Constantine S1 E3 - 'The Devil's Vinyl' Review

Professional Respect.
Constantine and his crew travelled to the Windy City in this episode, where a recording is killing all those who hear it.
The premise is slightly silly but ultimately produces a fun, darkly funny and gory episode which is definitely the best of the season so far. The methods the vinyl used to kill those who listened to it were pleasantly graphic and more gross than I expected the show to produce. Although the main plot is fairly predictable, it did involve some great moments including Constantine raising the dead and Papa Midnite making his small-screen live action debut! Midnite was well established in this episode, being at once shrouded in secrecy yet coming across as an enigmatic antagonist to John, one who I hope will reappear fairly soon.
John himself continued to be brilliant. Matt Ryan is great with the small ensemble cast he interacts with and the relationships feel genuine and not forced. I was slightly disappointed that he wasn't able to use magic to escape when Midnite tied him up, but we did get to see other cool artefacts such as the playing card crossed with psychic paper and his tracking nails, so I can let the show runners off here. All the events of the episode culminated in an entertaining ending involving the team rushing against time to prevent the acetate being played live on radio. The sequence was well-paced, comical and bad-ass simultaneously, wrapping up the episode with a bow.
Overall, 'The Devil's Vinyl' is the best Constantine outing so far, introducing a formidable villain and further exploring the relationships between the main characters. The only flaw is that once again the show sidesteps the issue of the 'rising darkness' to face another villain-of-the-week, which by episode three is a formula which is going to need shaking up very soon.

STARRING: Zed, Papa Midnite

AWESOME MOMENTS:

• This was a particularly bloody episode with some truly gruesome deaths! Some of the highlights included:
• Bernie's skin being torn off by the frozen headphones on his head before stabbing himself in the neck!
• The original jazz singer EXPLODING was particularly horrific
• The entire CLUB full of people killing themselves
• The tragic demise of the two of Midite's cronies, who were blown up/dragged down to hell
• Constantine running in to the radio station playing rock music through his headphones was a very fun scene, just wish we could've seen him fighting a bit more with that great backing track!
• Papa Midnite's entrance featuring a Winchester rifle was brilliant
• Everyone in the morgue kicking about as Constantine raised Bernie from the dead was a solid jump scare and quite creepy

EASTER EGGS:

- Zed and Chas mention that Constantine's headquarters are larger on the inside and that its dimensions change. In the comics this place is known as the "House of Mystery." It made its comic debut in House of Mystery #1 in December 1951. It is known for being able to change its dimensions and location of its rooms, having a "mind" of its own, and for having both Constantine and Swamp Thing as caretakers

- The charmed playing card Constantine uses to fool the nurse shares many similarities with the psychic paper from Doctor Who (2005)

- Papa Midnite is a comic book character who made his debut in Hellblazer #1 (January 1988). He is known for practising voodoo magic and near immortality

- The exorcism Constantine uses on the Acetate begins the same as the exorcism commonly used by Sam and Dean Winchester on Supernatural

- The backstory to this episode, about a Blues man who sells his soul for success and later disappeared, echoes the story of legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson. Johnson is reputed to have sold his soul at a crossroad to become a genius guitarist, and died at the age of 27. Some say that Johnson was the first to be part of the 27 club/curse. 27 club/curse is famous people who all died at the age of 27 most of them musicians.

- A major plot point in Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, there is an ongoing struggle between The Invisibles and The Outer Church to obtain and find out how to control a Hand of Glory. It is seen has having the propensity to open doors in timespace – i.e. open gates to other worlds and ages. While The Invisibles is a comic published by DC/Vertigo, it's unlikely we'll see that version of the Hand in Constantine since Vertigo titles are generally owned or co-owned by the creators themselves -- certainly The Invisibles is. The Hand of Glory as a concept exists outside of The Invisibles, and functions more or less as described/depicted in this episode.#

- The idea of trading a little of his mortality for favors and/or magic isn't something that's new to John. He does it in the comics fairly often. Luckily for Constantine, he can do it the other way around, too. Or at least has in the comics. He's been able to con or trick demons into things like curing his cancer.

RATING: 8.4/10