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Has the future of ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ been compromised?
If you’ve been keeping track, we are a big fan of the direction “Ash vs. Evil Dead” has taken over the last two seasons. There’s a catch in that statement, though.
We were riding high after watching Sunday’s (Dec. 12) Season 2 finale — it delivered on all the bloody and wacky fronts. But, as a whole, something felt off about how the story played out. Upon a second viewing of the episode, it became clear that some plot points didn’t match up, some continuity felt thrown away and the ending felt like the people behind the scenes were tying a convenient bow around a story that suddenly felt incomplete.
This happens on TV, sometimes, and we thought nothing much of it. That is until we learned that Craig DiGregorio had walked away from the series. His work as showrunner helped to open the series up to some of the more bonkers twists it has taken, leading the show down a road that placed the series on equal footing with its movie predecessors.
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According to an eye-opening interview with AVClub, DiGregorio explained he stepped down as EP due to creative differences with producer Rob Tapert.
His vision for the series involved some really exciting notions that would’ve put “Ash vs. Evil Dead” in risky territory. After witnessing the fight between Ash and that cadaver in Episode 3, the only way forward, in our minds, was to take bigger and bigger risks — and it did. The show has paved a way for new avenues horror can take on television, but we have to wonder if the future of the series is now compromised.
The season finale wasn’t what I wanted at all. This is the first time where I actually thought that the creative push-and-pull adversely affected the final product and I think it really shows.
Mark Verheiden is taking DiGregorio’s place and may prove to be a worthy replacement. But when you look at DiGregorio’s roster of work — “Reaper,” “Chuck” and “Workaholics” are part of the man’s repertoire — and compare it with Verheiden’s — “Battlestar Galactica,” “Heroes” and “Daredevil,” for example — a stark difference in tone and narrative styles step forward.
Creative differences behind the scenes of any production are all too common in Hollywood. However, after reading DiGregorio’s original plans for the finale — which would’ve used time travel to set up Ash (Bruce Campbell) as Kelly’s (Dana DeLorenzo) biological father — and how producer Rob Tapert kicked that idea to the curb for a safer resolution, we have major doubts as we wait for Season 3 to return.
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The truth of the matter is that Tapert is one of the rights holders to the original films, and his vision of keeping the “Evil Dead” legacy alive is much different than DiGregorio’s. Will the show return with the same slapstick edge that has kept Ash as sardonic as ever?
We’re hoping so.
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” has never been a show that takes itself too seriously and it shouldn’t be. But honestly, the contrast between the comedic sensibilities of DiGregorio’s previous credits and the all too dramatic nature of Verheiden’s genre-heavy slate have us quite worried regarding what shape future episodes will take.
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 3 will return in the Fall, 2017 to Starz.