Some additional PREACHER thoughts

On June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Reviews, Television3 Comments

preacher-season-1-post-103-Jackie-Earle-Haley-Odin-Quincannon-1200x707.jpg We’re, what, four episodes into PREACHER now? Five? You may remember I had some quick, mostly ambivalent thoughts about how the show was going after the first episode aired.

Well… I haven’t missed an episode yet, and I’m probably not going to be starting anytime soon, but I’m still not exactly hooked. Two definite pluses have revealed themselves as the show has gone on, though: Jackie Earle Haley’s performance as Odin Quincannon is wonderful, and what initially appeared to be a minor lack of concern with the source material has evolved into full blown “Fuck it, we’re doing it live”-level disrespect. PREACHER doesn’t care at all about the source material beyond vague character descriptions (Tulip is nothing like she is in the books) and is just kinda gleefully throwing whatever it wants at the wall to see what sticks. It’s as if they’ve been told that they get two seasons, max, but that if they don’t work in at least one plot detail from each graphic novel of the series Garth Ennis gets to take all of their money. I thought THE WALKING DEAD was a loose adaptation of the source material. Nah, son. TWD is an amateur compared to PREACHER.

Is that a plus? Right now, I’m going with yes, because I have absolutely no idea what’s coming next, and the first half-season of an adaptation doesn’t usually do that to you. I kinda knew what was going to happen to Ned Stark at the end of Season One of GAME OF THRONES, y’know? I just hope the show has an idea what’s coming next, and I’ll admit I have some doubt. But I’m still watching. We’ll see where we are at the end of the season.

Some quick thoughts about PREACHER

On May 26, 2016May 26, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Reviews, Television9 Comments

It’s weird that I remember this story so well.

I have every issue of PREACHER’s run as a comic book, and bought each of them on the day it came out. I bought the very first issue on a lark, and I remember spending a ridiculous amount of time and mental energy during the month between issue 1 and issue 2 thinking about whether I was buying the second issue or not. I don’t recall if money was especially tight at the time or what, because comics don’t really cost that damn much, especially in 1995 or 1994 or whenever it was when the book first came out. But it took forever for me to decide I wanted that second issue, and then it must have caught me, because I never missed another one after that. I haven’t really revisited the series since it concluded, but I have all of it in trade paperback as well. My wife recently read through them, and she finished the entire run but never seemed terribly happy about it; I have my doubts as to how well it will hold up.

That said, I watched the pilot of AMC’s PREACHER series last night, and… meh. I have a lot more to say that’s bad than I do that’s good (Cassidy’s casting is spot-on physically, but he rarely wears his sunglasses and I can’t understand a damn word he says) but I’m going to give it at least another episode or two before I stop watching, just because of the example the comic book set.

Some gripes, because why not:

The direction is schizophrenic and weirdly cheesy, with an opening sequence straight out of a crappy 1950’s B-movie and occasional weird filtering on the colors. There was one well-shot sequence, with Tulip’s fight in the car, and the rest of it was not so good.
Actually, that’s not quite true: the bar fight wasn’t bad. So the action sequences are well-shot and the stuff that should be easy has me wondering what the directors are smoking.
Arseface looks fucking ridiculous. Absolutely. Fucking. Ridiculous. I know he’s supposed to be a comic character, but… god, at least try.
Speaking of faces, there is something about Dominic Cooper’s face that makes me not want to look at him very much. I don’t know that I can explain it very well. He looks… squished? Maybe? And his acting hasn’t overcome the weird squick factor every time I see him on screen. For the lead, this is a problem.
It’s evident already that they’ve made a number of changes to the storyline, which is fine, but I’m irrationally annoyed that Jesse’s eyes don’t go red when he’s using the Word. I will probably get over this.

I dunno. I guess that’s not much, but when I have complaints and nothing really positive to say… yeah. I’ll update if the series improves, and it’s probably worth pointing out that I’ve seen people who are normally hard to impress raving about the first four episodes, but right now I’m not hooked.