Written by Marisa Carpico
If the attendees piling into the room were any indication, the screening of the Constantine pilot was one of the most anticipated events of the Con. While the Star Wars Rebels panel immediately preceding it surely attracted its own fans, the room was decidedly low energy throughout despite a surprise screening of the October 27th episode. By contrast, when the MC’s mentioned that Constantine was coming up next, the crowd cheered and few left their seats between panels. That excitement carried throughout the screening and the crowd laughed and cheered in all the right places.
In terms of the pilot, it’s solid though really not a great indicator of the rest of the season. Lucy Griffiths–who plays a normal girl whose life is changed when her ability to see dead souls makes her hell’s number one target–was replaced by Angélica Celaya’s Zed shortly after production started and her character was written off the show.
I have to wonder what drove the replacement. Griffiths gives a solid performance and her character, Olivia, offers a nice sort of naive contrast to John Constantine’s more jaded outlook. Though maybe there is some benefit to not having to watch that tired dynamic play out on yet another show. That’s what Doctor Who is for.
Whatever the case, the panelists–including show-runner David S. Goyer (Da Vinci’s Demons and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy), stars Matt Ryan and Celayas–offered no such answers on why the change was made. The show didn’t make much of an effort either. The scenes explaining why Olivia suddenly moves to live with a relative in California feel tacked on and while the final image sets up a nice bit of intrigue for Zed, it maybe might have been a better idea to move it all to the beginning of the next episode. As it stands, the time the viewers spent investing in Olivia’s story feels wasted and the whole episode’s emotional impact is significantly lessened.
For her part, Celayas doesn’t get much to do in the pilot and even has her back turned to the camera. Goyer assured the audience, however, that there would be a lot of interaction between the Zed and Constantine in the next episode and Celayas described their relationship as push-and-pull but “mostly push.”
Even if Celaya turns out to be awful though, Constantine may be worth watching purely for Matt Ryan’s performance. He nails Constantine’s mix of world-weary sarcasm and wounded, raw emotion. There’s a weight to his performance that makes the supernatural moments feel real. He’s especially impressive in scenes where Constantine drops his jaded sense of remove, like an early scene in which he exorcises a demon. Ryan says the various incantations and spells with such conviction, it’s not hard to believe that demons would flee from him.
While Goyer says he knew Ryan was the man for the job right away, he had a more difficult time convincing higher-ups. In a play at the time, Ryan sent in a taped audition Goyer called “horribly lit” and sporting a beard that made him look, “like the Unabomber.”
“It was very hard to see John Constantine in there,” Goyer admits and the studio told him to audition other actors. Still, Goyer stuck to his guns and even did his best to sabotage the other actors trying out for the role. Whatever he did, it worked and Ryan seems pleased to be in the role.
“I’m getting to know him more and more,” he said of the character, which he’s already spent nine episodes playing and is about to start filming the tenth. Audiences will get a chance to know John Constantine too when the premiere airs on October 24.
Oh, and as for the much-maligned absence of Constantine’s signature foul mouth and chain-smoking, the pilot’s good enough to make you forget it’s missing at all.
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