NBC’s ‘Constantine’ episode 2 review: How was Zed’s debut?

Any new show has a ton of pressure entering their second episode, but for NBC’s “Constantine,” there were more troubles than with any other. You had a major casting change here, with the arrival of Zed (Angélica Celaya) replacing the departing Lucy Griffiths.

How was Zed’s first outing? Intriguing, and also hopeful for the future of the show. She is a much more challenging character, and someone with a genuine talent to offer John Constantine: A skill to see things through art. She is a partner more so than just a tool for him to use, and if the two are going to work together (and it looks like they will), there’s going to have to be a push and pull.

As for the quality of the show itself, it’s pretty solid. The action sequences are superb, and as someone not that familiar about the Constantine character going into the show (we hadn’t even seen the film), what we appreciate here is that he is a more cognitive hero than many others in the DC universe. You have enough mystery to make this work as a crime-solver, but also enough action to really hook you in and make you think of this as something different.

The biggest question that we have now is merely one of consistency, and if producers can really show that this is the product we’re going to get every week. There were some dips in the first half of the story where the pacing was off, but Matt Ryan is fantastic so far as the lead, and the show has done enough so far to convince us it is still worth watching. Grade: B.

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