TV Series Review: Preacher – Season 2

“Yes, Yes, Christ lives in our hearts.”

“No, Christ lives in a top secret location guarded by machine guns.”

Preacher is an American television series developed by Sam Catlin, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen for AMC starring Dominic Cooper. It is an adaptation of the comic book series Preacher created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, and published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. The series was officially picked up on September 9, 2015, with a ten-episode order which premiered on May 22, 2016. On June 29, 2016, AMC renewed the series for a 13-episode second season that premiered on June 25, 2017

Continuing on from Season 1, where our trio left the town of Annville with a bang; it doesn’t take long for them to find trouble. Or for trouble to find them. The gang are quickly interrupted on their road trip by the police and more importantly the Saint of Killers, who has been hired to track Jesse to the ends of the Earth. Season 2 revolves around this plot and many others, such as their continued quest to find God, a secret marriage, an abandoned son and a trip to Hell.

Firstly, I want to start off with the positives before I get to any negative particulars. This season was by no means bad. It had comedy, gore, sex, all the good stuff. The new characters were excellently casted, especially The Saint of Killers and Herr Starr. And on the whole I definitely enjoyed myself.

Herr Star outshone everyone in this season, he was the closest to his source material and had me invested in every scene he was in. And the Saint though I feel wasn’t utilized correctly was surely a force to be reckoned with, as he should be.

But the whole time I did feel a little off and I think it’s because for every brilliant episode there was several filler. Every point of progression there was something standing in the way. For example, the whole season we’re stuck in New Orleans with a side story about a secret marriage of Tulip’s and Cassidy’s son Denis who’s old and dying. Now, I enjoyed both of those storylines to a point but Denis’ definitely overstayed his welcome and ultimately amounted to absolutely nothing in the end!

I think a big problem is that the comics are so fucking unbelievably good but they want to put their own spin on it and introduce storylines in different ways, but I’m afraid some of it didn’t work for me.

Another issue I had is the main goal is to find God. But no one seems to give much of a shit about that. So, as a viewer you stop caring too. Paraphrasing an exchange between Jesse and Tulip: Tulip asks Jesse why he cares so much about finding God anyway. To which he explains how he’s the creator of the fucking universe. It makes you wonder why Tulip and Cassidy are even sticking around Jesse when they don’t care about finding God. And I honestly I’m surprised they did because I found Jesse quite unlikeable this season.

Lastly, I felt it was a little serious this time around. It started off strong but slowly got less Humperdoo and more Eugene and Hitler.

Overall, Season 2 was, again, pretty great. But in season 3 they need to fix these issues. No more messing around, no more hanging about and no more improvements that are anything but. And more scenes akin to Cassidy getting high with Fiore.

From a die-hard fan who’ll no doubt love the next season, flaws and all…