Ash vs. Imposters

By the way, to people talking about the problem with the Zygons in yesterday's Doctor Who being forced to conform to the cultural realities of their new host country, I would like to say this is one of the reasons I don't like allegory. Of course, if you look at Zygons as being stand-ins for Muslim immigrants, you're going to get a lot more problems than that, including the fact that the show would then be saying that Muslims are tentacle monsters. Just like saying the Klingons are really Russians is like saying that Russians are inhuman and naturally warlike. Meanwhile, if you take Klingons as Klingons and Zygons and Zygons, you don't have this problem. Of course it's easier for Zygons to look like humans to blend in. They're a shapeshifter species, it's what they do.

Anyway. To-day I wanted to talk about the second episode of Ash vs. Evil Dead where the zombies are masquerading as the living and it's not an allegory for anything, it's just good.

So here's our first episode not directed or written by Sam Raimi--though as producer who knows what he actually contributed. The success of the episode can partly be attributed to its screenwriter, former Onion writer Dominic Dierkes whose style is a perfect fit for Bruce Campbell's deadpan. My favourite scene was the awkward dinner with Mimi Rogers guest starring as the possibly healthy mother of Kelly (Dana Delorenzo) or the unholy resurrection of her. She claims to have no memory of surviving her car crash. When she brings out her daughter's favourite dinner, Kelly is pleased she remembered, to which the suspicious Ash remarks, "You know, for someone who recently lost their memory, yours is pretty good."

Some of Ash's lines don't hit quite as nicely as they did under Raimi's direction but mostly this second episode was perfectly solid. I love the omnipresent, supernatural evil on the show--the zombies can turn up just about anywhere, take possession just about any time, someone who seemed perfectly fine and reasonable can suddenly be a demon. I don't think we've had anything like this since Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, and even then the threatening evil wasn't usually able to crop up at any time in the most insidious place possible. There's a real effective anxiety to this which balances the humour perfectly. Hopefully the show can maintain this balance but it's certainly off to a good start.

Twitter Sonnet #808

When Heracles has hold of ham he bites.
If Hera told a tender leg to run
It would through woods of elbow loving wights.
And only Mercury will know the Son.
Enlarged the brains encroach on mindless day.
A piece of ancient hull emerged from soup.
Wet pulpy new proboscis points the way.
Bemused the tropical bird held its stoop.
The spikes are in says Dinosaur Cosmo.
A dream of polka dots returns to God.
Recovered fibres point to wet Gizmo.
Between the teeth the jalapeno's odd.
The fruit of looms is knowledge under pants.
Unshaded yams become adult now plants.