The Continental

I'm blown away by how much I enjoyed The Continental. Like most watching this I'm a John Wick fan so I was going to watch this regardless but after the word of mouth on how good it is I couldn't wait. The Continental tells the story of how a young Winston and young Charon came to take over the Continental Hotel. It takes place in the 70's before they were ever even partners. There's also so much more than just these two, there are so many other interesting characters in this to hold your attention. This is show where you can just turn your brain off and get lost in this world. I recommend giving yourself a big block of time before watching this because you're going to want to binge this as quickly as you can. You won't be able to watch just one episode and stop.

The Continental is an intense, Gotham styled dark Action thriller with similar feels we got from John Wick. Was quite good, but a little less than the expectations. Cinematography and the Deep Photography made it look cool.

One thing I liked about the John Wick Universe was no concept of Cops, making this universe more deep. But, The Continental brings the concept of the department of law, other than the uniqueness of 'High Table' only, which would make me deduct a star in the ratings.

Expecting some more kick offs from the Universe, and hope the others will bring more deadly Guns, ballistics and drama like the "Real John Wick Style"!

It's decent show if watched as intended - prequel to John Wick's movies. Even so, it bizarrely gives John Wick level skills and power to a bunch of random and useless characters (basically everyone in the crew), who somehow almost all make it out alive in the end. The whole idea of this universe is that John is simply superior to a huge variety of enemies. The twins are by far the best characters besides young Winston and Charon and how can they possibly be defeated by irrelevant folks with superhuman resistance who literally pull off magic victories like John's? It was pretty clear the showrunners didn't want to kill them in the show, and for that they shifted the balance of skills which makes the show credible within its universe. Also some storylines were very strange for a show with this purpose (like the "Asian on Black racism"). Overall the 80s setting didn't benefit the ambiance which sufffers from this obsession of lower budget showrunners with playing songs every other minute, in a vibe that was so upbeat that felt like a movie about weed dealers in a nightclub than John Wick's characteristic somber and grandiose feel. All in all, it's not horrendous but you'll catch yourself rolling your eyes more than once during this.

I don't know what people expect from this but I have seen many negative reviews and complaints. Going into it with an open mind I really enjoyed the first episode, people need to realise that this isnt the John Wick movies it's something different and not to compare them and nitpick every detail about the differences. This is a television show with a different story and different actors, you need to just enjoy it for what it is and have a good time watching it. So far the story is interesting and it's great seeing backstory from characters who aren't John Wick. I think this show has great potential and I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Loved the world building. Loved Period music. Love Period sets. All Stellar. The writing and plot progression is a problem. The plot suffers from contrived plot armor and plot conveniences in critical plot moments, which is sad as this could have become a GREAT TV experience. Instead of this becoming Wick Canon/Lore -This is "Meh".

The plot needed better story /commonsense/ sequencing interconnects, vs. Script convenience. The big example of this is the McConnor resolution scene where a supporting character appears out of no where without context to complete the main deliverable of the plot. This was "Almost" a great TV. Just because this is an action movie, doesn't mean it should not have a logical, world based plot.