Preacher- AMC Comic Adaptation

[GallowKnight]

And so the first season ends where it probably should have begun. While I have largely enjoyed the show, all this Annville stuff comes of as feeling kinda pointless. They really could have blown the town in the first episode and I don't think the show would have been any worse for it. Instead we just got all this stuff that ultimately felt unnecessary because it never got any real satisfying conclusion anyway. Having read the comic and therefore knowing that this was how Annville most likely was going to end up has made it a bit difficult to actually care about what was going to happen.

And of course the whole Cowboy bit just ends up being a tease for the next season and there being almost completely irrelevant to the rest of the season.

As disturbing as that meat-baby may have been it still has nothing on the meat-lade from the comic.

I gotta admit though, the bits with the mascots were kind of funny.

Spoiler

For fucks sake, are they really going to replace John Wayne with Arseface? What a disappointment.

 

[Morpheus]

A rather limp finale but in keeping with the arc of the season. As nice as it is to see Annville in the rearview, it is basically an admission that we wasted a full season with what were mostly terrible supporting characters. Most of what happened just doesn't matter, Odin's murders, Emily's turn, it looks like Arseface will be the only throughline, and I still don't think making him central to the plot was a good idea. The actual explosion was pretty lame, so was the meeting with "God", would have prefered it if Jesse picked up on the obvious bullshit immediately rather than dragging out the scene. 

It is nice that there will be what amounts to a pretty hard reboot next year, but I don't think this season was successful. I think it proved that, no, we really didn't need to see Jesse actually working as a preacher to ground the series.

[Dr. Pepper]

Wait, really?  That's it with Annville?  I mean, I know it blew up, but I was sort of hoping there would be something left over.  

I really enjoyed this show and the season.  I liked the characters.  It was hilarious and ridiculous and absurd and loads of fun.  But if everything we just watched is completely gone and done, then it pretty much changes everything I felt about the season.  Fuck that.  I knew Seth Rogen couldn't be trusted.  

[Arkash]

Kinda frustrated that Odin and Emily are gone... I felt like their characters hadnt been exploited to the fullest... especially with Emily going all feed-the-vamp-with-the-mayor last week...

[Morpheus]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Wait, really?  That's it with Annville?  I mean, I know it blew up, but I was sort of hoping there would be something left over.   

I didn't watch it, but I've read that on the after show they confirmed that everyone is dead. Though I suppose if anyone did survive they wouldn't say so at this moment since the news report clearly wants us to think everyone is dead. 

[dbunting]

I have never heard of the characters before watching this show so I had no clue what to expect. It was an interesting enough season that I know I will watch it again next season. Some of the stuff that happened made no sense and was just out there, but you knew it was going to be once you got a few episodes into the season.

Not sure if I like the whole town being blown up but I guess they were going for a biblical wiping clean of all the sin in that town?

[MisterOJ]

12 hours ago, Morpheus said:

I didn't watch it, but I've read that on the after show they confirmed that everyone is dead. Though I suppose if anyone did survive they wouldn't say so at this moment since the news report clearly wants us to think everyone is dead. 

Yeah, while they did say that everyone was dead on the aftershow, it seemed to me that they did it with a wink and a nod. It seemed pretty clear they were being coy with that information, so I would bet on someone from the town making a return to the show. Odin and Emily appear to be the most likely options for that, IMO.

[Spockydog]

20 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

Yeah, while they did say that everyone was dead on the aftershow, it seemed to me that they did it with a wink and a nod. It seemed pretty clear they were being coy with that information, so I would bet on someone from the town making a return to the show. Odin and Emily appear to be the most likely options for that, IMO.

I'd very much like to see more of Odin. Emily, not so much.

A couple of episodes ago I was thinking about binning this show, but I really enjoyed the finale and am now looking forward to next season.

Oh, and the video link to Heaven was hilarious.

[SpaceChampion]

2 hours ago, dbunting said:

Not sure if I like the whole town being blown up but I guess they were going for a biblical wiping clean of all the sin in that town?

I took it more cynically.  If there was divine intervention happening there, it was the angels in heaven covering their asses by wiping out the town to silence those who saw the revelation that God is missing.  If everyone had died, then only people who didn't witness it can claim God is missing, and they can effectively be dealt with by casting doubt the same way the oil lobby casts doubt about the link between greenhouse gases and climate change.

