Stan Against Evil
IFC, 2016-2019
Created by Dana Gould
Starring John C. McGinley, Janet Varney, Nate Mooney, and Deborah Baker Jr.
“172 demons have been unleashed on the residents of Williard’s Mill as payback for a massive witch-burning hundreds of years ago. Evie, the new sheriff in town, needs to work with the former sheriff, Stan Miller, who was forced to retire.” – Promo Blurb
OK, take Ash versus Evil Dead. ‘Way over-the-top gore and violence, played for laughs. Now take the old Andy Griffith Show which was a family-friendly Pleasantville-type comedy about a bunch of rubes in some very rural little town. Combine the two, and add a few comical personality defects to the main characters. Congratulations. You have Stan Against Evil.
Apparently in 1692 the church-going folk of Williard’s Mill got a bit overenthusiastic and they had the town constable burn 172 women alive at the stake for being witches. But it seems they actually were witches, and, understandably annoyed about being burned to death, came back and kinda take turns killing whoever the constable of the town is. Times change, and the constable became the sheriff, a distinction apparently opaque to vengeful spirits. In 325 years one might think they had enough time to kill 172 constable sheriffs, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Even more mysterious is why anyone would want a job with a life expectancy of five years, tops.
Then Stan (John C. McGinley) comes along, irascible, passive-aggressive, and far too dim to take on 172 harpies and win, but he lasts on the job. Stan doesn’t have the psychotic charm of the Bruce Campbell “Ash” character, but he manages to run things fairly well with a deputy (Nate Mooney) who sounds exactly like Don Knotts from the Andy Griffith show. Until Stan’s wife dies. He kinda goes nuts at her funeral and has to take an early retirement. It’s just him and his genuinely weird daughter Denise (Deborah Baker Jr.) in that big old future haunted house.
A day or less later, Evie (Janet Varney) is hired from the Big City, and takes over. In this world, hiring sheriffs is a quick process, but then, I guess it has to be.
If it sounds goofy, that’s because it is, but it’s got an interesting mix of characters and a tone that says, “don’t write this off as a silly sitcom just yet.” There were just too many genuinely funny moments in it. Fans of Ash Williams will enjoy it. Fans of Andy Taylor, Barney Fife and Opie (Ron Howard, back when he still had hair!) might want to reconsider. Aunt Bee didn’t generally decapitate children or burn Barney at the stake, even though there were times when she should have.
First two seasons (16 22-minute episodes) now available on Hulu.