Preacher Season 2   Starring: Dominic Cooper, Joseph Gilgun, Ruth Negga, Ian Colletti, Graham McTavish, Pip Torrens, Noah Taylor and Julie Ann Emery Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment RRP: £TBC Certificate: 18 Release Date: 13 November 2017

Preacher's second season arrives on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The extended second season (13 episodes when compared to season one's 10 episode run) follows Jesse Custer, a small-town preacher with a criminal past who sets out to find God upon learning He is absent from Heaven. Along for the ride are his ex-girlfriend Tulip and his best mate Cassidy, an Irish vampire. Finding themselves in New Orleans, the gang must dodge local gangsters, dangerous secret agents and the Saint of Killers, an unstoppable murderous cowboy from Hell...

I read the original Preacher comic book series when they were rereleased as graphic novel collections, and more recently bought them all digitally. When I heard that they were making a TV series, I was intrigued. How on earth were they going to get that to work? Season One lays the foundations for the introduction this season of The Grail (along with Herr Starr and Featherstone).

It also works as a standalone season. While it's helpful if you've seen Season One, it's not overly important as the character's back stories are slowly revealed. In addition, fans of the comic book series may be divided over the way the story unfolds. While it does remain pretty faithful to the source material, there are a few inconstancies between the two. Personally I enjoyed this aspect of the show. Rather than a straightforward retelling, the creators have used certain storylines and messed with them a little in order to deliver something a little different. This also means that readers of the comics can be just as unsure of what will happen next as those who are coming to the show fresh.

There are several running jokes, most notably Cassidy's obsession with the whereabouts of circumcised foreskins - which he's convinced are in everything from anti-aging creams to fast food.

Extras include Raising the Stakes: Action On Set (4 min, 29 sec look at how the creators wanted to deliver more action to the show. So there are plenty of intricate and well choreographed fight sequences); and Gag Reel (2 min, 58 sec of fluffs and out takes).

It's an engaging and fresh series and I'm very much looking forward to what Season Three will deliver.

8

Darren Rea