Constantine - Season 1

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Agent Richard07, Oct 22, 2014.

  1. Servo

    Servo Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    To be fair, Supernatural wasn't up to the level of Supernatural when it first started.
     
  2. Beagleman

    Beagleman Commodore Commodore

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    I liked it alright. I watched the leaked pilot a few months ago but can't really recall what was changed besides the scene where it was said that Liv left. And I think Matt Ryan does a great job as Constantine (...if only he could smoke and bang dudes.;))
     
  3. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Not having watched it: Which way do they pronounce his name?
     
  4. Beagleman

    Beagleman Commodore Commodore

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    Constan-teen.
     
  5. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    My recall here is a little vague, but I think the original pilot ended with Liv realizing that her abilities could be used to save people. At the end Chas says that she has been skrying and going all over town saving and helping people. Constantine realizes that he needs to work with her.
     
  6. Shanndee

    Shanndee Commodore Commodore

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    I will give the show a chance, but I found the pilot disappointing. The friends I watched it with knew about the recasting and warned me, so I went in with low expectations.

    The show certainly has potential, I just hope it is given the time to reach that potential. As it stands right now it is a familiar show dealing with supernatural elements. The lead actor isn't comfortable in his role yet, and the story telling "jumped around" a lot.

    All of this can be fixed (I hated Anson Mount in "Hell on Wheels" the entire first season due to his discomfort in the role, giving the impression that he didn't know his character yet. Now I love him). I hope this actor can "find" John Constantine soon and the story telling becomes more focused. I also hope the new female lead works better than this one did.

    Lots of work to be done, but none of it is insurmountable.
     
  7. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Is the whole thing with Chas appearing to die and then popping up alive later from the comics? If so do they ever explain what he is and how he survives?
     
  8. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It kind of reminded me of South Park.
     
  9. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I thought the pilot was better than the pilot for Gotham.

    Good suspense and character development and I liked the direction. Although that might be attributed to Neil Marshall, who is actually a pretty good horror director for film. So, what was the deal with Liv? Is she leaving the show or will we be seeing her again? I thought she would be a reoccurring character but from what Christopher said it sounds like she's not going to be a series regular?

    I also preferred this to the film version starring Keanu Reeves, but I wonder if the concept of the comic-book is better suited for a TV show than a film anyway. I think Matt Ryan also far better suits the character of John Constantine than Reeves. He seems far more charismatic and likable. I'll be continuing to watch, although with Gotham and The Flash there's no short supply of TV shows I need to watch on a weekly basis now... and I still need to catch up on Arrow.
     
  10. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    When they finally explained Kenny, it was all about Cthulhu.

    Gotta wonder how Hellblazer is going to tackle Lovecraft.
     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    She was supposed to be a regular, but they decided that she was too reactive and subordinate a character, so they wrote her out (reshooting the ending) and are going to replace her with a new female lead based on a character from the comics. The woman we saw drawing all those pictures of Constantine in the final shot is the new leading lady, and we'll meet her in this week's episode.
     
  12. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't understand what accent the actor is going for - it drifts all over the place from vague northern to the Wirral and back again...
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, according to Wikipedia, John Constantine was born in Liverpool, although he spent some of his childhood in Northampton and eventually moved to London. So I suppose it makes sense that his accent would be something of a jumble. The actor, Matt Ryan, is Welsh.
     
  14. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah... I only got halfway through the premiere before giving up. It looks like a pretty decent, well-produced show, but there just wasn't anything interesting or special enough about it to make it stand out.

    Perhaps if it was on cable where it could have had a more unique style and voice, but on NBC it just has too much of that generic network feel for my taste.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I thought it worked quite well, and Ryan was quite effective as Constantine. Liv was a little underwhelming, but she's a non-issue from now on. But this isn't really my favorite genre, so I'm not sure I'm invested enough to keep watching. I'll check out episode 2 to see how the new female lead works out, but I'm not sure I'll watch regularly.
     
  16. Dr. Funkenstein

    Dr. Funkenstein Lieutenant Commander

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    I found it an okay pilot, but not great or anything. I was really disappointed with Constantine's accent. It just didn't match what I hear in my voice when I read the comics.
     
  17. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    1x02...

    An uneventful episode and Zed didn't make the same impression on me that Liv did.
     
  18. OdoWanKenobi

    OdoWanKenobi Admiral Admiral

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    This episode had the unenviable task of having to cover ground already covered in the previous episode. Instead of being able to move forward, they had to set up another female lead. Unfortunately, she wasn't given too much interesting to do. I hope we'll see more to justify the decision to replace Liv in the coming episodes.
     
  19. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's pretty amazing how this second episode has generated almost no reaction. Nobody has ANYTHING to say!

    For me, it seemed to be very similar to early episodes of The X-Files or maybe Grimm. Hopefully things will pick up because I think the series has done a great job with the personality of JC even though he seems to be doing things in a very un-Constantine way. This episode was basically any generic detective series only with supernatural elements.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I like Angelica Celaya as Zed; she's rather lovely. I'm still not that invested in the show, though. And there were a couple of things that bothered me here. For one, "Nothing's blacker than Gypsy magic"? Way to perpetuate an outdated stereotype. And the ending was very disturbing -- the ghost/zombie of the woman's abusive husband returns and drags her to her doom? Was this supposed to be a good thing? That creeps me out, and very much not in the way you want a horror story to creep you out.