Preacher (season 2)

[mothman]

https://youtu.be/aAXQLvk4NFg

I'm looking forward to this.  Not necessarily from that teaser trailer, but I really did enjoy the first season. I'm reserving judgement for the show's long-term outlook, to see exactly how far they go and which bits they utterly bottle.

But I thought the decision to repurpose the Quincannon town segment as part of the origin story did work. That whole sequence in the comic felt a bit of a sidetrack largely to get Jesse out of the way while Cassidy & Tulip have their thing. Even more impressive, it took two of the most caricaturistic people in the comic, Root and Quincannon, and turned them into actual human, SYMPATHETIC, even likeable characters.

One thing I wonder if they'll mention: the fact that with the town exploding, everyone there is now likely dead while Jesse & co. swan off on their road trip. I don't know what the storyline for this season is, whether the Grail will be introduced, I suspect they're gagging to get on to Jesse's family history, Hollywood does love them some American Gothic southern redneck horror action after all.

Starts June 25, apparently. Don't know when on Amazon Prime.

[Mister Six]

The Grail were the vampire hunters in the plane in the first episode weren't they? I thought that was quite clever.

Liked a lot about the pilot but found the rest of the series, listless, toothless and feeble. Surprised it was renewed because there seemed to be zero buzz.

Great casting for Cassidy though.

[up_the_hampipe]

Awesome. I really loved the first season as well, and we always need more Joseph Gilgun on television. It's so strange to have something so great coming from Seth Rogen.

[mothman]

The response has been very low-key. I don't know how well it's actually done.

[brat-sampson]

I had a great time watching the first series and am totally unfamiliar with the original material so there's less for them to fuck up imo. Win-Win.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Liked a lot about the pilot but found the rest of the series, listless, toothless and feeble. Surprised it was renewed because there seemed to be zero buzz.

I thought there were moments of greatness sprinkled throughout, particularly the action scenes with the angels. Plus Ruth Negga and Joe Gilgun are charismatic as hell. Overall though I'd have to agree it was oddly uncompelling (even if I did watch it until the end). I anticipate it improving, now that the plot has kicked into gear.

[Mister Six]

I thought there were moments of greatness sprinkled throughout, particularly the action scenes with the angels. Plus Ruth Negga and Joe Gilgun are charismatic as hell. Overall though I'd have to agree it was oddly uncompelling (even if I did watch it until the end). I anticipate it improving, now that the plot has kicked into gear.

I liked a lot about the theory of the adaptation: drip-feeding in Castiel and the other fella as a mystery rather than just going, "Yeah, so there's angels"; using Quincannon as a low-level early villain (he was great in the comics but pretty low-rent after the Saint, Starr et al), setting up the Grail more organically in the pilot rather than having them appear out of nowhere; making Tulip fun rather than a lead weight around the characters' necks; using Annville to establish the characters' before blowing it up; ditching the awful homophobia.

But they didn't really seem to have much idea of how to fill the intervening episodes, do it was mostly just the characters bumping into one another as they ambled about. And Christ knows what they were thinking with hooking up Cassidy and Tulip at this point.

They should have blown the town up about five episodes in, ideally in a more convincing way than we got, and then hit the road. Save THAT death from All in the Family as your season closer.

Oh, and hire a better Custer.

[Mister Six]

Anyway sorry for the moaning. I'll shut up now.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I liked a lot about the theory of the adaptation: drip-feeding in Castiel and the other fella as a mystery rather than just going, "Yeah, so there's angels"; using Quincannon as a low-level early villain (he was great in the comics but pretty low-rent after the Saint, Starr et al), setting up the Grail more organically in the pilot rather than having them appear out of nowhere; making Tulip fun rather than a lead weight around the characters' necks; using Annville to establish the characters' before blowing it up; ditching the awful homophobia.

