Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1 Episode 1 "El Jefe" - Recap and Review

The long-awaited sequel to the classic Evil Dead movies Ash vs Evil Dead is finally here. Yes I am ignoring the unnecessarily gory 2013 movie that only retained the basics of the original (the cabin settings, deadites, youngsters etc..) while completely sacrificing the fun and the spirit that underscored Sam Raimi's timeless and seminal movies.

It has been 30 years since Ashley “Ash” J. Williams (Bruce Campbell) escaped from the nightmare he encountered in the woods. He is living a lonely existence in a trailer in Mossy Haven Trailer Park. His only (non-human) companion is Eli, a pet lizard.

He works at ValueStop, a local store and his waywardness doesn't make him a favorite with his boss, Mr. Roper (Damien Garvey). Ash does have an admirer in the wide-eyed Pablo Simon Bolivar (Ray Santiago).

In his free time, Ash tries to pick up random women at the local bar. He is not above fabricating stories to explain some kind of heroic explanation for losing his hand. One of them is saving a 8 yr old boy from the tracks. Bruce Campbell is his usual self in these scenes and he hasn't lost a bit of his charm.

In one such drug infused encounter with a lady at his trailer, Ash unintentionally releases the deadites (again) by reciting the words from the Naturom Demonto/Necromonicon also known as “Book of the Dead”. Soon he starts seeing deadites everywhere.

His fear of deadites is not completely unfound. When local cops, Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones) and John Carson (Mike Edward) arrive to investigate reports of a woman screaming insider her house, they are attacked by a deadite. Though they manage to kill her, Carson also becomes one and Amanda has to shoot him dead to escape with her life.

Now, Amanda faces an Internal Affairs homicide inquest and a possible psych evaluation.

Ash also feels the evil growing all around him. Even his friendly neighbourhood (no pun intended) lady, Vivian Johnson (Sian Davis) seems to be a deadite waiting to kill him. Ash has seen enough and decides to leave town as soon as possible.

When he arrives at his store to get his paycheck, he is rebuked by Mr. Roper. But it is not a complete waste of time, as he comes across a new employee. This employee is an attractive young lady, Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo). Ash's usual tricks do not work on Kelly and she is the second store employee to put him in his place.

Ash's troubles are far from over at the store. He is attacked by a doll. This is similar to the scene in Army of Darkness, when Ash is attacked by three miniature versions of himself. Ash is rescued by Pablo. Pablo believes that Ash is “El Jefe” i.e. the person destined to save humanity from the oncoming deadite apocalypse. Pablo's uncle is a shaman and happens to be the source of this prediction.

Ash does not share Pablo's beliefs and heads back to his trailer. Kelly has her own share of troubles. Her mother, who died six months back, has come back from the grave. Kelly's Father (Phil Peleton) is in mortal danger and Kelly is desperate to save his life.

The climactic fight takes place at Ash's trailer. Pablo takes Kelly to meet Ash and hopefully get him to help them. The trio face off against not one but two deadites: Vivian and the cleaner who works nearby.

This is one of the most enjoyable episodes I have seen in quite some time. The casting is top notch. Bruce Campbell can probably portray this character in his sleep and it shows. He slips back effortlessly into the role that has since become a genre legend.

Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo are good. The people who make the best impressions are Jill Marie Jones as Amanda Fisher and Damien Garvey as Mr. Roper. Both these characters undergo transformation through the course of the episode.

Amanda's encounter with the deadite is the highlight of this episode. This is vintage Sam Raimi (he directed this episode). All his trademarks are there: the legendary Evil Dead tracking shot, genuine horror et al.

Damien is makes a charismatic Mr. Roper. He is a classic horror movie character and he should make a great deadite in the upcoming episodes.

Lucy Lawless makes her entry as Ruby and promptly disappears. She informs Jill that she is not hallucinating and that she is very right in her misgivings. No doubt, we will see more of Ruby as the series progresses.

I also liked the scene at the store in which Ash recalls the events of the first Evil Dead movie. That part was shot beautifully and credit to Sam Raimi and the cinematographer.

In addition to horror, the episode also features some nice suspense building scenes. The scene at the trailer park (featuring Ash and Vivian) as well as the scene shot outside ValueStop stand out in this regard.

This is Classic Sam Raimi. Classy Combination of Horror and Humor. In these days of torture porn, this is how horror is done. Learn from the Master.

Must watch for fans of Evil Dead/Horror movies.

Recommended watch to fans of Horror movie genre.

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Image Sources: Renaissance Pictures, Starz Entertainment, LLC

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The Flash Season 2 Episode 5 "The Darkness and the Light" - Recap and Review

In the previous episode, we saw that it was Dr Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) from Earth 2 who rescued Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) from a certain death at the hands of the gigantic King Shark.

