The Continental: From the World of John Wick – Before John Wick akka Baba Yaga

• “The Continental: From the World of John Wick” follows a young Winston Scott in 1970s New York, who tries to escape his criminal past but is pulled back in by his brother and old debts, leading him to the Continental Hotel and its dangerous manager, Cormac.
• The reviewer praises the atmosphere, the acting (especially Colin Woodell and Mishel Prada), and how the series builds out the mythology of the world from the films, but criticizes its slower pacing and lower intensity compared to the John Wick movies.
• The series is rated 3/5 and recommended to fans of the franchise as worth at least one watch, though not a masterpiece.

“A suit doesn’t make a man. No, it’s what’s inside the suit that counts.” – Winston Scott

(Deep, gravelly trailer-voice, my own production)

“Before the world met the man who can kill three people with a single graphite pencil.

Before one little beagle started a war between one man and practically the entire criminal underworld.

Before the name John Wick became something criminals utter with a kind of reverent dread…

…there was a hotel.

A hotel where no questions are asked. A hotel where deals are struck with gold coins. A hotel where you can get anything — except permission to spill blood on its territory.

Yōkoso, watashi no Soul Society… ahem, sorry, I mean: welcome to “The Continental: From the World of John Wick”.

The series takes us back to 1970s New York, to a time when the Continental hotel wasn’t (quite) yet the mythical institution we know from the John Wick films.

Back then it was still a place building its reputation. A place with rules — but not yet the shape of the thing we all recognize.

At the center of the story is a young Winston Scott. Yes, yes… that same Winston who will one day become the elegant, unflappable, always-one-step-ahead hotel manager played in the films by the brilliant Ian McShane.

Except here, he isn’t that man yet.

Here he’s a young guy who tried to run away from the world he actually belongs to.

So Winston’s story begins when he returns to New York, trying to dodge trouble from his past. Before that he was living somewhere else, far from his dark history, getting by on his schemes and cons, living what you might call a comfortable life. However…

He’s soon pulled back into the old world of crime, conflict, debts, and people who don’t forget… the most dangerous kind.

His brother, a few old connections, and one wrong decision push him back toward the Continental and its manager at the time — the volatile and dangerous Cormac.

And that’s where the real game begins. Or rather, the hunt for a certain valuable object that Winston’s brother stole from Cormac himself.

Unlike John Wick, who was already a mythical figure at the very start of his story, Winston here is a man still learning the rules of the “game.” At this point he has no brutal arsenal of skills, no reputation that walks into the room before he does, no “Baba Yaga” or “Kikimora” status. What he does have is intelligence, resourcefulness, the ability to read people, and a willingness to make the move nobody sees coming. And it’s through those situations that we watch the making of the man who will one day run the most dangerous “safe place” in the world.

One of the best ideas in the entire John Wick universe is the concept of the Continental.

As we know, it isn’t just a luxury hotel. It’s neutral ground, a marketplace for hiring professional killers, an information hub, a shop (though not for souvenirs) — but above all, a place where special rules apply. And one of the most important is:

No blood spilled on hotel grounds.

The series also tries to explain how that system came about — how people started respecting those rules, who imposed them, and why nobody questions them. In that sense, the show actually does what a spin-off should do: it expands the world instead of simply copying the earlier films.

Before Winston, the hotel is run by Cormac. And if you thought Winston was a serious character… Cormac is another league entirely. He isn’t charming, he isn’t diplomatic, and he isn’t someone who’ll warn you twice. He operates on the logic that power isn’t explained, it’s demonstrated — and you see exactly that in how he treats Winston, a young Charon (yes, he shows up here too), and the rest of the cast.

One of the strongest elements of The Continental is the atmosphere. 1970s New York is shown as filthy, loud, and dangerous. Neon lights, smoke, music, and night scenes create the feeling of a world teetering on chaos, where it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone shot you full of holes or stuck a knife in you down some dark alley. It all carries that retro energy, backed by a fitting soundtrack. Granted, it isn’t as powerfully “atmospheric” as the John Wick films — but for a series, it’s more than decent.

The action scenes are solid. There’s gunfire, fights, chaos… but (as you’d expect from a series) without that wow factor of the films, where John Wick single-handedly clears out armies, falls down a flight of stairs, gets up, and carries on like it was part of the warm-up. Here the action serves the story more. And maybe that isn’t a bad thing in this case.

The acting is solid, though the only ones who really left an impression on me were Colin Woodell as young Winston, Mishel Prada as KD (the detective permanently on the Scott brothers’ heels), and Ayomide Adegun as young Charon. Mel Gibson as Cormac… I don’t know, yes and no…

And now, where the show falls short…

The pacing.

Even though there are only three episodes, they’re long, and at times it feels like the story is being stretched further than it should be. You can plainly see that a slightly quicker rhythm would have made the series considerably stronger. Also, while the story is interesting, it doesn’t always carry the weight and intensity the films had (yes, the John Wick films do have a story too 😅😆).

All in all, “The Continental: From the World of John Wick” is a nice addition to the John Wick universe, one that focuses on different aspects than the films do. It’s not a masterpiece, and it doesn’t have the replay value the films do, but for fans of Keanu-brother’s adventures it’s worth at least one watch, purely to widen out the JW universe for you. Maybe not one for an especially high score, but definitely one for a single viewing.

Rating: 3.00/5

Worth your time: if you’re a fan of the John Wick universe and of titles with old-school/retro energy

Trailer 

Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic