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Co-Host Joe Zettelmaier has some thoughts on this week’s episode of Constantine, The Saint of Last Resorts:
The Constantine We Deserve
What else can I say? The Saint of Last Resorts, pt. 1 was the episode of Constantine I’ve been waiting for since the go. We’ve had some great episodes at this point (Danse Vaudou, Devil’s Vinyl) and some duds (Darkness Beneath, I’m lookin’ at you). But last week, all the parts came together in one glorious, grotesque hour of demonic television.
Last week, I blogged about what I felt hurt the show. This time, let’s talk about why Last Resorts worked so well. The biggest thing for me was character development. We’ve been needing to make some big strides in that direction for a while, and boy did we get it. While it’s fun to have some mystery in John’s past, he’s still our protagonist. We’ve got to get to know him better, and the more we see him interact w/ people from his past, the more layers we see. Old friends often have an insight to us that no one else does. Anne-Marie gave us that and more. John’s unresolved feelings allow us to see past his snark. And the truth of his human feelings make the hard decisions he makes that much harder.
Also, they really upped the gore/horror/gorror(?) this week. The flesh-fruit? Revolting. The way the skin buckled under the knife, the tree spewing blood everywhere…a horror fan’s dream come true. Bathing a dead chicken in human blood for a glamor magic…great touch. Great, shudder-inducing touch. And my favorite moment of the bunch…the introduction of the Invunche. While they didn’t go into detail about how this creature came to be (hint: it has to do w/ captured babies, and it’s MESSED UP), they didn’t shy away from making the thing terrifying as all hell. The lurching way it moved, the agonized expression on its sort-of-face, the noise it made…all of it. Grade A creepy, and I loved it.
What makes Constantine really shine is when it says “We’re going to be something utterly different, something you’re not seeing on TV right now.” They make magic look difficult, they make monsters truly monstrous, and they make us wonder “how far will our hero go to do the right thing?” John knows he’s damned, and in many ways that makes him all the more dangerous.
Bravo, everyone who makes Constantine. We knew you had it in you.
Also, during the brief winter hiatus, Tony and Joe will produce an episode of The Devil You Know to fill the wait until Constantine returns on January 9th! Keep your eyes peeled to the podcast feed, and leave us your thoughts on this mid-season finale by calling 304-837-2278, or going to the GSM Feedback Page!
During the hiatus, also, here’s a fun link to check out. It’s a terrific collection of the cover art for the Hellblazer comics! Some of these are AMAZING! Enjoy!
Thanks for listening everyone – we’ll talk with you soon! Happy Holidays!
-Tony and Joe