Drama
The Rainmaker
This adaptation may lack the depth of its source material, but it isn’t a bad option if you’re itching for a new legal drama.
They say that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.
Small consolation for John Constantine, who seems to know most of them.
It’s not like he hangs out with demons socially. As an “exorcist, demonologist and grand master in the occult” (according to his business card), he runs into them with some regularity and, typically, tries to send them back from whence they came. And on the rare occasions when he tries to strike a more mutually beneficial deal, well, there’s always, quite literally, hell to pay.
NBC’s Constantine is based on the DC Comics character of the same name and (unlike the 2005 movie Constantine starring Keanu Reeves) seems to pay reasonably close attention to the source material. John’s British, for one thing, and just brimming with cynicism and biting asides. Granted, NBC’s antihero doesn’t chain-smoke like he does in the comics. But he does interact with lots of blank-eyed, demon-possessed bodies and bloody corpses. Because while smoking cigarettes is a definite no-no on television these days, gore is practically a green-light requisite.
Constantine’s spiritual battleground is a tangible one: Angels and demons are quite real here. And the show seems to want to make distinctions between good (angels) and evil (demons). It even tells us that the angels are looking out for us. And Constantine has his own guardian angel of sorts, a winged observer named Manny.
‘Course, John sees these angels through a darker lens. He’s a snarky antihero whose attitudes and deeds are, according to Manny, “questionable at best and without conscience.” Sure, he’s working for the good guys—but his motives are at least partly selfish. (He needs to save his own soul after an exorcism went awry, damning an innocent girl to hell.) He’s a supernatural drifter, a spiritual gunslinger. And he’s no fan of Manny or his ilk.
Still, cynical though he may be, he’ll admit that the angels are infinitely preferable to the other guys.
This deeply spiritual show is, remember, based on a dark and secular comic book. The world we’re given conforms very loosely to a Christian ethos, but it’s also profoundly confused by theology and obsessed with the occult. Constantine is a self-defined “master of the dark arts,” and his use of them for an ostensibly good end doesn’t make them any less dark. His tricks of the trade include all manner of occult signs and seals, pulled from forbidden tomes (both Christian and pagan) and gussied up for modern-day use (and inclusion in a network television show). Blood is used in rituals, and “magical” Latin phrases are said. Manny plies Constantine for information and expects him to “help” heaven in their fight.
The world at large may see all this as fanciful window dressing. Christians, ironically, see it more as John Constantine himself does: stuff not to be trifled with.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
After an exorcism gone bad (the one where a girl is killed and dragged into hell), Constantine checks himself into a mental asylum. When his psychiatrist tells him that demons aren’t real, Constantine screams, “So you keep telling me! Now make me believe!”
A protective ward is filled with Christian and Egyptian symbols. Salt is spread around a door to keep evil at bay. Constantine draws a magical seal on a rooftop. He teaches someone to scry, dripping her blood on a map to determine where demonic activity might be found. And he performs exorcisms in Latin and commands demons by both the “sacred cross” and the “star of David.” Spirits (called “lost souls” fly and walk around. A ghost train zips by, or rather, through John.
A possessed and bloody corpse (with an obviously broken neck) pants and screams. Another possessed person (this one alive) attacks Constantine as windows shatter and paint flies. A teen is found dead in the street, his throat obviously cut. Chas, Constantine’s friend, is skewered by a live electrical cable. (We see the end of the cable protrude from the man’s chest, but later he seems just fine.) Black stuff pours out of an old (and dead) woman’s mouth. A semi crashes into a car.
John drinks beer to excess. Hell is not always used to talk about eternal torment. We also hear “b–tard,” bloody” and “b-llocks.” God’s name is misused a half-dozen times.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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