Constantine "Danse Vaudou" Review: Papa's Fritas Personas

Constantine S01E05: "Danse Vaudou"

Welcome back, Papa.

It was only a matter of time before John Constantine made his way to our nation's spookiest city. New Orleans: the home of jazz, legal party cups, and people who casually believe in dark magick. And, of course, the obvious location for Papa Midnite's HQ (or, at the very least, a summer retreat), given its ties to voodoo. I just didn't think Constantine would play the NOLA card so soon.

A brief digression regarding TV series set in New Orleans: Since Treme, no show has managed to get this city-as-a-character right, which is mind-boggling to me. The Big Easy is ripe for the picking, rich in mythology, history, and tragedy. And while I can't expect Constantine to nail the mood of a town in a one-off episode (especially since "Danse Vaudou" was filmed in Atlanta, in locations including downtown Atlanta's Sidebar, and spiced up with establishing shots of Bourbon Street), it just reminded me of how disappointing NCIS: New Orleans is. What a wasted opportunity. It should be a requirement that, if you're going to write a script that involves NOLA, you need to live there while you're writing it. Otherwise, you're not going to get it. Almost everything we're seeing about the city on television suggests that it's basically a carbon copy of every other city, except with more outdoor boozing and lots of Spanish moss.

But back to Constantine.

The hints that were dropped a couple episodes ago with regard to the reluctant friendship between Papa and John (is anyone suddenly craving pizza?) came to fruition in "Danse Vaudou" as the two were forced to work together in order to solve the problems that Papa has inadvertently caused during the Rising Darkness. And I have to say, the situation is sounding more and more like an El Niño phenomenon—just a little more drastic and hyperbolic. You get some wacky weather during El Niño years: well-established climates are prone to sudden floods, temperature fluctuations that bring warm fronts to the north and cold fronts to the Gulf Coast, cats sleeping with dogs. It's madness. And the Rising Darkness seems to have the same effect, elevating normal spell-casting and magical chicanery to ridiculous levels. Romany curses can now raise sloppy mud demons. Run-of-the-mill possessions can now can drive vans through plate-glass windows. And voodoo seances can now accidentally raise the dead.

What's interesting about Papa is how quickly he's turned from heel to face (well, maybe it's just a quarter-turn). He's not a villain in the Constantine universe so much as he's basically the voodoo version of John, just older, more powerful, and inherently more selfish. Maybe that simply comes with the territory of being 200 years old and losing track of his moral code? Papa is just another agent of the dark arts who's looking out for number one. But he was more than willing to (eventually, cautiously) work with John on a joint spell that involved burning the bodies of the troublesome ghosts. He could've shrugged his shoulders and moved on. The fact that he showed remorse for unintentionally bringing the dead back to life and for honoring the religion that gives him his immense power makes him far more sympathetic. And sympathy appears to be what this show trades in.

Make everyone sympathetic. There are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It's just a bunch of humans trying to fight against the Rising Darkness. That which is bad is not human. If it's petty or small (i.e. #mortalproblems) it's nothing compared to the very fabric of divine justice being torn. Which is why, unless Zed is some kind of key to the puzzle of the Rising Darkness, her mysterious past is a non-starter for me.

If it comes out that her psychic visions are the result of her being the Omega product of a Vectorus and the Usher, then maybe all the secret-secrets pertaining to her will make sense. But if "all" she's hiding is that she was the victim an abusive family or that she suffered through a dire situation with someone she knew, it's going to be a disappointment, a blip on the show's developing mythology. It's not that those things aren't important, or that they wouldn't have a dramatic impact on her as a person. But Zed, Chas, John, Papa, Liv—everyone who seems to breeze in and out of Team Constantine—are transcending humanity through stakes.

That's one of the central differences between Constantine and its snarky horror-genre predecessor, Buffy the Vampire slayer. Since Buffy was, generally, about teenagers in high school, the characters were generally selfish creatures who indulged their feelings to the point that they influenced their supernatural responsibilities. That was the point. Adolescence is about fighting off hormonal demons and trying to find normalcy, center, peace. That was Buffy's mission apparent.

But Constantine doesn't have those same allegorical ambitions. Human adults are in charge of what happens to humanity, and they are just soldiers against the darkness. Day-to-day #mortalproblems are inconsequential to their mission of staving off their would-be rulers from Hell or whatever is coming. John constantly deflects human fallibility, drug addiction, hubris, and friendship, and save for his origin story relating to wanting to see his dead mother, doesn't seem interested in human things. Fighting demons, saving souls, and saving himself from nothing short of damnation are all of higher priority.

So I'm not sure what to make of a conversation that, in the world of television and modern storytelling, begs the audience to 'ship Zed and John in their mind's eye. Is that just Constantine's way of trying to establish the partnership? Are the writers trying to create chemistry between the characters in the cheapest way possible—romantically? Or are we being set up so that Zed will become the figure through whom John feels redeemed, who will allow him to finally acknowledge his humanity without snark or sarcasm? Because I think, so far, that Chas has the edge. Making someone dinner is a very intimate experience.

Overall, while I think last week's "A Feast of Friends" was a stronger episode, "Danse Vaudou" continued to indicate that Constantine is slowly rolling down the right track. Ever so slowly. I have faith that it's going to pull into stations of fabulous destinations, but I just can't quite feel it yet. We're all hoping for a little engine that could.

OTHER THINGS THAT DIED IN A PYRE

– John technically didn't take a puff off the cigarette in his mouth when he was fixing the zoetrope. Same goes for when he and Papa tried their custom incantation the first time. Constantine is really sticking to its guns about the on-camera smoking. Part of me is happy to see that because smoking is disgusting. But the other part of me watches him almost-smoke and just wants him to do it already. I'm on the edge of my seat here. WILL HE DO IT NEXT TIME? #ConstantineCigaretteWatch

– "Do you think I'm pretty?" Did anyone else get a Mileena-from-Mortal-Kombat vibe from that alley ghost before she pulled the mask down? No? Just me? Okay.

– Papa and John are not qualified to be grief counselors.

– Also: guilt and grief? That was the answer? I'm trying not to make a joke using spoilers from Interstellar here but—we'll talk about that later, once everyone's seen that movie.

– Now that we've been introduced to Jim Corrigan, I'm looking forward to the Spectre showing up. But will he step on Manny's turf of suddenly appearing and delivering vague but sage advice?

– No one glowers/smolders/furrows her brow quite like Zed. That's 85 percent of her acting.

– Sisters: always there for you to keep their skulls hanging from a stick so you can ask 'em questions about the underworld.

– What the heck is up with Chas the Undying?

What did you think of "Danse Vaudou"?