Martin Carr reviews the first episode of Preacher season 2…
Statistical circumcision and foreskin face cream set the tone. Eighties chart topping toe tappers, fast cars, film stock tomfoolery and mace spray on the nut sack set the mood. Not quite the wheat field car chase or forty thousand foot bar fight free fall that defined season one but close. We are back on home turf with Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy making this feel more like a reunion with old friends, than a twisted road trip, biblical retribution type gig with ungodly acts of the almighty involved.
Goldberg and Rogen spend less time on exposition, put more focus on character development and are coy in their use of gross out effects in favour of subtlety. There are still moments of black humour, body part bumper segues and violence as misdirection, which serves the plot rather than just making you smile. Their direction is less showy, more slapstick in part but no less inventive or measured in moving things along. Copper, Negga and Gilgun slip back into their roles without missing a beat and there is a sense that these people are having fun. Cassidy remains a revelation both in terms of the easy physicality Gilgun brings to the role, but also in those fleeting moments of pathos as his crush on Tulip becomes a problem.
Cooper and Negga have a tangible chemistry especially evident in their dialogue scenes, while an underlying edge of sarcasm and farce permeates everything. Hints of backstory come through during chance encounters and tone shifts easily between pitch black comedy, social commentary and religious debate. That there is even a Jurassic Park reference thrown in illustrates the multiple levels of meaning ‘On The Road’ aspires to, while a Seventies road movie aesthetic looms large. Dusk Til Dawn throwbacks, tips of the hat to Duel and Coen brothers kidnap caper Raising Arizona also make an appearance.
With quality cameos filling the gaps season two is already shaping up to be a love triangle guaranteed to end badly. With Hell on your trail and a religious power of God residing in your belly, Jesse has more than the Lord’s music taste to worry about. Unwashed, unwanted and out for Custer body parts the ‘Cowboy’ is an unstoppable force. Equal parts cowpoke, bounty hunter and Terminator in leather chaps, McTavish carries a platoon of weaponry and does a mean line in chin whiskers. King of the dead eye stare and arbiter of retribution in his search for Divinity’s weaponry he rounds out the picture.
More forthright and with no point to prove season two has thrown down the gauntlet. Tonally challenging, topically provocative and more subtle than pork at a Jewish wedding, Preacher is back so best you strap in.
Martin Carr – Follow me on Twitter
Originally published June 26, 2017. Updated November 29, 2022.
