AMC 'Preacher' season 4 questions the set notions of God, faith and free will that organized religion tends to avoid
Toward the end of the 'Preacher' panel at the recent San Diego Comic Con 2019, a fan of the show thanked Seth Rogen for "creating a safer place to discuss religious ideas" by bringing the show to our screens. Despite all its WTF moments, dark comedy and sometimes juvenile humor, 'Preacher' is fundamentally geared towards asking all the uncomfortable questions about God and faith that organized religion never wants to answer.
Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), who's good and bad sides balance each other out, represents Mankind. But with the power of Genesis, he is also the singular human being who has the power to question God. In one colorful interview, Joseph Gilgun, who plays vampire Cassidy, said, "[The show] is asking, ‘Where is God? Where’s he been, the c**t?’ The world has all this shit going on. If there is a God, f**king come on, man. You been having a f**king vacation?”
The show has consistently questioned our ideas about the existence (or rather the absence) of an all-powerful, omniscient God that Christianity, Judaism, and other organized religions worship blindly. The Grail organization represents organized religion at its most fascist, which asks for blind believers like Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery) who surrender their free will to accomplish the will of God. In the show, this means they are ready to unleash the Apocalypse and usher in the end times as it has been ordained in the Bible.
With the Judeo-Christian God becoming a dominant presence in the fourth and final season, the show is increasingly focussing on the dichotomy between free will and blind faith. While man has been granted free will, if he is only allowed to choose what God wants as a "test", is it really free will? Interpreting passages from the Bible, it depicts God as all-powerful but also needy and insecure, who needs to be reassured that man prioritizes him over all else. The most recent example of this on the show is when God watches a video of himself stopping Abraham from killing his son and his joy when Abraham chooses him over his own son.
In season 4, the show is also delving into the Biblical canon of God having created man in his image. Since man is a fundamentally flawed creation, there is an overwhelming possibility that God himself is flawed. And if he is all-powerful, he is, in all probability, dangerous as well.
'Preacher' airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.