The home of Into The Badlands, The Walking Dead, Turn and more adds another potential hit to their solid lineup. The long awaited series Preacher, finally hits AMC Network this week. Premiering Sunday, May 22, at 10pm, Preacher tries to continue their trend of semi-greatness.
Preacher is a strange animal and feels like the start of a drunken bar joke – A Preacher with mysterious powers, a Bounty Hunter and a Vampire walk into a bar looking for God… Garth Ennis’ comic became a cult smash in the early 90s and is one of the books that helped save/launch Vertigo comics back in the day.
Many have tried to bring this property to television or film. At one point it was even slated for HBO, but somehow, after nearly 20 years, Seth Rogan and his partner Even Goldberg somehow ended up with the property and managed to succeed in bringing this to television when all others failed. I think the behind the scenes shenanigans with the strange journey of this show would probably be more fun than the show itself.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy – Preacher _ Season 1, Pilot – Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
It seems a mysterious force comes from the sky seeking a worthy host. Unfortunately it finds Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper ) a jaded Texas Preacher with a mysterious past. The characters in this town are appropriately strange. Custer doesn’t even realize he has any powers until he starts noticing that strange things have been happening to his parishioners. Seems they have started taking his advice a little too literally.
During the the first few episodes the cast slowly expands to reveal his angry, mercenary/bounty hunter (I’m not sure what she does, really) ex-girl friend Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) who thinks he’s running a long con. She spends the first 4 episodes trying to get him to help her with some mysterious revenge. Tulip and Custer’s shady past will be a major backstory throughout the first season.
There’s a strange guy named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) who just happens to be a Vampire on the run from his people. Eugene is an odd duck who disfigured himself in a failed suicide attempt and happens to be the Sheriff’s son. Apparently heaven (Management) isn’t happy that Custer has these powers so Angels have been sent to track him down.
It’s a good thing AMC made the first four episodes available for review because I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it based solely on the first episode. The direction and visual style are bland, yet strangely beautiful. Granted we’re looking at essentially a dustbowl small town, but at times it looks beautiful.
Moments of contemplative storytelling are interrupted by spots of over the top violence with exploding heads, arms being hacked off and just buckets of blood everywhere. Without knowing where the story is headed, the bloodletting feels like it’s there purely for shock value and don’t serve much story purpose.
At times Preacher is weird, interesting and tortuously slow, but it eventually sucks you into its strange, quirky small town world and I’m down for the ride.
Final Grade B