Starz Entertainment
The original John Wick was a self-contained action classic, its plot as lean as its gun-fu combat was ferocious. Its tale demanded no sequel and yet three followed, each one providing even more thrillingly choreographed mayhem that helped offset the fact that its serialized narrative—and the assassin-underworld mythology upon which it was based—was convoluted and rather silly. It’s a series predicated on stylish brutality and the magnetism of its peerlessly cool headliner, Keanu Reeves. Subtract those fundamental elements from its equation, and what you have is merely fanciful nonsense—which is a fitting description of The Continental: From the World of John Wick.
An origin story for Winston Scott (played in the movies by Ian McShane), John Wick’s buddy and the manager of The Continental hotel that caters to hired killers, The Continental: From the World of John Wick is a three-part prequel (premiering Sept. 22 Peacock) that gives franchise fans everything they want save for a charismatic marquee lead, interesting and exciting bloodshed, or characters and lore worth paying attention to for an extended period of time. As an attempt to inflate the John Wick universe minus the very components that make it captivating in the first place, it’s both proof that Hollywood stardom still matters, as well as confirmation that strip-mining popular properties until their every secret, backstory and detail has been explained and dramatized is a surefire way to kill the proverbial golden goose.
And did I mention that, on top of all its mistakes, it co-stars famously intolerant Mel Gibson as a villain who, at one point, viciously murders a gay man to keep him from his beloved?