At the end of the first season of PREACHER, our protagonists – Jessie Custer, Tulip O'Hare, Irish vampire Cassidy – take off on an epic road trip to find God, who has abandoned Heaven to wander the Earth. And with the Saint of Killers hot on their trail. Many thought that the first season, set mostly in the small Texas town of Annville, was actually a prequel of sorts to the classic cult Vertigo comic, a set up that introduced our flawed, but bad ass heroes. To the many legions of fans of Steve Dillon and Garth Ennis's legendary cult comic, the first season was uneven at best, an outright disappointment at worst. At times the show meandered, often seeming like a berserk Texas version of Peyton Place as the emphasis drifted to secondary characters.
After viewing the first two episodes of season 2, I'm happy to say that PREACHER is off to a roaring start, giving us some terrific, and incredibly violent, set piece scenes. PREACHER manages the difficult feat over going over the top without becoming utterly ludicrous (unlike BLOOD DRIVE over on SyFy); for all the blood and gore and explosions, this show has a tremendous amount of heart. In the second episode, "Mumbai Sky Tower," this was personified by Fiore, the fallen Angel from season 1, who is now using his instant reincarnation as a magic act in Vegas. Having failed to bring Genesis back to Heaven and lost his fellow angel, and lover, LeBlanc, he is truly a lost soul. The sequence of him losing himself in delights of Vegas, all the while dying and coming back, is one impressively done piece of work, letting us truly feel this character's utter despair. In the end, Jessie helps him find peace, but then Fiore turns around and betrays Jessie to the Saint because he knows that Jessie Custer, no matter how well meaning, still can't help but misuse Genesis, causing no end of carnage in the process. All praise to Tom Brooke as Fiore, who when made up for his Vegas act, uncannily resembles Boy George in his prime.
These first two episodes opened with two incredibly gory and violent shootouts, the first an encounter with the Texas Highway patrol that goes very bad when the Saint of Killers shows up, and in the opening of the second, when Jessie uses Genesis to call upon a gun club for protection, setting off a motel massacre, when the Saint catches up with them yet again. It has become very clear that Jessie is quite good at getting innocent people killed. This includes the great Glen Morshower as a fellow minister who keeps parishioners imprisoned in cages to help them curb their urges. Clearly one problem going forward is having the Saint nearly catch up to Jessie and company each show, kill a lot people while the protagonists slip away again. This is going to get old unless the writers find a creative way to deal with it. Still, they do a great job of making the Saint a truly sinister character in just the way he keeps on slowly waking toward his intended victims, grimly determined and never deterred. Not unlike the monster in IT FOLLOWS.
Both Tulip and Cassidy had a pair of great scenes of their own; the former when she runs into a former underworld associate in a hotel room and his to either talk, or failing that, fight her way out of a bad situation, and Cassidy when he induces Fiore into an epic drug binge in order to convince the angel to help them out with their problem with the Saint.
The acting by Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joe Gilgun is even better in this new season, and Graham MacTavish exceeds expectations as one of comics all time great characters, the Saint of Killers. Hopefully, we'll catch up to Ian Colleti's Arseface (who's trapped in Hell) very soon. Great praise to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg for pulling off the impossible and making the comic book come to life on the TV screen. Now that our heroes and villain are bound for New Orleans, we can only hope things will get even more outrageous and certainly more violent. Like AMC's other Sunday night show, FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, PREACHER has truly hit its stride.
And a high five to all those who caught the shout out to former DC Comics editor, Axel Alonso, in the opening of the second episode.
After viewing the first two episodes of season 2, I'm happy to say that PREACHER is off to a roaring start, giving us some terrific, and incredibly violent, set piece scenes. PREACHER manages the difficult feat over going over the top without becoming utterly ludicrous (unlike BLOOD DRIVE over on SyFy); for all the blood and gore and explosions, this show has a tremendous amount of heart. In the second episode, "Mumbai Sky Tower," this was personified by Fiore, the fallen Angel from season 1, who is now using his instant reincarnation as a magic act in Vegas. Having failed to bring Genesis back to Heaven and lost his fellow angel, and lover, LeBlanc, he is truly a lost soul. The sequence of him losing himself in delights of Vegas, all the while dying and coming back, is one impressively done piece of work, letting us truly feel this character's utter despair. In the end, Jessie helps him find peace, but then Fiore turns around and betrays Jessie to the Saint because he knows that Jessie Custer, no matter how well meaning, still can't help but misuse Genesis, causing no end of carnage in the process. All praise to Tom Brooke as Fiore, who when made up for his Vegas act, uncannily resembles Boy George in his prime.
These first two episodes opened with two incredibly gory and violent shootouts, the first an encounter with the Texas Highway patrol that goes very bad when the Saint of Killers shows up, and in the opening of the second, when Jessie uses Genesis to call upon a gun club for protection, setting off a motel massacre, when the Saint catches up with them yet again. It has become very clear that Jessie is quite good at getting innocent people killed. This includes the great Glen Morshower as a fellow minister who keeps parishioners imprisoned in cages to help them curb their urges. Clearly one problem going forward is having the Saint nearly catch up to Jessie and company each show, kill a lot people while the protagonists slip away again. This is going to get old unless the writers find a creative way to deal with it. Still, they do a great job of making the Saint a truly sinister character in just the way he keeps on slowly waking toward his intended victims, grimly determined and never deterred. Not unlike the monster in IT FOLLOWS.
Both Tulip and Cassidy had a pair of great scenes of their own; the former when she runs into a former underworld associate in a hotel room and his to either talk, or failing that, fight her way out of a bad situation, and Cassidy when he induces Fiore into an epic drug binge in order to convince the angel to help them out with their problem with the Saint.
The acting by Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joe Gilgun is even better in this new season, and Graham MacTavish exceeds expectations as one of comics all time great characters, the Saint of Killers. Hopefully, we'll catch up to Ian Colleti's Arseface (who's trapped in Hell) very soon. Great praise to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg for pulling off the impossible and making the comic book come to life on the TV screen. Now that our heroes and villain are bound for New Orleans, we can only hope things will get even more outrageous and certainly more violent. Like AMC's other Sunday night show, FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, PREACHER has truly hit its stride.
And a high five to all those who caught the shout out to former DC Comics editor, Axel Alonso, in the opening of the second episode.
