couldnt disagree much more , which is fine its all subjective after all. but speaking as someone that never read the comics isnt into DC at all and has no idea about any of the mythos of the character i found the first episode to be interesting and a good watch. didnt he leave the asylum because the dead guy (who was his friend?) left him a message the girl was in trouble? and the helmet scene worked well enough without knowing what it is.Fanghawk said:
Constantine Is Faithful To The Comics, But To A Fault
- Thread starter K9
- Start date
I've read the comics and I liked the show, even though it was very much a "network television adaptation".
As expected, certain aspects were sanitized and simplified for the "mainstream" audience. And I couldn't help wonder what a basic cable network like FX or AMC could have done with it.
But, considering where it is, I thought it was well done.
Looks like the show (or this season anyway) will be following the early "Supernatural" template, with Constantine and Co traveling across the U.S. to battle demons and other occult creatures.
Could be interesting. I'll certainly watch through the season.
As expected, certain aspects were sanitized and simplified for the "mainstream" audience. And I couldn't help wonder what a basic cable network like FX or AMC could have done with it.
But, considering where it is, I thought it was well done.
Looks like the show (or this season anyway) will be following the early "Supernatural" template, with Constantine and Co traveling across the U.S. to battle demons and other occult creatures.
Could be interesting. I'll certainly watch through the season.
What do you mean by sanitized specifically? I didn't read much of the comics, but the only signature trait of Constantine that I didn't see expressed in the show was his smoking habit. Everything else seemed very much Constantine from what I've seen of the Books of Magic, and some of the Hellblazer series.K9 said:
Yeah, I enjoyed the Constantine movie as well. I was somewhat annoyed with bits of the pilot, mostly the use of cliched tropes, though a few of the tropes they inverted on me in a pleasant way. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a 6, maybe 7/10, with some hope that it's got room for improvement.K9 said:
Though I will probably be way more forgiving of this pilot, as in my experience, no pilot is ever terribly good. Just about every pilot I've ever seen is a mad scrabble to establish what's going on and why in 40 minutes, which usually means a lot is left unclear for now. But that's ok to me, since the premise is that the answers will be given out over a series.
A friend of mine did say he felt it was basically just an episode of Supernatural to him. Seeing as I've never watched Supernatural I can't comment on that, but another friend made mention that since Hellblazer was out long before Supernatural, it was probably more accurate to say that Supernatural is like Constantine. *shrugs*
Decent pilot, several flaws, but I enjoyed the cast overall, and hope they do something with it in the future.
Call me shallow, but I lost interest as soon as I heard they were going to make him a non-smoker, straight, and just cast a brown-haired actor and dye it blond (badly). (Okay okay the last one is a personal bent because I am blond and I'm tired of the seemingly never-ending Generic Brown-Haired 30-Something Male Protagonist.) I'm not interested in network sanitized!Constantine. Sounds like I didn't miss much.
Having seen the original pilot and the new one, I can tell you that's not the case. The only change was the ending.Fanghawk said:
In the original, Liv comes across that crime scene at the end and it convinces her to ask John to go on a cross country helping people tour. Which was John's plan all along, he just wanted her to think it was her idea.
Sadly, it was the most spot-on bit of Constantine's "magnificent bastard" character in the episode and it got axed with Liv.
Aspects of Hellblazer that are probably NOT going into the show: Demonic man raping dogs, gory human violence,violent animal deaths, a subplot of an angel having a baby with a demon(which became the basis for Preacher),the "Dangerous Habits" arc(it revolves around the repercussions of smoking 30 sticks a day),killing his brother in utero, lots of cursing, the portrayal of JC as a selfish and unlikable character(I think they're going more for the anti-hero thing).
If the show is going for PG, and wont up the intensity, I feel it wont survive past 2nd season. There's nothing that's really standout about it. Some people might even think its a ripoff of the Dresden Files imho.
If the show is going for PG, and wont up the intensity, I feel it wont survive past 2nd season. There's nothing that's really standout about it. Some people might even think its a ripoff of the Dresden Files imho.
