The TV Column

IFC unveils Stan Against Evil horror comedy

Stan Against Evil, starring John C. McGinley, is a clever new horror comedy from IFC. The series debuts at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Stan Against Evil, starring John C. McGinley, is a clever new horror comedy from IFC. The series debuts at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Those who have read this column for any length of time (and it goes back to 1993) know well my love of the weird, wacky and avant garde on television.

It's like longtime TV critic Gail Pennington, my friend and colleague at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, says: "I watch bad TV so you don't have to." And I watch a lot of bad TV.

Granted, what constitutes bad television is highly subjective. One man's trash is another man's treasure. But what most can agree on is that the vast majority of what's on TV is bad.

I've written before that the vast majority of every medium -- film, books, art, music, TV -- is bad. If not bad, then distressingly mediocre. And with TV, too much is derivative, formulaic and, what's worse, boring.

That's why I delight whenever I find something refreshing, even if a bit derivative. There's no better place to look for the wacky and weird than IFC, the cable channel whose official motto is, "Always on. Slightly off." As in offbeat.

IFC, known as the Independent Film Channel until 2014, is owned by AMC Networks and available in about 73 million households. IFC began branching away from airing only independent films about 10 years ago and has had success with original comedy. The most notable of those is the decidedly bent Portlandia, starring Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen.

Now comes IFC's latest, an original horror comedy titled Stan Against Evil. It's a hoot. The half-hour series, which owes more than a passing nod to Ash vs. Evil Dead on Starz, officially premieres with back-to-back episodes at 9 p.m. Wednesday. (There was a sneak peek on Halloween.) The remaining six episodes of Season 1 will air at 9 p.m. Wednesdays.

The series comes from the creative mind of comedian Dana Gould (The Simpsons), who has also invoked Ghostbusters, Evil Dead 2 and Shaun of the Dead as inspirations, and called the show "a sitcom hiding in a horror movie."

Gould notes the title character is based directly on his own grumpy father. "What if my dad had to fight monsters?" Gould said at the TV Critics summer press tour. "What if my dad had to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

Stan Against Evil stars 57-year-old Hollywood veteran John C. McGinley (Platoon, Wall Street, Scrubs) as Stan Miller and Janet Varney (You're the Worst) as Evie Barret.

The series follows the curmudgeonly adventures of former Sheriff Miller, who was forced into retirement after 28 years when his wife died and he didn't handle it well.

Stan has been replaced by Evie. It turns out she is as tough as she is fetching. Initially the duo don't get along, but they join forces once they realize that their quaint little New Hampshire town of Willard Mills is the site of an unholy onslaught of unleashed demons.

"All I want to do is nuthin'," Stan grouses from his recliner, "and I can't even do that."

Why not? Well, back in the 17th century, the zealous sheriff burned at the stake 172 falsely accused witches while Salem, Mass., got all the publicity. One of his victims put a curse on whomever was the sheriff, and things have been deadly for the chief constable ever since.

In fact, Stan is the only one to have escaped dying in office. Why he survived becomes clear in the pilot.

The rest of the cast includes Nate Mooney as milquetoast Deputy Leon Drinkwater and Deborah Baker Jr. as Stan's well-meaning daughter Denise.

Stan Against Evil is witty and entertaining, but contains some rough language and lots of gooey cartoonish violence when the demons are around.

The 50th Annual CMA Awards, 7-10 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. Live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood again host.

Other than the hosts, those scheduled to perform are Alabama, Dierks Bentley, Reba, Eric Church, Brooks & Dunn, Maren Morris, Charley Pride, Keith Urban, George Strait, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Kelsea Ballerini, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Tim McGraw and Kacey Musgraves.

That ought to kill three hours.

Secrets of the Dead, 9 p.m. Wednesday, PBS. Finally, just for some nifty variety, AETN has a good one with the episode "Graveyard of the Giant Beasts." The titanoboa was the apex predator after that meteor wiped out the dinosaurs. The fossils in Colombia will have you grateful this monster isn't still around.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 11/01/2016

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