The Continental episode 2 review: "Feels too much like a prelude to the main event"

The Continental Night 1 ended with a cliffhanger that promised fireworks. Unfortunately, though, The Continental episode 2 still hasn't actually lit the spark, instead once again meandering its way to another set-up for a future explosion. 

The focus of this episode shifts to a more straightforward showdown between Winston and Cormac, but it's all bogged down in far too many subplots and side characters. Attempts are made to flesh these out further – Jessica Allain's Lou has an interesting clash with a rival, while Hubert Point-Du Jour's Miles and Nhung Kate's Yen go on a side mission that reveals more about Miles' bond with Frankie and their experiences in Vietnam. These moments still feel like unnecessary side dishes to the main course, but are livelier than last week's diversions. 

Unnecessary distractions

Night 2 revolves around Winston putting together a team to take on the Continental. Disappointingly, only one new person actually ends up joining the line-up – a quirky sharpshooter with a useful wealth of knowledge on the hotel and its inhabitants. 

It's here that we really feel The Continental's length. Winston has an intriguing enough meeting with another player who has a confusing request for him, but it's background noise among everything else the episode is distracted by across its 1 hour 19 minute runtime. The exchange is swiftly forgotten when the focus shifts elsewhere, and – again – it probably won't be addressed until the third episode. When the runtimes are this long, withholding crucial information is a strategy that just isn't satisfying. 

We spend more time with KD and Mayhew (Jeremy Bobb), too, but it's still hard to get invested in KD's investigation since her motives remain unclear. The subplot also threatens to unravel the logic of the universe; John Wick uses police officer Jimmy to allude to law enforcement looking the other way, but a detective determined to dig draws attention to the fact that a ginormous blind eye would need to be turned to all the assassins running around New York. We don't need to know how the ordinary world and the Wick world coexist, it's just enough that they do. 

Night 2 also brings back the Adjudicator (Katie McGrath) from Night 1. At the moment, the threat she poses is nebulous – Cormac is visibly unsettled by her, but she also seems willing to let rule-breaking slide at a crucial point, which disrupts a pretty fundamental tenet of the John Wick universe. Once again, the stolen coin press is referenced, but we still don't really know why it's so important. Obviously the criminal world runs on these gold coins, but nothing has really justified all the trouble so far. Essentially, Frankie has stolen the equivalent of an ATM. Why all the fuss? Since the whole show revolves around it, we really needed to know in episode 1. 

As for the action, Night 2 is light on fights – probably in preparation for all out war next week. Lou has a skilful tussle with her rival's henchmen on the street and Yen gets to shine again in the booby-trapped movie theater, but the scenes are so fleeting that by the time we're really starting to get impressed, they're over. 

Hitting its stride

Where Night 2 truly comes into its own, though, is through Ayomide Adegun's Charon. He was the highlight of Night 1 and is the best part of this episode, too. Adegun's version of the character hews close to Lance Reddick's, which, combined with his quiet, kind demeanour, helps make him so incredibly likeable – especially showcased in a moving scene on the Continental's roof between Charon and the hotel's young cello player. 

It's thanks to Adegun's Charon that The Continental finally hits its stride in the last 10 minutes of Night 2. We at last get a meaty interaction between Winston and Charon – it's curious that it has taken so long, when the duo have such a strong bond in the films – and Cormac emerges as a truly chilling, heinous villain as a fascinating development in his relationship with Charon plays out. It's the sizzling shot of energy this show sorely needs; the problem is, it really shouldn't have taken until the end of episode 2 for a series teased as a three part event to get interesting. You could have watched John Wick twice in the time it takes for The Continental to finally find its footing. 

Once again, we end with a tease that there's more to come, meaning that almost all of Night 1 and Night 2 feel merely a prologue to the actual action coming in Night 3. A sleeker, streamlined version of The Continental could very easily exist as a single movie, so the choice to make an extra-long, overstuffed TV show is baffling.

It looks like The Continental will live and die on Night 3, which, with a weekly release schedule, isn't ideal. We already know Winston takes control of the hotel thanks to the films, so the tension heading into the final episode relies purely on his history with Cormac and his quest for vengeance after Frankie's death. We barely knew Frankie before he was killed and the rest of Winston's vendetta is rooted in a backstory that simply isn't that interesting; we just don't know enough about Cormac and Winston's past, and what we do actually know has very little depth. 

It remains to be seen if Night 3 can finally light this fuse, then – but for now, The Continental is looking more and more like a damp squib.

The Continental drops weekly on Peacock in the US and Prime Video internationally. You can fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video.