I typed a very long mid-season 2 recap that never got posted apparently, but now that I'm into season 3, I can comment on it as a whole. Season 2 was a mess overall. The comedy was either too silly and Three Stooges-esque, or gross-out colon humor, very little inbetween. I've said it many times before, one of my favorite gags on the whole show was S2E1 where Ash cuts the deadite's arms and head off, while the corpse slips in it's own blood on the floor. Classic. The colon sequence didn't gross me out or offend me, but just didn't really feel necessary other than "look how far we can stretch on this." I liked Baal as a villain, although I would have liked him to be a bit more menacing. I don't even want to go into timeline and story issues as that has been discussed way more thoroughly than I care to get into now. Episode 3 and 4 were some of my least favorite in the series.
Keeping with my goal of trying to focus on the positive aspects of this show, I enjoyed the darker aspects of season 2 vs 1. The setting, the mood of Elk Grove, the asylum episodes, and the minor villains. Obviously I loved the Ashy Slashy puppet, and I got a good laugh out of Ash in the cabin with the tiny demon he extracted from his leg. I enjoyed seeing Henrietta again, perhaps sans milk. Lots of fun to be had in these 10 episodes, provided you can suspend your disbelief heavily.
Season 3 however, feels like a standalone show so far. I only saw it once when it aired, and once on blu-ray last year, but this all feels fresh to me after 2 episodes. Kelly and Pablo are on my nerves this season in particular, but Brandy feels much more human and like-able this time around. In fact, they could have just made season 3 as is with a few extra episodes before to get you up to speed on Kelly and Pablo and how they got to Elk Grove, and I believe the show would have been phenomenal as a 12 or 13 episode series start to finish. Even the gross-out episode of the season, in the sperm bank, had a purpose for Ash to be there. This is the reason the show's cancellation hurt so much, because season 3 was the closest they got to the original trilogy and it leaves one longing to see what could have been, especially over the last 5 or so episodes. I'm only on episode 3 today, but I would have loved to have gotten THIS Ash, still a bit of an idiot, but with purpose and determination.