Preacher is the
brand new television series for AMC developed by Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen and
Sam Catlin, it is an adaptation of the comic book series created by Garth Ennis
and Steve Dillon and published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint.
Preacher tells the
story of Jess Custer (Dominic Cooper), a preacher in the small Texas town of
Annville. After a supernatural event at his church see’s him become accidently
possessed by a creature named Genesis and his entire congregation and church
destroyed, he enlists the help of Irish vampire, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) to
find God.
To start, lets discuss the casting and characters. The
casting of Dominic Cooper, Joseph Gilgun and Ruth Negga is nothing short of
perfect. Playing the titular character, Jesse Custer is Dominic Cooper (History Boys, Agent Carter). His
portrayal of a borderline alcoholic, holy man with a cloudy past is incredible
as he glooms over his absence of faith and his difficulties with some of the
more obnoxious members of his parish. One thing that stood out for me is his
surprisingly convincing accent, which carries a southern twang that conveys
some sinister undertones as the first episode progresses.
Joseph Gilgun’s happy-go-lucky Irishman, Cassidy, has to be
the standout character from the premiere episode. Now I absolutely loved This Is England and Gilgun’s character
was possibly my favourite character and I think he could be in Preacher as well. We’re introduced to
Cassidy as he drinks his way through numerous adulterous substances on an
airplane before jumping out and using an umbrella as a parachute. We’ll likely
see the most sinfully dark humour come from Cassidy and Gilgun pulls it off
with incredible confidence.
We’re introduced to Ruth Negga’s (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) character Tulip O’Hare as she creates a
bazooka out of old tin cans and moonshine before using it to stop the oncoming
group of armed men. Negga brought the perfect balance of emotions to her
character has she had just the right amount of tenderness and caring in her
scenes with the children and was a total badass in her action scenes.
The show brought some nice little Easter Egg’s for those who
read the comic and the fact we didn’t actually see Genesis in the episode adds
a nice element of mystery that they will hopefully keep for the majority of the
series. The one slight downside to the pilot is that it did move a little slow,
you can kind of expect it given them trying to introduce a lot of characters
and adding on an extra half hour but it didn’t feel like we were getting a lot
of information on those particular characters in the extra 30 minutes, it kind
of felt like we were aimlessly moving through the events in Annville.
This small flaw aside, the first episode was simply
phenomenal, with a couple of conclusively excellent action sequences and a lot
of laughs throughout. Even the most hard-core fan of the original comic will
not be disappointed with how Rogen, Goldberg and Catlin have adapted it and
brought it to life on screen.
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