"Preacher," Year Four

I thought that the third season of "Preacher" was a notable improvement over the first two, because it started making better use of its ensemble, and departed from the source material in some interesting ways. The fourth and final year of the show mostly follows suit, but in much more haphazard fashion. Things get weird. Things get silly. It kind of turns into a whole big mess in the end, but a lot of it is pretty entertaining.

The season starts out pretty well, with Cassidy stuck in the Grail stronghold of Masada, and Jesse and Tulip itching to break him out. Herr Starr and Featherstone are still committed to bringing about the end of the world, backed up fully by God (Mark Harelik), Jesus (Tyson Ritter), and Hitler, who is now running Hell. Unfortunately, they've lost the Messiah (also Ritter). There are a handful of interesting new characters, including Cassidy's cell mate, an Archangel (David Field).

This is the season where the show takes the brakes off, cramming as much gore and perversion and blasphemy as it can into the narrative as it tackles some of the comic's final story arcs. And while it's nice to see some of the wilder material, like Starr's mutilations, making it to the screen, the adaptation is very slapdash. Things are frequently happening because the plot needs them to, not because it makes any kind of internal sense. Jesse going off on his own because of a vision is pretty lazy. The convenient team-ups, betrayals, and changing of sides by other characters are even worse.

Where the first two seasons kept dragging their heels, it feels like the fourth is often going way too fast, speeding through chaotic plot points and character developments without giving them time to make much of an impression. Part of this is just the nature of the storytelling this year. Jesse and Tulip bounce from one strange encounter to the next, being manipulated by God and the Grail, and it's only at the end that anyone bothers to address any of the larger questions or themes related to their journeys. Cassidy has a more defined arc, but not necessarily a more well executed one, leading up to a lovely ending that didn't feel earned. This leaves Herr Starr and Featherstone, weirdly, as the characters with the most coherent stories and development. And they're both great, but the show isn't about them.

It doesn't help that God and Jesus become much more prominent in this final season, with their actors being promoted to regular status. This version of God, an insecure narcissist who looks like a cartoon caricature of the Almighty, doesn't do much for me. As a villain, he's blustering and inconsistent, rarely as much of a threat as he should be. Jesus is a little more interesting, a neglected son overlooked by a perpetually distracted father, but really just a nice guy trying to do right by everyone. The show gets some good laughs out of the dysfunctional relationships, but the commentary and satire are rarely as biting as they should be. The show leans very hard on its freakshow aesthetics and action set pieces this year, often to the exclusion of everything else. To be fair, this contributes to this season of "Preacher" feeling the most like the comic book, but the grotesquerie often feels silly rather than edgy.

All in all, there were enough good things about this season that I'm glad I muddled through it, but as a whole the series doesn't deliver. Its anti-establishment messages are couched in too much gratuitous content to take seriously, and the good moments are often too little too late. Cassidy's storyline, for instance, had plenty of potential, but he often got lost in all the other mayhem and madness. His relationship with Tulip needed so much more attention. The Saint of Killers got a nice ending, but he was barely in this season. The rushed finale exemplified all of the biggest problems, spending endless, multiple scenes on a Hitler and Jesus brawl, while there were only a series of anticlimactic confrontations for the other characters.

Still, I'm glad that "Preacher" got made, if only because it helped to break down some barriers for other shows in this vein. "Preacher" sister show "The Boys" is already far more successful on every level, and nastier content-wise too.
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