But they didn't really seem to have much idea of how to fill the intervening episodes, do it was mostly just the characters bumping into one another as they ambled about. And Christ knows what they were thinking with hooking up Cassidy and Tulip at this point.

They should have blown the town up about five episodes in, ideally in a more convincing way than we got, and then hit the road. Save THAT death from All in the Family as your season closer.

Oh, and hire a better Custer.

I completely agree with all of that. I felt I had to be in a very forgiving mood when watching it, and it is a very flawed beast. Despite that I'm hoping the second season will be an improvement and that there's far far less filler episodes.

[BeardFaceMan]

There were many ways in which they could have fucked up the show and indeed the changes are fucking legion (mostly bad changes but that's just me) but they did the one thing I never thought possible, they made Preacher boring. I could almost look past most of the changes they made but Preacher shouldn't be a Breaking Bad style show,  Vince Gilligan has his style and it stood out because it was different, can everyone now please stop trying to copy the slow style and glacial pace and endless wide shots etc? They're copying his style without understanding how the style fits the story, or in this case.
I gave up about 4 episodes into this, no point torturing myself, it just isnt for me. I nearly gave up straight away though when Tulip brought down a helicopter with a homemade rocket launcher made from stuff under the sink and that bullshit with the bloke in the car. Tulip is a badass who is proficient with (and hates using) guns, she's not a cross between a navy seal and MacGuyver. Is the reason Garth Ennis is so happy with this adpation because it is so far removed from his comic?

[Mister Six]

It's weird how Breaking Bad is seen as a "glacial" show, because for the first two or three seasons it was absolutely breakneck. It was only in season four that it started wallowing in mood (to mixed effect - Open House vs Fly).

But at least it was always interesting and based around compelling characters and drama - both things that Preacher seemed to lack as the overlong first season wound on.

[BeardFaceMan]

It definitely evolved into that as it went along, it wasn't always glacial pacing but they did start the trend of big wide shots when it's just 2 people talking, they're everywhere now. Like they think pretty cinematography is all it takes to nail that style, the style means nothing without substance, it's just boring charcters talking endless bollocks.

How is that Seth Rogan can claim to be a super duper Preacher fan and turn in something like this with so many changes? I mean there's a lot of stuff they can't put in there with America being so touchy about religion so I know changes must be made, but how many were made because they had to be (because of the network (and the only way this show would've worked would be to be on a HBO or Netflix), things that wouldn't work on tv but do in a book etc) and how many were made just for the sake of it? Or even worse, Rogan thinking "Well Preacher is amazing, one of the best comic books ive ever read, but I can make it so much better by changing this, and this..".

[NoSleep]

Not the best day to premier a new series that's meant to be a bit oddball and portentious, the same day that Twin Peaks tore TV a new arsehole.

[Mister Six]

Christ almighty, I can't watch the new Twin Peaks episode until tomorrow, so I clicked on this threat to distract me from the TP one and... bum. The buzz I'm hearing about the latest episode has me fucking thrilled.

[mothman]

There was I just thinking "ooh, must download this" before I remembered I have Amazon Prime.

[up_the_hampipe]

So glad to have this back. I forgot how much I loved the first season until my boy Cassidy popped up again. It was my favourite show of 2016, let's hope the momentum keeps up.

Reminder: episode 2 airs tonight.

[Phil_A]

Not the best day to premier a new series that's meant to be a bit oddball and portentious, the same day that Twin Peaks tore TV a new arsehole.

I enjoyed the majority of the first season but was amazed how apathetic I felt about this new episode. I struggled to watch it to the end, to be honest. It could well be the Twin Peaks effect, it's a bit like drinking Champagne for 8 weeks and then having to go back to Prosecco.

[Alberon]

It's not genuinely ripping up the rulebook on TV like Twin Peaks is, but I'm still really enjoying it. There's a bit where Jesse and Tulip are making love and you get the usual TV sex scene where it's like a ballet, then they switch to them just banging away in the missionary position as the shot slides next door to see Cassidy realise who the great Ganesh is (the surviving angel if you hadn't guessed).

