Constantine: The Devil's Vinyl
November 8, 2014 10:20 AM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

John and Zed go to Chicago to investigate the mysterious suicide of one of John's old friends. The culprit turns out to be an old acetate blues record containing the voice of the First of the Fallen himself. But the Constan-team aren't the only people looking for the record - John's old adversary Papa Midnite, an evil Voodoo priest, wants the record for himself.
posted by Small Dollar (12 comments total)
 
So did anyone else notice a couple of similarities to Doctor Who in the episode? The "bigger on the inside" and psychic paper. Is this something that's been acknowledged before?
posted by cazoo at 11:14 AM on November 8, 2014 [4 favorites]


I noticed that as well. Next thing you know he'll have a fez and a sonic screwdriver.

I gotta say I am quickly losing interest in this show. Even the Strain was more fun to watch despite all its silliness. There doesn't seem to be much originality here as even the premise (a record or broadcast that makes you go nuts) has been done before.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:46 AM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


A better episode than the last two, I think. But if this 'demon of the week' is the format. Ug, it's not going to go far.

I'm pretty sure about 95% of everything Constantine said was an expository line. Almost all of them! Even Doctor Who isn't that bad. But ooo look, psychic paper!

Also, I don't think there's any chemistry coming from the actress playing Zed. It's one thing for the lead to get me to believe his "Luv"s, but she was an utter plank of wood these past two episodes. Too late to swap her out?

Oh, and Deus Ex Mach-angel is a terrible plot device.
posted by Catblack at 12:55 PM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


It could be stronger, but will keep watching. All the pieces are there for this to be really good, but it hasn't gelled.

Zed is a step up, Constantine is nailed as a character and the show has a few funny bits. It's very fast paced though, wish it would slow down and create a seedy dark atmosphere. Right now the show jusy feels like it's hanging in the laundry room of a country club. It thinks its dark, but it has no idea.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:06 PM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


My favorite character so far is Jasper's Millhouse, which is turning out to be part TARDIS, part Men-of-Letters bunker, and part House of Leaves. I think this was a little more than just a MotW episode, due to the appearance of Papa Midnight, but who knows. I'm going to keep watching, anyway.
posted by obloquy at 5:50 PM on November 8, 2014


I gotta say I am quickly losing interest in this show.

I'm beginning to as well. Turning Constantine into a lovable scamp gets more tiresome with each episode, and reinforces eyeballkid's criticism from the pilot thread. I didn't expect them to be completely faithful to the comic, but this is turning into fluff. It looks like there are only 10 episodes this season, so they don't have a lot of time left to get it on track.
posted by homunculus at 6:18 PM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


I kind of hate that they went with the easy choice of The Sex Pistols, when they could have gone with the obviously correct choice of The Damned. Also, everything else wrong with the series.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:31 PM on November 8, 2014 [6 favorites]


At this point, I'll keep watching because Matt Ryan has pretty much nailed the character of Constantine and the show has some genuinely (though too few) creepy moments.

But I don't expect it to last long, so enjoy while you can!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:25 AM on November 9, 2014


I must admit that, like Catblack, I'm pretty much done with a Demon of the Week format. I've become increasingly intolerant of procedural type shows as time passes and have found with few exceptions that the quality of a show tends to be proportional to how serialized it is. It's okay to have a "case of the week" kinda thing as backdrop, as The Good Wife does so well, but it can't be the focus of the show but rather a way to illustrate and bring forth the characters and their ongoing storylines.

This is also why I gave up on Grimm and quite a few other shows.
posted by Justinian at 11:16 AM on November 9, 2014 [2 favorites]


I don't even know what this show is about after watching that, which considering its based on a series of books is kinda bad.

I think I'd watch a show about Zed and Chas but I dont need the rest of the characters.
posted by fshgrl at 6:22 PM on November 9, 2014


This is also why I gave up on Grimm and quite a few other shows.

Funny, I was just commenting to someone yesterday that despite Grimm really being Law & Order & Monsters, they have done a pretty good job of consistently moving forward season-long arcs and continuing characterization development with very few purely filler episodes.

This episode certainly dug up a lot more of the man-of-tricks stuff I expected from Constantine, but as was said above it's still very light and peppy. Most significant, to me, was the optimistic line from the musician about how, hey, cancer treatment is better now so we have a chance! (ps - not really)

That's not what I expect from Hellblazer; I would have expected him to half-rot the second the spell was broken and hey, a shame, but the mess from stopping this is as bad as the mess you sold your soul to clean up. Sorry luv, I'm going to nick this whisky on the way out because he doesn't need it anymore, eh?

Also - Constantine just believes that what PM has left him is actually going to solve his bleeding issue and it's poison? Come on.

But I don't expect it to last long, so enjoy while you can!

The Cancellation Bear doesn't think much of its chances; as a non-network-owned show it needs to perform way better. Lead-in Grimm benefits from network ownership and syndication prospects.

Oh, and Deus Ex Mach-angel is a terrible plot device.

Was the angel's appearance useful to Constantine in any way? It almost struck me as a throwaway; he shows up to collect the label owner but it didn't advance their cause any, did it?

I was more bothered by the fact that now there's just this gaping hole to hell in a college radio station, continuing this trend of a lot of unexplainable shit around that doesn't impact the world's perception but that Constantine doesn't care anything about.
posted by phearlez at 9:07 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


I don't particularly care for regular Dr. Who and I'm not turning out to be a fan of Diet Dr. Who: Occult Flavor.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:14 AM on November 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


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