Spoilers below for the latest episode of AMC's Preacher, so tread lightly if you haven't watched.
Based on the acclaimed comic book series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, AMC's Preacher series can often seem like it was tailor-made to inspire ire among anyone sensitive to matters of brutal violence, sex, religion and vampires, among other things. Season 2 upped the ante, and the most recent episode, "Dirty Little Secret," definitely set off some anger-driven fireworks with its cold open, which depicted a graphic sex scene between a woman and the series' take on Jesus Christ himself. Suffice to say, many people weren't pleased with this, particularly Catholic League president Bill Donohue, who released this statement:
Depicting Jesus in a grotesque sex scene is an assault on the sensibilities of all Christians, as well as people of good will who are not Christians. We have been treated to this kind of fare from some pay-per-view channels, but we are not accustomed to AMC getting into the mud. If this is a signal of what it aspires to become, we will rally Christians against it.
All in all, that's one of the least surprising responses to a TV scene I've seen in a while, as Preacher certainly seemed like it was going for broken in that opening, which started off on a black screen with Carrie Lazar's character moaning out Jesus' name. Things then got more physical, though it seemed like the creative team made a point to not get too showy with nudity or skin, perhaps because those involved were already anticipating some form of blowback from more devout members of the fanbase and beyond.
That said, the close-ups of moaning faces, as well as the shadow-centric depictions of all the traditional sex positions, probably made it seem like a lot more was shown than there was. Who knew that it wouldn't even be a scene set in New Orleans that would feature Preacher's most rowdy rumble in the sheets?
Of course, the sex itself is the kind of thing that the PTC would go into a tizzy about, while Bill Donohue and the Catholic League (whose statement was provided by Standard Newswire) were more specifically locked in on the portrayal of Jesus himself within the scene. The show's messiah was indulging in clandestine intercourse with the woman as a way to impregnate her and keep his bloodline going, and he was either legitimately losing his virginity to her, or he was lying about it; either way, not the most Christ-like way to behave.
Twitter was also a hub to some complaints about the show, such as this.
Not that this kind of attention is deemed a bad thing by co-creator Seth Rogen, who also shared that same Fox News story on Twitter, calling it a "good endorsement." Rogen hasn't exactly made a ton of friends on the hyper-conservative front with his career choices, so Preacher wasn't going to be the big ice-breaker.
Taking the entirety of the episode into account, it's almost weird that the big thing that's being commented on is the sex scene that opened the episode, and not the concept of Jesus' bloodline having lasted all these years through massive inbreeding, resulting in the doofus present-day descendent Humperdoo (also played by Tyson Ritter).
With the duplicitous Featherstone currently manipulating Tulip, and Cassidy having to worry about Denis going way too far, Preacher airs Monday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see everything else hitting the small screen soon, check out our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule.
