Dominic Cooper plays Jesse Custer in AMC’s Preacher, based on the comics by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/AMC. © AMC Networks Entertainment LLC. and Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Ruth Negga plays the volatile Tulip O’Hare on AMC’s Preacher. Photo Credit: Matthias Clamer/AMC. © AMC Networks Entertainment LLC. and Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Joseph Gilgun plays Irish drifter Cassidy in Preacher. Photo Credit: Matthias Clamer/AMC. AMC Networks Entertainment LLC. and Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Preacher: Gone to Texas, with (from left) Cassidy, Jesse Custer and Angel O’Hare on the cover, collects the first seven issues. Copyright DC Entertainment Inc.
By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
It looks like AMC’s adaptation of DC’s legendary mature-readers title Preacher, premiering May 22 on AMC, is going to take a lot of liberties with the source material. That’s probably a good thing.
Written by Irish-born writer Garth Ennis (Punisher, Hitman), the original Preacher, if adapted faithfully, would probably have offended every viewer in America. And that’s just the cussing, which was non-stop, eclectic and, ah, inventive. One assumes AMC will tone that back considerably.
The TV series seems to be set in the west Texas town of Annville, which is itself a major departure from the graphic novels. The comics opened with our hero, Jesse Custer, as the preacher of Annville’s only church, but the action left town by the end of the first issue and Annville was mostly seen in flashbacks thereafter. The TV show, though, appears to be set there in perpetuity, with a host of supporting characters not found in the comics.
For example, there’s Donnie Schenck (Derek Wilson), a Civil War re-enactor and wife-beater, who is listed as being in all 10 episodes of the first (and so far only) season, but is not in the comics. (There are some bad people in Annville in the comics, but none of them match up with Schenck.) The credits list Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley), who owns a meatpacking business and is in all 10 episodes of Preacher; that name is assigned to a similar character in the comics who showed up much later in the story, and lived in Salvation, Texas. (I imagine he’ll be a standard villain, as the comics version had a secret that was, frankly, too disgusting even for the network that airs The Walking Dead.)
There’s yet another. AMC describes Emily Woodrow (Lucy Griffiths) as “a no-nonsense single mother of three. Emily's a waitress, the church organist, a bookkeeper, and Jesse's loyal right hand. Stoic and strong, wise beyond her years, she can’t help but have a little thing for Preacher Jesse.” She bears a mild resemblance to a brief-run character in the comics named Amy Grinderbinder, who also had a crush on Jesse. But Amy doesn’t appear in the TV show’s credits, and Emily does.
Emily’s presence, like Amy’s, sets up a possible love triangle with Jesse Custer and Tulip O’Hare. The latter are two of the three principal characters in Preacher, along with Irish troublemaker Cassidy.
And who are they? Here are their comics incarnations, with the caveat that not all elements will make it to the screen:
* Rev. Custer was the son of John Custer, a Vietnam vet-turned-preacher who was murdered before Jesse’s eyes by John’s brutal, in-bred, in-laws when Jesse was five, a fact that affected him strongly (he never cried afterward). After that, Jesse had a guardian spirit that was likely his father’s ghost, although it looked and sounded like John Wayne. In the first issue, Custer was inhabited by a mysterious entity known as “Genesis,” which – among other things – gave him “The Word,” the ability to make anyone do anything by just telling them to. Genesis’ arrival violently ended Custer’s sojourn in Annville, and launched him on a search for God. Despite hard knocks, heavy drinking and bitter dialogue, Jesse was an optimist of sorts about the human condition, albeit one with a Texas-size sense of pride. He’s played on TV by Dominic Cooper, instantly recognizable as Howard Stark, Iron Man’s dad over at Marvel Films.
* Tulip O’Hare was Jesse’s ex-girlfriend, whom he abandoned in Phoenix, Arizona, for reasons that became clear over time in the comics. In the meantime, Tulip had become a contract killer – again, for reasons that writer Ennis took his time revealing. She had a love/hate relationship with Custer, that went both ways in the course of the series. She’s played by Ruth Negga (Raina on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) an actress of Ethiopian descent, whereas the comics version of Tulip was white and blonde.
* Cassidy is described by AMC as an “Irish vagabond,” and for the sake of spoilers I’ll leave it at that. At any rate, he was an alcoholic sociopath whose destructive and self-destructive nature was a danger to all around him, although he believed himself to be a true friend to Jesse.
Other familiar characters include Sheriff Hugo Root (W. Earl Brown) and his son Eugene (Ian Colletti). Hugo, who doesn’t survive the first story arc in the comics, was the caricature of a Southern sheriff to the power of 10, whose racist diatribes probably won’t make it to the TV. His son Eugene was a sweetheart, but tried to kill himself with a shotgun to the face (in emulation of his hero, Kurt Cobain) but failed, leaving him with a visage that earned him a nickname that can’t be printed in a newspaper.
Amusingly, when Eugene embraced his nickname in the comics, Ennis treated it like a superhero origin, where Eugene, in a driving rainstorm, fell to his knees and shouted to the heavens, “Uh muh huh vuhhyuh uh Juhh Cuhh! Vuhhyuh fun uh bluh uh muh fuhh! Uh uh uh huh uh fuh luh uh uhh – suh buh uh! Uh wuh becuhh Uhhfuhh!”
Oh, sorry, in the comics you couldn’t understand Eugene without subtitles. He said “I will have vengeance on Jesse Custer! Vengeance for the blood of my father! And if I have a face like a (deleted), so be it – I will become (deleted)face!”
