Columns

Back to Ratwater! This week’s Finish the Song finally gives us a resolution to the Cowboy’s story—and it’s much stranger than you imagine. The least strange part? The Cowboy murdering the entire town as he forces a Chinese immigrant to continue singing an operatic ballad. It’s a tense and bloody scene. The Cowboy truly does […]

Hey now, here’s the episode that should have followed Sundowner. I wonder if there was some kind of mix up last week and they aired a bunch of non-essential deleted scenes. Because seriously, I’m still mad about He Gone. Anyway, El Valero is a bit of a return to form and some forward momentum that […]

Nothing worse than spoiled good will. Even if it’s in the service of a good payoff. “He Gone” might be the weakest episode of the season so far—either a victim to the condensed storytelling a ten-episode season doesn’t have time for or a limited budget because of what’s to come. But whatever, that’s beside the […]

Oh…damn. This week’s Preacher can definitely be pegged as the best of the run so far. With news that Season 2’s been greenlit, I think it’s high time folks on the fence jumped on over. If Sundowner is any indication, everything’s gonna get real fucky real fast. We open with Jesse finally hearing the truth […]

All hell’s a-comin’ friends. South Will Rise Again feels two episodes late. Especially as we’re back in the past as our Cowboy friend finally enters the wonderful sounding town of Ratwater. Name like that, I can’t imagine there being any issues for our quiet rider. Oh wait, no, Ratwater is a fucking terrible place where […]

We’re still moving slowly, but surely enough, we’re moving. This week’s “Monster Swamp” is a weird one. I’m beginning to understand why some folks aren’t entirely sold on Preacher, but at the same time, AMC is pretty legendary for its budget fuckery and wheel-spinning it necessitates; so there needs to be plenty of moments where […]

Hello, I’m Ron Earl Phillips. Hi Ron. It’s okay, I know you want to say it. You may know me from such venues as… well this, Shotgun Honey, and as that guy who got taken away by ambulance at Bouchercon 2015. Fun times. I’m okay now. Mostly. Five years ago I raised my hand and […]

We’re on a weekly schedule! About damn time. So, do we finally get moving? Well, yes and no. I can still see folks being nonplussed with the momentum of Preacher so far, but ‘Possibilities’ presents, well, possibilities. A lot of them. We open with Tulip making a visit to Houston. She’s handing over that Grail […]

Two goddamn weeks we waited and well, we get a LOT more questions than answers on this week’s Preacher. Rogen and company seem to be fans of the slow burn and while we get a few pops this week, that fuse is still long as fuck. That’s not to say ‘See’ doesn’t provide a great […]

After what feels like many, many years of false starts and sudden deaths, AMC aired the first episode of Preacher Sunday night. Aw man, there’s about forty different ways I can think of to start this… I can make some fun referential jokes to the source material; cite my sad, sad, sad knowledge of the […]

With only days to the big gift giving event known to many as Christmas, you’ll see or have seen a lot of best of and recommended 2015 book lists. This is in general a nice nod to those who have given you a little literary enjoyment in the chaos of life. Book people love to read, and there isn’t a better gift (other than a winning lotto ticket) that they appreciate more. I know I’m thrilled my stockings will be filled with books this year.

I had wanted to pool the recommendations of my editors and close contributors to compile a 2015 Merry Bookmas list, but things have been crazy in the Earl of Rontown‘s life, and so I offer my meager opines on the books I’ve enjoyed in 2015.