Double Double Toil & Trouble |Constantine: City of Demons Review|
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. Leave it up to Constantine to find himself smack dab in the middle of a mess. After a friend's daughter ends up in a coma under strange circumstances, its up to Constantine to follow the breadcrumbs left behind by a dark force to free the young girl and mend a marriage. Things become rough quickly as usual in the world of Constantine and they find themselves in the midst of a 1,000 year old mess with no life raft. John Constantine's old demons both of the physical and mental variety come back to haunt him as his decisions from a previous time now reveal themselves to hold weight.
Strengths:
As per usual, DC Comics writing is always the focal point of what makes their animated shows and films so great. With the story of Astra being explored in depth brought a whole new dimension to Constantine's character. The effects of decisions way heavy on him and after seeing the amount of bloodshed left behind in his wake explains why he is such a tortured soul. Tricks are utilized by a demon known as Beruv/Beruit (not sure of the spelling) to bring Constantine to his front door step for a job of demonic proportions. With Trish's life hanging in the balance it creates actually consequences for the characters in this story. Demons in the Constantine universe are almost always overpowered creatures with intelligence to match. This is what makes a show like Constatine stand out from his superhero counter parts. His fights are very rarely just beat em ups but also include an eclectic game of chess.
Weaknesses:
There is something so aggravating about how short Constantine: City of Demons truly is. DC Comics has riled up old feelings about the short lived series known as Vixen by giving Constantine's show the same length of time to provide an engaging story then leave its viewers at a dead end of sorts. These shows insult the intelligence level of any fan watching by just dropping you off before you even make it to a true conflict and resolution. All the episodes together are a total of 28mins flat so if you plan on making it a binge like I was you will be sorely mistake. Outside of the VERY short length Constantine: City of Demons truly doesn't have any other issues with it.
Rating & Explanation:
Since the folks over at DC Comics love producing short 5 minute episodes and calling it a series, I'm going to ensure this review is short, sweet, and to the point. This show for all intensive purposes is enjoyable, but it derails the viewer so hard by ending how it does. The length of shows like this and Vixen are an insult to fans everywhere. If they wish to service these characters who are not as popular to the masses as say Batman or Wonder Woman, they have got to do them justice by actually giving them full blown shows. Constantine's live action show actually did well with it's crazy air date and time slot. With it being cancelled mid-way through many of us were surprised and are still trying to scratch that demonic Constantine bug. If anything, Constantine City of Demons was like a red bull. It gets you super hype with the first sips but the crash is catastrophic near the end. For this reason I can only give Constantine: City of Demons a 7/10, but not because the show wasn't great but simply because the length of it is completely unreasonable.
Check out the trailer here:
