At a certain point during the WonderCon screening of AMC’s new show Preacher, based on the dark and brazen comic series of the late ’90s, I wondered fleetingly if what I was seeing was even allowed on television. Then I remembered AMC has basically rewritten the “rules” of television since Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Mad Men. The network that has pushed how ambitious and movie-like television can be, pushes that scope even wider with its most comic-like comic adaptation yet, and indeed perhaps done anywhere.

Whereas The Walking Dead is a gritty adaptation of a comic based in real-life scenarios and post-apocalyptic relationship dynamics, Preacher is your definitive supernatural and even horror-ish comic series. And not only does the show not tame down any of it, the show’s creators—Garth Ennis, creator of the original comic, with Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen and Sam Catlin producing and writing as well—have figured out how to create a screening experience that feels similar to the pacing, reveals, and character details one gets when flipping through the panels of a comic.

Dominic Cooper is Jesse Custer, a man with a dark past (of which a few black and white flashbacks only really hint at) who returns to his hometown of Annville, Texas to be the local preacher. Of course, he’s not actually any good at it, and there’s the small matter of him not being entirely sure there is a God. Joining him by way of passing airplane is Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun, who’s role in the British show Misfits immediately gives him my personal approval) an Irish vagabond with fighting skills and an unnatural ability to regenerate by drinking blood. But it’s by far Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga, also a Misfits alum!), Jesse’s ex-girlfriend, who makes the most impressive entrance: wrestling with a bad guy in a moving car through a corn field and then putting together a homemade bazooka with a couple of farm kids to take down more bad guys.

Fans of the comic will be glad that another familiar face from the series is introduced in the pilot. Though, to be honest, you don’t forget a face like his. Eugene, aka Arseface, is a teen in Annville who sports a particularly freakish mouth after a botched suicide attempt. His introduction is just one of many darkly comedic moments in the series.

And in fact, what makes Preacher most work is that dark comedy. It’s subtle in parts, like a news channel playing in the background of a scene announcing Tom Cruise has exploded (all part of the supernatural plot of Preacher), and blatant in other ways like a slow motion zoom in on Jesse’s face as he gets an obvious sense of pleasure kicking the shit out of a dude who deserves it.

In the WonderCon panel, producer and writer Sam Catlin mentioned that they were determined not to create “AMC’s Preacher” or “Preacher the TV Series” but just plain “Preacher,” which would suggest we’re sure to see even more of the incredibly dark elements that make up this series. But credit is most certainly due to AMC, whose freedom-giving to its showrunners has yielded some pioneering results. Those of us feeling the sting of The Walking Dead’s season coming to a close soon can find solace in knowing our thirst for blood—and some needed comedic relief after a dramatic season—will be quenched come May.

Preacher premieres May 22 on AMC. Follow Way Too Indie for further coverage.

This week, Bernard talks to filmmaker/screenwriter Oren Moverman in-depth about his new movie starring Richard Gere, Time Out of Mind. Bernard also reviews the film, which he calls “the most ‘3-D’ movie of the year,” and talks about AMC’s forthcoming series Preacher, based on the classic Garth Ennis comic book and presented by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

Topics

• Preacher (1:50)
• Time Out of Mind Review (9:18)
• Oren Moverman Interview (21:15)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

Time Out of Mind NYFF Review

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Lockout is full of every action movie cliché in the book. The film involves a lot of gunplay and even more scene chewing word play from lead character Snow, played gloriously by veteran Australian actor Guy Pearce. Practically every line that is spewed out of Snow’s mouth is action movie clichéd dialogue. But Pearce is more than up for the challenge.

As far as the film is concerned, you might as well have called Lockout: Escape from Space. The film is essentially an Escape from New York/L.A. rip off. A convict is given a reprieve if he can rescue the president’s daughter from a massive floating prison that orbits the Earth after being overrun by its own prisoners. Other than the location, that is literally the plot of John Carpenter’s early cult classic. As I previously stated the film borrows HEAVILY from tons of other action films, but the actors and filmmakers take none of this seriously and just go for it. The result is a very entertaining action film.

The film begins on Earth with Snow involved in a deadly shootout in an apartment. He escapes only to be pursued viciously by government agents in a chase scene that can only be described as utterly ridiculous. The FX in this scene are extremely poor. What’s really odd is that in later scenes the FX are outstanding. All this leads the viewer to believe that they were done poorly on purpose, maybe to suggest that the filmmakers know how ridiculous their film is. No one knows for sure.

Snow is captured and interrogated about what happened in the apartment. Literally, every single answer Snow gives is a wisecrack smart ass answer, each of them hilarious. Each of them earns him a right hook to the jaw. When I initially saw the preview for Lockout I had a lot of reservations about Pearce playing this kind of role. I’ve been a big supporter of his ever since he burst onto the scene in Christopher Nolan’s mind bending neo classic Memento. But as the film continued my worries began to ease. A friend suggested to me that Pearce would be perfect as Nathan Drake for the upcoming Uncharted movie and he is right. There is probably no other actor more perfectly suited for the role than Pearce.

Everyone remembers Maggie Grace right? No? Really? She’s the cute blonde girl from Lost and was Liam Neeson’s daughter in Taken. Here she plays the unfortunate role of the President of the United States’ daughter, Emilie Warnock. She arrives at the outer space slammer to investigate any wrong doing by the prison warden and his crew. There are rumors of the warden using prisoners as lab rats for some kind of drug. Well wouldn’t you know, a prisoner escapes and lets all of his friends out to play. They kill a few people and take the rest hostage and demand to be released before they kill more. The U.S. government offers Snow a deal. Fly up there and rescue Warnock. Get her to safety and he can considered himself a free man. Easier said than done right?

What follows is an hour and a half of action cliché after action cliché. The film knows all the right notes to hit and the actors are more than ready to play along with them. Lockout isn’t a great film by any means. Hell, you’ve probably seen this film at least 30 times before. You probably already know how it ends and what the final words of the film will be. I wouldn’t dream of telling you to drop everything and run out to see Lockout. But if you find yourself with nothing to watch and you’re looking for a great escape (no pun intended), Lockout is more than up for the challenge of entertaining you for 90 minutes. And when something is done right, isn’t that something worth appreciating?