#surpassing expectations

[evie7common]

Those old people remembered nothing outside the Opera. They had lived there for years without number. Past managements had forgotten them; palace revolutions had taken no notice of them; the history of France had run its course unknown to them; and nobody recollected their existence.

[sudsyrants]

Divine intervention

Preacher is my favorite comic, and I know there are a lot of people who will agree with me. I’ve been looking forward to a TV adaptation ever since I read it, and it’s sad that there’s many who have tried, but they didn’t last and they died as they tried. Okay, they didn’t die, I just wanted to make a Judas Priest reference. They have failed though. Yesterday, the actual premiere for Seth Rogen (I can’t spell his name without feeling the need to puke) and Evan Goldbergs TV adaptation happened. It actually happened! But was it worth it? Let’s go over a few points I felt were worthy to discuss. Also, I wanna warn for spoilers, both for the comic and the TV series.

SPOILERS

It starts off with a cosmic view with planets and shit, until it’s suddenly broken off by a screaming ball whistling through the universe, crashing into an african priest. The priest survives and proclaims he’s the prophet, and then explodes. This is something I’d imagine happening in Preacher, since it’s random, bizarre and fills a lot of the gory elements. Someone who haven’t read the comics is obviously confused about the whole thing, but people like myself know what that ball is: Genesis, a divine entity created by an angel and a demon fucking their brains out.

We then turn to Texas and get to know Jesse Custer, the noble christian protagonist. He’s in the process of holding a sermon while children are playing on their iPads, adults making gestures about taking a smoke after the shitty sermon is over with. This scene is hilarious. Custer stumbles through the sermon, not actually knowing what he’s saying or what the message he wants to get across is. He’s broken off by sudden organs playing, either the lady playing the organ was too bored to listen to the sermon and figured it was about time to play the organs, or she thought it’d save Custer from further embarassment.

We then get to know Custers dark side when a kid asks the preacher to hurt his daddy. And this is where one of the bigger disappointments come: This scene is supposed to make us fear Custer, through dialogue and moody music. If you ask me, it fails. What he says is pretty much just blathering, like a failed improv. The music doesnt add anything really, it’s clichéd.

Thankfully, this scene is short and we get on over to introducing the next protagonist: Cassidy, an irish vampire. Rogen/Goldberg thankfully got their obsession with weed out of the way pretty fast by simply showing some people on a plane using a bong. We then get to one of the greatest fighting scenes I’ve seen in a long time. Cassidy fights off (read: slaughters in self defense) the vampire hunters by using a wide array of weapons: cutlasses, knives, a bong, an axe, a golf club, a spear and ends it off by throwing a broken wine bottle at one of them. He uses this broken wine bottle as a tap to pour himself some blood in his flask. I love fight scenes like this, I love seeing fighters using their surroundings to come out on top. Good job Rogen/Goldberg.

Tulip gets introduced in a more violent way. We turn to Kansas, focusing on a car driving down the highway. A passenger is shot and the driver, a woman, gets strangled by the passenger in the backseat. She drives into a corn field and beats the living shit out the attacker, ends up at a house with two kids greeting her, obviously admiring her from the start. She and the kids build a bazooka, she shoots down a helicopter and yeah, leaves them. We don’t know what’s going on here, and it’s never explained in the episode. Tulip is obviously a cool chick, but she’s also the biggest departure of the main cast from the original. Tulip in the comic book is never shown to possess such prowess, nor does she know how to build a bazooka from what I recall. She’s also blonde and white in the comics. It seems odd that, so far, the trio is pretty much what they were in the comics, with Tulip being the exception, and I’m not entirely sure why. Ruth Negga does a great job though, and she’s one of those actresses who has a unique look about her, instantly recognizable. How often do you hear about an irish-ethiopian actress anyway? Good job Negga.

Overall, Rogen/Goldberg surpassed my expectations. I was expecting a compromised shitfest with no thought behind anything, just Rogens stoned laugh for 40 minutes, and no connection to the comic beside the name. It’s actually a great show, but I fear it might be a bit much for someone who is not familiar with the comic. I’ll admit to being biased, but here are a few worries I have.

Will the show adhere to a politically correct agenda? This is my main worry. Preacher came out in the 90s and flailed its arms at everything and everyone, nothing was sacred. It was the very pinnacle of secularization and postmodernism, a work in which holy relics were smashed asunder, truths were twisted and most people were fucking assholes or just weird individuals. The first episode was centered in Texas, and thus, a lot of redneck jokes were made, which is natural and all. However, my fear is that the series won’t wreak havoc upon absolutely EVERYTHING. There’s a scene in the comic where Jesse is driving down the road with his radio on. There’s a conservative and a feminist debating. He steps out of his car, gets into a phone booth, calls the radio station and commands the debaters to tell people what they really want. Both the feminist and the conservative goes frantic about their need for cock. Will Rogen and Goldberg have the balls to do something like that?

I’m not very happy with the setting either. It’s set in modern day USA, and I feel like some of the feelings are lost. Arseface, a character whose face looks like an arse, was a grunge fan in the comic, and now he’s listening to hip hop, come on dude. Arseface could’ve been executed better too, it sounds like the actor is muffled by a towel instead of making an effort to actually sound like… Arseface. I think the show would’ve benefitted from actually setting it in the 90s, and using that period in a clever way to satirize the modern world. Also, the soundtrack is hardly impressing so far. And, I doubt Jesse will worship John Wayne in the series, since there have been zero indication towards it. It would be awesome to see Bruce Campbell do John Wayne though.

It’d be too much of an asshole move to judge the entire show from this one episode, but some things could’ve been executed better. If you’re not familiar with Preacher, do yourself a favor and read the comic, or follow the series. As stated above, it exceeded my expectations, but they were already pretty low. It’s a decent show so far, and I hope Rogen/Goldberg don’t fuck this up. Best wishes.

[wehearyouloudandclear]

THIS EPISODE IS SO FUNNY 😭