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said:

I took it more cynically.  If there was divine intervention happening there, it was the angels in heaven covering their asses by wiping out the town to silence those who saw the revelation that God is missing.  If everyone had died, then only people who didn't witness it can claim God is missing, and they can effectively be dealt with by casting doubt the same way the oil lobby casts doubt about the link between greenhouse gases and climate change.

I saw it different. If you remember that guy in the gas area had red lights before and he just banged on them, flipped a switch or two and they quit. Then this week he is on the phone with his wife asking to have sex with her and she shoots him down. They are shown at the church where they hear god is gone. Then he is shown, I assume dead of a heart attack, with what I assume is a hooker he just had sex with. All of which are the result of his wife saying no and him hearing god is gone. The issue comes back and instead of him fixing it he's dead and boom.

[SpaceChampion]

I did not compute he had a heart attack, but that's more or less what I thought.  My previous post was just a scenario if there was divine intervention to wipe out the town of its sins like you suggested, it wouldn't be for purity's sake, but to cover their asses.

[The BlackBear]

Huh, I took it like the whole town had been sent to hell.

[red snow]

An odd finale. It did go out of its way to try and align things with the comic but it'll be interesting to see whether the complete change in dynamic is favoured. I'm guessing the road trip aspect will still result in them spending a lot of time in various locales. The comic tended to have arcs in given towns/cities and i could see the show doing a season per arc. Which would give them around 7 seasons to loosely base things around.

What happened to the other angel? Did I forget the Saint of killers killing him? I though both ANgels left with him at the end of the last episode? Hopefully we'll see some more of the angels next season.

The conversation with "god" was very surreal and I really enjoyed the town's reactions during and after. The town exploding was definitely just "shit happening" (the guy died from a heart attack saying "screw it" and having some kinky sex with a prostitute and the pressure built-up exploding). Within the context of the show you could put it down to an "act of god" or more accurately, as the finale showed "an inaction of god".

I'll miss Odin - although his mansion ranch may lie on the outskirts but I think the rest of the denizens were disposable.

So it wasn't that Arseface's hell was working at a diner? I think I'd rather have that than him being in real hell. It felt like too much of a loose end.

And Carlos was beaten into that shape by Jesse and Tulip? Seemed odd given he had the gun.

The show blew hot and cold for me. The pilot was great and there was a great one in the middle somewhere. Most of the time the episodes had a mixture of good and bad though like the finale. I'll watch season 2 but felt there were a lot of times the show wasn't entirely sure of what it wanted to be. Personally I felt it was at its best when being zany and frenetic. If they use the comic as a stronger guide from now it may help the show - we'll see. Although the next arc in the comics is a heady balance of genuine drama horror and very dark humour. I think I'll try and reread the comics over the next few months as I realised looking at synopsis' that I've forgoteen substantial chunks of it.

[The BlackBear]

4 minutes ago, red snow said:

What happened to the other angel? Did I forget the Saint of killers killing him? I though both ANgels left with him at the end of the last episode? Hopefully we'll see some more of the angels next season.

So it wasn't that Arseface's hell was working at a diner? I think I'd rather have that than him being in real hell. It felt like too much of a loose end.

And Carlos was beaten into that shape by Jesse and Tulip? Seemed odd given he had the gun.

SoK shot him at the end of Finish the Song, it was in the recap.

Jesse has been hallucinating/communicating with Arseface, it might be him might not be. He is still in 'hell', and might also be talking to Jesse through Genesis somehow.

It's all about how brilliant they are at fighting. Like Jesse disarming all Quinncanons men. I frankly find it a bit tiresome, I prefer people to be clever at fighting not just fucking ninjas. I was kind of expecting Cassidy to pop up and eat Carlosm when he was wandering off.

 

Also I feel dumb for not realising the Sheriff was Dan.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I'm tempted to read the comic now after this season, but I can see that it seems to be those who have read it that are the biggest critics of the show, which I think maybe would taint my opinion of it.

Not being a reader I thought the show was fantastic, it had a real edge and a feeling of individuality and bravery that not many other shows have. Even something like Mr Robot seems like a cynical attempt to hit the right notes in comparison. 

Some of Preacher doesn't always work, I don't like Tulip or anything surrounding her in general, but when the show does work its some of the most enjoyable stuff on tv. Cassidy is phenomenal, I loved the actor in Misfits and This is England and he brings that comic timing to the show that works brilliantly. 

That finale as well I really liked. 

