Few horror comedies arrive with a chainsaw already warmed up. Ash vs Evil Dead premiered on Starz on October 31, 2015, with Bruce Campbell back as Ash Williams, the lothario and monster hunter he first played in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. The show ran three seasons and 30 episodes, ending on April 29, 2018. It scores 7.6 out of 10.
Trailer, via STARZ.
A Stock Boy at the Value Stop
The premise is deliberately small. Ash is roughly 30 years past his return from 1300 AD at the end of Army of Darkness (1992). He works at the “Value Stop” as a stock boy. He lives in a trailer. He drinks alone in bars. He has done very little with his life since the Deadites.
That is the joke, and it is a good one. The man who once hacked the undead to pieces now shelves merchandise. Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy developed the series for Starz, and they built it around a hero who never grew up.
Campbell plays that refusal to mature without apology. Ash is an aging lothario, and the show lets him be one. Then a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind. He has to face his demons, both metaphorical and literal. The pun is the thesis.
Pablo and Kelly Join the Quest
Ash does not fight alone. Ray Santiago plays Pablo Simon Bolivar, his friend and co-worker at the Value Stop. Dana DeLorenzo plays Kelly Maxwell, who also works at the store and is the object of Pablo’s affections. Both decide to join Ash on his quest to save humanity.
That trio is the show’s engine. Ash is a relic who never learned anything. Pablo and Kelly are younger, and they have not spent three decades avoiding the terrors of the Evil Dead. The gap between them is where the comedy lives.
Lucy Lawless plays Ruby Knowby, and Arielle O’Neill plays Brandy Barr. Lawless gives the series a second veteran presence. The cast list matters here, because Ash vs Evil Dead is not a one-man act with a rotating monster.
Three Seasons, One Long Joke
The numbers tell a story about confidence. Starz renewed the series for a second season three days before the premiere. That second season premiered on October 2, 2016. A third season followed, premiering on February 25, 2018.
Then Starz canceled it on April 29, 2018. Three seasons, 30 episodes. The network pulled the plug after a full run.
The genres attached to it are Comedy, Action & Adventure, and Sci-Fi & Fantasy. That mix is accurate, and it is also the problem. A comedy horror series with a chainsaw for a hand does not fit neatly anywhere. Starz gave it room anyway.
The Chainsaw Still Works
What holds up is Campbell. He played Ash Williams in the original Evil Dead trilogy, and he returns to the role without irony. The show treats him as a hero even while it mocks him. That balance is harder than it looks.
The premise does the heavy lifting. Setting the series about 30 years after Army of Darkness means Ash has had time to become a disappointment. He is a stock boy with a trailer and a drinking habit. The Deadites force him back into the fight he thought he had left.
The supporting cast keeps him honest. Pablo and Kelly are not sidekicks who exist to be rescued. They choose the quest. Ruby Knowby and Brandy Barr add figures to a world that could easily have stayed a one-man show.
Bruce Campbell reprises his role as Ash Williams, an aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who’s spent the last three decades avoiding maturity, and the terrors of the Evil Dead.
That synopsis is the whole show in one sentence. The terrors of the Evil Dead never left. Ash just stopped paying attention.
What the 7.6 Gets Right
Metacritic puts Ash vs Evil Dead at 76 out of 100, and that is a fair reading. The show is not a masterpiece of television. It is a very good version of a very specific thing.
The case for it is simple. It brought Campbell back to the role that made him, and it did so without pretending the intervening decades did not happen. Ash is older, sadder and funnier because of it. Pablo and Kelly give him someone to disappoint. Lawless gives the series weight it did not have to earn.
The case against it is also simple. Three seasons is short, and the show knew what it was from the first episode. It stayed inside its lane. That is a limit, and it is also the point.
What matters most is the timing. The series premiered on October 31, 2015, and it was renewed three days before that premiere. Starz believed in it early. That belief carried it to a second season on October 2, 2016, and a third on February 25, 2018. When the end came on April 29, 2018, it came after a full run, not a slow fade.
The 7.6 is not a score for ambition. It is a score for execution. Ash vs Evil Dead does one thing well for 30 episodes, and it never asks to be forgiven for it. The Value Stop, the trailer, the bars, the Deadite plague — all of it serves the same joke about a man who spent three decades avoiding maturity and then had to grow up anyway.
That is worth watching. It is also worth remembering that the show ended before it could wear out. Three seasons is a short life for a series with this much goodwill behind it, but it is a complete one.
The verdict is this: Ash vs Evil Dead is the rare revival that understands its own star. Campbell is Ash Williams, and the show never tries to make him anything else. Pablo and Kelly carry the load beside him, Ruby Knowby and Brandy Barr fill out the world, and the Deadites do what Deadites do. The result is a comedy horror series that knows exactly what it is and does not apologize. Score: 7.6 of 10
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