‘Stan Against Evil’ – Season 1 (2016)

I loved this show when I first saw it, a few years back, and pretty much gorged myself on it via, erm… disreputable sources. I only got through the first couple of seasons (mainly because there were only a couple of seasons to watch) and then promptly forgot about it in the middle of everything else that was going on for me. How can you watch a TV show if you don’t have a home to watch it in and other issues of that nature… Don’t worry, it did get that bad but it’s all sorted now; my flat is lovely thanks.

So, one flat and a hefty dose of Amazon Prime later and I realise that there are now three whole seasons of ‘Stan Against Evil’ for me to get stuck into… That was pretty much all I did for large chunks of the weekend and it was great. I polished off all of Season 1 and just over half of Season 2 as well but am going to take things one season at a time here…

The New Hampshire town of Willard’s Mill is home to any number of dead witches and assorted demonic creatures, all wrapped up in a curse that kills each and every sheriff that takes up residence in the town (funnily enough, all the way back to a series of witch burnings in the 1600s). Recently widowed Stanley Miller has somehow managed to avoid this curse for twenty years but his luck has just run out. Evie Barret is the new sheriff in town and her luck has definitely just run out. Together, they must fight the evil in town to save their own lives and at the same time, help Stan to negotiate the pitfalls of enforced retirement...

'Stan Against Evil' is what 'Ash vs Evil Dead' would be if Ash were another thirty years older and prone to not helping fight evil if his favourite show is on. It's a more easy going and gentle fight against evil then and I like that. Not that I've got anything against full on, intense evil bashing but this more laid back style helps a increasingly middle aged me get more out of the show. There's more time to appreciate where the plot is going and the characters who drive it. That's not to say that there are no scares though, there's plenty to make the viewer jump and then shamefacedly check that their door is locked (not that I did that, I'm just saying that's the kind of thing that might happen...)

There's also plenty of action and questions being asked in this eight episode first season where the main arc introduces us (as well as Stan and the new sheriff Evie Barret) to all the demons and witches living in Willard's Mill who weren't able to get anywhere near Stan until the person protecting the town died. Now, all bets are off and that can only mean things like punching a witch in the face (at a funeral) and a demonic pig with love on its mind. It's all done very matter of factly which just makes the whole thing even funnier from where I'm sitting. And that's not including the constant sniping between John C. McGinley's Stan (the ex-sheriff who doesn't see why he should have to give up the perks of the job, just because he's not doing it anymore) and Janet Varney's Evie Barret (the new sheriff who is trying to make the job her own but never counted on having to deal with someone like that Stan). I'm as much a fan of scares and gore as the next person but it's the growng friendship between the two that keeps me watching.

Without going into too much detail, the first season ends on a time travelling cliffhanger that, when I first watched it, had me going straight into the second season to see how it panned out. I'll tell you all about that when I review Season 2 but for now, lets just say that I love this show to pieces and am really glad to have made its accquaintance again. When the only thing I can say is wrong with a show is that each episode is only 21 minutes long, that just means that the rest of it is just what I'm after. And it was.