This review is spoiler free for the second season set to premiere this Sunday, but it does contain major spoilers for the first season.  If you have yet to watch the first season, turn back now and get on that, ya screwheads.  Also, this review covers the first two episodes of the new season.

  I’m calling it now; season 2 is going to be better than the first.

Season two opens with a tense sequence that sees Ruby (Lucy Lawless) battling it out with her now grown Necronomicon babies over the book itself.  Very little time has passed since the events of the finale, and already things have gotten to be too much for her to control.  So she sends for the only help available; Ash and his crew of Ghostbeaters. Which means Ash’s happy dream of drunken debauchery in Jacksonville goes south really fast.  Pissed, he sets off to find Ruby in his hometown, with Pablo and Kelly happily in town.  As if a reign of darkness and terror isn’t bad enough, Ash’s hometown isn’t too pleased to see him ever since he chopped up his friends all those years ago.

While the first season seemed to struggle with finding its footing somewhere in the middle episodes, it discovered its identity by season’s end and never looked back.  Season two is confident and sure in its direction, which makes it all the more fun to watch.  The story has a clear destination in mind, and boy are viewers in for a ride.

Lee Majors makes a huge impression as Brock Williams, Ash’s racist father that isn’t so thrilled to have his son back home. Majors seamlessly steps into the Evil Dead universe, and there doesn’t seem anyone else more perfect for the role.  The premiere also briefly introduces us to Ash’s former flame, played by Michelle Hurd, who seems to be the sole person in town that doesn’t harbor animosity toward our lovable screw-up.  Though how she fits in to this world remains to be seen.

 Episode 2 has one of the funniest and grossest deadite battles that Bruce Campbell’s Ash has ever had to face. 

The second season also wastes no time covering our plucky core cast in gallons of blood and goop.  If anyone was possibly worried that creativity would run dry, fret not; episode 2 has one of the funniest and grossest deadite battles that Bruce Campbell’s Ash has ever had to face.  It’s the most compromising position that we’ve ever seen Ash in, and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the writers came up with that doozy of a scene.  Did I mention that this was only the second episode of the season?  Which means it’s only going to get crazier from here.

Season 2 hits the ground running and I suspect will not let up again.  Two episodes in, we’ve yet to see what big bad the Ghostbeaters will have to contend with, as the previous season’s big bad Ruby has now formed an uneasy alliance with our group. What we do have, though, are some epic battles with the lesser demons and new character introductions that are worthy of the Evil Dead universe.  I’m calling it now; season 2 is going to be better than the first.

Season 2 premieres on Sunday, October 2, 2016 on Starz.ashvsevilds2