The opening scene is set in Earth 2 about 8 months ago. Dr Wells is introducing his latest innovation in the series of Metahuman Awareness Apps. This one is in the form of a watch that alerts the nearby presence of a meta-human.

Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) stops by and makes his displeasure known. He considers Dr Wells as being responsible for the presence of meta-humans on Earth-2 to begin with. Harrison Well's daughter, Jesse Wells (Violett Beane) is also present.

In our present world, everyone is taken aback by the sudden re-appearance of Dr Harrison Wells. Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) even fires at Dr Wells, leading the Flash to pull a Superman and stop the bullets.

Meanwhile, Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) tries to pick up Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renee) to teach Barry the necessary skills of the game. Kendra Saunders is Hawkgirl in Legends of Tomorrow, the upcoming series that brings together the characters from both Arrow and The Flash. Cisco fails miserably in his first attempt.

The villain-of-the-week sent by Zoom to kill Flash is Dr Light (Malese Jow). When the Flash encounters the supervillain, he is shocked to realize that she is the alternate version of Linda Park, whom Barry dated briefly in the previous season. Taking advantage of the Flash's indecisiveness, Dr Light blinds him.

Barry's temporary blindness does not stop him from going on a date with Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten). This was a genuinely hilarious sequence and due credit to Grant Gustin for pulling this off so nicely.

Just about the same time, Jay Garrick and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) keep an eye on Linda Park. They take this measure since Zoom's previous assassins have murdered their doppelgangers on our Earth.

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Just as they are about to get intimate, Dr Light appears and is about to kill Linda. Iris West (Candice Patton) shoots off Dr Light's helmet. The supervillain does kill an innocent bystander before fleeing the scene.

Once Flash recovers from the loss of his sight, Dr Harrison Wells recommends that Flash capture Dr Light in order to bring Zoom to this Earth. Wells has already deduced (using his app) that Cisco himself has developed superpowers. He forces Cisco to use his powers on Dr Light's helmet and he is able to find out her location in the third attempt. Flash creates a “Speed Mirage” to trick Dr Light and subdues her. 

This is not the first time that the show writers have used Cisco's new found powers to locate a hostage/criminal. It stuck me that he is the equivalent of “Cerebro”, the device used by Professor Charles Xavier to track down mutants.

In the closing scenes, Cisco, Barry and Caitlin frequent the same store they had done earlier. This time, Kendra herself obligingly provides her phone number to Cisco. She explains that she is new to the city and is apprehensive of all the meta-humans running around.

Cisco celebrates his success with Barry and Caitlin. Since he too has meta-human powers now, Cisco looks for a name. Caitling suggests “Vibe” and Cisco is taken up with it. Unknown to them, Dr Harrison Wells is spying on them. 

The final scene is again set in Earth 2. Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd) is forcibly keeping Wells' daughter, Jesse as his hostage.

This was an OK episode. The absence of Victor Garber's Dr. Martin Stein was strongly felt. On top of that, this alternate version of Harrison Wells is a bit gruff and less humorous. Same goes for Dr Light. Perhaps, the show writers want to differentiate between the two alternate version of characters this way.

The casting of Tony Todd as the voice of Zoom is promising. Tony Todd is a terrific actor especially in the horror genre. He would definitely lend the necessary gravitas and an edge to Zoom's voice.

Yet another enjoyable aspect of the episode was the reference to Atlantis. Jay Garrick mentions that he has a friend (presumably Aquaman) from Atlantis and that on Earth 2 Atlantis is above water.

Speaking of Jay Garrick, he is apprehensive about Flash facing the Zoom and takes his leave. When Caitlin wonders aloud later if she will ever Jay again, Barry replies that as a true hero, Jay would appear at the right time.

The preview for the next episode indicates that Zoom will be paying a visit to our Earth. Hopefully, that episode will pick up the steam.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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Supergirl Season 1 Episode 2 "Stronger Together" - Recap and Review

After a smashing pilot episode, Supergirl returns for the sophomore outing.

Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) subjects Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) to intense physical training to ensure that she is in top physical shape in order to shoulder her duties as a Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO) agent. She receives information about a ship being on fire. In her eagerness, Kara first uses her freeze breath, then her heat vision and finally her super strength. She seems to succeed, but then disaster strikes. Supergirl's inexperience while applying her superpowers on the ship results in the ship developing cracks along the surface and there is considerable oil spill.

Meanwhile at the Plastino Chemicals plant, we meet our villain-of-the-week: a Hellgrammite. This is an insect-like species that can take the shape of a human being and feeds on DDT that is available in abundance at the chemical plant.

