The Preacher

I have to be honest and say, as forgiving as I am, and I really am when it comes to comic adaptations, I was worried about a screen adaptation of The Preacher, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's dark and humorous comic masterpiece.  How would they do it?, was my first thought. Followed swiftly by how would they do it justice? Hearing Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were behind it, I thought....maybe. Seeing the promotional shots of Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Ruth Negga as Tulip O'Hare and, a favourite of mine, Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy, I thought...I reckon this could work. And watch it I thought...YES!  They did it, it worked marvellously. The Preacher is a thing to beauty. All right, it's not the comic, it never could be, but they've done as good a job as I think could be done. The essence and feel of the comic is there, the main plot of the comic is there, just imagine The Preacher in a slightly different version of the comic reality. The same but different. The main characters are there and have developed well, they're convincing as the comic creations. The supporting characters too, some from the comics, some echoes of characters from the comic and some new, are all engaging. I wont give too much of the story away, enough though to say strange things are afoot in Annville; the episodes are dark, sometimes brutal (the motel fight scene) and so funny (the motel fight scene), there are some really strong performances (DeBlanc and Fiore are great, and Cassidy too, that said, everyone of the actors were great) with great dialogue (little filler, all killer) which weaves several different threads together which leads to one of the best season finales of a series I've seen. And the beginning of something familiar to those who've read the comics. Visually, it's a treat, stylish and well framed. I can't wait for a longer season 2 in 2017.