Constantine's flawed humanity makes for good television

NBC's new TV show Constantine, with a second series yet to be commissioned, has joined a long list of shows that have seen fans start campaigns aimed at keeping them alive (Wickline, 2014). It was always going to be a brave decision to try and translate the character of John Constantine to the small screen. The Hellblazer comics are often dark and intensely grim, and Constantine himself is a hero often shown to be flawed and manipulative, and even prepared to sacrifice his own friends should the need arise.

Yet, so far, NBC's new show has held true to that course. We have seen Constantine smoking, itself a fairly big challenge to modern television standards; he has exploited the abilities of his allies, like Zed and Liv; and he manipulated his friend Gary Lester into sacrificing his life to trap the hunger demon Mnemoth.

But we have also seen him struggle with a troubled and violent childhood. He struggles with his guilt over, in his arrogance, failing to save a little girl named Astra. We have seen him show nobility in trying to save people from many dangers that they might not even believe to actually exist.

These struggles, and the weight of burden that his failures have cast upon him, are what makes him a character that is easy to identify with - and were all key parts of the complicated character that was so beloved on the pages of the Hellblazer comics.

The Constantine of Hellblazer is a punk, a bisexual and a smoker. A working-class mage. He is burdened by enormous guilt over the past, and cares about the people around him, though often reluctantly. He gets by on wit and guile, rather than brute force and physical strength.

Even with the faults in his methods, like the dangerous manipulation of his friends and allies, he is still a charming and likeable anti-establishment figure - and that makes him easy to sympathise with. He is a controversial hero, and a complicated and imperfect person who earns our sympathy through his flawed humanity.

These things, translated to the small screen, make for a fascinating character. His belief in himself is not unshakeable - he has doubts. He has regrets. He is caustic and short-tempered. He is manipulative, using, and exploiting his friends. He is self-righteous when he gets the chance, and angry when he gets called out on his hypocrisy.

These characteristics make him flawed and vulnerable, and so reveal to us his humanity. They are the kind of traits that make for a great television character.

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References:
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+ Dan Wickline's 'There Is Now A Save Constantine Petition'; on bleedingcool.com; 27 November 2014.

+ Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette & John Ridgway's 'Hellblazer'; DC/Vertigo; 1988. [Buy Now]

+ Daniel Cerone & David S. Goyer's 'Constantine'; on NBC; 2014. [Buy Now]

Arts of Leadership: Part 1 - Shifting the Focus

Redirecting the focus of public anger is a big part of Public Relations. Here are just a few examples of this technique:

'Full marks to the Andy Coulson media operation [for timing announcements about child benefit cuts]... The Tory conference carries one message; the nation must pull together to get us out of the trouble Labour put us in.'
            (Pascoe-Watson, 2010)

'At first I was annoyed by the pope's disgraceful attack on atheists and secularists, but then I saw it as reassuring. It suggests that we have rattled them so much that they have to resort to insulting us, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the child abuse scandal.'
            (Dawkins, 2010)

In his 'historic' speech in Britain last year, the Pope made studious use of this tactic in the face of overwhelming public outcry against the institutionalised abuse being admitted by Catholic leaders around the world (Traynor, 2010).

'Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society... In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate.'
            (Benedict XVI, in Jones et al, 2010)

While in itself an admission of guilt, this technique is utilised to take advantage of the human love of all things comparative (an example here in comic form from XKCD).

A recent example is the Iranian Government's anger at being singled out for its sentence of death for a convicted woman. They deflected accusations by pointing to an American 'Double Standard' (Dehghan, 2010), as the United States at the time held a woman awaiting death for an arranged murder, who allegedly suffered mental health problems.

This case as the others above, leaves me astounded at the 'moral' positions our leaders adopt. We find ourselves in a system of morality justified by ranking your sins on a sliding scale, where it isn't so bad if everyone is doing it. This leads me to think:

+ How can we, in a rational world, allow leaders to so blatantly seek to sucker us with cheap vaudevillian misdirections? What can we do to hold these leaders to account?

+ Further, should it not be considered an honour by the church to be held to a higher standard? As with other nations and organisations that are singled out over issues, is it not a high compliment indeed to have better expected of you?

In the following few weeks, this blog is going to cover some more of the common misdirections, confuscations and slights-of-hand used by people in power to keep you distracted. It's one thing to demand that people always remain vigilant. It's a more practical one to give them some of the right tools.

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References:
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+ James Cowling's ''Full marks' to Tories' Andy Coulson for timing of child benefit announcement';

+ Richard Dawkins's 'Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity';

+ Ian Traynor's 'Belgian child abuse report exposes Catholic clergy';

+ Sam Jones, John Hooper & Tom Kington's 'Pope Benedict XVI goes to war with 'atheist extremism'';

+ Saeed Kamali Dehghan's 'Iran accuses US of double standards over woman's execution'

- For more reports from the Papal visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/20/papal-visit-religious-pope
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11317441