Ash Vs Evil Dead

The world is in a sad and sorry state right now. Threats lurk in the shadows and it's hard to know who to trust. We're confused, and maybe even a little afraid. But fear not, good people, because a saviour is on the way. Sure, he's egomaniacal and boorish - a tad racially insensitive, more than a tad sexually retrograde - and he doesn't always know what he's doing (but good luck getting him to admit that).

So when the shit hits the fan this year, cast your vote for one Ashley J Williams.

You of course probably know him better as plain ol' Ash, the half-reluctant, half-enthusiastic demon slayer who cut off his own possessed hand and replaced it with a jerry-rigged chainsaw appendage. Portrayed by the inimitable Bruce Campbell, he was the hero of three Evil Dead movies back in the '80s and '90s, and after a hiatus of two decades he's now well and truly back in the swing of things with the TV series Ash Vs Evil Dead, the second season of which is now screening on streaming video service Stan.

But just because the ongoing battle between Ash and the forces of darkness is now on the small screen, don't go thinking the Evil Dead franchise is soft-pedalling the gore and grotesquery. Nope, if anything showrunners Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy have tripled-down on the crimson tide that crashes when Ash and his compadres Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) go toe-to-toe with hostile hordes of 'Deadites'.

That said, the franchise was one of the pioneers of 'splatstick', a sub-genre that splashed around blood and guts to such a ludicrous degree it became a gag rather than gruelling, and Ash Vs Evil Dead merrily continues the tradition. If you have a sensitive stomach, perhaps tread carefully. That said, there's not really a mean or malicious bone in this show's body; it wants to gross you out, not necessarily freak you out.

The second season picks up pretty much where the first left off. After several gruesome standoffs, Ash has struck a deal with supernatural sorceress-type Ruby (the ever-welcome Lucy Lawless) and traded the troublesome Book of the Dead for a carefree life of beers and babes in Jacksonville, Florida. But Ruby's demonic children are disobeying their mother and trying to harness the Book's dark powers for their own nefarious ends, and Ash finds himself strapping on his chainsaw hand and loading his 'Boomstick' shotgun to once again tangle with things that go bump in the night.

This time, the fight takes him - with Pablo and Kelly in tow - back to his hometown of Elk Grove, where the locals none-too-fondly remember him as 'Ashy Slashy', the sole survivor (and possible perpetrator) of the cabin-in-the-woods bloodbath from the first Evil Dead movie. Even his degenerate dad (Six Million Dollar Man star Lee Majors!) isn't that stoked to see him.

But when the Deadites come sniffin' around, Ash is the man for the job, and Campbell's douchebag swagger makes the character both entertainingly repellent and... well, kinda loveable. Much like the show itself, really.

Ash vs The Evil Dead Season 2 is currently streaming on Stan