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Preacher - "The Possibilities" - Season 1 Episode 3 Review

June 21, 2016

Source: AMC

Every great couple with a criminal past has a few things in common.  There’s a betrayal, a struggle against powers greater than them, and a flame of love that can be diminished but not extinguished.  But what Jesse and Tulip have is something far stranger.  Tulip meets Danni (previously thought to be a Danny) in Houston, and gives her the map in exchange for the “last known location” of someone whom Tulip believes needs punishing.  Danni herself gives the map to a man in white, who is an enthusiast of snuff films.  Apparently Texas has a vibrant indie film community.

Source: AMC

So begins the third episode of Preacher.  Fiore and DeBlanc are back in one piece each and better armed, Donnie makes an attempt at explaining sexual masochism to Chris, and while Linus truly doesn’t remember his lust for Janey, it seems to be born again when he sees her get on the bus.  Oh, and Tracy did in fact open her eyes but not quite in the way Jesse may have meant.  Between a brain dead girl who opened her eyes and an actually dead man who opened his heart, it seems that God is a literalist.  There’s some real monkey’s paw shit going down in Annville because of Jesse.

Source: AMC

As it turns out, he’s become aware of his powers and demonstrates them for/on Cassidy who is just tickled to be thrown around like a rag doll.  Possibilities, he says, are endless.  Meanwhile Tulip once again tries to convince Jesse to do this all important job, but now she has enough pieces of the puzzle to make the picture very enticing for him.  The last known location she traded the map for was of a man by the name of Carlos, who double crossed both Jesse and Tulip some years ago.  Though Jesse had made a promise to his father and walked away from his life of crime, it seems as though justice, or justice disguised as revenge is enough to make him jump in the car with Tulip and seek out this low down dirty Carlos.

While Jesse is on his own mission, Fiore and LeBlanc find themselves missing their target once again and getting the business end of Cassidy’s van.  However this time around, once they are reincarnated they give him a better explanation of why they’re there.  Only Donnie seems to be able to get the drop on the Preacher but he didn’t count on his otherworldly power.

Source: AMC

Both with Cassidy and Donnie, Jesse reached a point where he seemed to enjoy the control and was about to abuse his power.  But both times he manages to find his restraint, and for Donnie that means getting to keep his head.  Jesse himself has an epiphany, which means Operation Kill Carlos is off, to Tulip’s violent dismay.  He returns to Annville to bury Mr. Open Heart, but with Cassidy knowing a bit more about who Fiore and LeBlanc are, what awaits him in the coming days?  During the particularly lonely services, Jesse reads a scripture about death and rebirth and we see his father’s grave as well as an ominous blast of air coming from some sort of pipe in the earth.

Source: AMC

Is anyone else a little creeped out by Quincannon?  I have odd ways of unwinding but listening to cattle slaughter is not one of them.  Eugene and Sheriff Root make small talk, but once Eugene mentions going to see the newly “awake” Tracy, he gets a stern warning to stay away from her, her family and the “monster swamp.”

And if you didn’t catch the news report that Fiore was watching in the hotel room, Tom Cruise is dead.


Written by A Play On Nerds contributor, Jerry Herrera - Lover of horror, sci fi, and fantasy in that order.  Semi-permanent Disneyland resident.  I'm at least one of the droids you're looking for. Twitter: @FrankenJerry - Instagram: @GeraldoPedro

In television, review, article Tags preacher, amc, comics
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Preacher - "See" - Season 1 Episode 2 Review

June 21, 2016

Source:AMC

There is very little in the second episode of Preacher that is more important than its opening.  In the year 1881, we meet a solemn, grizzled man who rides to retrieve medicine for a sick girl, who we assume is his daughter.  He encounters some settlers who left the city and were a might optimistic about the West for his tastes.  The mysterious man continues his journey past a tree full of hanged natives on his way to a town called Ratwater…

Source:AMC

Jesse has taken to baptizing the town of Annville in his renewed quest to save everyone.  Cassidy has made himself at home, his only problems being a lack of funds, booze and Eugene’s face “like an arsehole.”

