The curse of the small town.
Stan Against Evil officially premieres Wednesday, November 2nd on IFC with back-to-back episodes, but the network previewed the show's pilot, "Dig Me Up, Dig Me Down," on Halloween night. You can also watch the episode online at IFC.com. Warning: Some spoilers for the episode follow...
Created by comedian/former-Simpsons writer Dana Gould, IFC's Stan Against Evil goes for light, low-budget horror-comedy laughs with the story of a recently widowed New England Sheriff, Stan Miller (Scrubs' John C. McGinley), who comes to realize that the only reason he never horrifically died during his 28-years on the job was because he was being secretly protected by magic.
You see, the town Miller presided over, Willard's Mill, had a nasty habit of losing sheriffs to horrific events. Part of a centuries-old curse that Miller, somehow, was able to avoid. After Miller's forced to resign, a wide-eyed and hopeful Evie Barret (Legend of Kora's Janet Varney) takes over his job and runs head-first into the town's tragic trajectory. It's a fun premise, though the series doesn't quite have a full handle on the tone and characters yet.
Stan Against Evil might have an easier go of things if, say, a show like Ash vs Evil Dead weren't on the air. That's not to say that Stan Against Evil needs to be as outrageous and nasty as the Evil Dead show, but there's a similar sweet spot here. Although, Ash vs Evil Dead's main comedic element is Ash himself whereas this show is more of an out-and-out comedy on all fronts.
That being said though, we're not quite sure, at the outset, what kind of curmudgeon Stan is. He's certainly world-weary, but is he offensively so? He misses his late wife, but then also has a lot of hangups about "women always needing to be right." Sometimes he's dense and dopey while other times he's capable and wise. He's certain that both Starsky and Hutch were gay, which is a very old man thing to think, but at the same time there's no inclination that he actually has a problem with people being gay.
I guess my point is that the show doesn't, as of the first episode, go far enough with Stan's newly minted status as an unlikely demon slayer. We don't know enough about him to care, as of yet, since he kind of feels like an amalgam of grandpa traits. Was he a corrupt cop who beat some of his suspects? There are hints. Does he have any bigoted opinions? Not sure. He's certainly found-mouthed and has an issue with the town getting its first ever female sheriff, but it's not enough of an issue to be funny.
There are laughs here though. From funny local newspaper headlines to Stan's flighty and numb daughter, Denise (Deborah Baker Jr.) to an expert gag involving stolen restaurant condiments, Stan Against Evil holds a lot of promise. It just needs to nail down its two leads better. Because going forward, Stan and Evie will be working as a reluctant monster-killing duo and right now they're not exactly in comic sync.
The Verdict
Stan Against Evil holds comedic promise, though it first needs to develop Stan more as a character so that he doesn't just feel like a varied mix of elderly opinions and proclivities. This first episode did, however, set up a cool, instant mythology that's fun and inviting.
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