Constantine: My TV Review

Constantine is an American TV series that features the DC Comics character John Constantine. It was developed by television screenwriter and executive producer Daniel Cerone, who served as co-showrunner too in successful series like The Mentalist and Charmed. David S. Goyer, also co-developed this Constantine series. Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director, novelist, producer, and comic book writer, who also worked as screenwriter for  Blade trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and its sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. 

John Constantine is a demon hunter and an occult’s dabbling master, who struggles with his past sins while protecting the innocent from converging supernatural threats that break constantly through our world due to the rising darkness. Constantine uses his skills and his supernatural scry (foretelling) to journey across the nation to send these terrors back to their own world, whilst balancing his actions upon the line of good and evil. These are all for the hope of his soul redemption from eternal torment.

British actor Matt Ryan (Joe O’Hara of The Halcyon/ Dex of Away/ John Constantine of Arrow/ Edward Sterling of Armistice) starred as John Constantine, an exorcist and occult detective who hunts supernatural entities actively using his dark arts. The series was first aired from October 24, 2014 to February 13, 2015, with over 13 episodes. NBC (National Broadcasting Company) aired this show yet cancelled this show on May 8, 2015 after only one season due to poor ratings. In spite of that, Ryan had appeared on Arrow in the fourth season episode “Haunted”, that involved his character being brought in to deal with the fallout of the resurrection of Sara Lance (played by Caity Lotz) via Ra’s al Ghul’s “Lazarus Pit”. Matt Ryan will also cast his crossover role in the third season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow according to one of the showrunners of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

American actress of Mexican descent Angelica Celaya (Luna of Agent X/ Eve of Skin in the Game/ Eugenia Casas of The Lord of the Skies/ Gloria Valenzuela of Cowboys vs. Vampires) played the role of Zed Martin, a psychic artist who finds Constantine intriguing enough to follow him on his exorcisms. Award-winning American actor Charles Halford (Reggie Ledoux of True Detective/ Nate of Rectify/ Meth of Armed/ Earl of Logan Lucky/ Yago of The Walking Dead/ Justin Wilson of Night Shift/Jemm of Supergirl) cast as Chas Chandler,  Constantine’s oldest friend and staunch companion, who possesses powerful survival skills. Five-time award-winning American actor Harold Perrineau (Mercutio of Romeo + Juliet/ Jack of Zero Dark Thirty/ Flynn of 28 Weeks Later/ Calvin Shaw of Criminal Minds/ Judge Keller of Goliath/ Michael Dawson & Kevin Johnson of Lost/ Detective Leo Banks of The Unusuals/ Link of The Matrix) played the role of Manny, an authoritative angel assigned to watch over Constantine.

The show remains more faithful to the source material than the 2005 film “Constantine” where  Keanu Reeves played the role. Although on-screen depiction of Constantine’s chain-smoking habit was said to be curtailed because of broadcast television restrictions. Griffiths was cast as the original female lead Liv Aberdine, the daughter of a late friend of John’s called Jasper Winters, who lately discovered that she has the ability of seeing the supernatural world among humans. She teamed up with Constantine to fight the demons who had targeted her and learned more about her late father. Griffiths was dropped after Goyer and Cerone decided to take the series in a different creative direction, instead the comic character Zed was chosen as a replacement for the female lead.

According to the review aggregator website called Rotten Tomatoes, they reported a 72% critic approval rating with an average rating of 6.2/10 based on 46 reviews. The website’s consensus reads, “Constantine‘s creepy atmosphere, high-stakes action, and splendid special effects combine with a welcome touch of humor to overcome narrative flaws and present a version of the title character that’s close to his comics counterpart.” Metacritic, on the other hand, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 53 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

Matt Fowler of IGN gave the pilot episode “Non Est Asylum” a 7.5/10, praising Matt Ryan’s performance as Constantine saying that the episode is a good set up for the series, but criticized the pacing. Kylie Peters of Den of Geek, reviewing the pilot episode, said “Constantine is worth sticking around for. It may not have achieved greatness yet, but it’s not half bad either.”

Though this series had received poor ratings and didn’t come up for season 2, I can still give two thumbs up, since the role played by Matt Ryan is astoundingly remarkable. For me, he played the role naturally better than Keanu Reeves in the film (just my opinion). With this series that runs for 13 episodes, plus with terrifying dark elements that haunts at night and stalks their victims, this will really test your faith how strong is your spiritual prowess when you’ll meet those vile creatures in reality, and will make kids cover their eyes while watching its episodes too.

Some heroes are hired fighting for the real nemeses, but Constantine is something else — he fights against the unseen and sinistrous vile elements that feed on your fears. A good restorer of human’s soul, a superhero who does not deals battling weapons or mystical staffs against the enemies, but the one who protects others’ good spirits, flesh and bones against demons.  That’s what Constantine is gonna be — a superhero of faith in action.

Thanks to Constantine who become the superhero in a supernatural way.

If you haven’t seen this TV series yet, check out this trailer below: