-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Preacher |OT| The Beginning Is Nigh - Sundays 10/9c on AMC
- Thread starter TheOddOne
- Start date
-Pyromaniac-
Member
Season 1 seems to have gotten good reviews. They changed a bunch of things to fit the new format so inevitably people will whine but impressions seem like they did the right thing and it works.
Looks like it. DVR is going to get some more work.
I am going to give this a try, never read the novels and really dont know much about it but I am intrigued.
MightyHedgehog
Member
I've heard nothing but great things about this since they shot the pilot from people who are close to it. I'm confident that this will be a pretty great modernization/adaptation of the source...as much as an hour-long basic cable show can be, anyway. Love the Tulip casting.
John Caboose
Member
I'll at least watch the first episode.
Going to watch just to see if they can do something a little less try hard than the comic. (The AV Club review seemed to imply that there's a bit more depth/character development in the show, so that's good.)
And of course there's a Talking Preacher. Hardwick keeps riding that gravy train.
And of course there's a Talking Preacher. Hardwick keeps riding that gravy train.
HeartlessNobody213
Member
Interested to see how this goes.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Same.
Geez if they go with the actual ending of the comic book I can see some of the more crazy religious folks out there losing their god damned shit, pun intended.
Norwegian Rudo
Member
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
There's no need for name-calling. It's absolutely okay to be wary of an adaptation when there has been precedent with mangled, poorly-written adaptations (TWD, GoT), and in this case, major characters like Herr Starr or the Saint of Killers have not even been cast (but other minor characters like Odin Quincannon have, plus new characters), and moreover, there has never been any major TV shows as "blasphemous" as the content of the original comic so the worries that it'll be toned down are not unwarranted.
But sure, I hear ya. Every time a critic voices an objection to adapted material it's invariably because they're a raging nerd who refuses to see a single word changed. Right...
While I'm not one to outright to dismiss reviewers or hoist up their opinions as the end all and be all, I do take reviews for a grain of salt, especially from many people who have most likely never even heard of Preacher before this. Just because its an entertaining show with good characters doesn't mean its going to do justice to the original story. In fact a lot of what the reviews have been praising about the show wasn't what a lot of people loved the original Preacher stories from which is why I've been apprehensive after reading the reviews.
I don't need things to be slavishly loyal to the source material but the minds behind the camera aren't helping instill any more confidence with me and AMC has a history of butchering series to keep things cheap and the later arcs in Preacher are not small or cheap especially whenever the Saint of Killers is involved.
I'm also willing to give this a few episodes to see where its going and I'm trying to keep an open mind but like others I've got my expectations in check from everything I've heard.
captainnapalm
Member
Are they just going to use the comic's dialogue wherever possible? Because they're not going to be able to improve upon it.
Kind of looking forward to this. Will just be fun seeing them trying to do Preacher, even if it probably won't be nearly as good as the book.
Kind of looking forward to this. Will just be fun seeing them trying to do Preacher, even if it probably won't be nearly as good as the book.
Mac the KNife
Member
Looks good, big fan of the comic, looking forward to this series.
The show appears to be making part of or all of the first season about the town that Jesse preached too before things went to shit in the first issue. So a lot of this will most likely be new or expanding on the couple of events and characters we saw before Jesse set out on his journey with Tulip and Cassidy. Whether they can pull this off is another question.
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
That's good to hear. I love the comics, but I'm fine with this being its own thing and doing what works to make it a good TV show.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Bahahaha, that would have been perfect!
SneakySneaks
Member
Walking Dead Seasons 2 and 3 were severely crippled by a budget cut to pay Matt Weiner. They almost lost Breaking Bad because of it too, but by then the show had enough clout to move elsewhere if they wanted too.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
None of their shows have been "butchered" to keep things cheap. People always point to The Walking Dead as being an example of this even though I don't personally see it - in terms of scope, the comics are just as limited as the show (staying in one location for a huge amount of time is exactly what the comic does) and them nixing Darabont's idea of showing the story of the tank zombie hardly counts as butchering - so there's no real point in arguing that one, but the quality of Mad Men was ultimately never impacted by their turbulent negotiations with Weiner. Ditto Breaking Bad. And I don't know of anyone who seriously thinks that Rubicon, The Killing, Hell on Wheels, Low Winter Sun, Turn, Halt & Catch Fire, Better Call Saul, or Fear the Walking Dead were butchered for cost cutting reasons or otherwise.
