He’s back and I couldn’t be happier.

Count me among those who loves Bruce Campbell’s Ashley “Ash” J. Williams character featured in the films The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992).

Which means that with this past Halloween weekend premiere of “El Jefe”, the first episode of Starz! Ash vs Evil Dead, it has been a mind boggling twenty three years since we’ve seen a healthy dose of our anti-hero/screwup in action.  Sure, Mr. Campbell made a cameo appearance as Ash at the very end (after the credits) of the disappointing 2013 remake/reimaging of Evil Dead, but that’s all it was, a few seconds’ long cameo…

Here we finally, finally get what we asked for: Ash front and center doing what he does best: Kick demonic ass while simultaneously making an ass out of himself.

For that’s what the crew behind the original Evil Dead films discovered: That graphic, splatter horror could be merged with comedy to create something unique for these times.  While this wasn’t an entirely new idea (years before Abbott and Costello meet up with, among others, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Dracula etc), the character of Ash, a knucklehead with a penchant for spouting some of the strangest/hilarious lines…

…was.  He’s a clod, a dim bulb.  An arrogant, selfish fool who nonetheless has one very unique ability: To effectively fight evil.  Though the first Evil Dead movie was more of a straight up horror film, it was in the second Evil Dead this unique comic-Ash character really flowered.  The clip above, from Army of Darkness, continued and expanded on that interpretation.  Ash was the dufus character from a comedy that just happened to find himself in a full fledged horror feature.

Happily, Ash vs Evil Dead follows that path beautifully.  Though older, Ash is certainly no wiser.  In fact, other than dentures and a bigger belly, he’s the exact same fool fans have come to know and love.

The first episode of this 10 episode series (with a second season already approved!  Yay!) succinctly re-establishes Ash while introducing us to his modern world, a place where he’s still a low level worker at the “Value Stop” chain (alas, the S-Smart found in Army of Darkness -and indeed all the elements present in that movie- could not be used in this show as that film is owned by another studio.  No big deal: Strong continuity isn’t an important element in the Evil Dead universe).  Ash also remains a lothario, readying himself in comical fashion in the opening scenes to cruise down to a seedy looking bar and pick up the only woman in the establishment…by lying and boasting about how he lost his hand (one can imagine how many times before he’s used this pick up line).

But all is (of course) not well and Ash realizes the evil he faced all those years before may be back.  And the person responsible for its return could be…Ash himself.

I won’t go into all the details of this episode but we are introduced to a larger cast of characters who will accompany Ash on this new adventure.  Some, like Lucy Lawless‘ Lucy appear only for a few seconds in this episode while three other regulars are given more time.  Whether there are more characters to join in this journey, I’m not sure.

Yet.

If you’re at all into Evil Dead and, more specifically, the legend that is Ash, you’ll have a blast with this new series’ first episode.  Let’s hope what follows is up to this highly entertaining premiere.