Preacher Season 1
I wrote about my first thoughts on this show a few weeks ago, but now I've finished watching the whole of the first season and...well that certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Spoilers from this point on folks.
So it appears that the entire ten episodes was a mash up of various scenarios into what amounts to a prequel to the "road-trip to find God" main storyline (effectively the first issue of the comic), The Odin Quincannon "Meat Man" plot, Arseface being trapped in hell and oh...a God impersonator being called up by video phone in Jesse's church are just a few of the changes. All this plus the Saint of Killers *finally* get's his mission (after some lengthy and slightly confusing recaps). It's utterly nuts and goodness knows what the average viewer who doesn't know the comics made of it. After this, I don't want to even try and predict where season two will go. All bets are off.
I can live with the twisted up story and extra invented details. That's all part of the transfer to a different medium. As I've said before, I can accept Jesse with a beard and Tulip as being non-white. It's somewhat odd, but I'll deal with having ten episodes of characterisation for the townsfolk only for them to all be wiped out in a massive methane explosion (the shit literally hitting the fan). I'll even tolerate Joe Gilguin as Cassidy if I have to. These are just cosmetic changes really. What I can't deal with is the fact that everyone is just so damn unpleasant. There is not a single one of the main trio that's at all likeable. Jesse is meant to be a good man, despite everything that was done to him, but he comes across as a complete arse (pun intended). As for Tulip, she just appears to be a self-centered whiny psychopath. There is no sense of the deep love that she and Jesse feel for each other. Trotting out the "til the end of the world" line does not make a relationship.
I actually think there is a worthwhile case for a fan-edit here, paring down the seven or so hours into a tighter more focused story, seeding the Saint of Killers backstory properly throughout the narrative and cutting out the extraneous characters (why should we care about Emily Woodrow and her life if she just gets blown to bits at the end?). It would take some excellent editing skills to rescue the central characters though.
The best thing about that final batshit-crazy episode of the season is the music - including tracks I have never heard of and some superb cover versions.. Starting with a montage undercut by Willy Nelson's "Time of the Preacher" followed by the novelty Country-yodelling of "Bowling Ball Blues", it's just one excellent musical choice after another. Okay some of it might be a little on the nose, but when Tulip and Jesse (apparently) let the double-crossing Carlos go, who doesn't want to hear Johnny Cash's amazing version of the Depeche Mode classic "Personal Jesus"?
The highlight of the soundtrack though is the song that plays when Annville descends into chaos as the residents reel from the shock that God does exist, but he's missing. Singer / songwriter David Lichens performs a cover of "No Rain" by alternative rock group Blind Melon. Now I've never heard of either the song or the band before, but this sent real shivers down my spine. It fits the mood of the episode perfectly. Sadly there doesn't appear to be an official version available, so I'll have to satisfy myself with a cut from the episode itself - complete with dialogue and sound effects:
Will I be bothering with season two? I guess so, in that I want to see what the writers come up with next, but I think it's clear that I'll need to throw all my expectations out the window and just go with the flow. It's time for the real story of "Preacher" to begin...
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