Regardless of what network it airs on, a fantasy/sci-fi TV show adaptation of a book, comic, or whatever, will never be able to fully replicate all the details from the source material. Even Game of Thrones, which is the biggest budget show on TV, pales in comparison to the books when it comes to the amount of characters, storylines, scale, creatures, battles, etc. etc. Preacher is going to be the same way - not because of 'cheap AMC' - but because that's just the reality of the medium.
The Walking Dead's quality took a major dive in the second and third seasons after Frank Darabont was fired. There were major shake-ups because many of the cast and crew had taken major pay cuts because they wanted to work with Darabont, and his departure hurt the morale of the production.
Frank Darabont was fired from The Walking Dead because of budget disputes. From what I understand, AMC wanted to cut the budget of the second season, which Darabont opposed. Matthew Weiner regularly fought with AMC over the budget for Mad Men and the final season of Breaking Bad almost didn't happen because of disputes over its budget.
The difference is that The Walking Dead is funded and owned entirely by AMC, whereas Mad Men and Breaking Bad were produced in conjunction with other studios.
Fortunately, Preacher is being produced by AMC and Sony Pictures. From what I've read and heard, there will be concessions, but the showrunners were careful and pivoted the show to better suit these concessions. I've faith in Rogen, Goldberg, and Catlin.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Sure, but Mad Men ended in 2015 and Breaking Bad ended in 2013, and both shows had budget disputes with AMC up until the end. Having another studio as a buffer seems to work in the favor of an AMC show's quality.
I wouldn't discredit this fear because of the time that's passed. Preacher being a joint production between AMC and Sony Pictures, however, should allay the concern of fans.
Incendiary
Banned
I've never read the comics but I'm super excited for this due to the cast. Hoping it turns out well, and if it's only mediocre I guess I'll just pick up the graphic novels.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Honestly now that I think about it, the idea of expanding the town and roll of the people there in Jesse's life could work if pulled off well and makes the events that actually start the comics more powerful as I will agree the comic story hits the ground running and fast. That said it could also fill the show with a lot of bloat if we get a lot of hangers on that just bog down the actual events of the comics though with how GoT and the Walking Dead turned out this might go in a totally different direction than the comics by the end.
He probably hasn't even been cast and might not appear until the finale or even S2. With what little we know it could be the whole first season will be a sort of expansion on the beginning of the comic, if they plan at all to really follow the general plot of the comic that is.
Could be instead of Jesse getting the Word and blowing up his whole parish from the start instead he'll get the Word at the start but not blow up the parish, or have some other major catalyzing event, until the finale; which would then bring in Herr Starr in for S2, same for the Saint of Killers. So we could get a whole season building up to that event with some antics and development for Jesse and co as well as the townspeople themselves to make viewers care more about that place. And then boom, everything goes to hell.
Then again they could be localizing the entire series and plan to have everything revolve around this small town completely throughout the series or a good portion of it. We already know they've combined Annville and Salvation since Quincannon is cast already. Seth Rogen made it pretty clear in interviews they are not interested in doing a page by page adaptation but really remaking the series as a TV show. Hard to say where they're going to go with it.
I believe they mentioned the budget demands of the comic being a reason they're starting out the way they are. The first part of Preacher has some pretty crazy shit go down in the span of like 50 pages and only keeps ramping up from there. Though that does make me a bit nervous about what happens to the events in later seasons.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
That's an important point as well. The scope and budget of the series going forward will obviously be dependent on its viewership and ratings. A solid, strong following for this first season will bode well for the series' future and where they might go with things. Just OK enough ratings to keep it on air and you should start to worry about things though.