Kara's fiasco in causing the oil spill dampens her confidence considerably. It does not help when her sister, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) gives her a humbling lesson in physical confrontations. To clear things, Kara was considerably weakened by Kryptonite. But Kara is pissed off with Alex, not realizing that she was just following Hank's orders.

Kara receives some unexpected help from none other than Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Using herself as an example, Cat advises that Supergirl should instead start from the basics and build her skills before taking on major assignments/obstacles.

With help from James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) and Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan), Supergirl takes on robbers and practices other street level heroics. Soon, both Kara's self-confidence and the public's confidence in Supergirl starts to soar.

On the villain's front, General Astra (Laura Benanti) is not happy with our Hellgrammite munching on human victims and drawing attention to himself. As a punishment, she orders him to bait Supergirl.

Hank Henshaw and Alex Danvers themselves try to trap the Hellgrammite. Unfortunately, Alex gets kidnapped by the villain. Supergirl locates Alex using her super-hearing senses.

Kara Zor-El faces off against her aunt, Astra. Though she is able to use the lesson learnt from Alex against Astra, it is Hank Henshaw who saves the day by attacking Astra with a dagger shaped Kryptonite weapon.

A subplot involves Cat Grant forcing James Olsen to arrange an interview with Supergirl. Though Kara is reluctant at first, she finally decides to do the interview.

Now for the most interesting part in the episode: Hank Henshaw's eyes glowed red for a few seconds during the closing moments. According to Wikipedia, Hank Henshaw is Cyborg Superman, a supervillain.

I am hoping that it turns out that it is Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz, who is disguised as Hank Henshaw. Martian Manhunter (MM) is an alien from Mars and has red glowing eyes. Phil Morris made a great MM on Smallville.

It would be logical that MM would be heading the DEO. MM being a CIA agent also make sense, since he has been a police detective in the Canon.

Martian Manhunter is one of my favorite DC characters and also one of the most criminally underrepresented when it comes to DC Comics based adaptations. Besides, he has some of the coolest superpowers in the Comic Book Universe.

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There were a number of references to Superman and his adaptations throughout the episode:

1. Supergirl's quote: “Sounds like a job for Supergirl”
2. Supergirl claims to have gone from a Superhero to Eco-terrorist “in a single bound”

3. An incident on 5th and “Siegel” - Reference to Jerry Siegel, who created Superman (along with artist Joe Shuster)
4. Another incident on “Donner” Avenue - Reference to Richard Donner, who directed the 1978 Superman movie
5. Supergirl saving “Kitten” Fluffy from a tree - Hilarious send-up of the famous kitten rescue by the late Christopher Reeve's Superman
6. James Olsen being referred to as Superman's Pal
7. Alex refers to Superman's Fortress of Solitude
8. The hologram representation of Kara Zor-El's mother, Alura Zor-El - Similar to how Jor-El was show interacting with Kal-El in the 1978 Superman movie

As a fan of Superman and Richard Donner's movie, I enjoyed these nods very much.

Yet another villain, Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli) makes his appearance. His comments about the maintenance budget of Metropolis due to Superman's presence was a good and honest commentary on the cost of having a superhero around.

Kara Danvers' explanation of her insignia “S” as being standing for El mayarah - which in Krypton language means “Stronger Together”. It was a nice contrast between Alura and Astra vs Kara and Alex, who are stronger by having each other's back.

In another similarity to Arrow, the episode featured a flashback scene to Krypton. Kara Zor-El  remembers a conversation she had with her mother, Alura about the latest alien criminal who had been apprehended.

Trivia
The song “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar plays during the scene in which Supergirl is fighting the robbers.

Recommended watch to fans of Supergirl/Superman.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), DC Comics Database, Wikipedia

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Supergirl Season 1 Pilot Episode 1 - Recap and Review

The latest DC Comics based TV show from the creative team of Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg looks set to continue their astounding run of success. Starring Melissa Benoist as the titular character, Supergirl confirms that the successes of Arrow and The Flash were no flashes in the pan.

The show re-imagines Kara Zor-El's origin story as being sent right after Kal-El in order to protect him on the alien environment of Earth. But Kara's pod gets stuck in the Phantom Zone and when she finally makes it to our planet, 24 years have passed by. Kal-El is now known as Superman and has adopted the secret identity of Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter at the Daily Planet.

Superman rescues Kara and introduces her to her foster parents: Jeremiah Danvers (Dean Cain) and Eliza Danvers (Helen Slater). They have a biological daughter, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh). Alex and Kara hit it off right away and look out for each other.

