Amen, PREACHER!

Article originally published as PREACHER Review on Seat42F.

AMC’s newest drama is PREACHER. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the series follows a Texas minister in a small town where danger and the supernatural seem to exist in abundance. It is shocking and action-packed, while also being a compelling character study of a man who is trying to do good and frequently failing. In short, it is worthy of being on this top-quality network, and makes a good addition to AMC’s morality-questioning slate.

The protagonist and titular man of the cloth is Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper, Agent Carter, Fleming). Ingrained in him by his ill-fated father is a drive to do good in the world. But in a position he doesn’t want in a place that, for the most part, doesn’t want him, and with a past he isn’t proud of, Jesse is struggling to feel like he’s living up to his potential. As the story begins, he’s about at a breaking point and must decide what his path forward would be.

There is no shortage of others who either want to help him or hurt him on his path. Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun, Misfits) is a vampire lying low who is drawn to Jesse’s violence. Tulip (Ruth Negga, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) is his ex who seeks to involve him in her latest scheme. Emily (Lucy Griffiths, True Blood) is the busy mother who is devoted to the church. Sheriff Root (W. Earl Brown) is the lawman who doesn’t put up with Jesse straying, while Hugo’s son, Eugene (Ian Colletti, Rake), is devoted to a God he thinks may have abandoned him. And there’s also Donnie (Derek Wilson, In the Now), the abusive husband that Jesse confronts.

Each of these play a role, most of them quite loud and large. Cassidy and Tulip, in particular, are introduced in extreme scenarios that reinforce the graphic novel roots of the source material and certainly keep things exciting. This is a show that will not shirk from its action sequences, and has no qualms about showing death and destruction.

Yet, for the run of the pilot, Jesse himself is the calm center of the storm. He doesn’t react largely. He doesn’t do anything too crazy. He exists in the midst of everyone else’s drama, which is not what one typically expects from the main character of a series such as this. It’s unlikely he will stay that way for long, probably taking lead in the bigger sequences going forward, especially given what happens at the end of the episode. But it’s a very interesting choice to make to introduce him in the way that he is.

There’s also a phenomenon not yet explained that will play a very large role in PREACHER. Seen at the beginning and during a few interstitials, a being of energy has arrived on Earth looking for a host. After some false starts, it chooses Jesse as its vessel. Neither obviously good or bad, it’s the nth embodiment of Jesse’s own internal conflict, and promises more than just a slow-burn character-driven drama that would likely be good, but what we get is even better. With two mysterious men (Boardwalk Empire’s Anatol Yusef and Pirate Radio’s Tom Brooke) on the hunt for it, Jesse won’t just be able to live the life he’s been living.

I found the first episode of PREACHER to be terrific. It draws you in appropriately, feels fresh and original, despite a few familiar elements, is amusing in a sly way, and lacks the types of plot holes or gratuitous things that bog down most new series. Each moment seems carefully calculated to build towards something, and with fascinating characters populating the world, I look forward to seeing where it goes.

PREACHER airs Sundays at 9pm EST on AMC.

Meet AGENT CARTER

Article originally written for Seat42F.

MARVEL’S AGENT CARTER is Alias in the 1940s, so with a large dose of how women were treated in the first season of Mad Men. Set two years after the events of the main plot of Captain America: The First Avenger, SSR Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) has been relegated to a desk job that wastes her talents. But when Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is accused of selling weapons to the nation’s enemies, he calls upon her to secretly investigate who stole his tech.

AGENT CARTER is not about the start of S.H.I.E.L.D., set prior to that organization’s founding, nor does it feature connections to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., at least not yet. Instead, the miniseries is its own thing, a self-contained mission seemingly designed to highlight Atwell’s talents and prove her worthiness to Stark, who certainly needs no further evidence. It’s not ground-moving to the Marvel universe, but it is enjoyable.

For those wondering about continuity, well, it works fine with Captain American, but not with the Marvel One-Shot, Agent Carter. In the One-Shot, which takes place one year after Captain America, thus one year prior to AGENT CARTER, she is rescued from obscurity by Howard to begin the organization Nick Fury will one day run. This hasn’t happened yet, and she’s still locked in the desk job, albeit with a different boss and co-workers than in that short. Toss out the One-Shot, or assume it happens at a later date, and all is well. Though, it’s a tad disappointing we don’t get to see Peggy traipsing the globe with Dum Dum Dugan and the Howling Commandos, picking up artifacts as glimpses in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this fall.

Taking AGENT CARTER on its own merits, I like it. It’s a new take on the detective / cop / spy story, with Carter having to work behind her superior’s backs because they don’t trust or believe in her. She has a sort-of bumbling male sidekick, Stark’s butler, Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy, Those Who Kill), and when she’s not working, she has a gal pal to hang around with, waitress Angie (Lyndsy Fonseca, Nikita). There is character development when someone Peggy is close to pays the cost of Carter’s activities. Peggy’s adventures are exciting enough, and it’s fun watching her kick butt and brilliantly outsmart the villains, including Spider Raymond (Andre Royo, The Wire), Leet Brannis (James Frain, Grimm), and Miles Van Ert (James Urbaniak, The Venture Bros.).

