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TV REVIEW
'The Continental' Can't Compare To The 'John Wick' Movies
By Dan Dubon | October 8, 2023
This is the first spinoff in the John Wick franchise that has been in development for years and was originally supposed to air on Starz before moving over to Peacock. This was a risk because it’s a prequel that has zero connection to the actual John Wick character at all (not even a mention), but did the risk pay off? Not Really.
I’m going to address the elephant in the room first and talk about Mel Gibson. His involvement with here turned a lot of people off from even checking this out but I’m someone who can separate the art from the artist. He does a fine job here but I do think that almost any other seasoned actor could’ve played his role. It’s obvious that Gibson is a big name that the creators wanted to attach to this project Colin Woodell as a young Winston also does a fine job here but I just couldn’t picture his version of the character evolving into the Ian McShane version later in his life.
Episode 1: "Brothers In Arms" is the second strongest, Episode 2: "Loyalty to The Master" is easily the weakest, and Episode 3: "Theater of Pain" is easily the best (although that wasn’t a hard accomplishment).
The main problem with this show is it doesn’t feel like it has enough story to tell to support three episodes and the story it does tell is predictable.
The main problems are the 1970’s NY setting that actually made the world of John Wick colorless and dreary which is completely opposite from the movies. It also doesn’t help that most of the other characters aside from Winston aren’t really that interesting nor engaging.
This was a little experiment for the people at Lionsgate to dip their toes in the water to see if people are interested in seeing more stories from the world of John Wick without John Wick. While there are definitely more stories that can be told, this one was not necessary. So hopefully next year’s Ballerina movie with Ana De Armas can succeed where this series failed. I doubt we’ll get more of this not only because it’s been billed as a mini-series since the start but also because the overall reception (and viewership) to this hasn’t been that good.
Grade: C
What are your thoughts?
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