Rating: 8.5/10
Zed tracks down John to his cabin in the woods. Together they learn about a vinyl record with the devil’s voice on it. If anyone listens to it, it makes them commit suicide, or worse.
This episode was different from the first three. Though there are some horror tropes it feels more like they’re doing a noir mystery. Perhaps because the music on the record is from the 1930s the writers decided to write this more in the style of films from the same era. They should have shot it in black and white, though I doubt many people other than myself would appreciate that.
Papa Midnite, a character I know very well from the comics, is a voodoo priest and John’s best frenemy. Well, one of many, anyway. Michael James Shaw does such a good job playing the character that it’s too bad he didn’t immediately get his own spinoff series. I don’t even know what that would have been but you can be sure I would have watched it. Oh well, maybe one day the Flash will cross dimensions into my living room and we can travel to a different multiverse where this show was more popular and I can binge-watch a whole Constantine-verse worth of episodes. Well, I can dream can’t I?
Anyway, I would say I enjoyed the noir-ness of this episode, but I’m a huge fan of noir. Others might find it a bit too slow-paced and having a very drawn out ending, both things typical of classic Hollywood. It’s a good episode if you like old movies.
SCORING:
+9: Good, but I like old movies
-1.5: a bit slow in points, and the ending is drawn out
+1: Papa Midnite is a great character done well
