Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3 General Discussion Thread

Joem1k

Hero from the Sky
Staff member
Joined
Aug 1, 2015
Just thought i'd pop on and say that S3 of ash vs evil dead has finally arrived on netflix!


Now that's out of the way, I've been meaning to give my true final thoughts on this series having re-watched it multiple times now and fully taken in it's pitfalls,positives and my own general perception of what went wrong with S2.

But first, overall rankings for best season.

1. Season 3 (Solid Story/Character Development and Solid Horror/Action through out.)
2. Season 1 (Solid Story and Character Progression. Good Horror/Action. )
3. Season 2 (Solid Action and Some good horror. Terrible Story and Character Progression)

Alright First things first, I'm gonna get season 2 out of the way.

Season 2 Thoughts.

For what it's worth Season 2 is a fun side story, but it is not in anyway a good season for the show's main story and does not progress the main characters in anyway, it honestly felt like the character's we're put on pause for s2 in the progression department, only one who really felt like they developed as a character was ruby.

It relied too much on the nostalgia of the first two films,did not flesh out the main and side characters enough besides brief fleeting moments before throwing them back to comedy bits and action, the pacing felt like it was on crack half the time and the story was aimless and had no direction.

And i'm gonna put all the blame squarely on the creative pull and tug that was happening through out that whole season, cause i could tell on my several re-watches of that season it didn't know what it wanted to be. Comedy,Horror or a drama ? It felt like a constant struggle of tones that i could just hear in my head the bickering between the show runner of that season and Rob of the tonal structure of some scenes.

Then it eventually led to that disastrous finale, while it was still "fun" action wise, it still couldn't help how ram shackled and put together it was, just a awful finale.

Quite honestly if i do another re-watch of this show, i'm skipping over season 2 because it just sucks to watch with the knowledge of the creative back and forth in mind and thinking of what could've been done better to progress the characters and story along for that season, just felt like a wasted season in general that was mostly spinning it's wheels in favor of "Sex Jokes, Comedy and Gore" Instead of "Solid Story, character progression and A good balance of tone"

I now understand why rob kept saying to Craig "This isn't evil dead" and it sure as hell wasn't, at least not for this season.

Makes me wish Mark was brought on sooner rather then later as he seemed to get what evil dead was about and how it's balance worked.

What Could've been done better for s2

-Chet should've been the one to die in episode 3 by the delta, it would've been that first blow to ash and his father comes over to consul his son's loss of his friend along with Pablo.

Then after Pablo get's kidnapped, we see ash and his father get in his truck to go track down the demonic delta.

Imagine the back and forth between Brock and ash while they we're chasing down the demonic delta and are actually bonding. It would've fleshed out ash and his father's relationship a lot more.

Plus it would've made a hell of a lot more sense for Brock to be at his house defending his property against the mob and having him die by Cheryl's hands.

It would've made for a much more impactful/intense episode with the factor of Brock still being alive and getting that family reunion scene.

Imagine how the first scene of Cheryl being alive again would've played out if it was Brock in that hallway with ash and there was a better sense of tone balance.

Imagine seeing ash having to fight his sister alone in her room while Brock is trying to break the door down trying to save his son.

Imagine all that build up towards Brock's death scene and Cheryl ripping Brock's heart out.

Man, that would've been something.

- More Character progression for both The main group and the side characters.

- A better sense of balance with the tones for each episode

- A much more straight forward Main story/Goal

-Better sense of continuity between episodes and action has a reaction consequences both s1 and s3 had.

Alright now that the S2 section is done and over with let's move on to the S1 and S3 section.

S1

S1 may have it's glaring fault's and issues but it has grown on me now that the show has fully come out and i can see the bigger grand picture of where the main characters go from when s1 ends. (mostly with their arcs in s3. S2 was a wasted season creatively.)

I really loved the road trip vibe and the constant action has a reaction consequences with each episode as it built up to the very memorable return the cabin. (the set department should've gotten a reward for that cabin recreation, they nailed it!) Plus getting to know our three characters as the trip went along and we got to see how they grew together as group/team was a big highlight for me personally and really sold me on the dynamic between those three characters in general.

Yes there was the glaring issues with ash's character and with some of his dialogue and how he was portrayed in some of his scenes but seeing how he grew out of that by s3 makes that dialogue a bit more less cringe worthy but it's still there (Gonna say that dialogue was probably by Craig as it became a main showcase throughout s2.)

The only real big pet peeves i have with s1 are : Amanda's arc and How ruby was inserted in

Original Pilot script for episode 1 seemed to indicate Amanda had a bit more of a elaborate role in s1 but i'm gonna guess it got butchered and re-written in favor of bringing ruby in and involving lucy lawless in the evil dead franchise.

