Love it =  TUPPERWARE

I have never read Hellblazer or Constantine. I have only seen the Keanu Reeves Americanized and apparently bastardized version of Constantine. I know very little about the character other than some snippets I have heard from here and there and know that he is currently in the Justice League Dark in the new 52 universe and I know some of the “dark universe” characters but really I am coming at this character with unknown eyes. Admittedly this was my least looked forward to show of the comic book shows for the new fall line up. I mean hard to compete with Gotham, at least in my eyes because I am a huge Batman fan, Arrow has shown that his character can work and the show in my eyes is a Tupperware so far, and Flash looks like it could be pulled off right especially with CW showing it’s not afraid to develop these characters and give us great story lines unfortunately CW and few other channels and Dish Network are in a money dispute and Dish has currently dropped CW so I am shit out of luck on watching anything on CW. This left me with some open time on my DVR and Brian asked if the Army was going to watch it and at first I had thought about passing but with the freed up time and Brian’s suggestion that it would be a good idea with someone who is going into this show as basically a blank slate it would be ripe for a review.

I was raised in a very sporadic religious family, meaning, my grandparents were very strongly catholic, my mom was spiritual but did not go to church regularly by any means and I only went when I had to go with my grandparents. For the most part though I was basically a believer and even though I didn’t practice I was a God fearing person. After lots of soul searching and answer searching I have come to disliking organized religion as a whole BUT I still respect those who do believe and practice. I will never judge someone on their spiritual beliefs as long as I am not judged for mine. The one thing I do love about religion is the stories. It doesn’t matter the religion, they are all filled with some sort of wonderful, glorious stories that shock and awe and some of the mythology that derives from these stories is down right the best story telling in all of history. If you’re curious I am an agnostic and not a flat out atheist because I do feel that there could be something out there and I am not presumptuous enough to think I do know what it is or what to believe but I do believe in spirits or something other worldly I guess you could say. Shows about religion and dabbling in Heaven or Hell tend to catch my imagination and I thought this show might do the same. So low and behold here is an uniformed viewers review of Constantine.

Here’s what I do know about John Constantine he is suppose to be somewhat arrogant, snarky, cynical and rude, chain smokes and is an occult specialist and exorcist. Having only ever really just seen the Keanu Reeves version and honestly liking it even if his portrayal was panned by many and really not caring for Shia LaDouche’s acting as I feel he comes off as a little too whiny and needy and not really a side kick character that I think he is suppose to come off as. I liked the story and the ideas behind it and was entertained. A definite Taste It in my opinion.

The television show start with John, portrayed by Matt Ryan, getting shock therapy as his voice over explains that he is trying to forget something horrible, which we learn is his regret for damning a girl named Astra to Hell. His shrink is the stereotypical non believer in what is coming out of Constantine’s mouth, but it comes off as more that he needs to talk about it with someone and he doesn’t really care who it’s with as long as he can get it off his chest. Mental hospital scenes creep me out as I used to work grave yard shift in a mental hospital and have come to realize that I believe most writers may have had jobs like this as they seem to get all the details just right, down to the dingy paint jobs and the behaviors of the patients. We then find John looking bored in a group session which leads to him being distracted by some cockroaches that lead him to our first look at a person being possessed by a demon. They look pale, almost vampire-esque, with whited out eyes with a zombie like feel to their posture and overall look. I like it. The graphic so far with the exorcism look great, not corny or cheaply done as you’d expect from a t.v. show.

Next we are introduced to Liv Aberdine, played by Lucy Griffiths. She and a coworker are finishing their night and Chinese take out by eating their fortune cookies and she makes a crack about adding “In Bed” to the end of your fortune. Nice suspenseful moment where she is backing up and the alarm that she is about to hit something goes off but nothing is there, this is all highlighted by the eerie score in the background. This is where my one big complaint comes in and that is when the lights go out it is almost too dark and you can’t see what’s really happening until the ground caves in and there is an explosion. John enters the scene and tries, in his own non caring way, to calm Liz down to no avail and as she takes off we are then introduced to Manny portrayed by  Harold Perrineau (from Lost and Sons of Anarchy and Oz to name just a few of his great credits), and we get a lot of exposition and a great way to move the story along without feeling as it is being forced down our throats or making it uninteresting. 