I was more or less positive toward the show and wrote my review on the Bookie Monster website.
http://bookie-monster.com/2014/10/constantine-1-01-non-est-asylum.html
Still, the plot wasn't very good.
http://bookie-monster.com/2014/10/constantine-1-01-non-est-asylum.html
Still, the plot wasn't very good.
Yeah probably not, it's a tv show after all.RavingSturm said:
These I could actually see happening. The "child of both sides" thing could be easily done in my opinion. The whole "love crossing boundaries" cliche is very popular, though I don't know how it played out in the comics, if it was love, or some kind of rape thing.RavingSturm said:
The cancer thing from smoking could still easily happen, you can get cancer all kinds of ways that have nothing to do with smoking. Maybe he gets liver cancer from his hard core drinking, or any number of other terminal diseases that put the fear of hell into him. Really all you need for this plot is a terminal illness that he can't recover from.
As for the killing brother in utero. Seriously? Is somebody trying to blame that on him in the comics? That seems kind of pushing the boundaries of guilt and personal accountability to me, to blame a child still in utero for murder. Hell by most Christian standards, he's basically incapable of being responsible at that age, he's not even done cooking yet.
The cursing they can get away with by letting him use British curses. I mean in the pilot he said "bollocks", which as I understand it, would have to be censored on British tv. So yeah, in an odd sort of way, they can be really filthy with the language, and get away with it by using another countries profanities. xDRavingSturm said:
As for him being selfish and unlikeable, he did threaten the nerd hacker guy to help him, by pinning the previous case on him with the cops. That's kind of a dick move. If they continue with that, he would develop a pretty unlikeable nature. Though I agree it's probably still going to push for you to like him, since he is the tv shows protagonist. Shows with a main character the audience doesnt' like, usually don't last long.
Dull as ditch water. In the very first Hellblazer comic I read, we see a guy force feed himself to death; it's horrific and mysterious and all very ironic (in regards to what the victim was like). The devils had a lot of imagination and a lot of fun when it comes to being devilish. This pilot decided to go with a demon who only kills people off screen, and only by beating people up. Also, the demon is only visible by possessing people, so it looks like a normal person with contact lenses. That's boring!
Also, Constantine needed to down play things a bit. I imagine him being quietly snarky, melancholic and reticent. Not loud and hammy. The one character detail that was meant to carry the pilot was that he got an innocent girl sent to hell. This sounds like something that should have been left in the background to be eventually teased out by the supporting characters, rather than something they shove in your face within the first five minutes or so. We don't know who the girl is and we have been given no opportunity to previously sympathise with either her or Constantine. It's less a character building detail for Constantine, and more of a perfunctory task for him to complete by the series end. Perhaps Constantine's most interesting characteristic from the comics is that he is willing (if somewhat reluctantly) to throw his friends and lovers under the bus if it means serving a higher purpose. That should have been his character defining moment in the pilot, and it never comes up.
Also, Constantine needed to down play things a bit. I imagine him being quietly snarky, melancholic and reticent. Not loud and hammy. The one character detail that was meant to carry the pilot was that he got an innocent girl sent to hell. This sounds like something that should have been left in the background to be eventually teased out by the supporting characters, rather than something they shove in your face within the first five minutes or so. We don't know who the girl is and we have been given no opportunity to previously sympathise with either her or Constantine. It's less a character building detail for Constantine, and more of a perfunctory task for him to complete by the series end. Perhaps Constantine's most interesting characteristic from the comics is that he is willing (if somewhat reluctantly) to throw his friends and lovers under the bus if it means serving a higher purpose. That should have been his character defining moment in the pilot, and it never comes up.
Bollocks wouldn't unless it was a children's program, but otherwise I generally agree you could get away with it by sticking to British terms. In one episode of the The Simpsons, they are throwing the word "Wanker" quite a bit; a word which definitely would get censored in anything pre-"watershed" (along with tosser). Prat is an odd one, in that I have seen it in children's shows despite it being a borderline swearword. Berk appears a lot too, despite it being a pretty harsh euphemism.Happyninja42 said:
They could have guest stars that get killed or sacrificed to a demon as part of the show's gimmick. I would really like to see body horror or some of the demons from the comic like Nergal, The First,2nd, 3rd and Norfulthing.