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Constantine Review: “Non Est Asylum” (Season 1, Episode 1)

We've already sat through the premieres of Gotham and The Flash, and new seasons of Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and we've still got the premiere of iZombie and Netflix's Daredevil to get through before the TV year is over. But now, it's time for Constantine, NBC's highly anticipated series which debuted tonight.

Constantine - Season Pilot

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Having good actors on board also helps. I only know Ryan from the short lived Criminal Minds spinoff, Suspect Behavior, but he’s a good fit for the lead role here. While I’m a fan of the Criminal Minds, Suspect Behavior didn’t do well to distinguish itself, and Ryan’s character seemed only remarkable for being a charming British rogue. Fortunately, that’s a character trait that works well for him in Constantine.

I liked the scene where he first arrives to save Liv and she threatens with pepper spray. Constantine tells her it’s pointed the wrong way and he smirks with his own amusement when she turns the nozzle around. That’s Constantine, and when Ryan gets to play smart, cynical and sarcastic, he hits gold, but whenever Constantine has to yell and shout and warn creatures about crossing him, that’s the kind of over the top hero stuff you don’t normally associate with a lovable rogue, or a hard-boiled film noir detective, which Constantine is in no small way based on.

The series, at least in the pilot, struggles to make Constantine dark enough fit the anti-hero mould of the comic, and makes him only dark enough to be “network TV” dark. Because of that there’s a big hanging question mark over the character’s motivations: is he fighting for himself, or is he really invested in fighting to save others? At least with the titular doctor on House you understood that his motivation for saving people had more to do with conquering whatever strange disease he was fighting. In Constantine though, the ambiguity comes from the show wanting their anti-hero to be equally anti and heroic.

Unfortunately, the supporting characters get a short shrift here. I did like Halford as Chas though, and the way he shrugs off the mystery of surviving death by electrocution when Liv reacts to him being alive and just goes about making dinner is great. Manny, however, is a bigger problem. He just pops in to say, “Hey, fight for Team Heaven because you need jerk rehab.” Is there a bigger role for Manny aside from popping up and nudging Constantine to do the right thing? I don’t know, but the way they make up Perrineau says creepy to me more than angelic. Like Dominion, it’s part of a weird TV agenda to ugly up angels.

As for Liv, I say good riddance. Griffiths doesn’t make much of an impression and her chemistry with Ryan is non-existent. The pilot was rejiggered to allow for her quick, almost Poochie-like exit, which creates an odd inconsistency because the episode spends a lot of time building her up to play a part she was fired from. At least the Constantine team recognized that this important part of the show wasn’t working, and they had the guts to severe ties early. I think the last thing they needed was someone to whom exposition must be constantly fed, so why not live in the moment and just assume that the audience is smart enough to know what magic, angels, demons and exorcism are, even if the show’s concept of an “angel” so far seems to be confusing the make-up department.

Constantine, for now, is at least worth following along for a couple more weeks to see if it can find the best version of itself. There have definitely been a several steps in the right direction and the series does show promise. If it can build on the solid foundations it laid with tonight’s episode, then I think that fans of the character will be in for quite a treat.