Saturday, September 05, 2015

My Review of Constantine's 1x05: "Danse Vaudou"


Written by Christine Boylan
Directed by John Badham

Corrigan: "How do you live with it? The knowledge that all this could be real? How?"
Constantine: "It marks you for life but it doesn't change who you are."

I really enjoyed this one. So far the show has been enjoyable and while the previous episode had a character sacrifice, this episode really felt like things moved up a bit of a gear as well. Namely with the introduction of Jim Corrigan as Constantine, Zed and Chas found themselves in New Orleans for this particular story.

As I'm learning more and more about this particular universe, it's great that they've thrown another big player into the universe and while there's the odd moment where the accent slips, Emmett Scanlan's a great choice for the role of Corrigan. He's given some truly great moment with both John and Zed in this episode, particularly with the latter as he realises that the supernatural really does exist.

More to the point this episode worked on developing a rather genuine connection between Zed and Corrigan as her powers came into play big time with the way she delved into his past (as did he later in the episode) and realised that he had a grim future ahead of him. The fact that Zed saw it now must mean that we're going to see the other side of Corrigan probably sooner than later though.

As for the main plot of the episode - three different ghosts. There was hitchhiker Philip, former model Misaki and Clarke, all of whom had present day connections and were causing very present day problems/deaths, which forced an alliance between Constantine and Papa Midnite. I loved the latter in his previous episode and I loved him even more in this one. The grudging truce between him and John was definitely a highlight of the episode, along with the pot shots both were able to get at each other along with the really big hint of some bad shit coming Constantine's way.

- I was getting some serious American Horror Story: Coven flashbacks in this episode. There was even a mention of Papa Legba in the episode as well.
- There was a tiny hint of Constantine swinging both ways in this one, even though there was some flirty moments between him and Zed as well.
- Midnite's sister Cedelia is stuck in the beyond as well. Obviously a bigger plot for Midnite as the series will progress.
- I'm really loving some of the little gadgets that Constantine uses per episode, including that nifty bracelet he had in this one.

Easily my favourite episode so far. "Danse Vaudou" really had the best character moments, a fun if not wholly original ghost stories (along with some body burning) and just terrific partnerships with Constantine/Midnite and Zed/Corrigan. Chas could've been a little more involved with the rest of the cast but other than that, a truly great episode.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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