I think they could've done a better job with it, but it is what it is.

S3
This was ash vs evil dead at it's peak, creatively speaking.

It had a good sense of balance with tone, it started off slow like s1 did with it's story and slowly built that up. Every action also had a consequence or reaction and good sense of continuity between episodes. i was very happy to see those element's back in this season.

The character moment's and serious tone for a lot of the scenes especially towards the end we're top notch.

Ash was actually himself in this season and had some very good solid character development as the season progressed with some really touching moments with his daughter and his group.

His overall arc for s3 was handled quite well, really made up for whatever the hell happened with his writing in s2 and the rough edges in s1 he had.

Same can be said for the rest of the characters, Pablo finally became the hero he always wanted to be. The foreshadowing for Kelly's revenge finally was paid off in tragic fashion and she finally came to terms with the fact she was not "ash" was also great when she finally came back from the dead plus finally getting together with Pablo.

It would've been nice to see where Kelly ended up as a character in s4, that sentiment also goes for the rest of the characters.

Brandy's build up was a bit slow but when she finally came around and started being more open to her father and everything happening around her she really grew on me, damn shame we didn't get to see where she ended up and it makes me wish we saw this character sooner rather then later. Would've been great to have seen her on the road with her pop and the other two in s1.

The Mytho's and The knights finally coming into the picture along with the dark ones was great to finally see happen, should've been a major part of s2.

The comedy was actually funny in this season.

In general, this was probably this show's best season, damn shame we didn't get mark on board from the get go.

Only negatives i really have with this season is really 3 things.
1. They killed off Dalton too early.
2. Brandy's ignorance was baffling at some points.
and
3. Some Sequences felt like repeats from s1 and 2.

Things i noticed on the re-watches.
- It felt like there was some subtle jab's at Craig's tone/jokes throughout s3.
- Mark's vision/tone balance for the show slowly started to take over after episode 1, how ep1 started out like a usual Craig season but as it progressed with each episode it got much more darker/expansive with the lore and creatures as the season went on and the characters began to get more serious but still had some slight comedic moments to them when the time called for it.
 

Joem1k

Hero from the Sky
Staff member
Joined
Aug 1, 2015


Final Thought's :
Ash vs Evil Dead is not a perfect show by any means, it has it's flaws and issues. But when it get's it right, it's a really damn good ride to experience.
As i mentioned above, if i go back and watch this show again, it's very likely i'm probably skipping over S2 and just watching S1 and S3.

The overall Main story arc just flows better between those season's whereas watching s2 is just feels like watching a weird side story that has no bearing on the other two seasons beyond a couple things, it's a very spinning the wheels season that accomplishes nothing in the story/character department, it felt like one of those bad one shot stories dynamite comics spits out once in a while with no real thought put into it.

Now is the show a worthy entry into the evil dead franchise ?

From my perspective, i think it is. S1 and S3 are worthy additions to the ED franchise. S2 however, isn't. 2 out of 3 solid entry's from it's run.
In the general scope of the whole fan base and new viewers coming in, i don't know. It's a very subjective question, especially when it comes to the original films and which is better. Someone's gonna choose ED2 over ed1 or someone's gonna choose AoD over both of those films or someone's gonna choose the remake over the original trilogy. Everyone's got their own perspective/taste. But that's the fun of this franchise, each entry has a unique flavor to it that someone's gonna latch onto and love. And i think it's gonna be the same situation here with this show in the future.

I'm gonna be forever grateful though we even got this continuation to this franchise despite the bumps and bruises it caused with S2, it still had passion and a heart to it in it's prop/set/practical effects department, it's score,the director choices after Sam's first episode in s1 all the way to s3 and even in the writers room(s1 and s3). They really tried to give something worthy to the evil dead fans to enjoy and i think for the most part they have.


Afterword :

Probably gonna get some disagreements, but i ain't gonna argue as this is just my own observation of the show after having re-watched several times over this past year and thinking about it.

Anyway's, sorry i've been away for a while but i'm gonna try and be more active around here, seems like things are picking up a bit on the gaming side of things for evil dead and old ash is starting to make the rounds on guest appearances which is pretty exciting stuff, can't wait to see what the future holds ! :D
 
Last edited:

Joem1k

Hero from the Sky
Staff member
Joined
Aug 1, 2015
Here's some more S4 concept art from our ole pal nick.