Although Jesse and Emily are making strides in improving the church, all is not well.  Chief among Jesse’s concerns are Linus, the town bus driver who confesses his sexual attraction to one of his little passengers in the Loach family.  Traci lays in a coma and her mother Terri has no time for Jesse’s contrivances.  Also, Fiore and DeBlanc finally catch up with him in search of his powers.

Source:AMC

We see that even though Jesse’s heart is in a place to help, the God he represents is painfully absent.  Linus’ lust for young girls is somehow absolved by his confessing, and even though Jesse knows this man doesn’t plan on seeking help or distancing himself from this girl, he still has to say he is forgiven by the Lord Almighty.  Trying to explain to the mother of a brain dead girl that this very same protector of child molesters has a plan that involves her daughter having a skull like a rotten melon also poses certain challenges.  There is a strong stink of bullshit in Jesse’s nose and he’s tired of shoveling it.  Even getting blackout drunk with Cassidy doesn’t provide any solutions, although once Jesse passes out we see that Cassidy isn’t necessarily a good dude.  Indeed, he’s a bit of a con man who will make off with your keys and steal your car.

Source:AMC

This is where Fiore and DeBlanc attempt at a strange ritual with infernal machines to perhaps remove the Power from Jesse.  When that doesn’t work and things begin to get a little more...uh...dismembery...Cassidy thankfully has an attack of conscience and stops the two mysterious men by literally tearing them limb from limb.  Another savage fight scene courtesy of Cassidy.  He even cleans up his mess!  Everyone needs to have a drunk vampire as a friend.

Source:AMC

Once Jesse comes to, he sets off to make things right by taking the will of God into his own hands, using his power to make Linus forget his lusts and the episode ends before we get to see if this power can wake Tracy from brain death.  Another interesting and poignant episode that sets things down a curious path and introduces a very important character, as well as several different side plots.

Source:AMC

We get to meet Odin Quincannon and get a glimpse of his meat and power company’s influence, and see that Donnie is still an asshole, even with a broken arm.  Eugene and Sheriff Root have an odd moment with some good ol’ boys that call Eugene a murderer, and Tulip has made herself at home at the Toad Vine brothel and is still trying to convince Jesse to take this job she has.  But this time, she mentions the name Danny, and that means something to Jess.  Oh yeah, and although Cassidy buried them in their own luggage, Fiore and DeBlanc aren’t dead.

Did you notice the hanging tree make a reappearance?  


Written by A Play On Nerds contributor, Jerry Herrera - Lover of horror, sci fi, and fantasy in that order.  Semi-permanent Disneyland resident.  I'm at least one of the droids you're looking for. Twitter: @FrankenJerry - Instagram: @GeraldoPedro

In television, review, article Tags preacher, amc, comics
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Preacher - Pilot - Season 1 Episode 1 Review

June 9, 2016

Preacher is another graphic novel adaptation from AMC and it tells the story of Jesse Custer, a small town Texas preacher (surprise!) who is struck by a supernatural force that gives him strange powers.  What those powers are, isn’t really explained in the first episode.  All we see is this streak of light travelling through space and gurgling like a baby.  When it reaches Earth, it strikes several different men of faith, who for whatever reason, are not worthy of the power and thus violently explode.  It’s a good attention getter.  After each explosion, two men are seen investigating each scene around the world.

Source: AMC

While this force seeks out another person that may be worthy, we get a look into the daily life of Jesse Custer.  He’s not a particularly good preacher, nor does he exactly command respect of his parishioners.  He’s surly, he drinks and smokes, and he has a quiet disdain for the frankly backwards redneck way of life that goes on around him.  Yet he remains in the town of Annville out of a sense of duty and a promise he made to his father, himself a preacher, some time ago.  Other residents of the town hint at Jesse’s prodigal son-ish return and that he has, if not a dark past, a certainly more violent one.  A boy, Chris, asks Jesse for help with his abusive father, Donnie.  The Sheriff in town, Hugo Root, also asks Jesse to pay his son a visit.  Again, out of some odd sense of duty, Jesse obliges his flock.  Even something as tiresome as listening to one of his congregation (played perfectly by Jason Lee) complain about his mother, is not outside of Jesse’s list of things he’s willing to do for his people.

