*Only a few minor spoilers. Nothing Major. Spoilers for Season 1*

When we last few Jesse Custer and the gang, they had left the town Anneville (and just in time! As the entire was completely obliterated) and the show was starting to get on track with how the comics are; on the road and moving from place to place with stranger adventures happening each time. And while we got a taste of that this season, at least in the first few episodes, the show quickly kept the gang in one location for the most part, but they made good use of it and did travel from time to time away, if not always returning afterwards.


So the season began with Jesse, Cassidy and Tulip beginning their quest to find God; who as we know has done a runner from Heaven and is now somewhere on Earth. The first couple of episodes dealt with the fallout of Season 1, cleaning up the story line with the last living Angel from last year, who is now living quite an interesting life, and it showed us the gang meeting The Saint of Killers!
Last season we only got a glimpse of what was coming for Jesse Custer when it came to the Saint. We had followed his story line and discovered his origin, but it was only at the end when he was unleashed upon the world. Well the first few episodes showed us just how much of an unrelenting force the Saint truly was, as he hounded them constantly throughout, killing police officers, N.R.A gun nuts, and anyone else who dared to get in his way.
Although he was done well and it was interesting whenever he did come on screen, he did start to get a little bit milked after a while, especially given the fact that the gang had no way of stopping him.

Thankfully though, the show only did this game of cat and mouse for the first half of the season. By this point Jesse and the others had gone to New Orleans in their quest to find God because… God like jazz? I think.
I was surprised to see Nol’Leans so early on in the show, given that in the comics, the city of Mardi Gras did not feature until at least book 5, and it focused around a group of Vampires, making a very Cassidy heavy storyline. Personally, I would love to have seen it as Cassidy is by far the best character in the show and does not get nearly enough screen time (see: Daryl in the Walking Dead). It is part of the charm I suppose as I want to see more of him, but I do not want him to become overused and steal the limelight. I do feel that the they need to spend the time making Jesse a little more likeable in the same away that they have done with Cassidy, but it might have something to do with the fact that Joe Gilgun plays him superbly.


Anyway, I digress, so the gang have made their way to New Orleans and find themselves… just knocking around really. Trouble seems to find them. Jesse’s power has caught the attention of The Grail and the true antagonist of the comic book series; Herr Starr. Now the show does do a good job or laying the ground work early on. In season 1 we caught a glimpse of Herr Starr in an obscure intro that didn’t seem to make sense at the time (to non-comic readers) but now it suddenly does. This happens a number of times throughout the course of the TV series, I have noticed. There will be intros or flashbacks that hint at something, but never really tells us what. Comic book fans will instantly know what they are referencing, but the viewers who do not know the source material will have to wait and find out what this all means. A perfect example of this is the storyline involving Jesse’s Grandmother, TC, and Jody, all of whom are not actually shown fully, so it leaves it open for the next season (the story line of which is awesome in the comics and so I am proper looking forward to that).

But back to the point, Herr Starr and the Grail are well presented. They are the villains of this story and, for the most part, Herr Starr is killing someone, or arranging the death of someone, but they are not your typical baddies. Starr sees Jesse as a possible candidate as a new Messiah and never reveals his true face to him, as he knows full well that Jesse will take him down.
Herr Starr himself is an excellent representation of his comic book counterpart, if not maybe a little over the top at times with regards to his sexual fetishes. At times, at least in the first couple of episodes he is introduced, it came be a little overused, but thankfully this is calmed down a little as the main point of his story line becomes more apparent.

There were also some great moments with Eugene; aka Arse Face, this year. Last season he was sent to hell through the power of Jesse’s word, and we saw him having to relive his worst memory in the same manner as the Saint did in the previous season. We got an interesting look into the inner workings of torturous afterlife for sinners, and met a few interesting characters down there. The storyline focused on Eugene not being there for the same reasons as the others, and struggling with this prison life that has been forced upon him, where good behaviour is punished, and Eugene being a goody-goody, definitely will cause some problems.
I will say this one thing though, so if you are worried about spoilers, maybe just skip this bit and move onto the next paragraph; but who would have thought that Hitler would have been such a great guy? Why would they make him such a likeable character? Haha. It was a bold move and one that might be met with a few eyebrows, but the slapstick / tongue-in-cheek way the show is presented should be enough to cover it.


My biggest qualm with this season of Preacher is that some story lines have a bit of a flat ending. One particularly involving a man who knows Tulip’s past, is presented as a big deal for an episodes or two, but then is quickly swept away and never mentioned again. It seems like quite an interesting part of her life, and, although I do not really like the character, it would have been good to see it evolve more.
Another story like this is the one involving Dennis. I was really disappointed with the way that this story ended. I was enjoying the reveal of it and where it was going, not to mention the few major things that happened during the course of the season, but in the final episode, it felt as if they were just done with the story and ended it in a really crummy way. I would have loved to have seen the character develop further down the dark path it was heading towards. It was a shame as it was one of the only major story lines involving Cassidy, and as I said, this character maybe deserves a little more screen time. I will be surprised if he is not predominately featured throughout season 3.

Overall I enjoyed the season. It did a good job of staying reasonably true to aspects of the source material, whilst at the same time branching off on their own. Although the season finale was a bit of a let-down and served nothing more than to build up the next season and gave us no real pay off for anything. There were many good episodes in the middle of it however, with a quite a lot of interesting or cool moments (mainly fight scenes involving fantastic pieces of music), and I am happy with where the show is heading, eagerly waiting its return next year.

Please follow and like us: