Special Edition Podcast
Show Notes
The latest comic book television show adaptation brings Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s classic Vertigo series Preacher to life at AMC. Josh Flanagan , Conor Kilpatrick, and Ron Richards gather to discuss the first episode. What worked, what didn’t and the eternal question: will Josh keep watching?!?!
Running Time: 00:25:09
Music:
“E. Texas Ave.”
The Promise Ring
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Ron definitely wrote the show notes.
Excellent song choice as always.
I pretty much mirror your sentiments about the pilot. My only disagreement is Tulip. She doesn’t seem to fit just yet. There are some things I’m just not sure how they’re gonna do, if at all. Specifically regarding Christ’s descendants.
Oh, this show is a gigantic PR and political minefield.
Lol. Seriously.
Okay, as someone who watched this pilot, listened to your review of it, and has never read the comic? I thought AMC’s “Preacher” was… interesting. Not bad. I’ll watch the next episode, partly out of curiosity and partly because so many people are talking about this series. But nothing about this grabs me yet.
I talked to a co-worker today who watched the show but has never read the books and she was utterly confused.
Ok. You mentioned your girlfriend’s reaction of the podcast and my wife had the same reaction as well. I text a friend saying “I don’t think this show is accessible to a non-reader”. That will be a serious problem if it’s not fixed.
*on
I’ve never read Preacher, I know and I feel bad but I don’t really. I’m not big on Garth Ennis, so that should also make me feel bad but I don’t. I realized at trivia on tuesday that at my age I don’t have to pretend to like everything that everyone who likes things that I like like (if that made any sense). I don’t much like Kurt Vonnegut, I’m not super into Ennis. That said I thought there was a lot going on in the pilot, it was hard for me to keep track of who everyone was (most pilots) but it was interesting, but I agree with you guys that it was sort of boring? though I got excited at the end and will definitely watch the next episode.
you may try to read Peter Milligan’s “Shade the Changing Man” run which covered some similar themes but with a different attitude.
Conveniently Shade is about 3 people on a road trip across America with a weird power involved, commenting on American culture and history, with takes on violence and sexuality and religion, heavy on character interactions and development and constant weird stuff happening.
oh. and it came out 5 years before Preacher.
also have you read “War Stories” by Ennis that David Lloyd illustrated? If you don’t like those there’s little hope you’ll ever read anything by Ennis.
Count me as one of those that has not read the comics, and this was my first real experience with the world. I knew a few facts from listening to the podcast over the years, but most of those I just remembered after seeing it (Cassidy being who he is, being one of them).
I really enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was difficult to follow, and thought it had a great pace to go along with the great main charcters, and good story. Yes there are things I don’t know (mostly regarding the ball of light and the two strangers), but those seem like things left intentionally vague, and will be filled in as the story progresses. I think they used enough “Genre” shorthand to make sure you understood things like Cassidy pretty quickly. Not having read the books, I didn’t realize the pace was slow. I thought it gave us time to get to know the charcters and setting, before really jumping in on the overall plot. I didn’t mind that Jesse was brooding, and unconfident, except when he was fighting. It just gave him a certain personality, one that I didn’t know was slightly different from the book. And I loved the way Tulip always had a plan, but it was usually a very random one. At first glance it could come off as luck, but it seemed to be more skill and knowledge.
Now that I’ve spent a few days (hay it’s only been out a few days) thinking about this, it almost feels more like a Neal Gaimen story then a Garth Ennis one, and maybe that is a pacing thing. But I’m a fan of that sort of slower burning story, so I don’t mind.
I’ll keep watching that is for sure, and hope to enjoy the show as much as everyone else has enjoyed the graphic story. I am a little torn on if I should try and read the trades now, and get ahead, or just enjoy this take on that universe? As a base line I had read “Game of Thrones” before the show came out (but it took two tries, and still didn’t love it, stopped after the 2nd book), but enjoy the series (I had a hard time with the graphic nature of the stories in the written form, but not as much in the visual form).
Well anyway that was my take,
Found the Pilot just okay. Couldn’t put my finger on it, but I think the brooding of the main character is the main stumbling block so far. All of the more manic set pieces were brilliant, the larger than reality townspeople were great, but all centring around the least compelling character.
At least your guys love for it, particularly Josh, does make me want to commit to my annual attempt to get past the first twelve issues.
I knew going in to this show that there was no way they could faithfully adapt the comic. The book was just to out there for TV. Not sure they could have done it justice on film or on HBO or one of the other cable networks. I think I may have to watch the pilot again as I just was not loving it and I wanted to love it. Preacher is one of the best comics EVER, in my opinion. That may be why I was disappointed with the first episode. I think my expectations were just to high. I will give it a chance cuz of the source material and my fondness for it. I hope it gets better. The biggest complaint I have is that it looks like the show will not go anywhere. It will just take place in Annville. One of the great things about the book was the traveling aspect of the story. This is such a departure that I am not sure it will work.
I have not read Preacher and really enjoyed the pilot. It definitely made me watch to catch the next episode and I didn’t find it boring or confusing at all.
Great show, guys! These special edition episodes are always some of the best.
Shockingly, I’ve never read Preacher and neither has my wife. Sure, I know dribs and drabs of the story, but otherwise we came to the pilot a blank slate and I’ve gotta tell you, we really loved it.
Yes, it was slow in places and, yes, we’d like to see Jesse take more agency in the show overall – as he does in the bar fight, but the rest was great. We loved the action and the quirkier moments with Tulip and Cassidy being enormous stand outs, both for storylines and performances. I was interested to hear you talk about that feeling of wanting the next trade right away and missing that from the show. Honestly, we felt the opposite. We were bummed there wasn’t another episode to watch right away and even more so that we’d have to wait two weeks for the continuation. We’re very eager to see where this goes.
Like you, I’m a little sad to see that it doesn’t look to be a road trip show, but I suppose that does leave the possibility for Annville to become a rich location in its own right.
My only real disappointment was the pacing. Like I said, it did feel slow in parts. I don’t think there were any whole scenes I’d eliminate, but I think many of them could have been shorter. The show didn’t need to be 90 minutes. I find myself wanting to peg this on Rogen and Goldberg. They directed the pilot and, while I believe both have some directing experience, it doesn’t seem as though their directorial approach is right for television. I’m eager to see what a more experienced TV director brings to the table.
Overall, good show and we’re excited to see where it heads. I hope that it continues to defy expectation and veer away from the comic. I’ve never read it, but I hope the show becomes its own animal. One of the criticisms I’ve had for Game of Thrones in the past is its fidelity to the source material and the feeling that, as a reader of the book, I’ve seen it all before. I’d applaud Preacher the show if it can be a distinct thing from the comic and still be engaging.
I just can’t explain it, but something with this show seemed completely off to me. Maybe it was some of the changes that were made, I don’t know. I definitely was not grabbed by it, as I found this pilot a bit of a slog. I don’t necessarily feel like this type of project needs to be a shot for shot adaptation, but good grief I’d like it to at least “feel” like Preacher to me…and this did not. And I’m sorry, but some of the changes felt completely unnecessary to me (the pacing, Tulip looking and acting nothing like Tulip, etc). I don’t know who that woman was on the screen, but nothing about the character seemed like Tulip at all. There was a vulnerability to Tulip’s character in the comics, at the same time she could still kick the ass of just about anyone. Here in the pilot, she was just plain old goofy, and quirky dialed up to an 8. No thanks.
I believe all involved in the creative process have their hearts in the right place, but this wasn’t enough. I will watch the next episode, albeit on a very short leash.
Quite simply…Words cannot even begin to describe how disappointed I am with this show………………………………….
PREACHER or the podcast….?
I have to say, after watching the second episode I’m kind of down on the show now. The weird tone problem is still there and it’s still just…boring.
I still love Cassidy, though.
No Conor… Not the podcast…. The boring, disjointed piece of crap that was somehow adapted from one of the greatest comics stories of all time… From the time that it was announced my first thought was “Please don’t fuck this up..”…..Thanks Seth Rogen and co. for managing to take brilliance and making it utter bland, lifeless, beige crap…!
Came to see what your guys thoughts were after ep 2. I agree it is a bit boring, but I think we’ll start to see a ramp up of action and depravity. I’m definitely sticking around for the rest of season 1.
I’m giving it one more episode to do something interesting.
It is so relentlessly boring.