Review: Constantine Off to a Good Start, But Playing It Too Safe

John Constantine can't smoke on his new TV show.Much has been made of this and ultimately the [...]

John Constantine can't smoke on his new TV show.

Much has been made of this and ultimately the smoking itself is arguably a bit overblown in terms of what it means for the character, but it is probably emblematic of the compromises that NBC is making with Constantine which may frustrate audiences and alienate longtime fans of the character.

The new TV series -- starring blonde Welshman Matt Ryan rather than dark-haired American Keanu Reeves, who played the character in a feature film a decade ago -- is an entertaining and engaging supernatural procedural, a far sight better than most of its competition in that field and better than the unfairly-maligned Constantine movie as well.

That said, it isn't without its flaws, and many of those come back to the fact that the show doesn't seem to be taking chances with its content. The smoking it is own thing, but John is, by necessity, nicer in this show than he's typically been depicted in the comics and that's kind of an issue when your main character is an unabashed bastard and con man.

The addition of True Blood cutie Lucy Griffiths as Liv -- a move that's since been reversed -- is another example of trying to make Constantineas a series and Constantine as a character more palatable to mainstream American audiences. It seems like everything on this show is a slightly Nerfed version of the character and his world, and while many of them might seem like finicky fanboy complaints, the cumulative impact is a show that feels almost...but not quite...right.

Liv's gone now, of course, and will be replaced in the final series by Zed, a recurring character from the comics and somebody who very clearly isn't going to play into that rather predictable mold.

Constantine's pilot is a well-told story that lacks something in the "compelling characters" department. Liv is mostly a cypher for the plot, while Constantine himself is too watered down a version of Constantine to really be appealing. The hyper-capable loner is one of those character types we just see a ton of and there isn't much in Constantine that makes him stand out from the others.

That said, establishing the story and hinting at so much more in the wide world of Constantine (and, yes, a little bit DC Comics too) was the right direction to go, and it played to the strengths of what we've seen so far.

Matt Ryan is, admittedly, very good in the role; the fact that his Constantine is slightly bland isn't a reflection on him so much as it is the script, and there's certainly room for something resembling greatness from his performance if he's given a little bit more daring material.

He is, in fact, great to everyone else's detriment. The show is titled Constantine, and you couldn't mistake it for anything else. No other actor in the show really stands out, in spite of having a pretty strong cast and nobody having a paritcularly bad performance. Whether that will be resolved in future episodes of the show remains to be seen; obviously even in the comics, Constantine was often more or less a one-man show. It's somewhat distracting here, though; even when you look at something like Arrow -- which is similarly premised on a gruff and incredibly skilled warrior wading into battle -- his supporting cast is a big part of what makes the show work. It's what separates a show that can last a few episodes on the strength of the lead versus a show that can do much better, because there are more options to pass the ball off to.

What the show does, mostly, avoid is the trap of corny dialogue and hokey setups that so many supernatural shows, be they on cable or a network, seem to have as they attempt to craft their voice in the first season or two. This is a show about the supernatural that actually takes the supernatural fairly seriously, which is a rarity.

It may not bother non-comics-readers that this version of Constantine is so safe and unchallenging -- and fans of the Keanu Reeves movie will likely get a charge out of this more mature reinterpretation. Still, those of us who had hoped for a Hellblazer show and instead get Constantine have every right to be at least a little disappointed. That said, it's still worth a watch; I'll give it six episodes to win me over, and expect it will probably do so on its merits.

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