Looks like my theory was correct in Pablo being the one who built that delta, i'm gonna say this bunker concept art is the knights bunker and we probably would've met future pablo,kelly and brandy in this place. Also from the way Nick is talking in that one caption, the robot was also going to play a key role in the season as well.
 

Sutter Cane

Spinach Chin
Joined
Jul 11, 2015
Afterword :

Probably gonna get some disagreements, but i ain't gonna argue as this is just my own observation of the show after having re-watched several times over this past year and thinking about it.

Anyway's, sorry i've been away for a while but i'm gonna try and be more active around here, seems like things are picking up a bit on the gaming side of things for evil dead and old ash is starting to make the rounds on guest appearances which is pretty exciting stuff, can't wait to see what the future holds ! :D


I know we got our differences about the show. ;) Anyway, You did a good observation. The show is not on Netflix Canada Yet. I will not miss the oportunity to share my second thought too about S3. I think I still prefer the first season over third one. It was more straight forward. They tried upgrade the story line with more twists later but kinda fail. I agree they should hired Mark right away for the whole series. The reason why the S3 is not on the top of my list is because it's still had some major issues. It was better than S1 on some aspects : (More epic, more mythology, better characters development) but they still cut the corner way too much. The season was still suffering from the hard blow of S2. I think Mark would have done a way better job on S1 with everything he bring on S3. It's thing of the past now...Nothing will change until they announce a reboot or spin off.
 

Joem1k

Hero from the Sky
Staff member
Joined
Aug 1, 2015
I know we got our differences about the show. ;) Anyway, You did a good observation. The show is not on Netflix Canada Yet. I will not miss the oportunity to share my second thought too about S3. I think I still prefer the first season over third one. It was more straight forward. They tried upgrade the story line with more twists later but kinda fail. I agree they should hired Mark right away for the whole series. The reason why the S3 is not on the top of my list is because it's still had some major issues. It was better than S1 on some aspects : (More epic, more mythology, better characters development) but they still cut the corner way too much. The season was still suffering from the hard blow of S2. I think Mark would have done a way better job on S1 with everything he bring on S3. It's thing of the past now...Nothing will change until they announce a reboot or spin off.

I go back and forth for my top rankings between those two seasons all the time as they are very tightly structured seasons. But s3 edges out s1 just slightly due to all the great character moments mark brought to the table for that final season, it was a breath of fresh air after s2 to see the show runner finally taking the characters and the property more seriously and wanting to flesh things out from what it originally started as and where it was left at in the middle of it's run, it was quite the 180 from s2 that's for sure.

And yes, it would've been great to have seen how mark would've handled the show from s1 to 2.

RE @Kain

it looks futuristic there in those concept arts as it looks a bit clean, but i can imagine the prop and set department probably would've dirtied it up more and make it more grim for the show to fit the atmosphere of the post apocalypse, makes me wonder if civilization moved underground to bunkers to hide from the dark ones/deadites/demons up on the surface. Kind of like fallout

It looks like to me they we're going to go for a mix of terminator/mad max/fallout for that season.

I have my own personal theory that over the years the military/knights had pablo as their adviser/head tech scientist because i can tell just from the concept art all of this was built towards inspirations from what ash would've liked for this bunker, pablo probably did this as a secret tribute for his sleeping friend. That one room might've been made just for him just in case he finally woke from his slumber.

It very much seems like the showrunner and original creators had a goal in mind and planned ahead a bit for s4 due to a lot of concept art already existing for it just in case they got renewed.

Would've been awesome to have seen what they we're planning, hopefully in the future we see more stuff come out for this planned season.
 
Last edited:

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
Staff member
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Welcome back and I'm glad to see your in-depth analysis again, @Joem1k !
 

Joem1k

Hero from the Sky
Staff member
Joined
Aug 1, 2015
HOLY SHIT, Nick bassett just posted up more S4 concept art and look what makes a appearance. I'm now beyond pissed we didn't get this season now, seems like to me Mark had some really good shit in store for this season it looks like for the further mythos dive, but actually going to the ED2 Castle though ?! This would've been a crazy ass season for us fans.

1580218966948.png

1580218981295.png

Here's more concept art at this link for s4

http://www.nickbassett.design/concepts/jwkh5ybnfbufrina14ng42zsgx08fp
 
Last edited:

KevRice87

Primitive Screwhead
Joined
May 26, 2022
I know some of the fans I talked to didn't seem to enjoy it but I loved season 3, since it's inception the shows taken Interesting twists and choices but I enjoyed the show overall imo better than what an Evil Dead 4 could've done because we got more and the season 3 ending wink to the original post apocalyptic AOD ending was cool too, I hate the show got canceled but I enjoyed it.
 
Top Bottom