Ash Vs. Evil Dead appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on these Blu-Ray Discs. Once again, the series offers fine visuals.
As expected, sharpness worked well. The occasional soft wide shot materialized, but most of the episodes appeared accurate and distinctive.
No signs of moiré effects or jaggies occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source defects failed to mar the proceedings.
Like prior seasons, S3 went for a fairly low-key sense of teal and orange. Some additional hues – like dense greens for supernatural sequences – popped up and the colors seemed well-rendered for the material.
Blacks came across as deep and dense, while low-light shots portrayed a good feeling of clarity. As usual, the episodes offered appealing visuals.
Lather, rinse repeat: S3’s Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack closely resembled what I heard for the first two years. That worked fine for me, as the soundscapes opened up in a lively manner.
With a consistent mix of action and supernatural material, the audio allowed for a lot of involving sequences. The shows used the soundfields to broaden in a vivid way that used all the channels to put the viewer inside the gory action.
Audio quality also satisfied, with speech that seemed natural and concise. Music boasted nice range and clarity as well.
Effects added zing to the proceedings, as those elements appeared accurate and dynamic. The audio fleshed out the shows in a pleasing manner.
Audio commentaries accompany all 10 episodes. We hear from the following participants:
“Family”: director Mark Beesley, executive producer/actor Bruce Campbell and actor Arielle Carver—O’Neill;
“Booth Three”: Beesley, executive producer Rob Tapert, and actor Lucy Lawless;
“Apparently Dead”: Tapert, Carver-O’Neill, and directors Diego Meza-Valdes and Andres Meza-Valdes;
“Unfinished Business”: Carver-O’Neill and actors Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago;
“Baby Proof”: DeLorenzo, Santiago, executive producer Rick Jacobson and stunt coordinator Stuart Thorp;
“Tales From the Rift”: Tapert, DeLorenzo, Lawless, Santiago and visual effects supervisor Tim Capper;
“Twist and Shout”: Beesley, Campbell, Carver-O’Neill and Lawless;
“Rifting Apart”: Tapert, Carver-O’Neill, DeLorenzo and Santiago;
“Judgement Day”: Jacobson, Campbell, Carver-O’Neill;
“The Mettle of Man”: Jacobson, Campbell, Carver-O’Neill.
Across these, we get info about story and characters, sets and locations, cast and performances, stunts, action and effects.
While I enjoyed the commentaries for the first two seasons, these seem less compelling. Even the usually entertaining Campbell doesn’t offer a lot of zing, and we don’t tend to learn a lot about the shows.
The best track comes for “Apparently Dead”, and that’s because the directors talk a little smack about Campbell. They don’t dish dirt, but they tell us how he’d yell at people on the set. These tidbits add intrigue and honesty to the commentaries.
Otherwise, they’re mediocre. DeLorenzo only appears on four tracks but it feels like she shows up much more, as her cackling and screeching gets old. The others display more tolerable behavior but we just don’t learn a ton.
Granted, earlier commentaries didn’t come packed with info either, but they offered more entertainment. Maybe all involved felt depressed by the series’ imminent demise, but these chats are mediocre much of the time.
On Disc Two, Inside the World provides 10 clips that run a total of 18 minutes, 29 seconds and includes comments from Tapert, prosthetics co-designers Shay Lawrence and Don Brooker, and actor Quinn Farrell.
“Inside” looks at story/character areas, various effects, cast and performances, music, stunts and action, vehicles, sets and locations, and connected topics. Tapert dominates these clips and brings us a good array of notes. The individual featurettes seem too short to deliver many details, but they offer some fun insights.
Lastly, Season Overview goes for two minutes, 48 seconds and features Campbell, Carver-O’Neill, Lawless, DeLorenzo, Santiago and actor Lindsay Farris. “Overview” just provides a general preview of the season’s storylines. It’s promo material.
As it stands, Season Three of Ash vs. Evil Dead appears to be its last. That’s a shame, as the series kept up a high level of quality and turned S3 into another winner. The Blu-rays bring very good picture and audio as well as supplements led by a collection of commentaries. Ash goes out with a bang via this entertaining compilation of shows.