P
AGE
26
‘Constantine’ will delights TV audience
Eli Kay
Writer
“The most heroic ‘anti-hero’ on television.”
I have to admit that I was expecting the television
adaptation of “Hellblazer” with great excitement, but
what I got was a poorly written crossover between the
comic books and the 2005 Hollywood film.
What seems to be the best thing in this show is an
incredible Matt Ryan who has captured the essence of
John Constantine down to the core and is providing a
full fleshed, spitting image of the badass exorcist the
comic book fans know and love. Same goes of course
for Charles Halford who is a great Chas.
Those two amazing actors can hold the audience
hooked on the show on their own.
On the other hand, there’s the character of Liv
(Lucy Griffiths) who looks a bit like Rachel Weisz,
and reminds us of Angela Dodson from the 2005 film
with Keanu Reeves.
It seems to me that, at least, the pilot doesn’t know
what it wants to be.
First of all, everything happens too quickly and too
easily.
We meet John in a psychiatric facility, tormented by
past demons and poor choices.
One really fast –not so much of an exorcism, later
he seems to have forgotten all that and is off chasing
cases with this young American girl from Atlanta.
We’re getting tossed around stories and characters
so quickly that we don’t have time to acclimate.
The backstory and the flashbacks with the
nonexistent background (literally, the background is
black) were weak to say the least.
Personally, I would like to see chain-smoking,
more powers, villains like Nergal, Papa Midnite
and Gabriel, and maybe cool female characters like
‘Ellie’.
Apparently the leaked pilot episode turned out to
be a good thing for the creators of Constantine, as
the negative response made them cast new characters,
trying to give a little depth to an otherwise childish
take on a classic story.
I would definitely recommend checking out Matt
Ryan as John Constantine and Charles Halford as
Chas, and hoping that the episodes that follow will
show a more accurate, sociopathic occult detective
with an adrenaline addiction, instead of a loveable
and evidently heroic “anti-hero”