John Constantine: Hellblazer

John Constantine: Hellblazer (often shortened to simply Hellblazer or JCH) is a British supernatural crime drama and black comedy telivision series from Sky Atlantic starring Jude Law as the titular John Constantine, based on characters and plots appearing in the DC/Vertigo comic series Hellblazer. A first series of thirteen episodes were filmed on site at Liverpool between March and November 2015, before being displayed to the UK and Ireland through Sky Atlantic and to the United States and Canada through HBO. Following series one, Hellblazer began adopting the format of releasing one 10-15 episode series per year to account for it's lower budget, beginning with series two in 2017. As of 2020, 8 series have been aired with two more currently in production.

The series has been nominated for three Golden Globe awards, winning two for best drama series and best supporting actress in a series, won by Ruth Gruber for her performance as Mad Hettie respectively. As Gruber passed shortly after winning the award in early 2018, the third series of Hellblazer along with early episodes of the fourth were deticated to her memory.

It has been confirmed by writer team Iain Morris, Neil Cross and Dan Swimer that two more series are currently in pre production. In a press release, series creator and director Edgar Wright revealed that he was in talks with HBO to create a contract spanning up to a planned 12 series (concluding, with all hopes, in mid-late 2026).

Plot
John Constantine is an exorcist, drifter and practitioner in the occult living a steady life as a con artist in eastern London. However, he is drawn back into the world of magick by a mage named Zed who informs Constantine that his 15-year-old neice Gemma Masters has been kidnapped by a satanist and rapist known only as "the Man". After returning back to his hometown of Liverpool and saving the girl, however, he discovers that her parents have become involved with a cult known as the Crusaders of Resurrection. John spends most of series one trying to shutdown the Crusaders and subdue the many demonic forces they have unleashed, along with investigating the origins of the Man and the mysterious Demonic Army organization with the help of both Zed and his longtime friend Chas Chandler. The series ends in Constantine's final confrontation with the demon Nergal and the brainwashed Zed.

Starting with series two and ending in series four, Hellblazer begins to become somewhat episodic, though each series has it's own respective and overarching plot. After the culmination of series three's Family Man arc and the boost in ratings (along with the temporary leave of Dan Swimer and his replacement by D.B. Weiss), the writers began to delve into longer, series-spanning stories, especially those involving the First of the Fallen and his war on Constantine, with similar plots involving the demon Nergal. Using both inspiration from the comics and from their own imagination, stories began to dip into genres varying from horror to long and twisted love stories, notably including those involving Angie Spatchcock and Epiphany Greaves. After various minor appearances in seasons two and three, Gemma returned to prominence in the series six arc "Reasons to be Cheerful", in which it has been revealed that she has become a magician and con-man like her uncle, specifically targeting, tricking and attacking date rapists. Her return as a major character includes her assistance to her uncle during the arc, which also showed her reckless and dangerous ways of using magic stemming from her lack of skill and knowledge. So to stop her from getting herself killed, John eventually agrees to become her mentor in the black arts.

The following series shows Constantine's continous battles against the occult and demons, training of Gemma into a skillful magician against his own will, the budding of his romance with Epiphany Greaves and his realization of the destruction he causes to all of those around him.