History YMMV / Preacher2016

** {{God|Is Evil}} Himself is a primordial being who existed before all creation. Growing lonely, God created the universe, Heaven and Hell, and angels and demons to keep Him company, which led to the eternal bloody war between the two races. [[PsychopathicManchild Unsatisfied]] with the love that the angels gave Him, God decided to create another species that would love Him more. First He created the dinosaurs, which [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs he wiped out]] after He saw one of them eating its own excrement. Then He created humanity and started [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] them into doing horrible things to see how much they loved Him, such as ordering Abraham to sacrifice his son, only stopping him at the last moment to make it look like a test of faith. At one point in time, after arranging the events that would take the lives of the Saint of Killers's family, God grew slowly bored with humanity. In the present day, escaping from Heaven, God leads the ancient Christian organization, the Grail, in preparing the Apocalypse, in order to [[KillAllHumans destroy all of humanity]] and replace it with another species, which He created to love Him above all.
** Season 3: Marie L'Angelle bargained [[DealWithTheDevil with Satan himself]] to make herself immortal by consuming the souls of others, collecting on those who do not pay for her voodoo services to do so. When her daughter Christina eloped with John Custer, Marie [[OffingTheOffspring ordered her stomach cut open]] and for John's death, before [[GruesomeGrandparent forcing Jesse, her grandson, to suffer under her over the years]]. When Jesse returns seeking Marie's help to bring his LoveInterest, Tulip O'Hare, back to life, Marie forces him into a blood contract wherein she holds Tulip's soul as leverage and later takes Jesse's soul to force him to follow her orders.

** The RunningGag about the All Saints Congregational sign.
** The pile of bodies in the hotel room after the Seraphim is finally defeated.

** [[spoiler:Eugene and Hitler escaping from hell. The pit they escape through provides an alternate version of Eugene's worst experience, and it still involves Tracy attempting suicide. He tries again, and she still blows her brains out. It goes from horrifying to hilarious after a few times.]]

* CryForTheDevil: [[spoiler:We get a flashback to Herr Starr's early life late in Season 4, in which we learn that he won a youth singing contest, only for [[KidsAreCruel the contest's losers]] to [[DisproportionateRetribution cut his right eye with a knife in retaliation]]. This flashback comes on the heels of him suffering many humiliating and disfiguring injuries (some of them through no fault of his own), including losing his genitals and having them replaced with a faucet and before that having his right leg amputated, roasted, and fed to him by cannibals.]]

* DuelingShows: Mildly with ''Series/{{Outcast}}'' - the two premiered just a fortnight apart, each has a 10 episode run, both are based on comic books, were commissioned on the back of the success of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' (''Outcast'' is actually based on another Kirkman series), and deal with themes of Christianity in contemporary America and demonic possession in a CrapsackWorld. However, so far the "duels" seem to have mostly been done in the spirit of fun, with reviewers largely recommending that the shows pair well together.
* EvilIsCool: The Saint Of Killers.
* GrowingTheBeard: From the beginning, viewers could tell that this show had potential but the slow burning plot combined with comic fans still adjusting to the AdaptationDistillation of the series led to a lot of fans writing off most of the first season as SoOkayItsAverage. Thankfully, the exciting WhamEpisode of the finale and the implication that the entire first season was just an ProlongedPrologue to the events of the comic series has generated a renewed interest in the show.

* HesJustHiding: There are those who hope that some of the residents Annville [[spoiler:Particularly Emily and her children, who WordOfGod is a bit ambiguous about]] might have left due to alarm at the chaos that was ensuring before [[spoiler:The town got blown up]], and that some of the characters not seen or mentioned in the final season one episode [[spoiler:Like the Schenck's son, the older of Tracy's brothers]]. might have been out of town.

** Or HarsherInHindsight, depending on your point of view. In the Season 1 finale, an old man asked Fake God what happened to the Dinosaurs. In Season 4 we learn - [[spoiler: God wiped them out because [[DisproportionateRetribution he saw one of them eating his own feces]]]].

** In s2, Jesse gets a lead on where God is, only for it to peter out in a sex show featuring a man in a dalmatian costume. Cassidy still wants to pay to see the show, but Jesse leaves in disgust and disappointment. [[spoiler: It was God in the costume.]]

*** Season 3 off-handedly reveals that Cassidy is bisexual when he has a short-lived but very sincere relationship with Eccarius. So, even though Tulip is Cassidy's main love interest throughout the series, there's a good chance he genuinely would have been into it if Jesse had reciprocated.

