Preacher - AMC TV Show - Discussion Thread

[FPAlpha]

Throughout the years i repeatedly heard that Preacher is awesome, that it's a cult comic classic and required reading for comicbook fans etc. and if it's so the show is doing a poor representation or Preacher needs a huge setup that pays off later.

I like the setting, some of the characters are very cool (Jesse Custer, Tulip, the two Angels and of course Cassidy) but i don't see what the show is really about.

Ok, Jesse has a sort of Angel/Demon Hybrid in him that gives him special powers and he's otherwise a cool character but apart from that i don't see the direction where the show is headed.

I've also seen how people lose their shit when the Saint of Killers appeared in the show.. ok, so far it has left me a little bit cold.

Overall the show has some good bits, some very entertaining scenes (such as the 2 Angels and Jesse vs that female Angel fight or whenever Cassidy opens his mouth or does something) but in general i'm wondering what the show is about because it doesn't grab me as much as i thought it would.

 

[Mr Light]

The actual series premise has yet to occur on the show. I think it'll be in the season finale. I agree the show is meandering and directionless at this point in time.

The Saint of Killer is the ultimate bad ass and amazing in the comic book. I'm not very happy with the guy they got to play him. The Saint should look like an ancient dessicated evil Clint Eastwood. Also, no beard.

 

[Velocity]

This is a different kind of comic from the usual, so this comic derived show needs more set up at the beginning, I'm thinking. I'm enjoying it so far, because the actors are good and the story is just strange and different enough, but I think we need more Jesse in his skivvies.

 

[137th Gebirg]

The underlying core premise is still there between the comic and the show.

Spoiler

Why do some people (including Jesse) feel that God has abandoned them and the rest of humanity? Why did Eugene tell Jesse that, all of a sudden, God stopped talking to him? They keep adding hints, both subtle and not so much, delivering a general undertone of despair with all the sick shit going on in the world. Keep that one fact under your belt and enjoy.

 

[publiusr]

I take it the Sait of Killers was killed by a storm that shook the bar. That was a twister.

The tornado is an all American icon. We've seen it as monster--as transportation. It removed the Cowboy--one might say it imbued him with powers--the repeated deatth--then the vortex. He becomes the Saint of Killers only after all that.

 

[Mr Light]

Watched the finale live for once! Definitely the best episode and we're finally getting in track with the comic book. We finally have a series premise, ten episodes later. We finally have the town blowing up, though I thought the means was a little silly. It was an invention of the show, but I really enjoyed "God" appearing before the churchfolk. That was fun.

I really, really hope Quincannon died. My least favorite storyline in the entire comic. And he didn't even get to

Spoiler: comic

#$#$ a twenty foot tall meat woman in this one.

I just realized something. Arseface has replaced John Wayne as Jesse's invisible friend. I don't like that. And I still don't like Jesse sending Arseface to Hell. That shouldn't be possible. They better eventually reveal God did that to freak Jesse out and question using his power or something like that.

Huge negative marks for an entire season going by without Jesse ever meeting the Saint of Killers though.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't know the comics but that was epically amazingly fucked up! Kudos to AMC for allowing such an insane thing to gestate. Our trio looked pretty badass at the end. And God was an amazing moment to behold, I loved the old modem noises when the connection was first made. And the return of the little penis cooler.

Too bad Master Blaster wasn't around to keep that methane plant in check.

 

[Mr Light]

Did the pretty meek little church lady die in the explosion?

 

[FPAlpha]

Well finally the show gets rolling.. in the season finale. I don't know what to make of that but i hope the producers had a plan that made an entire setup season necessary.

However the finale was great right until Tulip punched Jesse in the face for kissing her Still half the episode didn't make much sense to me but at least there is a direction now for season 2 and a plot the audience unfamiliar with the comic book can follow.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ Actually I think it's the people that read the comics that had the most problem with Season 1.

 

[Velocity]

She punched Jesse for using the Voice to make her kiss him. Tulip is very independent and didn't like being compelled I guess.
Also, does being killed in Hell mean angels can't come back? Is DeBlanc stuck in hell or just dead and maybe back in heaven? Only sad little Fiore was left by the bus at the end. They ended up being separated anyway.

 

[Hugo Rune]

She punched Jesse for using the Voice to make her kiss him. Tulip is very independent and didn't like being compelled I guess.
Also, does being killed in Hell mean angels can't come back? Is DeBlanc stuck in hell or just dead and maybe back in heaven? Only sad little Fiore was left by the bus at the end. They ended up being separated anyway.

I think with the (seeming) death of the Soccer-phim by The Cowboy at the very end, the bullets from the gun of the Saint of Killers mean finality to everyone.

I fell asleep watching the last two episodes back-to-back. At one point the Mayor was being killed, the next God was Facetiming with Jesse and picking his nose.

I think @Mr. Adventure has a fair point with fans struggling more than anyone else to get to grips with the show. It's not a perfect comic, nor an a classic one, but it does have a strong central conceit (hunting down "God") with a decent myth-arc. So, for some, to see 10 episodes leading up to the first issue of the comic was a little trying. Yet, I guess, the comic does a lot of flashbacking, so by prequelling character back history, perhaps the future seasons will be more propulsive with its story.

