‘Preacher’ sets the bar even higher for its second season
t the beginning of the second episode of this season’s AMC’s “Preacher,” there is an extended montage of an angel repeatedly attempting suicide.
Actor-writer Seth Rogen, one of the producers of the series, thinks that in today’s crowded television marketplace it’s not a bad idea “to play to our instincts and indulge what we feel the show can do.”
Season 2 of “Preacher” — based on the comic book — picks up right after the action of last year. Jesse (the preacher played by Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga), and the Irish vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) are leaving the small Texas town of Annville in the dust, literally.
They are on road trip to find God — who is missing — but on their trail is a cowboy from hell out to kill the preacher. A mysterious ray zapped the onetime criminal Jesse and since then he’s worn a preacher’s collar and tried to do good. Maybe.
“It becomes clearer the more I play him that he is ill-equipped to deal with such power,” says Cooper. “His Messiah complex makes him feel like he has a right to this power but again and again he exposes his failings as a human being.”
The volatile Tulip O’Hare is love, though they have been times.
In real life, the British Cooper and the Irish Negga have been a couple for a number of years, and make London their home. The actress learned about her Oscar nomination for “Loving” on the first day of shooting “Preacher’s” second season.
“This season we didn’t want to coast and just have the three characters doing repetitive stuff,” says Negga. “For Tulip, we wanted to explore the more vulnerable side of her now that the survival tools she has mastered no longer serve a purpose.” Rogen says he and his writing partner Evan Goldberg sat down with the cast for two days to talk about their characters before the season started.
“We said we were kind of changing the show,” Rogen says. “But we collaborated a lot with them because they have a lot of insight into the characters that we don’t.”
It may be hard to believe, but the often over-the-top “Preacher” is amping up the action in the new season, which includes killing off the rest of the cast from the first season.
“We always knew we were going to kill them all,” says Rogen, adding some of the Jesse’s one at odds at cast may have been convinced but “we thought it was cool.”
Cooper says, “It is constantly surprising” how far the showrunners are willing to go, “but I’m always pleased that they are as brave as they are. I think the further the madness goes, the better the show.”
Negga says as an actress she likes the unpredictability. “I very much believe in not hitting the nail on the head.”
Last season, “Preacher” didn’t worry about sticking to the original story of the comic book. This year it isn’t, either, although it may seem to be more in line with its source material.
The trio will land in New Orleans this season as it did in the comic book. “The city has a particular energy,... and I think it was great for the show,” says Negga.
The reason they are in New Orleans is that a strip-club owner told them that God likes jazz. “Of course, Jesse likes the idea of that because of the complexity of jazz,” says Cooper. In a strange way, “Preacher” engages in theological debate. “We were shocked at how receptive people of all faiths were to it,” says Rogen, who dealt with religion in an offbeat fashion in his feature comedy “This Is the End.”
“With the show, we’re trying to explore real questions without alienating anyone,” he says, noting that they have people of different faiths in the writing room, including a Jesuit priest during the first season.
Rogen says the goal of the show is to break the narrative, structural and procedural expectations of what happens on a TV show.
As for how far “Preacher” can go, “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out,” Rogen admits with a laugh.
Contact Rob Lowman at rlowman@ scng.com or @RobLowman1 on Twitter. a otherwise,