GOD. At first I was like 'wow I can't believe they are showing God like this, they are gonna be in so much trouble', but then the revelation it was as fake as it looked was hilarious. The way the show portrays Angels and Heaven in general I really enjoy. 

Roll on next season, this is one of my top shows of the year.

[red snow]

10 hours ago, The BlackBear said:

SoK shot him at the end of Finish the Song, it was in the recap.

Jesse has been hallucinating/communicating with Arseface, it might be him might not be. He is still in 'hell', and might also be talking to Jesse through Genesis somehow.

It's all about how brilliant they are at fighting. Like Jesse disarming all Quinncanons men. I frankly find it a bit tiresome, I prefer people to be clever at fighting not just fucking ninjas. I was kind of expecting Cassidy to pop up and eat Carlosm when he was wandering off.

 

Also I feel dumb for not realising the Sheriff was Dan.

Amazon uk didn't show the recap so that was probably part of the problem. Better go back and watch the end of ep 9 again. It's worrying I forget such things when I can clearly remember the repetitive part of the SoK last week! Shame as I liked that Angel too (although whether he's really dead is probably up in the air)

they have yet to establish his bullets can give anything

Yeah the ninja fighting skills are over the top - especially if dodging bullets off-screen is now part of the repertoire.

I was also amazed to discover that the Sheriff was Dan. Makes me think they maybe do need to move the potential Deadwood film forward a few years. Although maybe with a beard and longer hair he'd be more recognizable again.

[The BlackBear]

5 minutes ago, red snow said:

Yeah the ninja fighting skills are over the top - especially if dodging bullets off-screen is now part of the repertoire.

I guess they just threw something at him to make him miss.

[red snow]

8 minutes ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I'm tempted to read the comic now after this season, but I can see that it seems to be those who have read it that are the biggest critics of the show, which I think maybe would taint my opinion of it.

Not being a reader I thought the show was fantastic, it had a real edge and a feeling of individuality and bravery that not many other shows have. Even something like Mr Robot seems like a cynical attempt to hit the right notes in comparison. 

Some of Preacher doesn't always work, I don't like Tulip or anything surrounding her in general, but when the show does work its some of the most enjoyable stuff on tv. Cassidy is phenomenal, I loved the actor in Misfits and This is England and he brings that comic timing to the show that works brilliantly. 

That finale as well I really liked. 

GOD. At first I was like 'wow I can't believe they are showing God like this, they are gonna be in so much trouble', but then the revelation it was as fake as it looked was hilarious. The way the show portrays Angels and Heaven in general I really enjoy. 

Roll on next season, this is one of my top shows of the year.

I think I feel the same way - when it's on form it stands out as being different from anything else but there are a lot of elements that sag over the course of the season.

The weird thing is that the pilot *my favourite episode) bore almost no reflection to the comic at all in terms of story. It did however capture the essence of the comic really well - it's supposed to be off-kilter, almost looney tunes mad. It also captured Cassidy and characters in general quite well. The odd part is that the aspects I wasn't so keen on (eg shooting dicks off and most of the siege storyline) was also very in line with the "humour" of the comic despite not being in the comic. I could see Garth Ennis putting a smiley face on that scene if he read it over with his producer hat on.

Part of the reason I want to read the comic again is because I was 17 when I did so - there's a decent chance I might find it pretty childish now.

[red snow]

6 minutes ago, The BlackBear said:

I guess they just threw something at him to make him miss.

True. It's weird because the scene of Jesse so casually trying to kill him prior to that was great - the "kicking his ass" part - not so much.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

2 minutes ago, red snow said:

I think I feel the same way - when it's on form it stands out as being different from anything else but there are a lot of elements that sag over the course of the season.

The weird thing is that the pilot *my favourite episode) bore almost no reflection to the comic at all in terms of story. It did however capture the essence of the comic really well - it's supposed to be off-kilter, almost looney tunes mad. It also captured Cassidy and characters in general quite well. The odd part is that the aspects I wasn't so keen on (eg shooting dicks off and most of the siege storyline) was also very in line with the "humour" of the comic despite not being in the comic. I could see Garth Ennis putting a smiley face on that scene if he read it over with his producer hat on.

Part of the reason I want to read the comic again is because I was 17 when I did so - there's a decent chance I might find it pretty childish now.

Interested to know which bits you think 'sag'. There were very few I didn't enjoy, I mentioned Tulip as I think she's the real weak link, but even show grew over the season, especially after seeing the early flashbacks of their relationship.