On two seasons of “Preacher”

[SPOILER WARNING: You might be able to infer some stuff about the last few episodes of Season 2 of Preacher.]

So Preacher the Netflix TV Series isn’t the Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon comic. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; the original would have been nigh-unfilmable, and Ennis can be an acquired taste.

What’s interesting are the surface similarities and internal differences. The cast is largely the same — macho lone wolf preacher Jesse Custer, gun-toting smart-mouthed girlfriend Tulip, dodgy Irish vampire with an occasional heart of gold Cassidy. The supporting cast, too, looks familiar — Eugene / Arseface, Herr Starr, the L’Angelle family, Fiore and DeBlanc, the Saint of Killers, Odin Quincannon, Humperdoo, Hoover and Featherstone, and more.

But below the surface (and, in places, out in the open), things are very different. Most of the primary characters are far more flawed and dysfunctional and unlikable than the comic ones. The road trip book has turned into something locked into seasonal set pieces. The quick pace has gotten bogged down in detailed digressions. The core McGuffin — where is God? — has gotten (remarkably) a lot more weird, and the primary motivation of Jesse in pursuing that mystery has gotten completely lost (comic book Jesse wants to hold God to account for the mess His Creation has become; TV Jesse just wants to find Him to ask Him to put things right). Ennis’ epic work about America, and the cowboy mentality that is at its essence, is almost invisible here.

Don’t get me wrong — my whole family is enjoying Preacher a lot. Tons of twisted imagination are on display. Some fine humor. There’s plenty of zany business, if in different directions from Ennis’ work (usually less adolescent). The TV show delves into a lot more detail — occasionally to an enervating degree (a couple of pages in passing about Tulip’s background in the book turned into a major plotline in half of this season), other times with delightful digression (Fiore’s magic show was lovely). There are places where the show nails the book perfectly — Graham McTavish’s Saint of Killers and Pip Torrens’ Starr are remarkably spot-on — and other places where its expansions on the original have mixed results (the Cassidy/Denis plot this season was in turns delightfully creepy, an interesting way to get to know Cassidy better, but also, ultimately, a huge time sink; Eugene’s adventures in Hell were interesting, but didn’t seem to contributed at all to the rest of the story).

The three principle actors — Dominic Cooper as Jess, Ruth Negga as Tulip, Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy — all turn in strong performances, as does the supporting cast, and the technical work and settings and overall visuals — whether west Texas or New Orleans — have been richly done.

But tonally the show is a very different thing from the book, and this season past was basically 13 episodes of spiraling downward for the three principals, with nary a victory or significant success, or even good prospect for finding one. That does give it a “car wreck in slow motion” air, but dramatically speaking, it’s problematic (we need something to root for or to enjoy other than Jesse kicking the snot out of the occasional bad guy), and makes it that much harder to watch sometimes. Any single episode of tragedy, anger, misanthropy, or self-doubt is fine, but in aggregate it becomes wearing.

That’s because, most importantly, Preacher is moving slowly, and at this rate I can’t imagine resolving this show for another decade (though, to be sure, I have no idea how they are planning on resolving the overall story, as it’s veering off in very different directions, with only the occasional sign post from the original showing up for the fans). One gets the impression that Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Sam Catlin have some sort of end game, but I’ve no sense how satisfying it will be, what final lessons might come about, or even how far though their vision we are. I’m sure it will be bizarre and engaging, but not necessarily something I’ll look back on fondly the way I do with how the book wrapped up.

Overall, I like it a lot, even with its frustrations. But the TV version of Preacher is really not the original book except superficially, more like an adaptation in a different country in a different medium by someone who wanted to tell a different story with the same characters. I can accept that, even if it occasionally jars. I just hope things pick up a bit in Season 3.

It’s Time to Admit Preacher Isn’t the Show We Thought It Would Be
The second season of Preacher ended last night with a slow burn of a finale punctuated by a few twists and turns. This has pretty much been the blueprint for this season, if not the entire series: long stretches of fizzle, followed by a few moments of sizzle. Given the show’s source material, I expected so much more—but it’s time to finally realize that’s not this show.

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