TV
THE CONTINENTAL
YEAH, WE’RE THINKING HE’S… NOT BACK, ACTUALLY (IT’S A PREQUEL)
Room service wasn’t exactly what he expected.
★★★★
OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 3
SHOWRUNNERS Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward
CAST Colin Woodell, Mel Gibson, Ayomide Adegun, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Jessica Allain, Mishel Prada
PLOT New York, 1970s. A young Winston Scott (Woodell) challenges mobster Cormac O’Connor (Gibson) for control of the Continental hotel.
“GUNS,” DECLARES COLIN Woodell at the end of episode one. “Lots of guns.” Keanu Reeves might not appear in this particular slice of the John Wickiverse, but he still casts a long shadow. What, after all, is John Wick without Wick himself ? Arriving ahead of next year’s spin-off film Ballerina, this three-part origin story for the saga’s dapper hotelier Winston Scott (Ian McShane replaced here by the fresher-faced Woodell) provides the answer. After his estranged brother Frankie (Ben Robson) steals the template for the High Table’s infamous gold coins, Winston — along with his ubiquitous cravat — is dragged before the Continental hotel’s current major-domo Cormac O’Connor (a scenery-chewing Mel Gibson) and tasked with recovering the goods. With its trio of feature-length episodes keeping the story tight, The Continental quickly resolves itself into a team-based heist caper in which Winston, along with dojo-owning siblings Miles (Hubert Point-Du Jour) and Lou (Jessica Allain), as well as Frankie’s wife Yen (Nhung Kate; and the focus of the most unlikely meet-cute ever conceived) put together a team in order to bring down Cormac and seize the eponymous hotel, a secret base for hitmen. We already know how this story ends, of course, but the joy here is very much in the execution — or rather executions.