I just figured out the best — and worst — analogy for TV Preacher vs Comic Book Preacher: it's the relationship between the J J Abrams New Star Trek movies and the original TV series. Except that, arguably, the TV Preacher is better than the original material.
The reason it works is because we've got the same (or very similar) characters in analogous situations and plot lines that go in wildly different, but thematically similar, directions.
Without going into spoilers (plenty of those in the review below), this episode wraps up the Season 1 "Prologue," leaving our trio of heroes roughly where they were by the end of the first issue (!) of the comic, albeit with some different experiences under their belt.
I can appreciate the effort it took to wrap up everything the show has done in a single finale episode, and I remain horrifyingly enthusiastic for the second season (Herr Starr is confirmed to be a bit part), but I also have to say that as the 10-episode season continue, it began to lose a bit of the greatness that the first episodes had — a grounded sense of normalcy with wicked Ennis-like commentary on the human condition in the background — and became more and more overtly antic and bizarre.
Not that it was a bad antic and bizarre, mind you, but it was more broad, less subtle, less gut-grinding, more for laughs than nervous giggles.
The article has some good points as well about how the climax is a bit of a cheat — it kind of ties to the original (and in that same grotesque fashion), but the circumstances and stakes are very, very different after a season in Annville, and it feels more expedient a "clearing the decks" than a shock beginning of the tale.
That said, the acting all remains good, the actors (stars and supporting) are all delightful, how they are going to take everything after Issue 1 and run with it … remains to be seen. And I'm eager to see it.
Preacher has been renewed, for a longer season. No airing date is announced, but I'm hoping it won't be too far into 2017.
In its season finale, Preacher goes looking for God
First, let’s just take a moment to appreciate how good that (almost) last scene was. Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy in a diner, enjoying some french fries; one last Big Lebowski joke; Jesse saying, in effect, “We’re going to find God, and if he needs help we’ll help him, and if not, we’ll kick his ass”;
I loved this, can't wait for the next season
I feel like they should have hinted at the electro methane reactor earlier on the season, a la Breaking Bad. It would have helped that part of the finale not feel so disjointed. BB already showed that stringing an audience along with WTF scene snippets works really well.
I'm not sure the Carlos story line could have ended much differently, for the reasons the article mentions.
+Nick McIntosh They hinted at it (the stacks, the gauges), but it wasn't quite enough.
I thought Carlos was going to encounter a post-jail Cassidy, which would have been amusing.