Our next scene begins with Liz getting a ride home from her neighbor Talia and we see a shady character has followed them into the building , who proceeds to creep out Liz then begins to carve something on her door. Talia is killed/possessed by a demon as we see that the carving and line drawn around her entrance has protected her from the demon. We get our obligatory coroner killed by possessed Talia in the back of the coroners van, but Talia’s makeup job looks creepy as hell. Really dig the look of the show so far other than the darkness of it but I can get over that with the way things are going so far. 

We catch up with John who is now seen to be be playing with a lighter repeatedly now, but still no smoking and we are also introduced to Chas played by Charles Halford and I like this dude far more than Shia LeBeouf already, confidant, strong and wise. More exposition to explain Liz’s dad Jasper and out of the blue comes the coroner’s truck crashing through Liz’s work in an attempt kill Liz. I can’t get over how good the possessed people look and the make up jobs done on them are outstanding. Some more exposition from Liz’s mom about Jasper and then the vision of “Nana” which was one of the best “shocking” moments of the show. 

We catch up to John, Liz and Chas in the cab with some more Jasper talk when out of the blue they are crashed into by an 18 wheeler. We get a flashback of what happened to Astra, again the visuals are phenomenal. Our gang is attacked by the invisible demon and Chas is apparently killed, but somehow I don’t think so. We find John and Liz walking up to Jasper’s house as Constantine is explaining a few more tidbits to us and we get an Easter Egg of Dr. Fate’s helmet. The only one I know of and I am sure there are others but that was the only one I could pick out. John finds out the demon that is chasing them is Furcifer and in the process teaches Liz “Scrying”

John is on his way somewhere when Manny visits him again. Manny stops time and it looks fucking awesome as you see the raining beating on the roof a car and the ability to move the rain drops and eventually make them all come down at one. Visual effects on this show are out of this world. We learn that John’s soul has been damned to hell but there may be redemption . Constantine then tries to enlist the help from Ritchie Simpson played by Jeremy Davies, a drug addicted metaphysics professor who has to blackmailed into helping John. We also learn that Ritchie had something to do with Astra’s soul being damned to hell.

Back at Jasper’s house we find Chas is alive and there is a mirror that can see into the past and they’re going to enjoy a nice rack of lamb before they go battle Furcifer. We find John and Liz bribing a guard to get to the roof top, some funny lines to lighten the mood. John is then shown finishing painting a Demon Seal with a quick explanation of how it works and a cut away to our obligatory lazy guard who is not paying attention. Then we get a little back story of John and how his dad blamed him and abused him as a kid which was really heavy and explains why John got into the occult business in the first place only to be interrupted by the now possessed guard. Furcifer is lured into the Demon Seal and Constantine starts the exorcism only to have Furcifer change his form to an old version of John who asks, “What do you think?” to which John relies, “Not my best look.” which added a little levity to the situation. After setting off a flare to signal Ritchie to shut down the power grid so the electricity demon can not draw any more power, Furcifer tricks John into seeing Astra and using his guilt against him. Liz see’s through this as and tells John she is not real and Constantine snaps out of it and exorcises the demon. 

Ritchie takes Liz away and explains Astra and the demon Nergal to her and us and there is a call back to Liz’s scrying and we come upon a crime scene where it appears another child was attacked and killed by a demon. We find John in a bar having a pint and Chas comes in to inform him that Liz is not coming back but has left a map that she scried for them to show them the dangers that were popping up. Chas leaves and Manny shows up and chastises John for scaring Liz away and Constantine explains how he gave her something neither of them had, a choice. He also loosely commits to helping the angels and apparently God out. We leave off with John walking in an alley an dousing his hands in lighter fluid to end on one of the scenes I can say I have seen in the comics with his hands on fire ready to throw down.

I completely Tupperware this show. It is intriguing and suspenseful, with use of good horror techniques and great comic comedic timing. I love the portrayals of all the actors and their parts, the story keeps your interest and explains well enough to those of us who have not read Hellblazer or Constantine but I feel like it gave enough nods to the fans to not shoo them away. I do know that Dr. Fate and The Spectre will be part of the show at some point, not sure they will be able to bring Swamp Thing into it but that would be an awesome, I have dreams of them being able to bring Lobo to the show but that may be a huge stretch. If you haven’t checked it out I suggest you do and give it a chance. Again I don’t know how true to the comics they are being or will be but viewing it as just a fan of good television they are doing it right. The effects are great, the music is great, the acting is superb and I love the story and where it seems to be headed.

I would like to hear from the readers of the comics and let us all know what you thought of it. 


Thanks for reading.
David Isaac