The Continental review: One casting decision drags down Peacock’s John Wick prequel

The unclarity extends to pretty much the whole central cast of The Continental, including Colin Woodell’s young Winston, who returns to New York after getting rich conning people in London because his brother, Frankie, has stolen something very valuable from local crime boss—and hotel impresario—Cormac (played by … heavy sigh … Mel Gibson). Winston worked for Cormac as a kid, but it’s never super clear just how involved he is in the world of killers who are paid in gold coins and use gold coins to pay for everything, and other quirks of the Wick universe, until the point where it would be impossible for him to be anything but an expert.

It’s annoying that questions like that hang over the miniseries, because Woodell is good in the role—both at emulating McShane’s performance and at doing his own thing. He doesn’t pull it off as well as Keanu Reeves, but he does carry a bit of Wick-esque world weariness and general disinterest in the wacky shenanigans happening around him, which is the right vibe for this thing.

One character who manages to sidestep all of this is Ayomide Adegun’s Charon, a young version of the character Lance Reddick played in the movies, where he’s the ultimate friend and ally of McShane’s Winston. Here, he works as a personal assistant for Gibson’s Cormac, excusing and hiding his various deranged behaviors in hopes of someday earning enough money to bring his father to New York. He brings some depth and charm to the exceedingly restrained and professional Charon, and we even get a sweet little glimpse of what Charon’s love life would be like if he allowed himself any sort of joy outside of work.

And then—grumble grumble—there’s Gibson. To be clear: This show, and all shows, would be better without him. There’s nothing he brings to this that anyone other than Mel Gibson would not do better, if only by not being Mel Gibson. But also he’s unfortunately well-cast and seems to be having a lot of fun in the role of a maniac boss with some kind of vague Catholic streak and a god complex, if you can imagine Mel Gibson being well-suited to that. It’s a bummer, honestly, and knowing that he’s enjoying it makes it that much more difficult to enjoy as a viewer.

Which is a shame, because there are some interesting choices here—like the near-constant needle drops of hit songs from the era, nearly all of which are diegetic, which doesn’t impact the show at all (nobody ever says “hey, turn down ‘Barracuda’ by Heart”), but it is neat that someone put in the effort to do that. Also, while a lot of what would be enormously expensive sequences take somewhat distracting shortcuts (a car chase is edited quicker than a Cocomelon episode, and one big shootout takes place entirely in the dark), there are a handful of clever or well-staged fight scenes (like one that takes place almost entirely on security-camera footage). Again, nothing on par with, say, John Wick fighting up the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, but they’re serviceable.

That, ultimately, is the faintest praise you can damn The Continental with: It’s serviceable. Even with Mel Gibson involved, it’s not bad enough to hurt the John Wick franchise, but it’s also not exciting enough to justify becoming a key part of the canon. If they make a Chapter 5 and McShane’s Winston says something that directly contradicts the events of this show, it’ll be fine. In a way, it’s really not too different from the weaker parts of what all those other streamers are doing with their flagship film franchises. It’s there for the people who care enough to check it out, but it’s not going to get in your way if you don’t.

The Continental: From The World Of John Wick premieres September 22 on Peacock