AGENT CARTER is feminism in action without pounding you over the head with it. Sure, Peggy’s boss, Roger Dooley (Shea Whigham, Boardwalk Empire), has no confidence in her, nor do co-workers golden boy Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray, One Tree Hill) and bumbling Ray Krzeminski (Kyle Bornheimer, Perfect Couples). But Stark and Jarvis have plenty of faith in her, and her peer, Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj, Dollhouse), respects her, too. So how people regard Peggy is more about them as individuals than the time as a whole.

Where the show gets most preachy is when we hear the Captain American radio plays, which paint Peggy as a damsel in distress that the hero must rescue. Of course, at one point this is interspersed with her beating the heck out of a baddie, so it’s more laughable bit than social commentary.

AGENT CARTER feels fresh, and it feels new. I think making it a period piece sets it apart from other network fare, and while the structure of show isn’t wholly original, making it one big story instead of cases-of-the-week keeps it compelling. I do wish it had been set in the early days of S.H.I.E.L.D., thus adding to the franchise as a whole, but it’s still a fun piece without that, and I look forward to seeing where the plot is going over the next six weeks. And maybe season two will satisfy that other want?

AGENT CARTER airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

FLEMING: THE Miniseries THAT WOULD BE Interesting

Article originally written for Seat42F.com

FLEMING: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE BOND, a miniseries from BBC America (insert grumbling about lack of actual British programming on the network), begins this week. It tells the story of Ian Fleming (Dominic Cooper, Captain America), an aimless playboy whose talents are being squandered. Longing for adventure, he jumps at the chance to help the British military during World War II. And somewhere along the way, he’ll also be falling in love and writing novels starring the famous superspy, James Bond.

 

The first part of the mini opens with Ian on his honeymoon with wife Ann (Lara Pulver, Sherlock’s Irene Adler) in 1952. When not motor-boating about (literally and, well, you know…), he is finishing up the book Casino Royale. I guess this gives us a glimpse of where he’s heading, but I am baffled by recent programs’ insistence to start at the end. Why not let the story play out in a natural progression? In some cases, perhaps it benefits the tale being told, but in the example of FLEMING, it adds nothing to the narrative, and I really wish it hadn’t been done.

Once that bit is out of the way, we’re back to the late 1930s. The Nazis are rising, and while Ian has no love for them, he also isn’t overly concerned, spending his days bedding women and illegally obtaining first edition tomes for his collection, including Hitler’s own work. This is where we see who Ian Fleming is, and his development begins.

Fleming is a familiar enough type. He’s rich and free-wheeling, with little regard for others, even those he’s intimate with, which is currently Muriel (Annabelle Wallis, The Tudors), a relationship of convenience for him, not love. He doesn’t even try to live up to the sterling reputation of his brother, Peter (Rupert Evans, The Village), much to the disapproval of his mother, Evelyn (Lesley Manville, Cranford). And he certainly doesn’t take his job as a stock broker seriously, losing his only client without losing a bit of sleep. In fact, sleep and other bed-based activities are the cause of his failure.

This is a hard place for a drama to start. The above paragraph does not describe a likeable character, and while some series may set out to paint a complex picture of someone who is only rough on the surface, no compassionate side of Ian is visible throughout the initial hour. He’s intelligent and charming, but that’s not enough to earn him viewer sympathy, especially when so much of his attitude is insincere, an act to win over those such as his colleague, Second Officer Monday (Anna Chancellor, The Hour).

Even when Fleming does good, he’s doing bad. He gets information from Nazi U-boat captains, but goes about it entirely the wrong way, angering his superiors and barely escaping punishment himself. Throughout it all, he doesn’t show a hint of remorse or second guessing, which is a recipe for disaster in real life. Unless he really is just that lucky.

 

Cooper does a fine enough job as the cad, but those looking for the subtleties in his performance, hoping to access the inner psyche, will be disappointed. Like the tone of the show itself, he’s flashy and of less substance than one expects. I feel like most actors would play this role the same, but there are some out there that could bring a magnetic essence to the part that would save it. Not knowing much about the real Fleming, though, this may be exactly the portrayal he deserves.

FLEMING: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE BOND is useful because it paints us a portrait of the author behind the famous series, something many of us know little or nothing about. It helps fill in why he wrote what he wrote, Bond being, as Ann says in the beginning and Ian denies, Fleming’s fantasy laid bare. Ian Fleming wants to be the smooth hero. He does make it a little bit down that path in the first hour, but future parts will need to be viewed before we see if he ever gets very close to the dream.

The pacing does drag in parts, and the structure seems loose, as is often the case with biopics, being resigned to get through several events whether they serve the purpose of the miniseries or not. There’s clearly an attempt at a cohesive arc, with Ann appearing frequently in the past timeframe, but I don’t get the sense that FLEMING is truly a love story. This means it flounders a bit, not quite deciding what it is, and so not quite impressing as it should.

FLEMING: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE BOND airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on BBC America.