Season 1, Episode 2: Bait
SUMMARY: Ash (Bruce Campbell) and Pablo (Ray Santiago)reluctantly try to help Kelly (Dana Delorenzo) save her father from her formerly dead mother (Mimi Rogers), only to be thrown for a loop when the woman exhibits no signs of being a Deadite.
REVIEW: I think even the most jaded Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell/EVIL DEAD fan thoroughly enjoyed the Halloween premiere of Ash Vs. Evil Dead. With Raimi back behind the camera, this often inspired forty minute pilot seemed to many of us as the closest thing we’d even get to a proper EVIL DEAD IV. However, now that Raimi’s presumably out of the equation to some degree, the question remained – how would the rest of the show be? I’m happy to say that based on the evidence put forth by episode two, fans have nothing to worry about.
In fact, I’d wager episode two, “Bait”, is actually better than the pilot. For one thing, all the exposition is out of the way, and the episode was a bloody blast from the first frame to the last. One thing I was wary about was when I heard Starz was producing this as a half-hour show rather than an hour-long. With last week’s premiere running long, this is our first glimpse at how the proper show is going to go down with roughly twenty-five to thirty minute episodes.
Happily, the half-hour run time seems ideally suited to Ash’s adventures. Basically, the episode plays out like a particularly solid installment of The Walking Dead with all the boring parts cut out. Sure, the abbreviated run-time means a streamlined story, but “story” isn’t really something we need to worry about with this as the franchise has always thrived on basic plots without much fat, and a fast-pace.
The pacing is something they really nailed here, with it opening with a great teaser finding Ash and Pablo being forced to deal with their former supermarket manager, complete with bucket loads of gore, and not-CGI-style shit either – this is the real deal.
Other than brief cut-aways to Jill Marie Jones as the State Trooper haunted by her own Deadite run-in, the focus never leaves Ash and his younger sidekicks. Mimi Rogers is great as Kelly’s too-perfect mom, with Ash convincing himself she’s a Deadite in disguise, leading to some great one liners (“you left the table without daddy’s permission”, “yeah well…your cooking is shit”) and – again – more buckets of blood. Campbell is clearly having the time of his life, but I’m surprised at how immediately likable Ray Santiago and Dana Delorenzo are, with the latter having some interesting things in common with the younger Ash (with Ash thinking that them both being “hot as hell” is the most important one).
Again, this was a rock n’roll, kick-ass episode, and maybe even better than the pilot. While Raimi has moved on, the choice of directors here seems pretty strong, with Michael J. Basset (who’s directing a few) having plenty of genre bonafides thanks to the underrated SOLOMON KANE – excellent preparation for working with Ash Williams. Suffice to say, the show is in good hands. This is going to be one hell of a season.