What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T10 WHATS UP! August 26 - September 1, 2018 en and Evan Goldberg, collab- orators on "This Is the End" (2013) and other projects, grew up together and bonded over a love of Ennis' comic. The duo had been diligently dropping their names into the hat every time another round of interest in a "Preacher" ad- aptation sparked up, and at last, in 2013, the stars aligned: the two were commissioned to write a pilot for their dream project, eventually enlisting Sam Catlin ("Breaking Bad") as showrunner after AMC took the bait. Casting announcements fol- lowed, with hawk-eyed fans of the source material scrutiniz- ing every decision. Three sea- sons in, it's become evident that the producers nailed it, and Negga, Gilgun and Cooper have capably represented the fringe comic's beloved trio. Cooper carries the show — it is called "Preacher," after all, and not "Vampire" or "Trigger- Happy Bandit" — but Negga and Gilgun give him consistent support. Season 1 began with Jesse dragging his heels as the uninspired (and uninspiring) preacher of his tiny Texas hometown of Anneville. On the verge of renouncing his du- ties after a crisis of faith, Jesse was forcibly inhabited by "Genesis," the offspring of a forbidden tryst between an an- gel and a devil. Genesis gave Jesse a pseudo-superpower known as the "Word of God" that allowed him to compel people to do anything he com- manded. Jesse's ex, the vicious- ly capable criminal Tulip O'Hare, returned to Anneville, and a centenarian Irish vam- pire named Cassidy fell out of the sky and began squatting at Jesse's church. Forces arrayed to contest Jes- se's newfound power, including a pair of awkward angels who eventually hired a condemned Old West gunman-turned-An- gel of Death to shoot Genesis out of Jesse, if necessary. The first season ended with Jesse calling up heaven via angel- phone and demanding to speak to God, then discovering that God had abandoned heaven for reasons unknown and was cur- rently hanging out somewhere on Earth. In season 2, Jesse, Cassidy and Tulip struck out on the great American roadtrip to find God. Their pursuit took them to New Orleans, where they were tangled with groups that in- cluded basic violent criminals, vampire covens, a Christian paramilitary called The Grail, and the voodoo-wielding Loui- siana branch of Jesse's family. Jesse's creepy extended family continues to play the villain in season 3. After Tu- lip's demise, Jesse was forced to look for a means of resur- rection. As it turns out, voo- doo is a very useful skill for bringing back the dead. The only trouble is that you might end up owing your evil Gran'ma L'Angelle (Betty Buckley, "Oz") an unspecified favor in exchange. Meanwhile, The Grail's fixer, Herr Starr (Pip Torrens, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," 2015), is demanding Jesse take over Messiah duties for The Grail, replacing their current inbred figurehead, and the aforementioned Angel of Death, called the Saint of Kill- ers (Graham McTavish, "Out- lander"), is still out there with the power to kill absolutely anyone, human or otherwise. Oh, and Jesse has also given up a small slice of his own soul, and the Word of God no longer reliably works for him. All of these conflicts (and plenty more) are set to combust in the third season finale of "Preacher," and it would be a sin for any fan of smart, subversive, horror-inspired supernatural adventure to miss out. Catch the culmination of season 3 when it airs Sunday, Aug. 26, on AMC. Ruth Negga in "Preacher" continued from page T2 Where angels fear to tread: 'Preacher's' cast of unforgettable characters wraps up third season TV FEATURE