Did I mention that Preacher has the potential to offend just about anyone? Well, Ennis’ political incorrectness when it came to the handicapped, Southern sensibilities and law enforcement was just the warm-up. Where Preacher the comic book put most of its venom was in its treatment of religion.
We’ll see a bit of that in the TV show. The “Genesis” entity seems to behave as it does in the comics, although I’ll be surprised if the TV gives us the same origin, which is shockingly irreverent. We do see two of the Adephi on TV – minor, bureaucratic angels (that I think Ennis made up) who were responsible for keeping Genesis locked up in the comics, and quaked in fear of the warrior class Seraphi, who are not yet scheduled for an appearance.
As to God, there’s no telling how he’ll be depicted on Preacher, if it all. (I’m guessing not.) But in the comics, Custer’s search for God wasn’t a metaphor – he was really looking for the Divine Father, because He had became a deadbeat dad. God had quit his job; the Lord of Hosts had gone walkabout, which offended Jesse’s sense of responsibility, and he wanted to find Him and hold Him to account. I reallllly don’t expect any of that to hit the airwaves.
Which takes the central storyline out of Preacher. In the comics, the first issue introduced Custer’s decision to search for God, the throughline of the book is other interested parties arising to help or hinder him, and the book ended when God was found.
And those other interested parties are the bread and butter of Preacher, representing some of the most twisted scenes ever written in comic books. Whatever human vice you can imagine, it was seen in Preacher, usually so over the top you had to laugh.
That’s not likely to happen on Preacher the TV show. We won’t even see the Saint of Killers, the patron saint of murderers and assassins, a major character introduced in the first issue of Preacher and a major player until the last.
But let’s call those elements mere details. They’re not, but if Preacher the TV show can maintain the sensibility of the comics, it might live up to some of what made the comics famous. If nothing else, it needs to include Ennis’ signature violence, violence so spectacular and implausible it’s too unreal to take seriously.
If that sounds like a contradiction, and a thing no mentally healthy person would write – well, welcome to Preacher.
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (captaincomics.ning.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
I’m planning to watch Preacher… the first episode, at least. I didn’t particularly care for the comic, but I eventually got to the point at which I could at least appreciate it. I won’t have anything else to say about the show (or the comic) until I actually watch the first episode. (I’m assuming there will be a discussion.) I don’t think the show will be set in Annville “in perpetuity,” though. Seems to me I read an article which thought linear storytelling would be more straightforward than the in medias res approach the comic took. As soon as they cover what, in the comic, was antecedent action, they be able to move forward and avoid flashbacks.
In the comics, Tulip, Cassidy and Jesse don't meet up until after the church blows up, killing everyone in Annville. But on the show, the first 10 episodes all take place in Annville, and all the Annville actors appear in all 10 of them. So if Tulip and Cassidy are in Annville for those 10 episodes, then the TV writers are making the whole thing up. And if Tulip and Cassidy aren't in Annville -- if we see them elsewhere doing whatever it is they're doing before Preacher #1 -- then it's not going to make a whole lot of sense that they're in the show at all if they don't join Jesse until episode 10.
I'd love for your theory to be true, but it just doesn't look that way.
Incidentally, it took me a long time to get into Preacher. When I finally understood that I wasn't supposed to take the horrible things I was seeing literally, that it was a black comedy and I was supposed to laugh, it got a little better. But to tell you the truth I always thought it was pretty unpleasant.
Anyway we look at it, I think it's fairly obvious that the TV writers are going to take quite a bit of liberty with the source material.
Regarding the last paragraph of your response, I know exactly what you mean! I always felt a little "dirty" after reading Preacher. Not a very pleasant experience.
Gee, that would make a good lead for a column!
Jeff of Earth-J said:
Jeff of Earth-J said:
Never assume, Jeff. That way you won't make an ass out of you and... uh, whatever.
Anyway, I put of watching the first episode until last night simply because I didn't expect to enjoy it. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. I liked it much more than I expected to, and much more than the comic book as well, but I'm not going to start a discussion in the "Movies and TV" forum if no one else is watching it.
I initially started a thread in March and abandoned it in favor of this one, since there seemed to be no takers. They skipped last Sunday because of the holiday weekend. The second episode is scheduled for Sunday June 5.
I think they have the tone right and, like you, I enjoyed it. If they maintain the writing quality of the pilot it should be a good show. The Legionnaires should give it a chance. It's not as if they are trashing a classic hero!
I liked it a lot, and I'm a huge fan of the comic. I've read the whole thing twice! Even started a re-reading discussion here the second time. I agree about the tone, and even the casting. Tulip is not "the whitest Cracker ever" (Seth Rogan's description of her on the Talking Preacher show that followed), but I loved the way Ruth Negga played her. I'm going to be seeing the whole thing on a one-week delay, most likely--I know I won't be able to see the second episode this weekend--so I'll have to hang back on the discussion, but I'll be around.
I bought the first issue of Preacher and didn’t care for it. I gave it to my friend and he loved it, starting collecting it. He loaned his issues to me a chunk at a time as each storyline was completed. (This is how I gained an “appreciation” for the series.) I later picked up some of the early collections as free selections through the SF BOMC (but I have yet to read them). I never did get all the way through the entire series.
We'll probably watch "Talking Preacher" tonight.
Who's the host of 'Talking Preacher'?
An excerpt from Wikipedia:
Talking Preacher is a live talk show hosted by Chris Hardwick which features guests discussing episodes of Preacher. The show uses the same format as Talking Dead, Talking Bad and Talking Saul, which are also hosted by Hardwick.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next