John and Zed return to New Orleans when Detective Jim Corrigan asks for their help in the case of a missing girl. Papa Midnite takes steps toward exacting his revenge on John. Meanwhile, the truth behind the Rising Darkness comes to light.

Constantine wraps up its abbreviated season on a bit of a mixed note. There’s some cool stuff here, and some other things that are very blah. It’s definitely a step back from the quality that was the last few episodes.

Really, the highlight is the last five minutes or so with Zed and Corrigan talking and her explaining how she saw his death. It’s something that we comic fans are waiting for in a rather odd way.

The episode fits into the whole evil closing in on Constantine, and the night’s bad guy is a pretty nasty one. But really there’s little conclusion otherwise to the over-arching story. In fact the story is left hanging even more so. We need a second season!

The trio of Constantine, Zed and Corrigan are actually really solid. If the series gets a second season, I really hope we see more of them together, it’s somewhere the show can go, and go strongly. The first season was beyond uneven, but we saw what the series could be. Now, we need a television exec to take a chance, and give the series a second chance. Its proven it deserves at least a bit of one.

Overall rating: 8

 

John asks Manny to help him investigate a mysterious attack at a hospital; while a health issue prompts Zed to question her visions.

When Constantine got its groove. It took quite a while, but it looks like the show has finally found its voice, and style. And while doing so, it’s shown what solid entertainment it can be.

The episode is a good one, with a nice mix of humor and horror and while not the best of the season, it definitely has a lot of what made the last episode solid.

Here’s the bad. The make-up for this week’s villain is atrocious. Each week you see better design on SyFy’s Face-Off. It was bad, laughably bad. Luckily we only see it for only a little bit, so it doesn’t bring down the episode that much.

The good is Constantine’s relationship with people further being explored. The episode is a lot about his relationship with Zed still, and whether he feels guilty over her gift and what it might cause to happen to her.

To help him through that is the Angel Manny who has taken on human form. The back and forth between the two is fantastic and watching Manny deal with human emotions is beyond entertaining. I want a buddy team-up show with just them two.

What’s really great is the small details of the show, which really is something that’s not mentioned enough about the show. Towards the end, John lights his cigarette on a candle in the church, it’s a small move that adds so much.

Overall, the show has found it’s groove. Too bad we only have one episode left.

Overall rating: 8

 

John is sent to help an old friend at Ivy University, where students have figured out how to get to an alternate dimension – only to be met by a killer.

Its been eleven episodes, but with this one Constantine shows off what it could be. I had some expectations for the series, that we might get a horror infused X-Files, and it never quite reached that potential. Well, the series finally got there with a story involving a killer in an alternate dimension. It’s the X-Files meets A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Constantine heads back to catch up with his friend Richie, a character we were introduced to in the first episode, then quickly went away. A character with a hell of a lot of potential, and never was really used well.

The bad of the episode is that actor Jeremy Davies as Richie has some issues with his accent, jumping around a bit, but finally settling on something. That’s the worst part of the episode.

What’s great is there’s actual horror! Folks die. There’s blood. I was creeped out at parts! It took so long, but this is exactly what the series should have been doing. I want to be scared. I want some gore. Up until this point the series has really felt limited by what you could put on NBC. Here, its shown that you can do some great scares without tons of gore. Bravo!

There’s just two episodes left in the season, and it’s this point the pull potential is shown off. Here’s hoping the final episodes are just as solid, because this was absolutely my favorite episode of the year.

Overall rating: 8.75

 

When thousands of people in Brooklyn – including Chas’ daughter – slip into comas, John must locate and defeat the evil forces responsible.

Constantine is an interesting show. It’s rather hit and miss for me, with glimpses of what it can be, and then as soon as that excellence begins, the show veers into rather forgettable safe horror. It did that numerous times in the episode while ignoring its greatest strength, the characters and their relationships.

We see that here tonight as there’s lots of talks with souls, and some demons, as Constantine battles Felix Faust. But really, the show is about Chas, and specifically shows off how Chas can die and keep coming back.

Through clips, we see what’s made Chas rather resilient, something that could have been pushed much further. And with Chas’ ability and partnership with Constantine, we see how its impact his relationship with his family. If the episode really focused on that more, it would have been all the more stronger.

Instead we get Zed and Constantine having a chat about her role, and why she was attacked… that’s not brought up for the rest of the episode. We get their battling some demon due to a deal with Faust. And we have extraneous moments that could have been cut out. The episode would have been strongest focusing on Chas’ relationship with Constantine and his family and leaving the rest as extraneous stuff. The battle to free everyone’s soul could have lasted 5 minutes if the rest was strong enough.

What’s interesting is, the episode ends with Constantine and Zed, and a nice moment between them, showing that folks seemed to get that the character interactions would have been the best route to go. This was an episode that would have been stronger shaking off the scares and horror and instead simplify itself by just focusing on the people.

Overall rating: 7

 

Picking up where the winter break left off, Constantine is shot, bleeding, and a weird demon thing is about to attack him and Zed is in the back of a van kidnapped being taken to her father. Basically, things aren’t looking good for either of them.

Constantine is back kicking off the rest of its first season and continuing on the two plot threads.

And what feels like the first time, the stakes are amped up a bit and it feels like Constantine might really screw up here and pay for it. Shot and bleeding, he decides the best way to survive and heal is to let a demon in his body. That turns him into a raving mad loon and winds up in jail, and putting the hurt on folks while possessed. The issue now comes up, how do you fight a possession and perform an exorcism when a person is in jail? That leads to the team coming together to help save Constantine.

The story itself is a bit choppy with Zed just kind of popping up to help them and Annie just kind of helping out after she shot him. It’s kind of odd with not enough of a build as to why and feels like a lot of things have been cut out. It almost feels like things are missing….

But, the highlight is Matt Ryan, who as Constantine gets to snarl, spit, and thrash about as a man literally possessed. He continues to be the best thing about the series, and no matter what happens, here’s hoping he gets to continue as John Constantine elsewhere if need be.

The episode had some of the better moments of the year, and it felt like there was actual danger for Constantine, any issues here seem to have fallen on whomever edited the two-parter.

Overall rating: 7.5