Martin Carr reviews the fourth episode of Preacher season 2…
‘Uptown Girl’ was written for Chrissy Brinkley back when Billy Joel was an infatuated love-sick Eighties icon. Every inch the million selling classic when singles sales meant something and hair was huge and potentially flammable. There are two things I know for sure about ‘Uptown Girl’, one that Joel cited a loss of her looks as his defining reason for divorce and that it makes the perfect tag team slap fest backing track. Preacher it seems is still full of surprises.
As close to the frenzied high of the in-flight bar fight from season one, Preacher Mark Two takes on social satire, religious fakery and business essential bodily dismemberment this week. Writer Craig Rosenberg has provided very few meat and potato moments in ‘Viktor’, preferring instead to focus on broadening character rather than blinding us with flamboyance. In a Hell which closely resembles Guantanamo Bay without the mood lighting, this Terry Gilliam take is underfunded, in need of maintenance and encouraging of bad behaviour. Ian Colletti remains naïve in the face of Third Reich figureheads but morally flexible when the Fuhrer comes under fire. Meaning that tonally this remains at odds with other elements as we get a strange 1984 hybrid.
Elsewhere our boys have lost their edge in an episode which is solely Tulip centric, while any eventual involvement enlivens the episode but ultimately feels convoluted. Cooper and Gilgun are still worth their weight in gold but the fact remains that neither was given a purpose beyond padding. Colletti still feels underused and undeveloped within his current role but had more impact than either of our principal leads. Ruth Negga owns Tulip like Eastwood in Unforgiven but even she feels constrained and restricted to a degree. Any mystery is lacking from our title character as he has also not been developed enough. Is he after Tulip for money owed, an old contract unfulfilled or something related to our Preacher? Rosenberg is so busy trying to divide the time up equally that the characterisation he does get is never rounded out. That aside there are moments of gold.
Audition tapes for a deity, slapstick decapitation and television ads with Malcolm In The Middle’s Frankie Muniz talking American under privilege shine. Throw in a blatant HBO name drop and Preacher is able to strike an irreverent chord, even if ‘Viktor’ lacks the self-assurance of early episodes. Rather than consistent greatness throughout there are mere moments of originality. Enough to remind us of the quirkiness but never completely diminish the mundane processes necessary to tell a story.
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Originally published July 11, 2017. Updated November 29, 2022.
