Constantine: "Non Est Asylum"

NBC

On October 24, the fourth of the DC inspired shows premiered.  With Gotham surging forward over on Fox and The Flash breaking records on the more diminutive CW, NBC’s Constantine had some stiff competition. Although airing on one of the four major networks, Constantine’s unenviable timeslot of 10:00PM on Friday nights is about equivalent to airing on The CW, and the relative obscurity of the character in mainstream media far from guaranteed an audience. Of the four shows, Constantine was the one most likely to struggle for viewers, and an awful lot was riding on the pilot episode to lock in an audience.

Fortunately, “Non Est Asylum” delivered. Aesthetically similar to Gotham and boasting some elements familiar to any viewers of The CW’s Supernatural, Constantine nevertheless distinguishes itself from the other shows of its genre currently on air. Dealing with otherworldly opponents rather than a rogues gallery, the episode struck a balance between the fantastical and the possible without requiring too much handwaving or “based on comics” justification.

Of course, any pilot requires more than an intriguing premise to build a fanbase, and much of the artistic success of “Non Est Asylum” is due to the portrayal of the titular John Constantine himself by Welshman Matt Ryan. Coming across as both weary of the world and desperate to remain a part of it, Ryan exudes such a wretched determination in his quest to protect Liv from demonic destruction that it somehow feels terribly natural to learn that his soul has been doomed to Hell. Despite the fact that Constantine is Ryan’s first big role, all signs point toward a protagonist with a cause worth rooting for and snark worth waiting for.

Lost fans will find some familiar faces in this new cast. Harold Perrineau dons a pair of creepy contacts and tackles the role of Manny, an angel with murky motives and hopefully few openings to bellow “WAAAAAAAALT!” into the distance as he advances the plot of soul-recovery. Jeremy Davies plays Ritchie Simpson, the scholar/hacker whose shared experiences with Constantine have left him not the biggest fan of our main character and may provide a window into the event that led to the defining death and damnation of young Astra.

Despite the effective performances of the older actors, Lucy Griffiths as Liv Aberdine was the weak link of the cast. While the native Brit did not slip back into a distinctly non-Georgian dialect, there was a sense—largely offset by Ryan’s smoother shift from Welsh to English—that her efforts to maintain the standard non-regional American accent hindered her ability to embody ingénue outsider and audience surrogate at the same time. Judging by Liv’s off-screen departure for California, however, the character is unlikely to play much of—if any—role in the future of the show.

All in all, “Non Est Asylum” was a solid hour of television. Was it perfect? No. But series premieres are notoriously clunky in execution, and Constantine avoided most of the typical pilot pitfalls that we’ve come to expect from new shows. Even better, the pilot was crafted not to wink and nod at comic fans with so many obtrusive Easter eggs as to distract and frustrate newcomers. Did I always know what Constantine was talking about as he described his work or see significance in the artifacts in Liv’s father’s lair? Not at all. But what made the episode great was that I didn’t need to.