Preacher

What have you been watching?

Preacher

Postby RedBearded » Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:27 am



I have written and erased about 30 comments for this post. None of them flattering for AMC and Seth Rogen.

From wikipedia
"After Miramax Films abandoned the project, HBO announced in November 2006 that they commissioned Mark Steven Johnson and Howard Deutch to produce a television pilot. Johnson was to write with Deutch directing.[16] Impressed with Johnson's pilot script, HBO had him write the series bible for the first season.[17] Johnson originally planned "to turn each comic book issue into a single episode" on a shot-for-shot basis. "I gave [HBO] the comics, and I said, 'Every issue is an hour'. Garth Ennis said 'You don't have to be so beholden to the comic'. And I'm like, 'No, no, no. It's got to be like the comic'."[18] By August 2008, new studio executives at HBO decided to abandon the idea, finding it too stylistically dark and religiously controversial.[19]"

"too stylistically dark and religiously controversial." is exactly what I wanted.
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Last edited by Dr. Ambiguous on Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Mon Nov 02, 2015 9:08 am

I'm not watching the trailer, cause I avoid trailers like the plague, I lied, I cracked and watched the trailer anyway. I caught the plague. Anyway, I'm both very excited and very wary of this. I love the Preacher comics. I don't like Seth Rogen. I don't think he's very funny, and I don't trust him to direct Preacher, I don't trust him with the material at all. I'm also extremely wary about pretty much anyone handling something like Preacher, because as the wiki says, it's very dark and religiously controversial. It's also crude as fuck and violent as hell. And I love it for that. And for a Preacher show to thrive, it needs to be able to do all those things unrestrained. So I have little faith that any network is going to allow it to flourish like it needs.

The trailer does little to impress me. I don't recognize the plot, and I'll confess that I actually haven't finished reading the series, so I'm not sure if it's a story I haven't reached yet, or a new plotline. If it's the first, I'm curious why they would start the series somewhere other than the beginning, if it's the second then just... why? I don't know. I'm looking forward to this show, but I don't have a lot of confidence in it.
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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby sunglasses » Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:55 pm

Well, I need to bash my head into the wall to forget what I've just seen.
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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby BROWNRECLUSE » Mon Nov 02, 2015 2:18 pm

No Saint of Killers?

BOOOOOOOOOOO.
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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby RedBearded » Wed May 18, 2016 6:08 pm

The first four minutes of episode 1.

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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby sunglasses » Wed May 18, 2016 6:32 pm

I dunno if I can watch that Red, I've been hurt so much in the past.
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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon May 23, 2016 7:28 am

Well, that was certainly a weird 90 minutes. And damn, that ending.
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Re: Preacher trailer AMC

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:31 am

The Preacher TV series isn't really that bad now that they've introduced the Adephi and the Saint of Killers. Though the Adephi are given this pretty strange ritual involving a nursery rhyme and instant coffee. Most likely due to Rogen's influence.
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Re: Preacher

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Sun Jul 31, 2016 10:55 am

Alright, so I finished reading the comic awhile back, and I've been keeping up with the series. I'm going to try to put my thoughts in order of the episode they occur in, though since I've watched them as they come out, that means it's been a few weeks since I've seen some of them, so I don't remember which episode was which for some. So consider the following to be a spoiler up through S1E8, as well as some minor spoilers for the comic along the same lines.

S1E8
I guess we'll start with some more general points. The acting for the show is pretty strong. Dominic Cooper does a pretty good job playing Jesse Custer, even if I don't like a lot of the writing choices for him (and the show in general). They decided to make Jesse much more invested in Christianity, God, and his church in the comic. Where-as in the comic he already was starting to have doubts and struggles of faith from the first panel of the comic. I'm not at all feeling this change, as it leads to a lot of plot that is neither in the comic, and more importantly, just isn't very interesting (more on that in a minute).

Joseph Gilgun similarly does a pretty good job as Cassidy. I like that his accent is pretty thick. They're likewise also making some writing choices I don't care for much, such as setting him up earlier as more of an asshole. And, well, this next point is a major spoiler for the comic, and is gonna happen in some form or another in the show, so time for another spoiler.

Cassidy Spoiler
Cassidy starts off as a charming rogue, easy to like, easy to get along with, but at times a bit of an asshole. About midway through the comic series it comes out that he's a major asshole, who's been trying to get with his best friend's girl behind his back for some time, and once he thinks Jesse is dead, he drugs up Tulip to get her to stay with him. The show is starting to set this up earlier for Cassidy, with him already trying to hook up with Tulip.

However, Ruth Negga steals the show, she plays Tulip pretty much perfectly. She plays a hard as nails badass. Her intro scene in the first episode pretty effectively establishes in the matter of a minute or two during that out of control car scene. (Sadly, the farm scene right after feels out of place, but that's a writing problem, not one with Negga).

They made Eugene Root, aka Arseface, a much more sympathetic character in this show, and one struggling with his faith in God. He's convinced that everyone, including God, hates him. I'm just not feeling it. Arseface was largely a rather black comedic relief in the comics, and while I've no issue with humanizing him a bit more, they fail to make it an interesting humanization. And oddly enough, by making his father less of an asshole, they remove some of the sympathy I had for him. In the comic, after failing to kill himself by blowing his brains out, his dad didn't speak to him again. His father doesn't treat him all that well in the show, but he does show that he cares about his son. (Plus, if this means I don't get the "go fuck yourself" scene, I'm going to be mighty disappointed).

Not to mention, for a guy that's face is supposed to look like an arse, he's way too much of a pretty boy.

Image

The mock up that HBO did for the character a few years ago is a lot better.

