The Continental: From the World of John Wick tells an action-filled origin story
Not necessarily a great show, but a great effort. In fact, Disney could really learn something about expanding a franchise by watching “The Continental: From the World of John Wick.”
While Disney has a tendency to drag shows out and beat a franchise or universe into the ground as we’re seeing with both Star Wars and everything Marvel, the World of John Wick, has managed to keep it short, sweet, and interesting. I’m excited for more.
While part of the appeal of the John Wick movies is the mystery of the High Table and how it came to be, this mini-series does not give us much more information in that regard, but it does help us understand how Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) becomes the caretaker of The Continental.
Admittedly, the first of the three movie-length episodes struggled to keep my interest. I was mildly interested in the individual characters and it really wasn’t until episode two that I warmed up to Colin Woodell’s version of Winston Scott.
As the story opens, Cormac O’Connor (Mel Gibson) is the proprietor of The Continental. With O’Connor in the role of management, a young Charon (Ayomide Adegun) is at his side.
Gibson delivers a charismatic performance as the show’s antagonist. We root for him to get what’s coming, but at the same time, we kind of want him to win. O’Connor really is more interesting than Winston Scott.
The two characters counter one another in a similar way that Reeves’ Wick and Ian McShane’s Winston Scott play off of one another – sometimes they’re friends, other times they’re enemies – but each ultimately works toward achieving their own goal.
In this tale, without spoiling too much, just like Wick, Scott is driven by vengeance. There are many interesting and colorful characters sprinkled throughout The Continental, aiding and/or impeding Scott along the way.
And, much like the big budget John Wick films, The Continental truly excels in its action sequences. Each sequence is unique and exciting. At times, a bit drawn out, but still rewarding.
Ultimately, knowing Scott survives the night, makes The Continental relatively predictable, but nevertheless, it is interesting, compelling, gets better as it goes along, and has me wanting more.
Ed’s Grade: B+