I shall give it the benefit of the doubt as the show is damned beautiful to look at, does have the right amount of bat-shit crazy in it and Cass/Tulip are nailed down. Now, if they could make Jesse a more nuanced "hero" and actually build the relationship that Cass seems to think they both have, we'd be there. I'm not going to nitpick minutia, because no adaptation is going to adhere to every panel of its source. There is a lot right in here, but what isn't pulls me out of it.

The be-all-and-end-all of the show, really, is how Cass-Tulip-Jesse work, because for all the crazy, world spanning storytelling that takes place in the comics, the meat of the work is their fucked-up relationship. If they can get that right, then the All Father can wait.

Hugo - will rewatch then last episodes, promise.

 

[Joe Washington]

I think with the (seeming) death of the Soccer-phim by The Cowboy at the very end, the bullets from the gun of the Saint of Killers mean finality to everyone.

I fell asleep watching the last two episodes back-to-back. At one point the Mayor was being killed, the next God was Facetiming with Jesse and picking his nose.

I think @Mr. Adventure has a fair point with fans struggling more than anyone else to get to grips with the show. It's not a perfect comic, nor an a classic one, but it does have a strong central conceit (hunting down "God") with a decent myth-arc. So, for some, to see 10 episodes leading up to the first issue of the comic was a little trying. Yet, I guess, the comic does a lot of flashbacking, so by prequelling character back history, perhaps the future seasons will be more propulsive with its story.

I shall give it the benefit of the doubt as the show is damned beautiful to look at, does have the right amount of bat-shit crazy in it and Cass/Tulip are nailed down. Now, if they could make Jesse a more nuanced "hero" and actually build the relationship that Cass seems to think they both have, we'd be there. I'm not going to nitpick minutia, because no adaptation is going to adhere to every panel of its source. There is a lot right in here, but what isn't pulls me out of it.

The be-all-and-end-all of the show, really, is how Cass-Tulip-Jesse work, because for all the crazy, world spanning storytelling that takes place in the comics, the meat of the work is their fucked-up relationship. If they can get that right, then the All Father can wait.

Hugo - will rewatch then last episodes, promise.

I agree. The Cass-Tulip-Jesse dynamic is the key to the show's success. So far, it's a work-in-progress with some good moments and some kinks in need of being ironed out. I think that will change in season two now that the characters and their relationships have been fully established. At that point, they'll have room to grow.

 

[Mr Light]

Tulip and Cassidy having it off in Season 1 is certainly going to change the relationship from the comic...

 

[Hugo Rune]

How exactly?

Spoiler

Admittedly the means in which Tulip/Cass end up in bed together is different in the comics, but it is this moment, how he becomes infatuated with her and then reduces her to nothing more than outlet for his own desires, is in fact the key moral conflict in the book. Cass is in fact the villain of the piece and while big grand things with God, Saints, conspiracies and dickless henchmen, drive the plot, the twisted relationship between Jesse/Cass/Tulip is what the entire thing is all about.

With Tulip making a rash, weak decision of sleeping with Cass in an early episode, this may in fact foreshadow the inner weakness of the character as a whole, as seen in the book. She tries to run and hide from her problems through drink, drugs, and Cass, and it takes some time for her to realise what she is doing to herself and what Cass is using her for under the deluded guise of "love" or infatuation.

In the comics it is quite apparent that Cass has a "soft spot" for Tulip, but being a generally vile person, he takes advantage of her, uses her and then goes crawling back to Jesse believing their best-buddy friendship will overcome any woman.

There's a nice moment with Cass in the cell talking to Root about his previous arrest history. Look how dark and bitter Gilgun plays the moment "A crime of passion". Not remorse, but in fact his true self coming forward and, again, a little foreshadowing of what his/Jesse/Tulips relationship will twist into.

Hugo - a crime of "passion"

 

[publiusr]

Also, does being killed in Hell mean angels can't come back?

The Saint of Killers is one of the most powerful characters ever written. He brings what Death means to us to the world of Fiction.

the bullets from the gun of the Saint of Killers mean finality to everyone.

He shoots the Hulk, he shoots an angel--he shoots Q from TNG.

They all die--for good.

Remember the Q battle that seemed to take place in the Civil war. The Saint's' gun is that. If firearms had something to worship--it would be those Walker Colts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_of_Killers#Weapons

The Scythe for our age.

No reincarnation. No chance.

He is the negative of King's Gunslinger from the Dark Tower.

 

[Mr Light]

In the comic book, the Saint of Killer's Colts are

Spoiler: slight comics spoiler

the melted down Sword of Death from the Angel of Death. They can kill anything and anyone, and he never misses.

 

[Velocity]

So does the Saint of Killers have any Kryptonite?

 

[Mr Light]

Spoiler: comics

Jesse's Word of God can stop him. Aside from that, he's impervious to all forms of physical harm.

 

[Q2UnME]

Well, thread bump time. Perhaps someone wants to start a "Preacher - Season 2 - Spoilers" thread?

Anyway, without a whole lot of fanfare, Season 2 premiered last night on AMC here in the States. The second episode is slated to be on at 10:00PM tonight on AMC. Did anyone tune in? (besides me )

It seems to me that, now, we finally have the trappings of a story and some kind of direction for the characters. First season seemed to be a whole lot of "stuff" and meandering of the characters. There was some cute directive choices and "homages" in the first episode, like streaky "film stock" and color shifts like you were watching a movie from the early 70's in some smoky indie art house.

Anyone else still interested and watching?

Q2