The Father, The Son & The Holy Vampire

Been a while since I took the time to share my thoughts on my latest visual experience so here I am to give you my thoughts on the televisual adaptation of Garth Ennis' beloved comic book Preacher.

The original run began in 1995 and consisted of 66 regular issues, 5 one shot specialsed and a 4 issue limited series with the final book being published in October 2000. Since then the entire run has been collected together in 9 trade paperbacks.

For those of you that don't know the story, it centres around a man named Jesse Custer who is a preacher in the Texas town of Annville, a role he found himself in after a life of crime alongside his one time girlfriend Tulip O'Hare. Jesse is then possessed by a force known as Genesis which destroys his church and kills the entire population of Annville. It turns out that Genesis has given Jesse the Word of God which allows him to make anybody act as he instructs them too.

Stood in the rubble of what was his church Jesse is found by Tulip and an Irishman that she has hitched a ride with named Cassidy who it is eventually revealed is actually a 90 year old vampire.

After Genesis escaped heaven and entered Jesse God went missing and our three protagonists go on a road trip to find God and hold him accountable for his failings all the while being hunted by The Saint of Killers who has been tasked by heaven to kill the mortal with whom Genesis has bonded.

I could go into greater detail about their adventures but nothing I say could truly do Ennis' work justice and the best advice I can give you is to hunt down the graphic novels and give them a read although for some they could be considered an acquired taste.

This brings us to AMC's 10 episode series that has been broadcast earlier this year, a series which has been favourably received by fans and critics alike despite its deviation from the source material.

The show stars British actor Dominic Cooper in the lead role of Jesse, Cooper of course is probably best known for his role as Tony Stark in the first Captain America movie and the TV show Agent Carter. Keeping with the British theme Cassidy is played by Joseph Gilgun (best known for Misfits) and Tulip is played by Ruth Negga (Misfits and Agents of SHIELD).

Rather than jumping right in with the search for God the TV series has Jesse possessed by Genesis and throughout the 10 episodes we are introduced to characters such as Arseface and Odin Quincannon as well as learning about Jesse and Tulips past through flashbacks. The story is also intercut with the tale of The Cowboy which is the name given to the Saint of Killers from the comic book.

So Jesse gets the power of Genesis and learns the hard way that he cannot just use it to solve everybodys ills, all the while he is being tracked by two angels who are trying to take Genesis back regardless of whether they have to kill Jesse or not.

The series ends with Jesse summoning God to his church to answer questions from the local townsfolk only to have it revealed that God is missing and nobody in heaven knows where he could be. This prompts Jesse to head off in search of the missing deity with Tulip and Cassidy as the town is destroyed in the wake of the chaos that ensues once the locals realise that with no God there is no point in living a life of virtue. As our 3 'heroes' head off we see The Cowboy emerging from the destroyed town as the angels have brought him back from hell in order to kill Jesse, all of which is hopefully leading to a very exciting season 2.

So what did I make of season 1? Well I have read the original source material but am not one of those fans who is so precious about the story that any changes will upset me (which is extremely unusual for me) and with that in mind I have to say that I really enjoyed this show.

In truth it does start slow but really picks up steam after a couple of episodes. Yes its lewd and very very crude and there is an abundance of blood and guts to satisfy even the most ardent gore hounds (the opening to episode 6 is a particular standout moment). All three leads are excellent in the roles and I continue to love Gilgun in everything he does. The show also does a great job of dropping us into the world created by Ennis and filling in just enough of the blanks for it all to make sense without overdoing it with the backstory and filler material.

If you are easily offended then this is not the show for you but in my opinion it is one of the shows of the year just behind Netflix's Stranger Things and I for one cannot wait for the second season to hit our screens to see just where Jesse and friends end up as if they follow Ennis' work then its going to be a helluva journey.

Season one gets 8.5 out of 10.