Last year, when the new television season was upon us, many in the geek/comic book community were excited with several DC Entertainment entries on several different networks ready to premiere. We had The Flash, with the entire spotlight on the “scarlet speedster”, this show, spawned from the current hit “Arrow” was expected to be a runaway hit. Then we had Gotham, the dark and gritty retelling of the Batman mythos without Batman. This one features most of the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery of villains including Catwoman, The Riddler and an up and coming crime boss known as the Penguin who played by Robin Lord Taylor has become the breakout star of Gotham and has already become a seminal hit.

Then there is Constantine, the “Exorcist, Demonologist and Master of the Dark Arts” as his business cards state. Many were excited when it was announced that the star of Hellblazer comics was coming to the small screen. Now unlike the other two DC entries, Constantine has had a bit of a rough patch finding a desired sustainable audience. Several missteps by NBC have lead to this predicament. Watching the first half of the season, I must say the show has gotten better with each episode. Matt Ryan in the title role is exceptional as Constantine. The supporting cast is also first rate with Harold Perrineau (LOST, Matrix) as the angel Manny and Charles Halford as Chas, Constantine’s trusted friend. Each episode, dealing with the macabre, demonic and hellish happenings on a weekly basis is holding true to the lore of the comic book. Now back to NBC’s missteps. First, they placed Constantine on Friday nights. For all those who watch television, we all know that many people do not watch “TV” on Friday nights as people tend to go out after work. We have a rough week, or we go out to celebrate some promotion…it usually happens on Friday night…Ergo the term “TGIF”. Secondly, the show didn’t seem to have a full on promotional push, as say Gotham got from FOX or Flash receives from the CW Network.

Another possible detraction for the show might be the ultra religious aspect it brings to the small screen. For those who are not in the know, Constantine deals with John Constantine, an occultist who has been damned to hell for casting a young girl’s life to the underworld with a demon escort. With this come many forays into hell and the dark arts. Dealing with everything from angels and demons to hell spawns and biblical castaways. With the current state of religion in this country on high alert, Constantine would definitely be ruffling feathers in that segment of the population. Religion has always been the third rail of all media in the United States. They may not be protesting out in the streets or in front of NBC studios, but rest assured Constantine probably isn’t playing well with the bible-belt crowd. There are always exceptions to this rule, for example the classic movie “The Exorcist” and the current TV series “Supernatural”. With Supernatural, that show now in its 10th season, they seem to get away with much of the “Angels and Hell” storyline because it’s on the much smaller CW Network. Besides, Constantine is much darker in tone than the latter. Of all three DC Entertainment offerings, Constantine is the more daring of the three. Here’s hoping NBC does the right thing and orders additional episodes beyond the original 13 it was contracted to do and renews the show for a second season. In spite of the show airing on the dreadful Friday schedule the show is garnering respectful ratings. It just isn’t the break out show that NBC probably expected from a “Comic Book” property. For it to be that show, NBC has to move it from Friday and pair it up with one of it’s other hits (Blacklist anyone?) Hopefully DC/Warner Bros. will use some of its muscle and try and save Constantine. If the show is cancelled, it would be the first show since Birds Of Prey to be cancelled based on a DC property. If it were up to John Constantine, I’m sure he would dig into his bag of trinkets and cast a non cancelling spell.