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Series needs to focus on its holy trinity. Review by Brandon Wolfe Preacher ’s central trio of characters is the best thing going for it thus far, and it’s a shame the series stubbornly refuses to keep the focus squarely on them. In trying to grab at so much mythology all at once, the series is still coming no closer to congealing into a tightly woven package. The series remains a colossal mish-mash at exactly the point where its grasp should be more concise and concentrated. In trying to do so much at once, it winds up doing precious little at all. “Monster Swamp” kicks off with a gripping opener, with the girls from Mosie’s brothel running for their lives (and in their skivvies) from a menacing band of armed marauders. Our focal point is Lacey, who tears off into the night like a potential Jason victim. The sequence is exciting, versed as it is in recognizable horror-movie language, with the ultimate twist being that this is just a paintball game put on for the purpose of allowi

Series is still preaching to its choir. Review by Brandon Wolfe As a newcomer to the Preacher universe, I very much want to like this series. I like much of the acting, I like the behind-the-scenes talent, I like the visuals and the humor, and the world that it seems to be building seems like it has the potential for great things. Which is why it remains so terribly frustrating how scattershot and unfocused the series is thus far. Three episodes in, I don’t precisely know what to make of Preacher . I’m not even sure I could tell you with any real certainty what it’s about. It feels more and more like a series made by and for existing Preacher fans, with little patience for those of us on the outside who don’t already speak the language. The series keeps offering fragments that feel less like a slow build and more like teases for things with which we are already expected to be intimately familiar. For instance, we get a peek this week of the criminal past once shared by Jesse an

Series is compelling but still too focused on its flock. Review by Brandon Wolfe In its second outing, Preacher seems to retain the pilot ’s issue of preaching to the converted, the converted being fans of the comic. In an opening flashback to 1881, we meet a mystery man setting out on horseback into an utterly apocalyptic horizon to procure medicine for a sick child. The man meets a group of upbeat travelers, but his taciturn nature clashes sharply with them. We then see him ride his horse past a tree decorated with hanging, scalped bodies of Indians like a perverted Christmas tree. The man barely seems to notice. This all seems terribly important and meaningful, and I’ve no doubt it immediately struck a chord with the Preacher faithful, but we neophytes in the audience are left scratching our heads. It’s one thing to be a bit mysterious, and to plant some seeds for a future harvest, but Preacher doesn’t seem to feel any powerful need thus far to be inclusive to those of us who

AMC comic adaptation gets preachy. Review by Brandon Wolfe AMC’s adaptation of the cult comic Preacher is clearly intended to be something of a companion piece to the network’s similarly comics-derived The Walking Dead , but going off of the new series’ debut episode, the two are dramatically different in their respective approaches. The Walking Dead is a very simple show, by design. The world has ended, zombies run rampant, and our heroes try to stay alive while encountering other, more sinister factions of survivors. Preacher is far more complicated than that. Its first outing just about breaks its neck to set up its unwieldy premise. Spanning from outer space to Africa to Texas to Kansas to Russia, the pilot is in a mad dash to convey its world and characters to us. It mostly pulls it off, but you can see the sweat from the effort. In a comically low-fi opening, a mysterious force is bounding about the cosmos before touching down in a small African village, taking up residen

D.J. Caruso has closed a deal to direct Preacher , Columbia’s adaptation of the popular 1990s DC/Vertigo comic book series. Neal Moritz and his Original Films banner are producing with Kickstart Prods.' Jason Netter. John August wrote the screenplay. Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, Preacher , which ran from 1995-2000, told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God -- who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven -- and hold him accountable for his negligence. Here is the comic book plot: Preacher tells the story of Jesse Custer, a down-and-out preacher in the small Texas town of Annville. Custer was accidentally possessed by the supernatural creature named Genesis in an incident which killed his entire co