Constantine, the TV series is now officially dead!
They say a wake is a gathering of people who have all suffered the same loss of a loved one, they spend that time highlighting exactly what the impact of that loss has effected the people gathered. If anything, this is the wake for an idea, one which was given a chance and had proven quite well but the need to line one’s pockets with money and have every show be a monetary cash cow is why we are having this wake for the NBC series, “Constantine”.
My EIC here at Pop Culture Headquarters (PopcultHQ) feels this is NBC’s fault. I feel differently. I lay the blame at the door of Warner Bros. This show was contracted out to another network, just like Gotham. Gotham may be a lesser of a series and damn crime that it survived for a season 2 over Constantine but Gotham also had promotion from both FOX and WB. Constantine barely had any coverage from NBC and not a peep out of WB, the ones who actually own the property. When the show was failing by NBC standards (you know, the same network who said their affiliate Syfy had to ax Battlestar Galactica because even though the Syfy rating were high they weren’t high enough by NBC network standards.) why didn’t the WB swoop in and try to help save the series? Talks of having Constantine shifted to the fore mentioned affiliate network, Syfy is dead. Any chance of another cable network picking it up all depends on WB’s faith in the series to lease it out again with another endeavor and would that really be any good? The show we had was excellent!
My EIC article on how NBC failed Constantine: Constantine First Un-Confirmed Cancellation Rumors
After the terrible attempt at a Hellblazer film back in 2005 (which my EIC actually lIkes a lot) one could never have imagined what we would have for 13 glorious episodes along with 1 unaired pilot (which is different from the aired first episode). This series was the series Hellblazer fans deserved but apparently the powers that be would feel we don’t need right now. Matt Ryan had done an amazing job at portraying John Constantine. He took my all-time favorite anti-hero and brought him to life. Every episode was well crafted and written as well as could be expected for the network it was on. Obviously leasing something such as this to network television was a mistake to begin with but it was a fun mistake. We saw John, Chas, we were teased the Specter with two appearances of Detective Jim Corrigan, Doctor Fate’s helmet, the Heart of Darkness gem from Eclipso. There were many Easter Eggs, far more than I can list here. We’ll be watching these 13 episodes for a long time and still discovering surprises.
So, I raise my glass of Guinness, a meal in a can one last time. If you smoke and have a packet of Silk Cuts Cigarettes then I suggest you light one for a last vigil. It was a fun ride, I want to thank Daniel Cerone and Matt Ryan for all the laughs and all the thrills. They gave me a Constantine I could believe in, that I could be proud of and say; “That’s my John Constantine all trench coat and arrogance.”
As a writer I’m suppose to be unbiased. Of course I’m well-known for a heated opinion and in closing I would like to remind everyone of Hellblazer #45, page 25 as John says his farewell to the Three of the Fallen.
Christian Kern
June 7, 2015
West Palm Beach, Florida
Reblogged this on Living with a Comic Guru and commented:
My SO Comic Guru wrote this in goodbye to his favorite show. A show I actually enjoyed along side of him.