Preacher (TV Series)...

[Dandontdare]

apologies for double post....

The Guardian seem to be writing reams of stuff on Preacher - this is the latest: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/jul/18/the-problem-with-preacher-why-no-ones-talking-about-the-best-show-of-the-year

They're also running an episode-by-episode blog review.

Ep8 was released yesterday - not sure I liked this one, it seemed a bit off in the pacing and didn't really advance things much.

[JayzusB.Christ]

See, to me Jesse would say that being ultimately all Alpha Texas male. But I've never re read the comics and didn't get taken out of the story by such things at the time.

Perhaps, but as I say, to me it very much seems like Ennis frames Jesse and Cassidy's rants in a very 'righteous' way, as if they are spouting Bill Hicks style 'truth', and Ennis is literally just using them as a platform to sound off on certain subjects. I honestly don't think we're supposed to read into them any deeper than that. Could be wrong, but that's how I've always taken it.

I completely agree, sadly.  Garth was a young guy at the time, and it often shows.

Herr Starr was in the series?  I missed that!  I must say I really like Eugene Root so far; he hasn't quite got the cheery optimism of the Arseface of the comics, but he's just as endearingly sweet.  Also I love hearing Americans saying 'Arseface' (though I don't think he's actually been explicitly called that so far?).

  Cassidy, despite the accent (Irish maybe; Dublin most definitely not), is growing on me - he looks and acts like Cassidy, even in interviews.  I really hope his origin story is the same - I must admit I really enjoyed the utter destruction of Irish sacred cows in the comics.  And in the latest episode, someone [spoiler]gets his dick shot off[/spoiler]!  That was genuinely funny, and now we're in proper Ennis territory - hopefully they don't make it happen all the time, like Garth did.  Next up - comedy anal rape!

[Keef Monkey]

After last week's episode (the church siege) not really clicking with me for whatever reason (think it might have been the pacing or the tone just not hitting home for me, and the [spoiler]'Arseface as an imaginary friend' angle seemed really unnecessary'[/spoiler]) this week's has some great stuff. The way they've seeded the Saint of Killers' backstory into the series as it's gone on has been a really smart move (and it's a really nice touch that [spoiler]what seem like disconnected flashbacks to your average viewer are actually occurring at that moment, in his hell-loop[/spoiler]). If they'd just given over an episode to it it would have stalled the momentum for people just wanting to see more Jesse and Cassidy (Tulip doesn't seem to have had as much of a chance to impress, actress is great but she just isn't getting the fun material seemingly), but the way it's been drip-fed has been great and now he can step into things as a fully fledged character instead of just an anonymous threat (even if they did labor the [spoiler]'loop' point a bit, maybe they had some padding to do this week[/spoiler]?!)

Seems to have gone really quickly, all over next week.

[Satanist]

Yeah I really enjoyed this weeks and agree it stumbled last week. Liked the looping part as well hammering home where he was and what was happening. I hope to see 40% of the series budget on screen next week.

[auxlen]

A success mark I employ in our homestead is when the Mrs asks me if new episodes are up....this has not happened once with Preacher (even though she enjoyed the first 2 episodes)...

And to be honest I wasn't asking either.....

[Woolly]

I've given up on this, last episode I watched was the one before the siege.
Finding it way too slow, with character motivations too far removed from the comic. Shame, as the first two episodes were fantastic.

Still keeping an eye on the thread though, in case it gets better*



*Preacher, not the thread...

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I hope to see 40% of the series budget on screen next week.

This. When? I remember it being a lot more... well, fantastic... in the comic. This looks like cheap rubbish recycling the same few sets. Because it is.

Maybe some success will bring an FX budget? 'cos this makes Dr Who look extravagent.

[Keef Monkey]

I hope to see 40% of the series budget on screen next week.

This. When? I remember it being a lot more... well, fantastic... in the comic. This looks like cheap rubbish recycling the same few sets. Because it is.

Maybe some success will bring an FX budget? 'cos this makes Dr Who look extravagent.

Really? I don't know much about telly budgets but to me it looks very expensive, particularly in the staging and choreography of some of the fights which I reckon are a cut above a lot of TV scraps (the 'regenerating' fight in the motel room, the chainsaw fight in the church, Cassidy's whole scrap in the airplane and the bar fight, the massacre in Ratwater etc.)

Seems to me like they're doing the smart thing and picking their battles, pouring the money into the moments that need it. It does mean there are some episodes without any notably big effects moments I suppose, but that's telly. I remember reading somewhere that the budget for the last 3 episodes of Ash vs Evil Dead was about the same as the budget for the first 7, because those were the episodes where it would be most felt. I thought that really paid off, because those last three episodes were as close to Evil Dead 4 as I could ever have hoped, even if the trade-off was some less over the top episodes around the middle.

[Theblazeuk]

I never really felt the lack of budget on Evil Dead as it was always god damn groovy.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Just watched the last episode - the action picked up considerably and it looks like we're pretty much exactly where the comic starts.  It's a bit odd to think [spoiler]that pretty much everyone mortal except Jesse, Tulip, Cass and presumeably Arseface are already gone;[/spoiler] and to be honest makes me wonder how much of the first series was absolutely necessary for driving the plot forward.
So far I've found it entertaining if not exactly essential viewing - maybe I'm just spoiled these days by the meticulously tight plotting of the likes of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. We're truly in a golden age of TV.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Well, I stuck with it. And, on balance, am glad that I did.

I get the feeling the whole series was based on establishing a premise while allowing for an ending that would be self-contained (ish) in case it wasn't renewed.

[spoiler]"God"[/spoiler] was handled very well, I thought.

[radiator]

I'm only up to episode 5, but to me Preacher definitely looks like a very lavish production - and I speak as someone who has a hard time watching most genre TV shows (The Flash, Constantine, Supergirl) because of how cheap and tacky they tend to look.

Yeah, the locations are somewhat limited, but it's not really affecting my enjoyment so far.

As for the show itself (I gather that episodes 3 and 4 were the least popular/deemed 'slowest' or most boring?), it's certainly a mixed bag (the tone and plotting seems rather uneven), but I'm still enjoying it well enough.

[Satanist]

Thought the last ep was great. Actual lolled about 4 times and it felt a lot more like the comics in tone than previous episodes. I read that they consider this as a prequel to the main event and in that respect it worked out well as not every viewer is familiar with the characters.

Looking forward to seeing Herr Starr in action in season 2.

[Tiplodocus]

Well it ends in a literal shitstorm so that reminded me of the comics.

Overall a grudging thumbs up (and a lot is to do with good will generated by genre trappings, source material and a good opening couple of episodes) e and Tiny Tips reckon they could have done that set up in 3 maybe 4 episodes.

Why spend all that time on characters of you aren't going to use them. 

It's an inferior product to lots of stuff around st the mo: compare the great integration of John De Lancie's character in Breaking Bad's narrative and gradual decoding of disparate images in Season 2 with the chap tapping the pressure gauge in this.

[The Monarch]

i liked it while some may think spending time on those characters was pointless considering how it ended I like to see it as a genuine shock ending because we spent so much time on them