Directed By: Neil Marshall
Written By: Daniel Cerone and David Goyer
Starring: Matt Ryan, Lucy Griffiths, Charles Halford, Jeremy Davies and Harold Perrineau
Channel: NBC

Synopsis:A man struggling with his faith is haunted by the sins of his past but is suddenly thrust into the role of defending humanity from the gathering forces of darkness. (Source)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPE2oBnzROY
The Good:
Matt Ryan is perfectly cast as John Constantine. It is like he leapt off the page of one of the comics he so matches the look of the character. I also really enjoyed Jeremy Davies doing a variation of a Jeremy Davies performance as one of Constantine’s sidekicks. His quirky acting style is always a welcome sight on my TV.
Like THE FLASH this pilot featured some pretty cool Easter Eggs too that should please comic book fans and if expounded upon can result in some really cool world building.
The look of the episode was great too and that praise deservedly goes to director Neil Marshall. He made this pilot look like a million bucks.

The Bad:
So much time was spent on exposition. I get that this is a pilot and some things need to be explained but man these characters just explained stuff constantly. Maybe a little more showing instead of telling would have been a better idea.
Harold Perrineau was wasted in this pilot too. He was all scenery chewing and bizarre contact lenses but not much more.
Lucy Griffiths was especially bland as the female lead. She was the sole reason for everything that was going on yet I could not be bothered to care a bit about her because of how empty a character she was portraying.

The Ugly:
This show is not nearly as dark as I was hoping it would be. I wanted something teetering on the edge of nightmarish horror yet it seemed to be falling more on the side of a show like GRIMM. I can only imagine how much better it would have been if it decided to be more on the HANNIBAL side of things.

Final Verdict: CONSTANTINE looks great and has a find in it’s leading man but the episode itself felt lacking in so many ways not the least of which was the totally unremarkable female lead. It wasn’t dark enough, it wasn’t daring enough and it just didn’t fully embrace the horror enough.

Rating: C