My Review of Constantine: City Of Demons (2018)

Written by J. M. DeMatteis
Directed by Doug Murphy

Constantine (to Chas): "If there's one thing I've learned over the years is that there are no happy endings."

Keeping with the animated Arrow verse shows, it's time for something more occult like as I managed to catch the first five episodes of Constantine: City Of Demons. With our bisexual occult specialist now about to be a regular on Legends Of Tomorrow, this series is a good way to brush up on his past as it's coming back to get him in a way.

First of all, there's flashbacks to the infamous Newcastle Incident where we saw John and Chas (Damien O'Hare) attempts to save Astra from her occultist father result in Nergal slaughtering everyone before damning the child to hell and messing up both John and Chas's lives in the process.

This bit got told to us when Nightmare Nurse (Laura Bailey) compelled Chas's estranged wife, Renee (Emily O'Brien) into revealing the history of the one event that Constantine doesn't like to brag about while also watching over Chas and Renee's daughter, Trish - whose soul is being held prisoner by the main baddie of the piece - Beroul (Jim Meskimen).

Beroul is introduced in the last few moments and he's already a baddie I want to see more of. By the end of this series, he's displaced Chas on the top of a roof of a building while also strongarming John into helping him take out some competition so he can set a Hell based on Earth. The fact that he also told John to bugger off so he could watch a certain US soap as well ended this on a rather amusing note to be honest.

For five episodes, I did feel like a lot got covered here. We got John and Chas's complicated past dished out and despite things being dire, it was hard not to find Chas's attempts of optimism rather endearing. I also liked the snarky back and forth between John and Nightmare Nurse and the latter's interaction with Renee over what humans don't see also added to proceedings. Not to mention that the Newcastle Incident was gruesomely on display here too,

- This series is based on the comic saga, All His Engines.
- Nothing that was actually shown from the trailer from last year actually appeared in the first five episodes. There are seven episodes that will make up the next season though.
- Damien O'Hare who voices Chas here actually voices Constantine in Justice League Action.
- This series continuity ties into the Justice League Dark movie from 2017 rather than the 2014-2015 TV series.

Constantine: City Of Demons is off to a promising start. The opening scene with John literally facing his demons to the macabre meeting with Beroul and everything else in between. I can't wait to see what the remaining episodes will bring to this series.

Rating: 8 out of 10