That and the cheap worn film effect and equally deliberatly fake FX put on the car chase is them playing with the tropes of television whereas Twin Peaks looks like it's made by some mad genius who's never seen any TV show before and has reinvented everything from the ground up.

They did the worn film effect last season and I'm still not sure of it, but I think the show still has the energy of the first year and now they're on the road it feels more like the real Preacher.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I quite enjoyed the first two episodes but the third was a bit annoying, with way too many shots of Jesse looking bored whilst listening to jazz, and Tulip's subplot is really annoying me, I hope they resolve that quickly. On the plus side it was good to see Eugene back, what actually happened with the suicides, and Noah Taylor playing Hitler again fifteen years on from Max.

[mothman]

More British actors! It's almost bizarre. In addition to the four of the five main holdovers from the season one cast (Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy & the Saint), you had Jesse's main church helper and the two angels in there too. Now we've got Pip Torrens and Noah Taylor. Are American actors terrified of being associated with a show that's sure to be labelled blasphemous by the Christian loony right?

[up_the_hampipe]

Episode 4 managed to make me feel bad for Hitler. Wow. I feel manipulated but I'm all for it.

[NoSleep]

I couldn't remember where I recognised Noah Taylor from at first. He was Roose Bolton's "right hand" man (well, he chopped Jaime's off), Locke, in Game of Thrones, so I guess that's why they stuck the Thrones reference into the episode.

Still underwhelmed by this because of the huge shadow Twin Peaks is casting over it.

[up_the_hampipe]

I don't see why those need comparing.

[NoSleep]

Perhaps it just isn't very good, then. Still watching but there's been nothing really great as yet, just a few laughs in the second episode.

I'd say there was quite a bit in common with the two shows in terms of the genres they're trying to mix and the range of the scenarios.

[up_the_hampipe]

I've enjoyed all 4 episodes. Past two have slowed things down a bit, but I love the characters and the general nuttiness of it all. I don't see it as that similar to Twin Peaks, besides the fact that they're both very weird and shot quite impressively.

[NoSleep]

They're not the same but what with the glimpses into heaven and hell (via telephones and televisions sometimes), divine and hellish beings walking amongst the population, dodgy electrics in hell, etc, there's some similarities in scope. Only Preacher seems far less imaginative. I don't have any expectations of it as I haven't read the comics but it came just at the wrong moment for me. This season's Fargo seemed to have anticipated the coming of Twin Peaks and met the challenge pretty well in comparison (even had a nod to TP via the Ray Wise character).

[Small Man Big Horse]

I enjoyed episode four but the fifth was a right old struggle, I had no interest in Jesse and Tulip's dull Dallas life. Meanwhile the modern day stuff was tiresome, Jesse's coming across as a right old cunt and seeing Tulip and Cassidy arguing wasn't exactly joyful fun. It's annoying, the show has so much potential but when it takes itself too seriously it really becomes a drag.

[NoSleep]

I actually completely forgot about it this week. People of Earth starts next week.

[BritishHobo]

Yeah, a duff episode, that. I've been loving the pace of this season, on the road and on the run, and Eugene's Hell storyline is so much fun. Hitler as the bullying victim in a high school storyline where the protagonist falls in with the wrong crowd. I hope lovely Eugene doesn't end up turning too bad.

Anyway. The latest episode definitely fucked the pacing. Mysterious backstories are usually tedious toss, but the Jesse/Tulip one especially really bored me last season. I can't even remember what we learned about their backstory last season, it was that dull. So christ alive could I not find it in myself to care about this episode. And while I liked Jesse flirting with his nasty, violent side last season, here it just made him look a fucking prick, and not in an interesting way.

Still excited for next week though!

[up_the_hampipe]

Episode 6 is definitely the best of the season so far.