- 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.
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.