SDCC 2014: Special Sneak Peek Pilot Screenings

Michael Moccio ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Executive Editor
Gavin Gronenthal ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Editor

San Diego Comic Con International (SDCC) 2014 kicked off the event with previews of pilots from The Flash and Constantine, as well as a brand new episode of Teen Titans GO! iZombie was expected to be shown, but was pulled last minute.

The preview opened with Jeff Tobler, the Director of Worldwide Publicity of Warner Bros., introducing each pilot and explaining a little bit about what they were about. It was short, sweet, and to the point—and led us right into The Flash.

The Flash

CW showed the upcoming spinoff of Arrow, The Flash, first in the event. Grant Gustin can really hold his own as Barry Allen, proving he has the chops to headline a show, both dramatically and comedically. Not only that, he’s surrounded by a supporting cast without a single weak link. Some standouts include Jesse L. Martin as Detective West, Barry’s father figure and Iris’s actual dad, and Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow, a biologist who will help Barry on his missions. Overall, the pilot was full of action, drama, humor, and sets the show up for an excellent upcoming series. With the exception of a few clunky lines at the beginning of the script, the pilot is overall solid, and something any fan of the character or superheroes in general should watch.

Grade: A-

Teen Titans Go!

Next up, they featured an upcoming episode of the kid’s series Teen Titans Go! A reimagining of the old Teen Titans show, the episode shown followed the team into a My Little Pony-esque show on TV, where they had to resort to using friendship instead of violence to save the day. This, being a kid’s show, might have actually been a lesson to be learned, but the show played it up for laughs instead and the team ended up learning nothing. Save for one funny moment from Beast Boy, and a few funny lines here or there, the episode was really weak in comedy, substance, and felt kind of hammy. A shame, as this was the episode showed to a huge Comic Con audience to open the event.

Grade: C-

Constantine

This was the final pilot shown and was considerably better than Teen Titans GO! The pilot featured Matt Ryan as the titular character and Lucy Griffiths as Liv Aberdine, who will no longer be a part of the show after the pilot. While Ryan played the part of Constantine extremely well—with his dry wit, quick repartee, and sardonic demeanor—the pilot left little to be desired from a fan who knows next to nothing about the source material. The pilot didn’t delve too far into the rules of the world, nor did it go into depths about Constantine’s motivations. While we know that Constantine’s soul is damned to hell, along with a little girl Constantine failed to save, we’re never given a reason to be behind this character 100%–we’re only told how bad damnation is and hinted about a forthcoming doomsday even. Neither puts things into perspective and the pilot ultimately suffers because of it. Constantine is a high concept show that’s incredibly cool for comic book fans to see on the small screen, but for anyone looking to get into the mythos from the TV show will have a hard time following.

Overall Grade: C+

Emertainment’s full coverage starts tomorrow. Be sure to check out the website for live updated articles directly from SDCC, tweets from our Vice President and Comic Book Editor (@MiMoccio and @GhGronenthal), and pictures from our Facebook page!