The Continental: From the World of John Wick

John Wick fans gather round! We are not done yet… it seems we are just getting started… and we throwing it back all the way back to where it all started! Walk with me… 3 episodes averaging around 90 minutes each. It’s a showdown!

The Continental: From the World of John Wick tells the background story of how Winston Scott, in an alternate history 1970s, came to his position as proprietor of the New York branch of “The Continental” chain of hotels, safe havens for legal assassins on the grounds of which no business may ever take place. It explores variations on real-world events, including the Winter of Discontent and the American Mafia’s rise to economic power.

Colin Woodell plays a young Winston Scott and it’s a very different Winston that we are familiar with. That calm, composed and fearless guy Ian McShane plays is nowhere to be seen. Instead, we have a rash, hot headed, messy con artist… which you grow to love. It’s a nice, divergent version of the character who we see a lot more emotion and vulnerability from. It’s a good performance. Mel Gibson is a new character Cormac O’Connor and is the big bad of the show. Mel is brilliant as always. He’s a brute, sinister and just stone cold with it. Very menacing compared to the previous hotel managers we have met. The shining light in this depiction is Ayomide Adegun playing the late Lance Reddick’s iconic character Charon. It’s a full-blown origin story complete with Nigerian accent and all. It’s a brilliant performance and he captures Charon’s calm demeanour with a hint of fear showcasing his growth to the chilling and courageous concierge we know and love. He does the character justice. Hubert Point-Du Jour and Jessica Allain are the brother and sister duo Miles and Lou. The gun toting and dojo managers who provide the heart of the show. They have an engaging backstory which centres around the duo battling their moral compass vs survival. Mishel Prada is cast as KD a detective sergeant new to New York City, who is searching for the Scott brothers. She’s driven, ambitious and quite bonkers just roaming around all these assassins carelessly. She’s a good character. Ben Robson as Francis Patrick “Frankie” Scott, Jr., an assassin who is Winston’s older brother, Yen’s husband, and a Vietnam War vet. He’s a big source of the action here, setting the tone from the opening scene. Peter Greene also returns to TV which was good to see.

Greg Coolidge, despite his small CV went out of his way to produce a high-quality mini-series which could have easily passed for an amazing feature film. The camera grade and filter are identical to the John Wick films giving it that blockbuster feeling. It does carry a dark tone, as expected, which doesn’t hinder the show in any way. The series score is composed by Raffertie and it fits so well. Those bone chilling orchestral chimes that go on to introduce a new villain to a scene. It won’t be a John Wick production without some beautiful muscle cars and guns. Its more dialogue driven than action compared to the movies which are just guns blazing from beginning to end. This one involves more hand-to-hand combat than anything else and its magnificent.

There are so many fight scenes to highlight but just know any scene that involves Yen… SHO SHO! And a fight in a phone box!

Character designs are more creative and amplified. A few to mention, a sword wielding barbarian with metal mouth, The Adjudicator with her unique mask and the Twins with their goth attire.

Here they aim to flesh out plots, back stories and potential spin offs and its done well. The main story point being Cormac being the father figure to 2 orphan boys, trained up and turned into stone cold warriors before deciding to go separate ways over a family squabble. Only to be reunited under dire circumstances. It just makes for an excellent foundation story. The series does this parallel story telling around siblings and bonds with trauma and how they manage. You have Frank and Winston, Miles and Lou and Charon and Cormac. Despite the racial differences I don’t think it plays on the outcomes. I really enjoyed the show. It was a great decision to create it in this format just to tell a quick story and to add to such an amazing franchise. So many story plot twists well put together. It has drama coupled with the familiar and graceful action scenes we have grown to love and embrace. Not only do I want more stories like this told in this universe, other franchises should also incorporate it into theirs. Highly recommended!

Who was your favourite character? Do you want to see more of this type of format? Is John Wick really dead? Who are the High Table? React and comment below…