‘Preacher’ Recap: S1E1 ‘Pilot’

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AMC’s Preacher gleeful throws sanity, plausibility and probability out the window. And, quite frankly, it’s all the better for it. The long-gestured adaptation to Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion’s Vertigo comic of the same name is malicious, loose-fitting and prone to gore. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup-of-tea; that’s for sure. But for those who like their Sundays filled with excess violence, ill-tempered characters and a diversion for pulpy violence, particularly The Walking Dead crowd, it’ll almost certainly find its choir.

The pilot, directed by executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and written by showrunner (and former Breaking Bad scribe) Sam Catlin, had the unenviable challenge of introducing our wacky batch of characters and their insanely unholy world — one filled with vampires, badass bounty hunters, teenagers with faces like assholes and spontaneous combustion caused by invisible aliens — and trying to make it all seem digestible, easy-to-follow and even fairly relatable, all while jumping around the globe willy-nilly and also across various points of time. And while it’s not without a few hiccups, Rogen and Goldberg produce a cheekily disarray explosion of mayhem, absurdity and various sacrilegious activities, and they do so in a way that’s palpable, understandable and even pretty lovable for those of us who *gulp* haven’t read the comics just yet. (I have my copy coming to me tomorrow. I’m going to catch up soon!)

The results are blood-spattering goodness all around, with some excellent practical effects, a fantastic sense of pace and some well-rounded performances from our likable cast. Joseph Gilgun, Ruth Negga and Ian Colletti are the best of the bunch as Cassidy, a vampire who loves to drink a handle of whiskey as much as he likes to devour blood any chance he gets; Tulip O’Hare, a down-and-dirty bounty hunter with a love-hate relationship with our titular man of the cloth; and Arseface, an unfortunately disfigured young man who still believes in the Lord, even though a shotgun to the face is what led to his unusual facial contortion, respectively. We only get brief visits with those characters-in-question, but each make a great introduction and will certainly promise some more excellent appearances in the episodes to come. They’re so good, in fact, that they almost unintentionally make our lead, Jesse Cutter (Dominic Cooper), a man of the Lord but one with a violent past and a present love for the booze, feel kinda boring as a a trade.

I say “kinda” because he’s not bad. Not at all. He’s interesting enough in a morally-grey sorta way, and not unlike other not-quite-Do-Gooders like Don Draper and Walter White from the channel. But he also feels kinda uneventful next to our other, often-more action-prone supporting characters. And that’s understandable. He’s a more down-to-Earth character — even if he’s, you know, a man of God. And it’s likely that the complexity of his character shall become more tantalizing and investing the more we get to know him. We only see the briefest of flashbacks with him as he wrestles with black-and-white memories from the past and we’re told some stories off-hand from Tulip. And it’s evident the creators are holding their cards close to their decks here. As well as they should, of course, because we, the viewer, need a little taste of mystery to keep ourselves intrigued. But for now, it does have that common complex where the action happening around the main character is more interesting, and he often gets a little lost in the shuffle as Rogen, Goldberg and Catlin bounce all over the place.

That said, this is a damn good pilot, and a fine introduction to the type of comic which is not very easy to bring to this platform. Hence, you know, the long development process. There’s a lot of love, craftsmanship, time and effort put into this bad boy from Hell. And it shows, greatly. Hopefully they can keep a good thing going, but knowing the talent involved — not to mention all the interesting characters and action abound — that shouldn’t be too difficult. Even when Rogen and Goldberg (likely) become less-and-less involved, and hand the keys off to their fellow directors (it’s unclear if they’re coming back for more, or if that’s a wrap for them in their directors’ chairs), the talent pool involved should have no problem keeping the boat afloat. They’re putting this one in good hands, and it looks like AMC has another powerful hit on their hands. Praise be to that.

Now, let’s look at some of the top five moments from this week’s hellraising pilot.

Tulip’s Introduction

Any character who gets introduced blazing down a field of corn beating the life of someone (and chewing off his ear for good measure), all while driving 120 miles per hour and still keeping their slick cool, instantly grabs your attention. *Doing my best/worst Larry the Cable Guy impression* I don’t care who you are.

And that the character just so happens to be a total badass gal when she steps out of the vehicle seals the deal. Now, doesn’t it? Negga owns Tulip O’Hare like it’s nobody’s business. Well, except hers, of course. And she can rock a cool black jet and equally pitch-black pair of sunglasses in the process? Am I in love? Is this what people refer to as love?

