{"id":147686,"date":"2019-12-12T23:28:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T06:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=147686"},"modified":"2019-12-12T23:28:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T06:28:10","slug":"the-last-coming-of-preacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/12\/the-last-coming-of-preacher.html","title":{"rendered":"The Last Coming of “Preacher”"},"content":{"rendered":"

We finally finished (a couple of months after the fact) AMC’s TV adaptation of Garth Ennis’ comic book series,\u00a0Preacher.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The central trio, back in Season 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long story short, the 4-season adaptation is a bit of a hot mess, full of many great moments (quite a few of them, but by no means all, lifted or adapted from the original), but as a coherent story it suffers even more than the original.<\/p>\n

Ennis wrote an odd but moving (and arguably insightful) paean to America, using hyperbolic sex and violence and iconoclastic religion to provide a old-style Western romance in modern clothing. Written in 3-6 issue arcs (to allow for trade paperback collection), the tale sometimes felt fragmented, but still progressed along narrative about Jesse Custer, his lethal girlfriend Tulip, and their vampiric and right bastard friend Cassidy.<\/p>\n

Seth Rogan (Executive Producer) and company faced an insane challenge to mirror the scope and over-the-topness of the original, coupled with, well, the need to maintain a budget (which, for example, dictated keeping kinda-sorta to a single setting per season).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The central trio, as drawn by comic book artist Steve Dillon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The result a show that felt like a lot of great parts, cut-and-pasted together — plotlines that meandered, events and narratives that seemed locked into a given season without following through (or following through only weakly) in subsequent seasons, characters that came and went or faded in and out, just …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eugene “Arseface” Root, acted heroically by Ian Colletti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, it didn’t keep me from enjoying what I was watching. The music\/sound, the cinematography, and, in particular, the actors were all great.\u00a0Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joe Gilgun owned the roles of Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy (and kudos to Negga who genuinely made me forget the comic book Tulip was a blond white woman). Graham McTavish as the Saint of Killers, Pip Torrens as Starr, and (massive makeup-sympathy shout-out to) Ian Colletti as Eugene … the casting was all just excellent.<\/p>\n

The parts were solid, but the whole … well, in the end, it was never quite clear what the TV series Preacher<\/em>\u00a0was about. The perils of absolute power,\u00a0 the dangers of hubris, the negligence (if not malignity) of God, the perversity of the universe, the power of friendship … there’s a palpable effort to make it all seem coherent and meaningful in the last episode, drawing in bits from the original (and some great scenes), but by then it’s too late.<\/p>\n

Which is a reason why, though I’ve read the graphic novel series a half-dozen times, I won’t be re-watching the TV series any time soon. It was a fine experience while it lasted, and on an episode-by-episode basis, full of talent and imagination, but it never quite made it as a coherent story.<\/p>\n

A tip of the hat, though. I’d have considered the series unmakeable. That we got something as good as this should be considered a triumph for the company. I wish it had been better, but I can imagine so many ways it could have been worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seth Rogan’s adaptation of the irreverent comic had great moments, but never quite gelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,40],"tags":[1614],"class_list":["post-147686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-comics","category-media-tv","tag-preacher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Preacher-s1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130740,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/23\/the-time-of-the-preacher-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":147686,"position":0},"title":"The Time of the Preacher","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-May-16 11:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I pre-screened the first episode of AMC's Preacher series, based on the comic book series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Given how the comic was, as well as how horribly it could go wrong in adaptation, I wanted to see if it was something for the rest of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/81XuC81Gr4L5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134697,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/15\/two-seasons-preacher.html","url_meta":{"origin":147686,"position":1},"title":"On two seasons of “Preacher”","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Sep-17 10:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"[SPOILER WARNING: You might be able to infer some stuff about the last few episodes of Season 2 of\u00a0Preacher.] 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Preacher-jesse-and-starr.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130371,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/06\/the-boys.html","url_meta":{"origin":147686,"position":2},"title":"The Boys","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Apr-16 10:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know that it will make me subscribe to Cimemax ... but there's all sorts of potential for an adaptation of Garth Ennis' The Boys.But it would be a dirty shame if Simon Pegg weren't cast as (arguable protagonist) Wee Hughie, given that's who the character was modeled after.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136476,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/17\/how-preacher-got-adapted-for-tv.html","url_meta":{"origin":147686,"position":3},"title":"How “Preacher” got adapted for TV","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-May-18 7:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"As avid watchers of the past two seasons on AMC, and waiting this next one with bated breath -- and as someone who's reread the source material a dozen times -- a lot of this article rings true. I don't agree with all of the decisions Rogen, et al., have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/preacher-jesse.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131200,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/03\/and-thats-a-wrap-for-preacher-season-1.html","url_meta":{"origin":147686,"position":4},"title":"And that's a wrap for "Preacher" Season 1","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Aug-16 6:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128475,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/02\/the-first-preacher-trailer.html","url_meta":{"origin":147686,"position":5},"title":"The first “Preacher” trailer","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Nov-15 6:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"So ... not sure so far. I'm a huge fan (and multiple re-reader) of Garth Ennis' Preacher comic, and I certainly am aware that there's a lot there that simply won't translate to the screen in any easy fashion. I'm just not sure what I'm seeing here instead, and I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147686"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147696,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147686\/revisions\/147696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}