A grown up Kara Danvers works at Catco Worldwide Media, a media conglomerate in National City. Her colleague, Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) is an alien conspiracy theorist and has an unrequited crush on her.

Kara's boss is Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), an insufferable and tough-as-nails lady. She shouts orders at Kara just as Perry White would at Clark Kent. The parallels continue further. Daily Planet's James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) takes Lois Lane's place at Catco. Winn Schott is the nerd here, subbing for Jimmy Olsen himself at the Daily Planet.

Kara reveals her powers to the world, when the plane carrying Alex develops problems mid-air. She also reveals her secret to Winn, who promptly sets to work on her costume. Cat, for her part, is presumptuous enough to come up with the name: Supergirl.

Supergirl is “abducted” by agents of a top-secret government agency, headed by Hank Henshaw (David Harewood). One of his agents is none other than Alex Danvers herself. Turns out that Alex was the target when her flight was sabotaged by unknown conspirators. 

Hank is suspicious of Kara's powers. Kara gets to test her powers again, when she is summoned by Vartox (Owain Yeoman) for an one-on-one confrontation. Vartox is a fellow Kryptonian and works for The Commander (Faran Tahir). Vartox was behind the attack on Alex and is determined to get Supergirl out of the way.

Vartox physically bests Supergirl and is about to finish her off, when Alex arrives in time to save her. Realizing that she does not have the brawn to beat Vartox, Supergirl uses her brains (and heat vision) to defeat him.

This was a good pilot and promises a bright future for the show. The casting is spot on for the most part. Melissa is excellent as Supergirl, combining the innate goodness and charm of Superman (as the late Christopher Reeve did so memorably). Her bumbling act as Kara is a bit too reminiscent of Tina Fey's character from the show 30 Rock. I felt that Tina overacted and her character came across as irritating than innocent, as was probably intended. Hopefully, Melissa will improve as the series progresses.

David Harewood makes a strong impression despite his limited screen time. I look forward to more of him in the upcoming episodes.

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Rest of the cast is adequate in their roles. The only exception is Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen. Mehcad looks too self-absorbed and comes off more as a self-concious male model. He does not appear to get in character as James Olsen. An intelligent girl (like Kara) would probably find him obnoxious in real life, but I guess since this is a fictitious world...

I enjoyed the jab at Bill O'Reilly.

There are a couple of cameos that continue the DC tradition of casting former actors from the DC Universe: Dean Cain and Helen Slater. Dean played the Man of Steel in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the TV series that aired from 1993 - 97. Helen Slater played Supergirl in the 1984 movie of the same name.

Fans of DC Comics will remember that the late Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder had cameos in Smallville. Adam West made a guest appearance as The Gray Ghost on Batman: The Animated Series.

More recently, Mark Hamill (Joker in Batman: The Animated Series) played The Trickster in The Flash. John Wesley Shipp who plays Barry Allen's father, himself was the Scarlet Speedster in the short-lived TV series The Flash (1990-91). Interestingly, Shipp voiced Professor Zoom in an episode in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

The airplane rescue that Kara performs and unintentionally makes her presence known to the world is a regular staple of Superman adaptations. In Superman: The Animated Series, Superman's rescue of a flight makes him an overnight sensation. In the 2006 movie, Superman Returns, after being gone from the Earth for five years, Brandon Routh's Superman again comes into the limelight by saving the plane carrying Lois Lane.

In addition, the manner in which Vartox communicates with Supergirl using a frequency that only she can hear reminded me of the 1978 movie: Superman. Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor spoke to the late Christopher Reeve's Superman in a similar way. This was a nice tip of the hat to the seminal movie, that marked the birth of the Superhero movie genre.

Another piece of trivia: Owain Yeoman (who played the hulking villain in this episode) portrayed Cromartie, yet another physically imposing antagonist in the pilot episode of another show: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The show (understandably) has some similarities to Arrow and The Flash. In both of these shows, the heroes have a supporting team giving them directions and advice. Here too, Supergirl has her sister Alex and presumably, the other agents to give her guidance.

As a fan of the DC Universe in general, and of Superman in particular, I enjoyed this episode very much. I loved his brief appearance in the show, especially his flight as he leaves the Danvers. Not to be outdone, Kara too uses her super powers throughout the episode. First, when she uses her super hearing powers to predict Cat Grant's impending arrival and later, when she uses her X-ray vision to view Alex in her apartment. Superman (and Supergirl) has some of the coolest powers of any Superhero and this show seems to be well aware of that fact.

Recommended watch to fans of DC Comics/Superman.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Pet Fly Productions, Warner Home Video, DC Entertainment

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