In 2014, sometime around Thanksgiving, my mum and I snuck off to a chilly theater to see the latest from Keanu Reeves. They sold tickets at a discount, so maybe heat wasn’t included in the price. We’d done something similar in Vegas the previous year during Christmas. That time our family watched 47 Ronin on the top floor of a hotel bigger than a small town. I’m telling you this because Keanu and I have a history. I know his cinematic side well. What I wasn’t sure of, is what kind of story John Wick would tell. I knew there’d be assassins. That was enough. If you’re baiting a hook to catch me, Reeves & Assassins will do the reeling in for you.
You probably already know, my mum and I forgot about the lack of heat; John Wick went full blaze. Who came up with this twisted fairytale within an assassin sub-culture? Derek Kolstad. He also ended up writing the top two out of the four movies—John Wick (2014) and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019). Kolstad set out to create an unusual revenge story about a retired assassin. He did that. And alongside directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, they somehow crafted a piece of pop culture.
We could talk about the ballistic ballet that dances across the Wickiverse stage, the lore that turns mortals into boogie men, or the fantastical characters. All of those are worth our time, but only two things are as central to the franchise as Keanu Reeves. The hyper-stylized world-building that intrigued us from the start, and an unending pursuit of revenge.
The crime-fueled World of Wick is fascinating with its codes of honor that suppress chaos, its currency of gold coins, the vendettas that burn colder than frostbite, and the hotels that form havens for its maestros of murder. Even without the Wick of Keanu Reeve’s flame, it isn’t a risky bet that the spark of vengeance and the accelerant of The Continental Hotel would still burn bright. Albert Hughes, Kirk Ward, and a cadre of other creatives liked those odds. They made The Continental: From the World of John Wick for Peacock. Now, I get to play their dealer and tell you whether or not this new event series is a win.
Starting on September, 22, we’ll get the first of three feature-length films that will premiere on three consecutive Fridays. That’s when Peacock will take us on a throwback tour of the life and times of an earlier Continental. There we’ll meet younger versions of Ian McShane’s Winston (Colin Woodell) and the dearly departed Lance Reddick’s Charon (Ayomide Adegun).
The action starts in 1955 with Kid Winston (Fflyn Edwards) and his older brother, Kid Frankie (Ben Robinson). They are at a police station, in an interrogation room, trying to get their stories straight. The inciting question becomes: Is whatever went wrong Winston’s fault or Frankie’s? While a Molotov cocktail is a clue, you’ll have to wait for more. We time-jump to roughly 20 years later, to an era when the brothers are men living very different lives in two different parts of the world. They’re both still crime-y though (old dogs and such).
Frankie (Ben Robson) is working at The Continental for a crime boss called Cormac (Mel Gibson). Big Brother does a bad thing and gets into a situation. Suddenly Winston wakes up back in New York, where Cormac gives him a directive to find Frankie or else. Winston chooses or else. But when you defy a Lieutenant for the High Table (the crime syndicate that reigns over the Wickiverse) you’ll need friends. Winston seeks out those friends in Miles, Frankie’s buddy from the Vietnam War (Hubert Point-Du Jour), Miles’ sister Lou, a karate instructor (Jessica Allain), their sidekick Lemmy (Adam Shapiro), an aging N’Orleans assassin in need of glasses, Jenkins (Ray McKinnon), and Frankie’s lethal wife, Yen (Nhung Kate). That list of characters may or may not be trustworthy, but the cast is reliable! They’re so good you’re tempted to believe you’re watching a heightened documentary for a universe more fantastical than ours. Across all three films, these actors are a chief’s kiss of chicanery and traumatic pasts.
Frankie’s bad deed is costly for everyone and a domino chain of vengeance tips over and keeps falling. We have no idea whose favor the finale will tip in but there are characters we know survive. The fates of all others are uncertain.
The world inside The Continental series is easily recognizable but the tone starts quite different. The Continental Night 1 is directed by Albert Hughes and while the visuals are splashy, from the gliding camerawork to the framing and intensity, it’s more grounded than what we’re used to. Enhanced by breathless action set pieces, Night 1 is a crime drama to its bones—made more brutal because of it. The original’s almost surrealist nature tempers the sharpness of the violence. What works so well in those movies is nothing feels real-world, other than the love for dogs. The Continental: From the World of John Wick is more sobering, the violence is more affecting because it’s grounded. This new series is less ‘wired’ and more The Wire—if the latter went hard on action steroids.
The Continental Night 2 (Friday, September 29), directed by Charlotte Brandstrom, delves deeper into the heart of the story but it also thrives in its bombastic action. Here we see a transition, bridging the crime-y thrills of Night 1 with the full-on Wickiverse mayhem of Night 3 (Friday, October 6). The approach works. Night 2 is where The Continental’s hooks you. Hughes returns for the third night; a full 1 hour 37 min of gotdamn. Night 3 reflects Chapter 4 without repeating it. Imagine a group of 1970s NYC samurais ready to storm the castle and you’ll be there. Night 3 leaves you dreaming of The Continental Season 2 but this time in the 80s.
The writing on all three nights, from Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward, Ken Kristensen, and Shawn Simmons is razored, stylized, and witty yet touching. Allow a pun when I say they killed it.
Let’s get back to the art of vengeance. Nearly everybody in this series is out to get it. Winston, KD the detective (Mishel Prada), Frankie, Yen, Charon, and Cormac—they all have their reasons and, like the original vendetta in the movies, each quest for revenge is personal. As a motivator, any one of us can understand the need to get your licks back. Whether it’s that kid who embarrassed you every day of the school year or that bad-actor at work who made your daily grind hell. We all get it, and because vengeance isn’t noble the story can go to bad places while keeping our antagonists intact as heroes. In The Continental series, as the layers peel back it gets messier and more interesting. That’s a good thing.
Does this series win? The Continental: From the World of John Wick plays the game well, but it’s the women who turn fire into a blaze. Think of them as four-of-a-kind. We have the Queen of the Bowery, a character called Mazie who recalls the feline confidence of Eartha Kitt. Then there’s the Combat Queen, Yen portrayed by Nhung Kate. Her fight scenes made me stand up on my couch and cheer, while her emotional arc made me want to fight for her. Up next is the Queen of Enforcement, KD played by Prada. She’s relentless and ruthless but she knows when to reassess. Finally, there’s the Dojo Queen, Lou played by Allain. As the fave, Lou is a complicated and principled warrior with a vulnerability that makes her real enough to hug. These women are the winning hand in this game of death and vengeance. If you want a bonus, there’s the woman I call the Ace of Masks in Katie McGrath’s Adjudicator. You won’t know whether to slap that mask off her face or run.
That’s all I have to say about that. Sharpen your blades, load your ammo, spice your popcorn, and call your friends. You’re headed back to The Continental.
