Binging with Becca By Becca Smeltzer
Welcome to my couch!!! I like to binge watch some TV shows and my couch
is the best place for it! Not only is my butt groove well developed, but if I get
super lazy and Game of Thrones is in the middle of a nail biting scene, I just
slide my hand between the cushions and find a munchie (usually a Pringle),
but I digress… I am actually here to tell you what you must couch up for
and what you can snooze through. So grab your remote and let’s dance! This
month we are going to talk about...
Preacher.
Based on a comic book series of the same name, Preacher is an absurd and
enthralling journey that follows some of the most outrageous and memorable
characters you are likely to find on television today.
The show opens up in outer space, but within the first five minutes, after
a quick stop in Africa to watch a preacher there literally explode over his
congregation, we wind up in a small Texas town where we meet the main
character of the show - Jesse Custer. Jesse Custer has just recently arrived
back in town to take over his late father’s congregation. While not a very
good preacher, Jesse is good at chain-smoking cigarettes, binge drinking,
and fighting. He has a dark past, but I won’t ruin that plot point for you so
early into your Preacher adventure…
Shortly after being introduced to Jesse, we meet his soon-to-be best friend,
Cassidy. Cassidy gives us no last name, but we soon learn all we really need
to know about him. Cassidy takes a lot of drugs. I mean a lot. Cassidy drinks
a lot. Cassidy is loyal to a fault, has a huge heart, a swoon-worthy Irish
accent, and is a vampire. To complete the classic trio of main characters that
every brilliant story has, we meet Jesse’s outlaw ex-girlfriend, Priscilla Jean
Henrietta O’Hare, but her friends all call her Tulip.
Now, there is a fourth main character, Genesis, but Genesis is much more
difficult to describe. Genesis is, basically, the offspring of an angel and a
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demon. It has no body, just a soul. A soul can’t do much without a body, so it
decides to inhabit the body of Jesse Custer, which gives Jesse, essentially,
the word of God to command. If Jesse tells you to do something, you do it. It
takes him a while to truly understand how to properly control this power. He
tells one man in his congregation, who has been having trouble getting along
with his mother, to be honest with her and open his heart to her … which
leads to him taking a butcher knife to his chest and handing his mother his
heart in the middle of her nursing home (don’t worry, I’m still only talking
about episode one, no major spoilers here).
After getting used to having Genesis living inside of him and learning to
control his new power Jesse, who is having a crisis of faith himself, attempts
to bring God down to speak to his congregation and bring faith back to the
world. When the moment arrives, and they are met with an actor playing the
role of God, not God himself, Jesse’s plan readjusts. He, along with Tulip and
Cassidy, go on a mission to find the REAL God, send him back to heaven,
and restore cosmic law and order to the world. This journey takes the trio
from Texas, to New Orleans, to Hell, to Japan, and beyond. The trio faces a
religious organization called the Grail that hopes to steal Genesis from Jesse
and implant it into their chosen messiah. They face feuding Voodoo queens
(one of which is Jesse’s grandma). They face the seemingly immortal and
unbreakable Killer of Saints. Tulip gets into a bus crash with a boy named
Arseface and Hitler (yes, THAT Hitler). The craziness is impossible to describe.
Preacher feels as though Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson got together to
do a collaboration. It is a celebration of the bizarre. Its delightful debauchery,
gleeful bloody violence, insane action, and dark humor are sure to keep you
coming back for more.
I give this show 5/5 pizzas and a case of beer on the side (you’re going to
need it).
Until next month, fellow bingers!