The DC supernatural drama Constantine continues to grow as this week, we meet one of John’s good old mates Gary Lester as they deal with a nasty hunger demon.
Apparently, this episode was “literally ripped from pages of Hellblazer” according to executive producer and show-runner, Daniel Cerone which I had no idea about until I saw his Twitter. From things that I have heard about the show in interviews with him and David Goyer (also an EP and show-runner), a lot of things that we have seen and will see in the first season is heavily based on the Hellblazer comics to the point where some episodes might be literally adapted into an episode.
I don’t know a lot of comic book shows that have been able to do this and I’m not talking about just bringing in iconic things from certain comic book panels, I’m talking about 100% making an episode based on a comic book issue. It’s cool for sure and for someone like me who have never picked up a Hellblazer comic book, it will be kind of fun to be able to see these episodes and then go pick some of those issues to see how similar it might have been.
For every episode that we continue to get, I keep appreciating NBC more and more for putting the show on 10 PM because it keeps getting darker for every week. It was somewhat hard to take the concept of the “hunger demon” seriously at first because seeing each person getting possessed by those swarming bugs, was to some degree funny. But when the second host started to bite a guard’s ear off, that’s when the laughter stopped because it didn’t look fun for that poor guy. Once again, the effects and graphic in this show is just remarkable and deliciously creepy, even though I kept hiding my face behind a pillow a lot of times during the episode.
I really enjoyed the character of Gary who was a troubled soul after the incident at Newcastle that continues to be mentioned every once in a while. At some point this season, I’m expecting a major flashback episode that will reveal what happened there. Gary is also a character from the comic books where he was one of John’s friends. I did feel really sorry for him in the whole episode and especially when he was trying to connect with John who couldn’t stop pointing out how miserable Gary was. Although what would Constantine be without his wits, sarcasm and sassy mouth? Sadly, Gary meets an unfortunate fate as John needed him to be the demon’s last host and showing once again how tough John’s life is as he has to make very difficult choices.
The only issue that I have so far with the series is that we aren’t getting enough screentime for Manny. I really dig Harold Perrineau every time he is on screen with Matt Ryan, but he is only there for a minute or two before disappearing. I’m sure they have big plans for his character in the upcoming episodes, but if he is a series regular then how come he is only in one or two scenes in each episode? Hopefully that will change really soon and by “really soon”, I mean as early as next week. I’m also curious towards how long it will take before Chas and Zed learn about John’s interaction with Manny because as far as I know, they have no idea at this point.
Overall, “A Feast of Friends” was a really good episode that continues to flesh out John’s character with great performances by Ryan and Zed continues to get better as well as she is in a way the eyes of the audience as she says a lot of things that we as viewers would want to say to John.
Constantine airs on Friday nights, 10/9c on NBC.
Photo via NBC
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