The Continental: From the World of John Wick

The John Wick films have certainly been a highlight for the action genre over the last decade, even if I wasn't so keen on the third film, and now the fourth has supposedly concluded our adventure with Mr. Wick before the Ana De Armas spin-off coming soon. But with that all to come, I was surprised to see we would also be getting a prequel mini-series titled The Continental: From the World of John Wick. The world of these films has certainly been an intriguing one with its formality and rules that the characters must abide by so would the show explore this further or just be another slice of content to keep the brand alive? 

Set in the 1970s, the three-part series follows a young Winston who is brought to a rundown New York by The Continental's seedy manager, Cormac, to track down his brother who has stolen something of great value. If the item isn't returned soon, the hotel will find itself at the mercy of the High Table and so chaos ensues as Winston finds himself plunged into the criminal underworld, a place he hoped to have left behind, in the hope of rescuing his brother before it's too late.

I went into this show with some scepticism as the story of how Winston came into becoming the manager was never something the films had hinted at as being an interesting tale. We do get some entertaining action sequences here and there across the three 90 minute episodes, the effort gone into recreating a bygone New York is visually impressive and there are a few interesting characters dotted about but it all falls rather flat. The show is filled with a needlessly high amount of characters whom I did not care for which made for rather dull viewing in the first two episodes as every backstory is filled out, there is also little nuance to Mel Gibson's villainous Cormac and it just never really feels like we're in the John Wick universe. 

Sure, we do get references with the gold coins, the phone operators and other call-backs but the style of the films is never really present here. There is some fun to be had with the excellent production design and licenced soundtrack that gives the show a 1970s feel but it doesn't really gel with the world of John Wick, and feels more like two ideas crushed together hoping something sticks.

However, there is some fun to be had in the explosive third episode as Winston and Charon come together, played by Colin Woodell and Ayomide Adegun, but neither are really given enough material to match their big screen future selves. Ray McKinnon does fare better as the somewhat deranged sniper of Winston's team and provides some moments of humour in an otherwise dry script but I have to ask myself, was this worth my time? Not really. It's far from terrible but was something of a chore to get through.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick was meant to have been a longer series of shorter episodes but I'm glad this was filed down to a mere three. It wants you to ask how Winston came into power but the question was never that tantalising to begin with and the answer at the very end is one of disappointment. Exploring the world of the mysterious High Table would have been a more exciting concept but it seems the show doesn't want to do anything that might impact the films and so this feels all rather forgettable. Action fans will enjoy some parts but it lacks the style of what made John Wick work so I would advise skipping this as it will be of little consequence to any future films that follow.