El Jefe

There aren't many horror franchises in the genre that means as much to me as the "Evil Dead" franchise. Sam Raimi came up with something beautiful with his friends back in the days and made an iconic horror film with almost nothing to do it with. Now, it's turned into one of the most iconic horror franchises ever and was given a TV follow-up in 2015 titled "Ash vs. Evil Dead." As a fan, I was expecting great things and man did I get that. This premiere episode is everything I could have asked for and a glorious return of the great king Ash Williams.

I've always said that Bruce Campbell was never given his due. He proved with these films that he was an excellent comedic actor and that he could carry a film on his shoulders. He wasn't given that before now, where he's the lead of his own show and back in the role that made him a household name. And he hasn't skipped a beat. It feels like him and Sam Raimi are right back where they left off with this world and they're having a bunch of fun. Ash is definitely a different guy, having gone through thirty years of thinking he was free of this curse, only to make it all happen again by mistake. It's a hilarious way that he gets dragged into the circus again, and it seems like it would be completely in-character for him to do it like that all these years after the fact. And with Raimi behind the camera, it makes for some awesome action sequences, with a standout being a fight between Ash and a little doll with a boxcutter. Who comes up with stuff like that? The brilliant mind of Sam Raimi does. This episode works on its own as well as the beginning of a show, and for fans of the original film, it'll be a nice reunion, but for first timers, it will also work because of the interesting world and the eccentric characters, including the new additions to fit perfectly into this Raimi crazyness. I'm so excited to see what happens going forward.

"El Jefe" is not only a brilliant "welcome back" for fans, but a genuinely amazing opening to a show that also invites new people in. It features the Ash that we know and love and bloody action sequences that Raimi helms with the stylistic crazyness that he always has, making this such an enjoyable ride.

I know I'm in the minority saying this, but I never really liked the humorous direction that Sam Raimi took with Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness: I wanted more gruelling horror, not slapstick. Unsurprisingly, I avoided Ash vs The Evil Dead for a while after hearing it was even more zany than the films. However, having finally succumbed and watched Episode One of Season One, I have to admit that the funny stuff actually works very well within the TV format - Sam Raimi delivers one hell of an entertaining pilot, serving up some genuinely hilarious silliness, while not forgetting to deliver on the outrageous splatter.

Bruce Campbell returns as scourge of all deadites, Ash Williams, who has spent 30 years in hiding, now living on a trailer park. But after Ash gets stoned with a hooker and reads from the Necronomicon, evil finds him once again. Meanwhile, cop Amanda (Jill Marie Jones) has her own run in with some deadites, including her partner, who she is forced to shoot. Can Ash, with help from co-workers Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) triumph against the dark forces?

With some really cool effects (the deadites are great), including buckets of blood, this is a real crowd pleaser of a start to what I hope will be a consistently entertaining show.

30 years after the events of "The Evil Dead", Ash (Bruce Campbell reclaims his most famous role in high style) is now ageing and pathetic. When not picking up ladies at the bar, he still works as a stock boy.

But all these years later, Evil has again found Ash. It turns out that the damn Necronomicon Ex Mortis has remained in his possession, and he and a lady friend foolishly recited passages from the book while stoned.

Ash is reluctant to return to the role of hero. At first, he would rather turn tail and get the Hell out of Dodge. But you can never keep Ash down for long.

After four feature films, the franchise begun by Campbell's friend Sam Raimi certainly has had some real longevity. This debut episode isn't always terribly funny, but it does its job at setting up this universe and the people living in it. The other characters introduced are Pablo Simon Bolivar (Ray Santiago), an immigrant from Honduras and co-worker obviously destined to be the sidekick, another co-worker named Kelly Maxwell (the sexy Dana DeLorenzo), whom Ash unsuccessfully tries to hit on, Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones), a state trooper who will want to avenge the death of her partner, and a mystery woman named Ruby Knowby (played by Xena herself, Lucy Lawless), who seems to know the score right from the start.

Fortunately, 'El Jefe' does bear the trademarks of "Evil Dead" goodness, namely the manic energy and the wild camera moves designed to portray the "force" bearing down on victims. The only thing that traditionalists may find truly objectionable is the use of much CGI violence.

But, overall, this was good at bringing back Campbell & Ash for a new generation & audience.

Seven out of 10.

Directed by Sam Raimi, the first episode of Ash vs Evil Dead is all what the Evil Dead fans had been waiting for these last 20 odd years.

After the end of "Army of Darkness" there was talk of a new movie, but it never came out; what we got in the end was the 2013 remake.

But then, they decided to do a TV series, of which this is the first episode. And it delivers.

Of course, in the years that have been gone since the last movie, a lot has changed in the movie and TV world, so some fans may be disappointed with the result, but I think that we may be in for a treat with this series.

It all starts as you would imagine, with Ash being his old lazy, sexy (and a little bit fatter) self, working in a little store and just letting the days go by. But things don't take long to go wrong, and the deadites are back with a vengeance. We have some homages to the old movies, some cool nice action, over the top situations, and Ash, a lot of cool old Ash, which makes you wonder how could it take so long to have him back.

This first episode is a blast, even if not perfect. Let's just hope the level keeps throughout this whole season.

So, waiting for the beginning of Season 3 I decide to write a technical review of the Pilot of the Series. It will be short and divided by categories.

DIRECTION It's pure Raimi at his best. Long sequences, slow motions, action, suspense and dosed humor. In the next 19 episodes rarely this timing has been respected (also because this Pilot is 40 minutes and episodes are 25-30 minutes).

SFX The only bad point of the Pilot are the special effects. The Post production work doesn't fit well and make the intense Fisher/Carson scene so lame. A cheaper and hasty work, but just for this episode because next episodes are truly better (just for example in 1x03 The Host). So AVED is a series that have both bad and good special effects at the same time. And this is wonderful

PLOT and PLOT EVOLUTION In this pilot Ash is serious, Ash is scared about what he avoid for 30 years. And at the same time he laugh and act to show that he can handle it.

The evil dead speaks to the characters has it know their victims creating a shadow of mystery behind what evil wants.

The Catchphrase "We know who you are" scared a lot and also the other things form the other Deadites. These demons know a mystery and the real origins of everyone fears. They scares people not with blood or bad words, but because they knew them.

During the series we didn't see the evolution of the Evil, because of a lazy scripts that prefers jokes to expand the mythology behind the book.

IN CONCLUSION This Pilot is what every pilots need to have.. and much more. I don't know why Raimi don't make at least an episode per season. Because the directors of the series (that are also into it and extremely masters) need to breathe more and focus on what this series can unleashed in history of television. Hope that the new Showrunner is better than DiGregorio that he just forgot what to do as Showrunner. Maybe he just needed to re-watch the Pilot overtime before wrote a new episode.