NBC's 'Constantine': TV's latest comics hero
"Hellblazer" demon-fighter may be damned, but series warrants at least faint praise.
* CONSTANTINE. 10 tonight, NBC10.
IF THERE'S one thing I've learned from TV in the past couple of seasons, it's that I should never have stopped reading comic books.
If I'd kept up, I'd have known instantly that NBC's "Constantine" was not, after all, about the fourth-century emperor but about John Constantine, of "Hellblazer," a slightly less great guy who works as a freelance exorcist.
The latest entry from DC Comics in its fight with Marvel for entertainment domination, "Constantine," which premieres tonight, stars Matt Ryan ("Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior") as the title character, whose back story includes a possessed child he failed to save and some sort of promise of eternal damnation.
No wonder he's in a terrible mood.
Having voluntarily confined himself to a particularly scary-looking mental hospital in the hopes that electroshock therapy will help him forget, he's soon drawn back into the fray when a homicidal demon manages to get in touch.
Let's just say demons don't bother with FaceTime.
Much of what happens after that owes more to special effects and to Ryan's raffish charm than to a clear narrative. I can't, for instance, say exactly whose side the character Harold Perrineau ("Lost," "Oz") is playing is on or what he's doing there, as glad as I always am to see Perrineau.
And it doesn't help that the character played by Lucy Griffiths was written out after a pilot that largely focuses on her transition from stranger to sidekick. So try not to get too attached. (A future episode will introduce Angélica Celaya, of "Dallas," as a regular.)
Raffish charm shouldn't be underestimated. I may not know from "Hellblazer," but I think I know a leading man when I see one, and Ryan's got the goods to play this noir-ish character with a few tricks up his sleeve that Sam Spade never dreamed of.
If the writers could manage to tell Constantine's story in a way that doesn't leave comics-challenged viewers too far behind, NBC might have an appropriately spooky companion for "Grimm," which begins its fourth season at 9 p.m.
'Alpha House' returns
Garry Trudeau's political comedy "Alpha House" launches its second season today on Amazon Prime with a Bill Murray cameo.
Murray, who, perhaps not coincidentally, has a movie opening today, plays an imprisoned senator being interviewed by Jane Pauley (who, perhaps not coincidentally, is married to Trudeau).
Like the show, which hires funny people - Amy Sedaris and Wanda Sykes are among the recurring guest stars - and seems to know what to do with them, the Murray-Pauley bit's not groundbreaking comedy, but it is funny.
Following the Netflix model, which Amazon used with the release last month of "Transparent," all 10 Season 2 episodes of the show about senators (John Goodman, Clark Johnson, Matt Molloy and Mark Consuelos) who share a house are available for streaming by Prime customers.
Happy weekend.
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