happens with any of their originals, they send out press releases to the media to brag about it.  We'll hear soon enough if the show's doing big numbers through legal streaming means.

I still boggle over the fact that they're not releasing the show on iTunes.  They've been releasing Outlander through that platform since its inception, I have no idea why they don't have a distribution deal set up for AvED.  They keep bungling the digital media rights and they're not doing the same thing with all of their other major franchises so I have no clue what's going on.  Maybe it's on the Raimi/Campbell/Tapert side of the equasion but I doubt it.
 
Swofty said:
I think they've seriously underestimated the European market in not releasing this show yet especially in the UK and Germany. In a weird way, because my first copy of The Evil Dead was a VHS bootleg during the early 80's, I feel like this has come full circle. I'm getting sentimental .. I'm once again reduced to watching Ash covertly, this time through illegal internet streaming. Before anyone tells me off, yes .. I will definitely also be buying the Blu Ray box set and anything else that ensures the Michigan Mafia have a happy retirement fund.
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They released it in the UK around episode 5. We got all the episodes broadcast at once, then the rest piecemeal shortly after the States. (Only because they're  a few hours behind, I guess.)

You have a point, though. The lateness might not have helped. And it was only broadcast on VirginMedia to start with, which does not have the largest coverage.

I lucked out being one of those with it.

Actually, wasn't I responding to a post made a while back? It looked familiar, but only appears to have been made an hour ago...

Concerning peoples' views on the show, I haven't gone out of my way to read reviews elsewhere, but the vast majority of the posts I have read on other forums have been positive. By far the most negativity I ihave seen was on this forum, but that might be understandable since it's frequented by people that are particularly invested in The Evil Dead. (I'm just making an observation here, I do not mean that as a criticism.) Or it could just be those who dilsliked it are more vocal, which is often the case.

It might be somewhat telling that there haven't been thart many of them overall though.
 
Swofty said:
I think they've seriously underestimated the European market in not releasing this show yet especially in the UK and Germany. In a weird way, because my first copy of The Evil Dead was a VHS bootleg during the early 80's, I feel like this has come full circle. I'm getting sentimental .. I'm once again reduced to watching Ash covertly, this time through illegal internet streaming. Before anyone tells me off, yes .. I will definitely also be buying the Blu Ray box set and anything else that ensures the Michigan Mafia have a happy retirement fund.
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That's the thing about them delivering the show so late to the European market; you know that there are hundreds of people who did the same thing you did during the five week delay.  I obviously don't specifically encourage torrenting and don't do it myself, but everyone and their mother knows that them's the breaks when it comes to getting your show out there.  I have no idea how they're doing overseas but I wonder if that dented the ratings.


Mardeadite said:
Swofty said:
I think they've seriously underestimated the European market in not releasing this show yet especially in the UK and Germany. In a weird way, because my first copy of The Evil Dead was a VHS bootleg during the early 80's, I feel like this has come full circle. I'm getting sentimental .. I'm once again reduced to watching Ash covertly, this time through illegal internet streaming. Before anyone tells me off, yes .. I will definitely also be buying the Blu Ray box set and anything else that ensures the Michigan Mafia have a happy retirement fund.
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They released it in the UK around episode 5. We got all the episodes broadcast at once, then the rest piecemeal shortly after the States. (Only because they're  a few hours behind, I guess.)

You have a point, though. The lateness might not have helped. And it was only broadcast on VirginMedia to start with, which does not have the largest coverage.

I lucked out being one of those with it.

Actually, wasn't I responding to a post made a while back? It looked familiar, but only appears to have been made an hour ago...

Concerning peoples' views on the show, I haven't gone out of my way to read reviews elsewhere, but the vast majority of the posts I have read on other forums have been positive. By far the most negativity I ihave seen was on this forum, but that might be understandable since it's frequented by people that are particularly invested in The Evil Dead. (I'm just making an observation here, I do not mean that as a criticism.) Or it could just be those who dilsliked it are more vocal, which is often the case.

It might be somewhat telling that there haven't been thart many of them overall though.
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The most interesting thing I've noticed on other forums is that people like the show but aren't extra passionate about why.  They'll blandly call it the best show on TV or they'll say they were entertained but not explain why they feel that way.  We have a lot of great fans who can give their reasons here, and I enjoy reading the pros and cons when people lay them out. The only other place I really lurk are the comments of bloody disgusting and Previously.tv, and I see what you see, the occasional quibble, general positivity, but not very big thread (maybe ten comments max).  I know casual fans and intensely invested franchise fans who like the show, tho.

ETA: Bruce firmly said on Twitter that they won't be making longer episodes in season 2.
 
Just a quick thought. I was watching the finale again and at the end I realised... wouldn't it make MUCH more sense if instead of Back in Black, they would play Highway to Hell? It's still an AC/DC song and at the circumstances, it seems like an obvious choice to me, because it would beautifully sum up the idea of the finale. So I'm just curious if it even crossed their minds.
 
Hurley said:
Just a quick thought. I was watching the finale again and at the end I realised... wouldn't it make MUCH more sense if instead of Back in Black, they would play Highway to Hell? It's still an AC/DC song and at the circumstances, it seems like an obvious choice to me, because it would beautifully sum up the idea of the finale. So I'm just curious if it even crossed their minds.
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Yeah, other people here have had the same idea. Maybe they wanted Highway to Hell, but couldn't get the rights? Maybe Back in Black was cheaper. Maybe they purposefully tried to stay away from the more obvious choice. Who knows? All I know is that the song choice had a big influence in making me hate the last scene even more. It really doesn't fit the mood of the scene and the general vibe of the finale, it makes no sense to play it at that moment in the story and it somehow made Ash's decision seem even worse to me. If that was their original choice, it was a really odd one. Highway to Hell would've been much better, but I'd personally prefer a more somber song.
 
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