In a cast of characters with tons of great introduction, Tulip is easily at the forefront for best character. She’s hip, she knows what to do and she isn’t afraid to let some strangers’ kids help her build a makeshift bazooka out of tomato soup cans. I mean, how is that not cool?! If nothing else, I can’t way to see what the future of Preacher holds for her. She’s absolutely dynamite, and I can’t wait see how she explodes on the scene next time.

Bar Brawl

There are a lot of great fights in this pilot, and among the most commendable aspects of this introductory episode is seeing how well-versed Rogen and Goldberg have grown as filmmakers outside the comedy genre. This is the End and The Interview suggested as much, but this pilot truly shows us how far they’ve come behind-the-camera. And with this badass little fight scene — which is not only perfectly set up, in a familiar sorta way, but done so with clear execution and a worthwhile payoff to boot — they demonstrate themselves as efficiently good action directors, with a firm grasp of fight choreography and fluid action cinematography. Led by Cooper’s commanding performances and perfectly delivered dialogue, a nice arm twist or two and a fun little capper moment with Cassidy, I can only hope they have more scenes like this one locked in the cannon. And if there are, I can’t wait to see them come before me.

The Cold Opening

Preacher needs to let you know, right off the bat, that you’re in for some weird ass shit. And how better to do that then to start your new show somewhere in the heart of space, following some weird, almost undetectable comet whizzing its way through the galaxy and into our solar system, before landing in Africa and straight into a practicing priest — who feels as though he’s filled with the power of the spirit at last before he combusts onto his followers, with them all running and screaming out of their wits out of their small little congregation. It’s a commanding, surprising and, most of all, darkly funny opening, and one that wouldn’t feel too out-of-line with something we’ve seen from the directors behind This is the End.

It’s also the kind of cold opening that lets you know exactly where you stand with everything set to come. If that was too weird and out-there for you, maybe Preacher isn’t going to be your thing. If that’s the kind of nonsensical insanity you love, prepare yourself for the time of your life. Because it doesn’t give a damn if it’s too weird or insane for your tastes. It’s going to be exactly what it wants to be, and, personally, I like it quite a bit. Also, that cross on top of the church turning upside before it hit the ground? Very nice touch, boys. Keep it up.

Let’s Meet a Vampire

I already mentioned Cassidy’s last fight, but I’m having a hard time figuring out which one I liked more: that one, or this one. And it’s not an easy choice, because they’re both pretty splendid in their own right. Shooting us three-thousand feet in the sky — just as we’re shown a montage of snort coking, boozing and sucking up other illegal substances that’s not unlike others we’ve seen from Rogen and Goldberg’s past work — we’re immediately thrown into the mix with a ton of characters we don’t know, not sure if we want to know and, eventually, won’t know — at least, for the most part. It’s a kinda risky script-flip, and I applaud Rogen, Goldberg and Catlin for pushing forward with it without reservation. And the fact that it actually kinda works only makes it sweeter, and the show better, as a result.

Because just as soon as we settle in with these clowns, we see them obliterated one-by-one by a guy whom we just realized, surprise-surprise, is a vampire. And one that likes to take a nice bottle of fresh blood for the road (or, more appropriately, sky) before he jumps thousands of feet in the air. Without a parachute.  It’s a turbulent little scene, in more ways than one, and it’s very well handled and never less than entertaining. And it suggests Goldberg and Rogen are ready to move away from their pot-smoking association — if just a little bit. The only time a bong gets introduced in any scene, we see it smashed against someone’s face before he gets stabbed a couple more times for good measure. Are they trying to tell us something here? It sure seems like it to me.

Arseface

Bringing the character of Arseface to life was easily the biggest challenge in Rogen, Goldberg and Catlin’s wake here. His shotgun-inflicted wound may be too grotesque for TV censors if done too much (but, then again, this is AMC we’re talking about here). But if not done well enough, it would completely alienated the readers. And it would probably stop the show dead in its feet along the way. So they knew they had to settle somewhere in the middle and, thanks to some lovely make-up work from the legendary Greg Nicotero, they pull it off handsomely. Well, not handsomely per se. But exceptionally well, for sure.

And beyond the stellar make-up work involved, it would be nothing is the man behind the prosthetics didn’t make it come to life in the process. But they didn’t have to worry about that, because Colletti brings a great depth of warm and sympathy to his performance with each fragile-eyed glance. It’s a touching, deeply-felt performance, even if we only get to see a brief moment of it, and it’s not hard to imagine he’ll become the heart of the show in no time. He already wins you over here, and if he doesn’t, you might be an asshole.

That’s it for this week. Thanks so much for reading. I hope to see you again in two weeks, when the second episode premieres. Until then!

Will Ashton

Will Ashton

Will is a writer for Heroic Hollywood, and a lot of other places too. One day he'll become Jack Burton. Just you wait and see.