The TV Column

AMC's Preacher revisits Jesse's plantation past

Preacher returns to AMC for Season 3 today with Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) still searching for God. The future of the world depends on it. 
Preacher returns to AMC for Season 3 today with Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) still searching for God. The future of the world depends on it. 

You know you're in for a wild ride when the network labels its own series "twisted and outrageous."

That's what AMC has done with its supernatural drama Preacher, which returns for the 10 episodes of Season 3 at 9 p.m. today. AMC also calls it a "dramatic thrill ride," but that's just publicity hype.

There are three main characters on this thrill ride. British actor Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) plays small-town Texas preacher Jesse Custer, who is inhabited by an angel/demon spawn that gives him the superpower to make people do his bidding.

Ruth Negga portrays Jesse's volatile and "force of nature" girlfriend Tulip O'Hare, and Joseph Gilgun is a 119-year-old hedonistic Irish vampire and Jesse's best friend, Cassidy.

Last season, Jesse accidentally discovered that God was missing from heaven, so the trio set out on a road trip to find him. All the while, they were hunted by an unstoppable, mythical killer from hell.

The quest took them to New Orleans where they had bizarre adventures and, AMC says, "other unimaginable mayhem on their way to uncovering an even bigger secret."

In Season 3, Tulip's life is at stake, so Jesse's search takes him back to a place he's been avoiding all his adult life -- Angelville, the Louisiana plantation where he was raised. "It's there old grudges and deadly obligations await them. Jesse will need to escape his past, because the future of the world depends on it."

No pressure. Just the future of the world.

Joining the series as regulars are Betty Buckley (Supergirl) as Gran'Ma, Jesse's only living family, and Colin Cunningham (Falling Skies) as TC.

Gran'Ma is described as "weathered, tough, and mean" and also "a spiritist with true powers, who can cast spells and even bring back the dead for a price."

Evidently, you pay Gran'Ma's fee "or you pay with your soul to feed her thirst for eternal youth."

TC is "a man born of the bayou and the loyal caretaker and soldier for Gran'Ma." He seems friendly enough, but "don't make the mistake of turning your back on him."

Recurring guest stars include Jeremy Childs (Nashville) as the intimidating Jody, an enforcer for Gran'Ma, and Liz McGeever (Nashville) as the "capable and efficient" Christina, whose job is to lure customers in for the family business.

• Fear notice. While we're on AMC, mark your calendar for the return of the second half of Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead -- 8 p.m. Aug. 12.

Fans of the Walking Dead spinoff were shocked -- shocked -- in the midseason finale to finally have confirmed the suspected death of the show's matriarch Madison Clark (Kim Dickens). It marked a major turning point in the series.

Since we did not actually witness Madison's last moments as she heroically sacrificed herself to save her family, fans initially held out hope that she somehow survived the approaching horde.

Sorry. Didn't happen.

Dickens and the showrunners have confirmed that Madison's storyline is over. Madison is positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead. And the baseball stadium sanctuary is history.

Also gone is Madison's son, Nick, played by Frank Dillane. Unlike Dickens, Dillane had asked to be written out of the series, so Nick was gunned down by little Charlie of the Vultures and finally found peace in a field of flowers.

What now? AMC informs us the new and surviving characters "will explore who they are now -- as individuals and as part of the greater group. They will find themselves pitted against new adversaries -- human, walker and even nature itself."

So, when we come back, everybody will set out aboard Althea's (Maggie Grace) massively armored SWAT assault truck. That mobile fort is, by the way, an 18.5-ton, V-hulled, BAE Caiman MRAP (mine-resistant, ambush-protected) vehicle with two remotely fired M249 Paratroopers SAW machine guns.

One question -- Where does Al find fuel for that behemoth? It has to only get about 5 mpg.

• Dead foreboding. In case you haven't heard the pending bad news, all indications are that series stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and Lauren Cohan (Maggie) will be leaving the show after as few as a half dozen episodes of the forthcoming Season 9 starting in (probably) October.

Cohan is already in the new ABC fall spy adventure Whiskey Cavalier and Lincoln (real name, Andrew James Clutterbuck) may just be weary of the grueling, soul-sapping hours after eight seasons. Or he may just be fishing for a major salary boost.

One poll found 44 percent of loyal fans would boycott the series without Rick. I say it'd be fun to concentrate on the adventures of Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) for a while.

If not, like Lizzie, we can just look at the flowers.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 06/24/2018

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