AMC must buy its blood by the tanker truck. So after amassing huge audiences for “The Walking Dead,” it’s about to spill some more, amid explosions, elaborate fights and other expansive action in another comic book adaptation, “Preacher” (AMC, 10 p.m.).
It’s set in the tiny, underpopulated West Texas town of Annville, where a new preacher, Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) is doing a particularly poor job trying to uplift and inspire people. At the same time, some unknown force has been inhabiting men of faith, where they explode before their congregations, in Africa, then in Russia and even (we hear briefly in a news clip) Los Angeles, where Tom Cruise has apparently exploded. But something empowering happens when it inhabits this preacher.
The Preacher joins forces with an ex-girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Nega) up to her neck in her own trouble. Add to this an Irish wild man who drops from the sky and may be some sort of evil force of his own, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) and there’s a posse to fight whatever force is assembling.
The adaptation is from a pair of big fans of the comic, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, so there is no little humor involved, a dark humor that is more like the stuff from the old EC Comics and the beginnings of “The Walking Dead” series (and not the dour thing that it became).
“Preacher” is most like their “This is the End” movie of the apocalypse, where the broad humor made way for the big special effects. But, Rogen has said, “We tried to avoid stupid a little bit more than we normally do.”
Working with Sam Catlin of “Breaking Bad,” they’ve managed to create something visually arresting, playing on the bleak vistas of the Southwest, the characters that are drawn there, the slow-drawled philosophy and the kind of familiar dusty soundtrack that so far features Willie Nelson’s “Time of the Preacher” and Johnny Cash’s recording of Nick Lowe’s “The Beast in Me.”
It brings the same kind of regional sensibility and dark humor to West Texas that “Fargo” has brought to the upper Midwest, though its outbreaks of violence are sometimes more Quentin Tarantino-style (particularly “From Dusk to Dawn”).
While apparently staying true to Garth Ennis’ well-loved comic, AMC’s “Preacher” creates something that is at once separate from it (in that it won’t follow the comic’s plot strictly), and perfectly open to newcomers.
Not that it’s immediately clear what’s happening in every aspect of the story at first. But it sure makes you want to stay tuned to find out.
It’s all very well acted, and the movie-length pilot is as well rounded and entertaining as anything currently on the big screen. While “Preacher” doesn’t strictly depend on gore to move the story, it looks promising enough to order future tankers of theatrical blood.
The splashy premiere comes on the heels of the spring finale of “Fear the Walking Dead” (AMC, 9 p.m.).