“Preacher” ran four seasons on AMC, from May 22, 2016 to September 29, 2019, and it never once asked permission.
Developed by Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg from the comic by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, the series stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, a hard-drinking, chain-smoking Texas preacher who gains an extraordinary power and decides to use it on God. The power is Genesis, an unholy child born from an angel and a devil. The mission is a confession.
Trailer, via amc+.
Dominic Cooper Carries a Preacher on the Run
The premise does the heavy lifting. Jesse wants the almighty to answer for abandoning the world. Riding with him are Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga), his trigger-happy ex-girlfriend, and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), an Irish vampire and an alcoholic.
That trio is the show’s engine, and the casting is why it holds. Negga plays Tulip as a red-blooded Texan who tows guns and takes no instruction. Gilgun’s Cassidy is the loosest and most watchable thing on screen. Cooper carries the center, a man of faith running a con on heaven.
The supporting bench is where “Preacher” gets strange, and stays strange. Graham McTavish is the Saint of Killers. Pip Torrens is Herr Starr. Tyson Ritter plays both Humperdoo and Jesus Christ. Noah Taylor is Hitler. Julie Ann Emery is Lara Featherstone. Mark Harelik is God.
Four Seasons, 43 Episodes, One Long Joke About Divinity
Across 43 episodes, the series works as black comedy, action and horror at once, and it is filed under sci-fi and fantasy, mystery and drama, which tells you the genres never quite contained it.
The show’s best trick is tone. It treats a quest to subpoena the creator as a road story with jokes, and it earns that. The violence is comic, the theology is a punchline, and the characters are specific enough to survive both.
Where it slips is momentum. A premise this loud needs a destination, and four seasons of detours test patience. The mystery of God’s whereabouts carries the early run. Later, the waiting becomes the show.
Lucy Griffiths was cast in April 2015 as Emily Woodrow, described at the time as a no-nonsense single mother of three who waitresses, plays the church organ, keeps the books and serves as Jesse’s loyal right hand. Negga and Gilgun were cast in March 2015; Cooper was confirmed that April. That assembly is the show’s real achievement.
This is the part worth watching. “Preacher” is not a tidy parable or an easy adaptation argument. It is a character piece wearing a blasphemy suit, and Cooper, Negga and Gilgun make the blasphemy land. The theology is noise. The trio is the show.
What the Numbers Say
- Score: 7.6/10
- Network: AMC
- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 43
- First aired: May 22, 2016
- Last aired: September 29, 2019
- Metacritic: 76/100
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