Image

In the comic, when Jesse gets Genesis, it wipes out not only his whole congregation, but his entire goddamn town of Annsville Texas. For the show, the writers have decided to set all of season one in Annsville, which means most of the plot here-in is original to the show. Sadly, the material they give us just isn't very interesting. I don't care to see Jesse trying to save his entire town and bring them to Christ. I don't care to see his church struggling to raise money. I don't care for his interactions with Arseface. I don't care for really any of it.

Tulip has been spending the whole season trying to get Jesse to get back with her for one last job. And it... it just kinda makes her seem like a desperate crazy ex, which runs pretty counter to her badass persona.

So now let's try to hit off those episodes. First episode has two really nice jokes. The first, when Cassidy is fighting on the airplane and stabs a guy in the chest with a bottle, then just leans him forward to fill up another bottle with blood to drink later. It's great, and the right touch of black comedy that Preacher needs.

The other, when Genesis is possessing different spiritual leaders around the world, only for them to explode, the headline for Tom Cruise exploding is a nice touch.

The episode also ends with another black touch of humour, with a man literally ripping out his heart so that he can "open up his heart" to someone, when he takes Jesse's word too literally.

Alright, I lied, I don't remember which episode is which now. That didn't last long.

I like that the show is slowly introducing us to The Saint of Killers backstory, prior to meeting him. I just hope they don't get to the final act of his backstory until after we meet him at least once in the present.

The Adelphi in this show, bit odd, not sure how I feel about them yet. I don't like the coffee can and nursery rhyme for Genesis though, it feels out of place and pretty stupid in and of itself.

The swearing. Where the fuck is the swearing? The comics gushed excessive profanity, and I loved it. The show is almost entirely absent of any swearing, and it just makes the whole tone feel off.

Odin Quincannon serves as the main antagonist for the first season, and it feels kinda strange. He appears much later in the comics, and he's a very weird, quirky, hateful, piece of shit old man. Here, he's just a ruthless business man. Not to mention, we're missing his Nazi secretary who was super into S&M. It's an element of what the fuck and black comedy that I wished we had, not to mention, I want to see Quincannon constantly referring to himself in the third person. Alas.

I also don't like the flashbacks to Jesse's dad as a devout preacher, it's so different from his character in the comics, and it feels so wrong. He's also one of the few actors on the show that I don't like. (Minor nitpick: I hate the way they played the "be one of the good guys, because there's two many of the bad" line. The delivery feel flat and it lost all it's impact, not to mention I think they used it too early in the show).

Skipping ahead to episode 6 or 7 now, Jesse sending Arseface to hell, it's just about the dumbest thing.

So there's some good with the show, but a lot of bad. Once they get out of Annsville and to the actual content of the comics, it'll hopefully get better, as some of the right pieces are in place, so it does have potential.
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Re: Preacher

Postby iMURDAu » Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:53 pm

The swearing. Where the fuck is the swearing? The comics gushed excessive profanity, and I loved it. The show is almost entirely absent of any swearing, and it just makes the whole tone feel off.


TWD fans get ready for October when Negan comes out swinging that bat calling people "fudgers" and saying "forget" a lot. I'm about to re-read Preacher before I get into the show. It should be interesting.
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Re: Preacher

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sun Jul 31, 2016 4:05 pm

A lot of the Arseface stuff is for conveinience more than anything else, budget reasons, being easier on the actor, etc. For example, his speech is clearer.
Spoiler: show
But yeah, that sending him to hell stuff is pretty stupid.
I'm just hoping they adapt some of the more controversial moments.
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Re: Preacher

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:41 am

The speech part is fine for me, if they made Arseface too unintelligible, it'd probably be counterproductive. (I am glad that they subtitle him, it's needed at times). I think they nailed the speech pretty well as far as translating it to tv, even if he technically should be more unintelligible. And yeah, I don't expect them to break their ass with the make up job constantly, but still, a little more facial trauma would be fitting.
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Re: Preacher

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:57 am

Well, they pretty much ditched the entire raison d'etre of the goddamn series
Spoiler: show
by having Jesse call god as part of a church service
.
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Re: Preacher

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Wed Aug 03, 2016 12:19 pm

S01E9-10 Spoilers
Season's over, and it feels like the show is finally at the place it should've been by the end of E1. Well, almost. Eugene is still in hell, which is still as stupid as ever. I'm still not able to give a shit about really any of the side characters.

Jesse calling God to the church service, only to learn it's a fake, and we finally get the bomb that kickstarts the series: God is AWOL. Rogen and co have spent a whole season trying to get us to care about these characters, only for their faith in God to be shaken to the core at this big reveal. Unfortunately, it falls flat, and I'm not able to care about it. It doesn't have the impact it's going for, and I still say they should've just thrown us into the action right away.

And Annvile blows up from a methane explosion and everyone is dead. Just like with the reveal, it doesn't carry the impact it's supposed to. So much about this show just isn't working, but I'm hoping that the next season can finally get to where it's supposed to be, but I'm pretty doubtful.
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Re: Preacher

Postby iMURDAu » Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:04 pm

I'm on episode 3 now. Tulip and Cassidy were casted well. Looks like the actor playing Tulip is getting Oscar buzz so who knows if AMC can hold on to a rising star. Dominic Cooper is not Jesse Custer. He just isn't. The accent comes and goes and he doesn't look... Texan enough. My dream casting of The Undertaker as The Saint of Killers will forever be a dream. I hope he was at least considered.

If there were no credits displayed during the show and someone told me Seth Rogen was an executive producer I'd say "oh that's what's going on". I have incredibly low expectations for the rest of the season and the series as a whole. There's no place in primetime for depravity so it is what it is.
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