Preacher Season 3 – review

Director: various

First aired: 2018

Contains spoilers

Oh Preacher, how I love thee… Yes, the most irreverent show on demand is back and this season has more vampiric goodness than the previous seasons.

However, a recap (if you haven’t watched Season 1 and season 2 turn away now). Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter & Dracula Untold) is the Preacher of the title, who had a dark and violent past. An entity named Genesis entered his body and, unlike the others genesis had entered, Jesse didn’t blow up. Genesis was the child of a demon and an angel and gave Jesse the power to control others with his voice. That was until Jesse’s soul was removed during a road trip with his love Tulip (Ruth Negga) and vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) where they were trying to find God (who has gone missing).

Pip Torrens as Herr Starr

The villains of the piece (although, to be fair most of the characters are villains to one degree or another), the Grail, who protect the bloodline of Jesus, have Jesse’s soul and one of their primary operatives, Herr Starr (Pip Torrens), wants Jesse to become the new Messiah. At the end of Season 2 Tulip is shot and killed, and Jesse takes her to Angelville – the plantation he grew up on. Cassidy is besides himself as he wanted to turn her to save her but Jesse has a plan…

Ruth Negga as Tulip

So it is that we meet Jesse’s grandmother, Marie L'Angell (Betty Buckley), who is a witch and she – in return for a price – resurrects Tulip. We discover later that Marie has made a deal with the devil (Jason Douglas) who has allowed her to consume souls to extend her life (essentially making her a living, soul eating vampire). The Angelville episodes of this season are excellent and allow the programme to explore the background to Jesse’s character in detail, with his younger self played in flashback by Will Kindrachuk. The fact that the folk of Angelville dislike vampires, of course, will come back to bite Cassidy.

Adam Croasdell as Eccarius

However, Cassidy’s story will eventually go off on its own and him meeting a group of vampire wannabes who are lead by Eccarius (Adam Croasdell, Werewolf: the Beast Among Us). Cassidy isn’t convinced with the posing (Eccarius is best described as a Ricean vampire) and the fact that he indulges the wannabes and then turns them on occasion, but is eventually seduced by the powers Eccarius displays (he can shapeshift, is superfast and can fly) and the man himself – but all is not as it seems.

Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy

Of course, Herr Starr is still around, along with the Grail’s gargantuan leader the Allfather (Jonny Coyne), Satan and God (Mark Harelik, Angel) both make appearances and Hitler (Noah Taylor) has escaped Hell and is living under the imaginative pseudonym Hilter. If I had a complaint its that I would have liked to have seen more Herr Starr – he is an exceptional character – but the Angelville storyline and the vampire coven were both excellent in their own right. This is one of the best series of the moment and hasn’t lost momentum, if anything its gained it. 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK