Lets start with the obvious, this is a mini series, this is not about John Wick (at least episode one) so don’t expect to see anyone else related to John other than Winston, Charon and the hotel, other than this so far nothing else points to John Wick himself.
Been a three part mini series it feels kinda packed with a lot of information, specially the amount of characters, on episode one there are about a solid two digit amount of characters that are important to the development of the episode and they start to die very fast, different than other series that promise a lot of action right from the go The Continental did promise and deliver, there is a lot of shooting, car chase, Frankie robbed the hotel safe, there was a helicopter scene towards the end but I think they ran out of time to make a great scene out of it or probably budget, been on Peacock doesn’t give me too much confidence on the series, also there are a few faces I have never seen although the actors were ok I got no complains, The Continental seem like a great idea for a full Tv Series but no body had the time, cast or money to develop it but some one didn’t want to let the idea waste and gave it a shot with some what low budget, no disrespect to any of the actors its just how it feels.
The Continental is about Winston, after 20 years of not seen his brother Frankie, Winston is kidnap by Cormac (The Continental Manager) and send him back to US because his brother just stole something valuable for him and the organization (The High Table), Frankie stole and old coin press from the organization, now Cormac wants to use Winston as bait but he tries to outsmart him back to safe Frankie and his wife Yen.
Frankie is Winston older brother, since they were little got in trouble and Frankie was always there to protect him, latter down the line Frankie did time in jail taking the fall and letting Winston out of trouble but then Frankie’s involvement with The Continental pulls Winston back.
Frankie work for Cormac, the same mobster that put them on the street after his father took a loan that latter on could not pay but down the road Frankie discover what was going on at The Continental, it was the 70’s and different than the John Wick movies where everyone knows he is an assassin because we are watching the movie through his eyes, on The Continental is different, during the times of this mini series it was not known what The High Table was, they just knew The Continental could not be touch, even the cops knew this.
So far I’m not sure why Frankie thought it was a good idea and what was his goal at stealing this coin press, if you saw the movies then you know that on chapter four, John goes to middle east and talks to an Jerome Berrada who is in charge of making the coins so this coin press that Frankie steals is probably nothing else than a relic, he almost gets caught after his partner betray him.
Winston earn his life making business at London, big money, he is very smart and slick, always steps ahead of the people he is trying to make business with but had no clew what his brother has been doing back at home, New York, for the last twenty years.
Cormac, as mention the mobster now running The Continental, he is ruthless, will do anything to make others do his willing even killing themself, always has a leverage against others and this time he thinks that leverage against Frankie is his little brother Winston, he brings him from London to find Frankie, after all Cormac saw them grow up together and knows this two love each other even they cant live together as grown ups.
Fucking Peter Greene as Charlie, a man who knew Winston and Frankie since they were little, Peter Green was making films since I was a kid, appear in Pulp Fiction, he had a small part on this mini series but still did ok I think. He helps Winston, gave him a gun, a coat and his car, a mustang very similar to John’s Mustang int he movies, also told Frankie was probably at a Karate Dojo, I will look because probably at some point Winston gave this car to John as gift, after all they were good friends.
Winston decides to visit the Dojo, Burton Karate, here he meet Miles and Lou, brothers who run the Dojo but there is no business with the Dojo, Miles use it as a cover for his guns traffic business, looks like Frankie was staying there for some time after he left. Winstons ask for their help to find Frankie before Cormac so Miles only told him what he knew, Miles and Frankie work together until he got to the hotel, Frankie was good with all kind of guns and probably good at killing people too.
There are other characters that are not develop yet, they will have more influence on episode two and three, she is The Adjudicator, most likely works for The High Table, on this scene she got the guy who betray Frankie, she is trying to extract information from him without much luck, over all not many people knew who this organization was, I think not even Cormac exactly new, I remember even Winston on Chapter for didn’t know about certain rules and things that the Marquis could do.
There is also KD, she is investigating a criminal under the name of Francis Scott, she once chase him to The Continental but was stop by her boss Mayhew who she is fucking too, Mayhew knows better and stops her before she gets killed but she still want in so one day the guy at the door let her in, everyone on the hotel immediately knew she was not one of them, she notice how they pay with the coins, how everyone was packed even the receptionist was arm, it was not the type of hotel she was expecting, for sure she finds out something latter on that will involve her with Winston.
Wisnton finally finds Frankie and his girlfriend Yen, very vague Frankie explains him what is going on at the hotel, he is talking about The High Table but doesn’t know much, same as the beginning this part of the episode is packed with shooting and close contact gun fight, but the ending I didn’t like so much.
I’m going to talk about the ending of episode 1, I think this series over sold a story, everyone is probably going to watch The Continental thinking it had to do something with John right from the start and they will get the same kind of quality but its not, the ending of episode 1 same thing, we loose Frankie because he knows that if he doesn’t let Winston and Yen go the end will be the same everyone dead, but WHY did he took the coin press? I think that made no sense, now that Frankie is gone him been the man of action, say the John Wick of the series who kills people with anything at hand, who is going to take that spot? , the first episode was NOT bad, I give it a 7.5/10 since it does has action as promise and it is related to the John Wick universe, lets see how the other two episodes develop and where does it takes us, I hope they are same or better than episode one. There were a few characters I didn’t mention on my recap because they are not as important been episode one is always about presenting the main characters, their motives and where is the story going and episode 1 did all this very well.
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