The John Wick Universe has grown vastly ever since the first film came out back in 2014. The film series has expanded on the idea of the guy who was avenging the death of his dog quite nicely. Things like the High Table, Adjudicators, and various payment methods using gold coins and medallions to pay for jobs. This world has become vast and ever-expanding.  With that comes The Continental. A whole world within a world.

The Continental is an all-exclusive and inclusive residence for those in the know. Assassins, hitmen, and everyone in between. The staff caters to the every need of their clients. It’s all part of the service they provide. With that service, there is one. No business is to be conducted on The Continental grounds. That goes for any & all the hotels all over the world. There are quite a few of them. This particular one featured in the series is the one that John Wick fans have seen for years in that franchise. This story takes place around fifty years in the past though, and it’s the origin story of a couple of men we know so well.

After a flashback sequence that is in black and white and takes place in 1955. The show starts with Frankie (Ben Robson) a petty hitman and thug for Cormac O’Sullivan (Mel Gibson). He runs The Continental at this time in history.  He and his brother, Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) worked for this man before he broke off and went to England to start his own endeavors. When Frankie decides to do a heist and turn on O’Sullivan there is hell to pay. He stole a very valuable coin press which makes him public enemy number one in the eyes of O’Sullivan.

Gibson’s character sets his men after this man and it has tragic circumstances which in turn brings his brother back from England to deal with the repercussions of this situation. The Woodell character has to figure out where the item is and once he does he then puts into motion a plan to get revenge on the man he dreams is guilty of the atrocity. Woodell’s character assembles a team to help him enlist his plan which has destructive consequences. 

The cast of this series is vast. There are those I already mentioned but some I have yet. The main one is Cheron (Ayomide Adegun) the trusty concierge in the present day John With Films but a young man learning the ropes in this series. He gets caught in the middle between the man who saved him from the slums of Africa and the man who offers him a new outlook on life as an equal in The Continental. It puts him in a tough situation.  

The rest of the cast includes Mayhew (Jeremy Bobb), and KD (Mishel Prada), NYC Police Detectives who have their own agenda involving Gibson’s character.  The Adjudicator (Katie Magrath), Charlie (Peter Greene), whose older self appears in the John Wick films, Hansel & Gretel (Mark Musashi, Marina Mazepa) two assassins for hire, Yen (Nhung Kate) who was Robson’s character girlfriend and a member of the crew Woodell’s character forms to get revenge for the tragedy. There are numerous characters to mention to many for this review. 

As a big fan of the John Wick franchise one of the things I love about that series is the cinematography, most recently by Dan Loutzen in the last two films in the series.  The cinematography in this series is equally impressive by Pal Ulvik Rokseth and Peter Deming respectively.  They were able to capture the dirty grimy look of New York City in the 70s when this series takes place. I couldn’t believe how spot-on the look of this show was to the nastiness of New York in that era. 

With the cinematography also must come the production design. The sets were littered, and when I say littered I literally mean littered with trash and garbage all over the place. The series takes place in an era when New York City was going through a strike from its sanitation workers so trash wasn’t picked up for days and weeks on end. The steam coming from the sewers and graffiti on all the outside walls including alleys and many buildings was a nice addition to the authentic feel the production designer Drew Boughton was going for. This show looked great from these two perspectives, which instantly drew me into this world.

With all the filmmaking stuff aside the directors Albert Hughes and Charlotte Brandstrom gave the show a great soundtrack. There were numerous hits from the 70s that were lettered,  there’s that word again, throughout the show. They started with a blues and jazzy feel and as the series moved forward they started putting in many anthems that people will remember from this era. I was completely at home with the musical choices they made for the 3 part series. I was sucked into the show and didn’t look back regarding all the technical aspects of it.

As most people would expect this series has a lot of action and gunplay. From the very beginning to the end, there are gunfights and action set pieces galore. As coined by the John Wick films, gun fu is everywhere in this show. There are also some incredible fight sequences. One involving Hansel and Gretal fighting a few of Woodell’s team was amazing. They didn’t let fans down in regards to the action or fight scenes fans have come to expect. 

Also if those that are wording if we get to see and learn a lot about this characters from John Wick we’ve come to love and admire, fear not my friends. This series does justice to both Winston and Cheton and the legacy we have come to know about these men. This show expands on their stories and createslives for them that I was very happy with regarding The Continental. The writers have done a great job weaving in so much of the future with the past with perfect precision. Fans will be very happy with what they see.

With a beloved franchise like the John Wick franchise, you have to create something that lives up to the expectations of what fans have gotten used to. This show, The Continental, lives up to and surpasses everything I could have imagined it could be. The cast which was led by Woodell, Adegun,  Robson, Bobb, Prada, and especially Gibson were all great. The technical aspects including production design, cinematography, and the soundtrack were great. I was instantly transported back in time to the 70s. This series reminded me of films like Midnight Cowboy, The French Connection, Taxi Driver and so many others from that era in film. I was blown away by how incredible this series looked and sounded. It was as perfect a show as I’ve seen in years. On par with the greats like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Hill Street Blues. It’s a perfect show.

This 3 Part Min-Series Airs on Peacock September 22nd and the next Two Subsequent Weeks Afterwards

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen