Our TV reviews are back on Mondays. We’re covering Constantine’s and Grimm’s return from their midseason break. Enjoy.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review

Constantine tied up its midseason cliffhangers a little too quick and neat for my taste. Zed’s excellent adventure turned into a bogus journey that lasted about two city blocks. She got kidnapped and then broke loose lickety split. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her tormentors, but Zed schooled them in this episode. While it was nice that Zed rejoined the team, it felt like the show’s creators made a cliffhanger for her just to have a cliffhanger.

A possessed John Constantine was a nice image that we’ve seen before in the pilot. It worked well with its reimplementation here. Matt Ryan gave a strong performance, but it can’t be a good thing that Constantine repeated a story thread in its first eight episodes. Oh, and the reason John consumed the demon was to save himself from his midseason cliffhanger. So both cliffhangers get resolved in fifteen minutes or your pizza’s free.

And we’re also free of any tension gained with the overarching Brujeria plot and the Rising Darkness, since this episode threw out that still warm pizza pie for John Constantine’s immediate need of an exorcism. Seriously, the most we get for the Brujeria is a glimpse of Vicente, who according to Constantine was the original tempter/snake in the Garden of Eden. I say that we catch a glimpse of Vicente because he announces himself and immediately gets dispatched by our ragtag team of anti-heroes. A ten second battle sounds about right for the snake that got Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. Sure.

I know it sounds all negative, but the episode was entertaining. Like I said above, Matt Ryan was on his game. I just wish the cliffhangers meant more than a device to keep viewers.

Verdict: An entertaining episode with some strong acting performances, but the payoff from the midseason cliffhangers didn’t amount to much.

Here are some Constantine secrets. But beware, they contain spoilers.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

Grimm had a lot of great developments this week. Unlike Constantine – which airs on NBC before it – Grimm made good on its midseason cliffhangers. Monroe’s abduction racketed up the tension. Juliette’s transformation into a hexenbiest blended well with Rosalee dealing with the loss of Monroe. Even Sergeant Wu’s indoctrination into the world of Grimm was handled with care. He may not have freaked out like he did before the break, but he doesn’t accept this new reality as easily as Hank.

The best part of this episode, “Wesenrein,” is that the storylines don’t get wrapped up in a neat bow and perhaps, the ending of this show has a better cliffhanger than the midseason finale. I wonder if Grimm plans to continue this trend and if so, how do they plan to do it. Grimm has me tuned in for next week.

Verdict: A solid episode that’s every bit a cliffhanger as the midseason finale.