'Constantine' Season 1, Episode 1 - 'Non Est Asylum' Recap

In a TV landscape dominated by comic book shows with name recognition—The Flash, Green Arrow and S.H.I.E.L.D. are practically household names by now—one has to wonder how a fairly obscure character like John Constantine will fare.

Based on the merits of the show alone, perhaps not well.

"Constantine" premiered this week in a Friday time slot following NBC's "Grimm," a shrewd scheduling move by the network to attempt to get the DC Comics hero off the ground. The show is embracing its occult content with open arms, fully committing to the horror/action blend that "Grimm" has brought to Friday nights for multiple seasons now.

In most of those moments, "Constantine" does well: demonic possessions (and subsequent exorcisms) are a dime a dozen on this show, and they're done with sufficient scarines...at least usually.

There's a point, halfway through the pilot episode, in which our hero is chanting in Latin at a demonically possessed electrical wire, slithering through the air like a charmed snake, and instead of being threatening it just comes off as silly.

However, the rest of the time the show is downright creepy, and in those moments, it's clear why Constantine was picked up.

This pilot episode introduces us to our hero as he volunteers himself for treatment at an insane asylum. John Constantine, you see, is an exorcist and all-around demon fighter, and at the moment he's done with it all.

(A side note: It's good to see Constantine played by Matt Ryan, who brings blonde hair and a British accent to the role. I have nothing against Keanu Reeves—in fact I think the movie adaptation of "Constantine" was underrated—but he never felt like the real deal).

What we gather throughout the episode is that Constantine Lost a young girl, Astra, in a deal with a demon gone wrong. It's not necessarily Astra's death that plagues Constantine; it's the fact that her soul is now in hell, and he's powerless to do anything about it.

However, Constantine accepts a new mission, with some pestering from a less-than-friendly angel by the name of Manny ("Lost" alum Harold Perrineau, who is no longer yelling "WALT!" all over the place). He travels to America to help guard over a girl by the name of Liv Aberdine, whose father was a friend of Constantine's and a person who could communicate with spirits.

There's a demon out to get Liv, but Constantine and his taxi-driving partner Chas get to her first. Later, with the help of Ritchie (a still-twitchy Jeremy Davies, another "Lost" alum), they manage to send the demon packing.

That's not before Liv learns the truth about her father and also learns how to scrye, providing Constantine with a map of demonic activity all over the U.S.

The series is set up nicely: we have the day-to-day of hunting various demons, and we have the season-long arcs of Liv's entry into this new world and the potentially multiple-seasons-long arc of Constantine freeing Astra's soul from hell.

However, there's a lot of cliche happening here, visually and otherwise. Nothing seems particularly fresh or new, and we have moments like Liv stumbling and crawling backwards away from a flaming hellish sinkhole...when will movie and TV characters understand that it's best to just get back up and run?

There's potential here, and Ryan is handling the role with just the right amount of caustic humor, so we'll see how "Constantine" shapes up over its first season. It might have some extra leeway thanks to its Friday time slot ("Grimm" didn't fare too well in ratings over the years), but Fridays can also be a death knell for TV shows.

Easter Eggs:

There were tons of them here, the biggest being the Helmet of Fate, the gold helmet that Liv picked up at Jasper's place. Will we be seeing Dr. Fate in this series? And what about Zatanna? That backwards writing on the wall at Jasper's couldn't have just been a coincidence.