Preacher: Season One

Preacher is based on a comic book series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon but it's no superhero adventure. Developed for TV by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg with Breaking Bad veteran Sam Catlin, the show stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, a former criminal who has taken up his father's position of preacher in his hometown of Annville, a sunbaked Texas burg run by the local cattle baron (Jackie Earle Haley). Jesse is a bad boy trying to be good and he is touched with the power to command others to do his bidding—a gift he wants to use to bring his dispirited flock to God, although it comes with costs. Meanwhile, his former lover and partner-in-crime Tulip (Ruth Negga) attempts to lure him back to outlaw life, and a wild, hard-drinking Irish vampire named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) literally drops from the sky and becomes Jesse's sidekick. The original comic book series opened with the trio hitting the road to find God, but the TV series spends the entire first season working up to that point. Beginning with an action-packed blast but eventually taking a sharp turn into hopeless nihilism, Preacher serves up a portrait of a community that has lost its faith and a man who decides to take matters into his own hands. Compiling all 10 episodes from the 2016 debut season, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes (the Blu-ray edition includes additional featurettes and a gag reel). Recommended. (S. Axmaker)