Not to get too spoilerish on you guys, but you’d think that the second the seemingly unkillable John Wick took a fateful bullet in the finale of his fourth movie, the legend of Baba Yaga would finally run its credits stained course. However, thanks to Keanu Reeves’ mythical alter ego existing in a rich world utterly crammed full of criminal weirdos, bizarro traditions and luscious architecture, the powers that be seem confident that this world can sustain itself without him – hence the arrival of the three-part streaming event, The Contintental: From The World Of John Wick (or just “The Continental” for short).
That’s right, it’s origin story time as we not only get a 70s-set tale that bases itself around the eponymous hotel that acts as a haven for ever gangster, killer and low life that needs to chill out in New York, but we also pull back the curtain on Winston Scott as we find out how the melodramatic manager came into possession of the place in the first place.
While a new years party is in full swing in the Continental, Frankie Scott uses it as cover to pull off a daring heist that sees a grappling hook, a subway train and copious bullets used to swipe and ornate box that contains something so valuable, it seemingly even transcends money. You see, what this Vietnam vet has swiped is the coin press that supplies the criminal underworld with that currency that somehow manages to buy anything from a room or a drink, to a murderous favour or two.
Unsurprisingly, the current owner of the Continental, the cold blooded crime lord Cormac O’Connor, is understandably incensed as even a man of his stature has to answer to someone (hint: the nebulous members of the High Table) as so he has high-end con man and Frankie’s estranged brother, Winston Scott, abducted from London and whisked over to find Frankie and return the coin press.
However, Winston will have to find him first and after having a tense word with gun running siblings Lou and Miles about Frankie’s whereabouts (Miles served with him in ‘Nam), Winston finally locates his brother but is unprepared with what he finds.
Not only is his brother married to Yen, a vietnamese woman just as proficient as dealing out death as her husband, but he also has stories about a nigh invisible criminal network that spans the entire globe that Winston writes off as just paranoia. However, Cormack, desperate to regain that coin press, turns to his own guests in order to locate his property and thus unleashes mute, twin assassins Hansel and Gretel to clean things up. As Winston teeters on the edge of a world he will go on to play a huge part of, bullets start to fly with startling regularity.
In hindsight, a John Wick inspired universe was all but inevitable as franchise director Chad Stahelski (with help from John Wick 1 co-director David Leitch) has taken great steps into building on the franchise’s world with every subsequent episode to the point that it’s become every bit as extensive and exotic as the MCU or Star Wars. However, while the absurdly epic John Wick 4 seemingly was the last word in a world brutally governed by ever more complex rules and a status quo built entirely on a sense of antiquated honor, the exact details on how this workd actually works has never really been clear defined, much like the leading body of the High Table. So with a trio of feature length episodes dropping on Peacock in weekly installments, surely this is a perfect time to lay all this complicated world building out and make it crystal clear, right?
Uhhh… no, not really as the first epidode makes it abundantly clear that the chief focus of this show will be Colin Woodell embryonic version of Winston Scott, the cravat sporting, string pulling dandy played so deliciously by Ian McShane in the movies.
As a result, the first episode is something of a trade off that transplants this rich – if somewhat inpenetrable world – into the the grime and filth of the 70s with all the character and toe-tapping needle drops that come with it (seriously, so many needle drops) and while an origin story for Winston sounds like an excuse for some juicy plotting, backstabbing and manipulating -possibly while mulling things over a glass of expensive brandy – an issue here is that Woodell’s Winston simply isn’t Winston enough yet to make him an interesting protagonist. Oh sure, an opening sequence that sees Ben Robson’s long haired and bearded Frankie shoot his way up a flight of stairs not only gives us a very John Wick-esque action sequence to kick things off but it possibly clues us in to Wick’s true parentage.
Director Albert Hughes (co-director of Menace II Society) gives everything that rich, lived-in look that any good John Wick spin-off requires and thankfully, the world is still intriguing enough to hold the attention with random psychos and other such characters jostling for space. But another down point is that most of the first episode is so focused in roping in such disparate souls as Mishel Prada’s determined female detective,
Uncle Charlie, Hubert Point-Du Joir and Jessica Allain’s gun running siblings and Mel Gibson’s tyrannical crime lord, that the actual plot is barely given room to breathe, especially considering that the majority of them have nothing to do with the central macguffin of the coin press (at least not yet). Things will no doubt entwine more in the next two episodes, but after four films focusing on Wick’s laser focused acts of vengence, The Continental so far feels as scattershot as shotgun loaded with rock salt.
Still, there’s still lots here to intrigue the Baba Yaga faithful as various, prequel-friendly, franchise nods rear their heads. Not only do we have a younger Winston, ornate neckwear firmly in place; but we also get Ayomide Adegun’s younger Cheron building toward the performance of the late, great Lance Reddick, Peter Greene playing the younger incarnation of Uncle Charlie (the body disposable expert originally played by David Patrick Kelly) and interiors of the Continental that call back to famous moments from the franchise.
Still, as an opening salvo for the the expansion of the John Wick franchise, The Continental’s premier episode is a bit too fully booked to live up to the sizable mythos of what’s come before… or is that after (damn prequel logic) – however, with two more feature length episodes to goes and an utterance of the immortal demand for “guns…. lots of guns”, there’s still plenty of time for The Continental to become a five star visit.
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