After 40 episodes over four seasons, AMC’s show Preacher finally came to an end on September 30, 2019.
Preacher certainly had a great deal running against it; being aired on the same network as powerhouses like The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad meant the show didn’t always stand out the way it otherwise might have.
As an avid watcher of Preacher since the very beginning, season four might not have been what I expected.
The end of the show’s run was ultimately satisfying and left no questions about the fates of some of my favorite characters.
Preacher has always been quick and decisive with its action, characters and plot, but this season exercised this to a greater extent since there was so much to wrap up in a short amount of time.
Relationships are tested, repaired and tested all over again.
The apocalypse is ongoing between episodes.
Jesus and Hitler are also there.
It’s crazy.
The main trio of Jesse Custer, Tulip O’Hare and Cassidy remain one of my favorite ensembles to grace the small screen.
Every time they’re all together their dynamic is so electric that the audience is immediately pulled into this group of codependent, dysfunctional friends taking on God.
I’ve often compared them to the characters in Firefly; with the similar friends-are-like-family aspect.
The show doesn’t work as well when they’re not a unit, as experienced in season two when they were apart more often, but they reconnected for the finale.
There was no big bang.
There was no reversing time to go back and fix what had been broken.
There was no gore-fest (though there was a significant amount of fighting).
Preacher ended exactly the way it should have.
After all the chaos, all the betrayal, all the trouble these three musketeers went through to find themselves and God, the book closed softly.
I expected more, but shouldn’t have been surprised by the fact that this show never ceases to surprise me.
People think The Walking Dead is gory (and it is), but Preacher is so brazen and dramatic with its violence, the zombie hit gets put to shame.
Preacher could have very easily gone out with as much energy as the freight train it came in on, but the restraint gives the show a more poignant ending that felt true.
There are events that I wish would have played out differently.
There are roads taken in the comics I wish would have been explored.
The ending came far too quickly for Preacher; there was so much potential in these characters and in this story I can’t believe there aren’t at least two more seasons in the works.
But I wouldn’t change the ending that’s already been given.
Shows like this don’t come around that often, and it’s best to seize them and pass them on so they’ll be remembered.
“Shows like this don’t come around that often, and it’s best to seize them and pass them on,”
Stars: 4/5