I was worried that a show with the words John Wick in the title but without the man himself actually appearing would be a tremendous letdown. Thankfully, The Continental is anything but. Set in the dangerous, gritty New York of the 1970s, The Continental charts Winston Scott’s rise to be head of The Continental Hotel.
Across three feature-length episodes, Winston is brought back to the world of assassination and crime when his brother runs afoul of The High Table. Through cunning strategy, deadly violence and a little help from some friends, Winston fights for control of The Continental and all it represents.
It’s a bold move to spin off from John Wick in such a big way. It would have been really simple (and likely rote) to set the spin-off in the present day and weave it around the existing John Wick films. Instead, a prequel is a big swing and, for the most part, it works really well.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick Review
The one element of The Continental ensuring the show’s success (on-screen) is the performances. Colin Woodell as Winston Scott, at first, looked, sounded and felt like the wrong choice. I couldn’t see him ever becoming Ian McShane and the two felt like they were very different characters. However, the more I watched and understood who this younger Winston Scott was, the more it made sense and rang true.
Woodell is the undisputed start of The Continental and he electrifies the screen. He’s able to ground the material and bring the audience into this over-the-top world. Different to Keanu Reeve’s John Wick in just about every way, young Winston still covers similar ground and so The Continental feels like it’s from the same universe even when it’s tonally and structurally quite different.
Ayomide Adegun as young Charon is brilliant casting. He brings a youthful innocence to the character while retaining what the late Lance Reddick imbued the character with. The duo of Woodell and Adegun are great and give viewers an anchor point between this show and the film series.
Not all of the casting in The Continental is a home run though. Mel Gibson as Cormac, the current manager of The Continental is average at best. His accent is distracting and he plays Cormac with such cartoonish villain energy that he feels as though he’s acting in a different series. John Wick is and always has been an over-the-top action series but even with how silly and wild it is, the performances have remained (somewhat) grounded. In this world, these characters take these things seriously and what they do and discuss isn’t out of the ordinary.
Mel Gibson didn’t seem to get this memo and chews the scenery and hams it up in every scene he’s in. It’s distracting and so is his appearance in the series. Using a relatively unknown actor would have served The Continental better. His performance certainly doesn’t derail the series, but it’s not the brightest spot, that’s for sure.
As a series, The Continental was always going to struggle to replicate the incredible action of the John Wick films but it does a damn good job and comes very close. Throughout the three feature-length episodes there are some incredible action and set-pieces that seem to push what’s achievable on streaming TV. It’s also interesting that the action takes some inspiration or pays homage to the exploitation films of the 1970s. There are also some clever scenes that misdirect the audience’s expectations and offer some genuine surprises. It wouldn’t be John Wick without a “oh my god” moment.
The plot across the three episodes of The Continental is remarkably straightforward. There are some twists and turns and a few shocks, but we know where the story ends so it’s not all that surprising. The fun is in getting there and The Continental does weave an interesting and engaging tale. That being said, there are some plot threads that seem to vanish altogether or are wrapped up rather neatly and quickly, which feels a little unsatisfying.
I would have liked to have seen how the series unfolded more slowly and more meticulously across eight or even ten episodes. Each of the three feature-length episodes is well-paced and well-produced, but I’m not sure they needed to be as long as they are. If the episodes had been shorted to 40-50 minutes and the series run had been longer, I think The Continental would have been more successful. As it stands, it does a great job and tells an interesting story but I think more could have been done with the material.
That being said, I highly recommend The Continental to fans of John Wick. It expands that world a bit more and serves as a decent prequel. It’s always fun to spend time in John Wick’s world and The Continental is no exception. Winston Scott’s rise to power is a story worth checking out and one that’ll have you on the edge of your seat.
All episodes of The Continental: From the World of John Wick were provided to PowerUp! for this review.