** In the Season 3 debut episode, there is Marie ''drinking'' a mixture of Tulip's hair, finger nails and cornea [[spoiler: in order to attach her life to Tulip's]].
** [[FatBastard Allfather D'Aronique]] runs on this. In addition to being [[JabbaTableManners a very sloppy eater]], he's also a [[https://www.eatingdisorderrecovery.net/getting-help/the-dsm/436-30751-bulimia-nervosa-continued11 purging type]] bulimic (and he purges right after his meals in front of his cohorts). [[spoiler:Even his death is nauseating, with one of the visible scattered organs being his anus, which poops out Jesse's soul. Which is then followed by a fight between Jesse and Starr over the soul in the middle of the Allfather's scattered guts, and [[CrossesTheLineTwice Jesse eating it as soon as he gets his hands on it]]]].

** It would have been interesting to see where Annville would head to after the chaos of [[spoiler:discovering that God abandoned the Earth]] had eased up. A shame we'd never know since the whole town got blown up.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The common criticisms regarding the second season was its padding, unfocused plots, and a few out of character moments from its main characters. The third season, on the other hand, has been praised as the best season the series has with its faster paced storylines, solid character development, and the establishment of its grand MythArc.

** Also potentially HarsherInHindsight: Season 1 BigBad Odin Quincannon had his StartOfDarkness because he couldn't find any trace of a soul after dissecting his dead family. Come Season 2, we learn that souls not only exist, but can be physically extracted, traded and [[SoulEating ingested]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Or HarsherInHindsight, depending on your point of view. In the Season 1 finale, an old man asked Fake God what happened to the Dinosaurs. In Season 4 we learn - [[spoiler: God wiped them out because [[DisproportionateRetribution he saw one of them eating his own feces]]]].

* SeasonalRot: The second season has been seen as this due to the very slow pacing, Tulip's [[spoiler:unexplained PTSD from her encounter from the Saint of Killers giving her a reduced role]] and Jesse's continuing villainy going unchallenged.

* UncannyValley: Cassidy [[spoiler:after he has been burned]] can be this. While there is [[spoiler: makeup used, very little is on his face, with the result being a young man's face on a scarred, old man's head.]]

** Season 3: [[Characters/Preacher2016Angelville Marie L'Angelle]] bargained [[DealWithTheDevil with Satan himself]] to make herself immortal by consuming the souls of others, collecting on those who do not pay for her voodoo services to do so. When her daughter Christina eloped with John Custer, Marie [[OffingTheOffspring ordered her stomach cut open]] and for John's death, before [[GruesomeGrandparent forcing Jesse, her grandson, to suffer under her over the years]]. When Jesse returns seeking Marie's help to bring his LoveInterest, Tulip O'Hare, back to life, Marie forces him into a blood contract wherein she holds Tulip's soul as leverage and later takes Jesse's soul to force him to follow her orders.

* CryForTheDevil: [[spoiler:We get a flashback to Herr Starr's early life late in Season 4, in which we learn that he won a youth singing contest, only for [[KidsAreCruel the contest's losers]] to [[DisproportionateRetribution cut his right eye with a knife in retaliation]]. This flashback comes on the heels of him suffering many humiliating and disfiguring injuries (some of them through no fault of his own), including losing his genitals and having them replaced with a faucet and before that having his right leg amputated, roasted, and [[IAteWhat fed to him]] by cannibals.]]

* WhatAnIdiot:
** The preacher in the Saint of Killers' backstory: Yes, deliberately antagonize the man you know to be a remorseless killer, but make no attempt to incapacitate him or otherwise protect yourself from retaliation. Surely nothing bad will come of this!
** Jesse learns that The Saint is now susceptible to his [[CompellingVoice The Word]] after giving The Saint 1% of his soul. Jesse refuses to send The Saint to Heaven believing he doesn't deserve happiness (breaking his deal with The Saint) but won't send him to Hell because he has part of Jesse's soul.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Jesse to order The Saint to be his faithful servant. Having a superhuman killing machine on your side while searching for God can only be an asset.\\
'''Or''': Order The Saint to never try to kill Jesse and his friends ever again and then make him go away.\\
'''Instead''': Jesse locks The Saint in an armored car and sinks him in a swamp. The Grail find him and release him. Now the superhuman killing machine is very angry for being betrayed and seeks out Jesse and his friends. It's only because the agents of Hell arrive and take The Saint back that Jesse and his friends manage to survive.

** [[Characters/Preacher2016Angelville Marie L'Angelle]] bargained [[DealWithTheDevil with Satan himself]] to make herself immortal by consuming the souls of others, collecting on those who do not pay for her voodoo services to do so. When her daughter Christina eloped with John Custer, Marie [[OffingTheOffspring ordered her stomach cut open]] and for John's death, before [[GruesomeGrandparent forcing Jesse, her grandson, to suffer under her over the years]]. When Jesse returns seeking Marie's help to bring his LoveInterest, Tulip O'Hare, back to life, Marie forces him into a blood contract wherein she holds Tulip's soul as leverage and later takes Jesse's soul to force him to follow her orders.

** {{God|Is Evil}} himself is a primordial being who existed before all creation. Growing lonely, God created the universe, Heaven and Hell, and angels and demons to keep him company, which led to the eternal bloody war between the two races. [[PsychopathicManchild Unsatisfied]] with the love that the angels gave him, God decided to create another species that would love him more. First he created the dinosaurs, which [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs he wiped out]] after he saw one of them eating its own excrement. Then he created humanity and started [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] them into doing horrible things to see how much they loved him, such as ordering Abraham to sacrifice his son, only stopping him at the last moment to make it look like a test of faith. At one point in time, after arranging the events that would take the lives of the Saint of Killers's family, God grew slowly bored with humanity. In the present day, escaping from Heaven, God leads the ancient Christian organization, the Grail, in preparing the Apocalypse, in order to [[KillAllHumans destroy all of humanity]] and replace it with another species, which he created to love him above all.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: It can be hard to really get into the series when every character is a deplorable asshole and whatever genuinely good characters the show has are revealed to be a BitchInSheepsClothing.

* OneSceneWonder: Frankie Muniz has a brief but hilarious cameo in "Viktor".

** Marie L'Angelle is every bit the ManipulativeBitch that she was in the comic, with Season 3 repeatedly demonstrating her cunning and cruelty enough [[spoiler:to make her eventual defeat at the end of the season [[CatharsisFactor very satisfying]]]], and Betty Buckley helping to make her a memorable villain.

** [[Characters/Preacher2016Angelville Marie L'Angelle]] bargained [[DealWithTheDevil with Satan himself]] to make herself immortal by consuming the souls of others, collecting on those who do not pay for her voodoo services to do so. When her daughter Christina eloped with John Custer, Marie [[OffingTheOffspring ordered her stomach cut open]] and for John's death, before [[EvilMatriarch forcing Jesse, her grandson, to suffer under her over the years]]. When Jesse returns seeking Marie's help to bring his LoveInterest, Tulip O'Hare, back to life, Marie forces him into a blood contract wherein she holds Tulip's soul as leverage and later takes Jesse's soul to force him to follow her orders.

* HesJustHiding: There are those who hope that some of the residents Annville [[spoiler:Particularly Emily and her children]] might have left due to alarm at the chaos that was ensuring before [[spoiler:The town got blown up]].

*** Season 3 [[BiTheWay off-handedly reveals that Cassidy is bisexual]] when he has a short-lived but very sincere relationship with Eccarius. So, even though Tulip is Cassidy's main love interest throughout the series, there's a good chance he genuinely would have been into it if Jesse had reciprocated.

** [[WickedWitch Marie L'Angelle]] is the head of the Angelville plantation, as well as Jesse Custer's [[EvilMatriarch grandmother]] and a major source of pain in his life. Years ago, Marie made a DealWithTheDevil himself to make herself [[ImmortalityImmorality virtually immortal]] by [[YourSoulIsMine consuming the souls of others]], stealing them from clients who don't pay their debts for her voodoo services. After her daughter, Christina, eloped with John Custer, [[OffingTheOffspring Marie ordered Christina's stomach cut open]] when she tried to hide a photo of Jesse from her. After ordering the death of John Custer, she forcefully took Jesse under her wing, physically and emotionally abusing him while trying to keep him under her thumb and forcing him to participate in her twisted family business. Many years after leaving that life behind, Jesse returns to Angelville to have Marie bring Tulip O'Hare BackFromTheDead, but it comes at the price of a blood contract. With her holding Tulip's life as leverage and threatening to consume her soul out of a sense of entitlement, Jesse is forced into Marie's service and subject to the same abuse once again until he can get his soul back from the Grail. Motivated solely by her desire to live forever and someone who sees people, even her own family, as little more than tools that she can dispose of once she has no further use for them, Marie L'Angelle is a cruel, [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]], vengeful, and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] human being that sticks out like a sore thumb in a setting that runs on BlackAndGrayMorality.