Source: AMC

Meanwhile we meet Cassidy, who is a hard partying Irishman bartending on a private jet.  That is, until he realizes that his new buddies aren’t what they appear to be, and neither is he.  In one of the best introductions of a character I have ever seen, Cassidy reveals himself to be a vampire on board a jet with vampire hunters.  It’s a messy, gory, hilarious fight that ends with Cassidy pouring some blood out of one of his fallen foes into a to-go cup and jumping out of the quickly descending jet.  He takes an umbrella to slow his descent.  That works, right?  Upon impact, Cassidy finds himself not too far outside of Annville…

Source: AMC

Also on her way to Annville is Tulip, a woman from Jesse’s past and a pretty tough customer herself.  We meet Tulip as she fights two guys in a car that has gone off the road and into a cornfield.  Again, the action is brutal and darkly hilarious.  After killing both men and stopping the car in a yard with two kids playing in it, she recovers a mysterious map and enlists the help of the children to build a homemade bazooka.  This is to shoot down a helicopter full of friends of the men she killed.  If I thought Cassidy was a badass, Tulip’s introduction makes her just as badass, minus the whole vampire thing.

Source: AMC

Jesse pays a visit to Chris’ mother to ask about Donnie’s abuse and doesn’t get the answer he’s looking for.  He also visits Sheriff Root’s son, Eugene, who has quite a unique disfigurement.  His path also crosses Tulip’s, and she offers him a part in a job...a job to end all jobs.  Yet another hint at Jesse’s past.  He declines but that doesn’t scare her away.  The day proving too much for him, Jesse retires to the bar to drown his worries.  This is where he briefly meets Cassidy, and where Chris’ abusive father Donnie sucker punches him for asking his wife questions.  Now we see just how violent Jesse’s life was before he became a preacher, as he mercilessly pummels Donnie and his friends, with an assist from Cassidy.  He may not be the fighter Tulip or Cassidy are, but there’s a certain sadism that he enjoys.  He and Cassidy are thrown in jail and make nice before Jesse gets bailed out by his organ player, Emily.

Source: AMC

Throughout the episode it’s clear that Jesse is grappling not only with his past, but his current tiring situation and his faith overall.  The people of Annville are all too content to be assholes every day but Sunday, and everywhere he goes it seems that he’s either unwanted or his help doesn’t make a difference.  He vows to quit, tells Emily as much, and retires to a pew inside the church.  It is here that the supernatural force finds him and strikes him down, for three days.  On the third day, he rises to find Cassidy has moved in and it’s time for him to tell his congregation that he quits.  As people file in, Jason Lee’s nervous man-child again lays his problems at Jesse’s feet.  Jesse repeats the advice he’s always given, but this time the words have a more profound impact, and with unintended consequences.

Source: AMC

As we see these consequences play out, Jesse begins to tell people he’s giving up, but something inspires him to reverse his position.  Indeed, he’s going to save the people of Annville, whether they like it or not.

I’m not going to do a whole lot of comparing between the comic and the show, because they are very different.  The graphic novel itself is very much a product of the ‘90s and though several adaptations of it have failed, it remains a damn good read, one of those “essentials” if you like comics.  The show’s success is that it’s somehow more ridiculous than the books, but has its toes in reality.  It’s gory, campy in parts, and pitch perfectly dark and dryly humorous.  I was so damn entertained by this first episode and I can’t wait to see the rest of this odd cast of characters make their debut, if Cassidy and Tulip are any indication of how they will make their entrance.


Written by A Play On Nerds contributor, Jerry Herrera - Lover of horror, sci fi, and fantasy in that order.  Semi-permanent Disneyland resident.  I'm at least one of the droids you're looking for. Twitter: @FrankenJerry - Instagram: @GeraldoPedro

In television, review, article Tags preacher, amc, comics, tv, television
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