One More Favorite Show of 2015. Two More Special Mentions.

I suddenly remembered one of the coolest, most watchable shows from this past year that I somehow overlooked: Ash vs. The Evil Dead.  If you love television horror and television comedy then this was one of the best.  Of course, this is a continuation of cult classic horror cinema, and it feels like cinema.  The signature hyper-stylized tracking shots and the gnarly visual makeup effects are here to make you cringe while Bruce Campbell and the writers are here to give you some chuckles.

Unlike the movies, which were highly solemn for Ash and socially dysfunctional, Ash has some willing sidekicks with whom he has a generally pleasant and functional relationship.  Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo play his younger generation comrades.  Like Harrison Ford in Star Wars, the X-Files cast, and Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, Bruce Campbell jumps right back in and it feels completely natural and worthy.

Ray Santiago.

This show has to have one of the more professional and slick title sequences, opening and closing, of any series.  The only thing missing is that grainy, cheap film stock that made the older films and that era so special.  It was as if dread was hiding behind every single speck of film grain, the molecular demons danced before our eyes even during the most innocuous and pleasant of moments.  The digital medium lacks that unless they manufacture the grain, something I do with my personal photos.

Dana DeLorenzo

Yet, this show is definitely a welcome change of pace from all the melodrama, which is where most of the horror shows live these days.

Runner Up

Motive: Go Canada crime shows!  I didn't enjoy the demons from the past, serialized story line, but the cases of the week remain intriguing.

Bates Motel: Speaking of horror shows where the melodrama became a little too much for maximum enjoyment, this is one, but I still kept up with it because it worked on a basic level.