History Series / TheContinental

The miniseries premiered on Creator/{{Peacock}}, on September 22, 2023.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: A small detail, but a very important one to anyone familiar with the High Table's rules. [[spoiler:Just before he guns down the Adjudicator, Winston purposefully steps down to street level from the bottom part of the stoop that ascends up to the Continental's doors. As a quick refresher, the protection, and therefore rules, of the Continental only extend to the property itself, not the surrounding street. By leaving the Continental grounds, however slightly, he is simultaneously no longer no longer under its protection, but also not beholden to its rules, so he can kill the Adjudicator without consequence. This is further added onto when the Adjudicator accuses Winston moments before she is shot of not knowing the rules, and he answers back that he does, indeed, know the rules. Therefore an added layer of his message is that, by showing he is willing to leave the Continental's protection to kill, he will get his hands dirty to defend his position, but not violate the sanctity of the property he is sworn to protect and maintain.]]

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: [[spoiler:Winston stops the self-destruct protocol at the last second by severing Cormac's hand and using it on the biometric lock.]] [[SubvertedTrope Though the Adjudicator later claims that she was the one who actually stopped it]].

** Prior to launching his final gambit against Cormac, Winston utters ''"And away we go"''. He would repeat this phrase [[Film/JohnWickChapter3Parabellum when John Wick's excommunicado status took effect]].

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Just so we know he's a prick, Cormac shows that he's a BadBoss by going on at length that Avery has a large family who could all be killed and gives him a SadisticChoice: walk out the door and let his family be killed or throw himself off the balcony.

** In his first scene, when describing the consequences of what would happen if he were to be excommunicated and lose the Continental's protection, Cormac says, "Imagine me walking out these doors, y'know, alive... but suddenly unprotected from all the people that I've hurt over the last 40 years. My enemies would hunt me down." [[spoiler:In the finale, Winston and his allies take out all of Cormac's allies during their assault on the Continental, leaving him vulnerable to be killed by KD di Silva, who seeks to avenge her family's deaths which were committed on Cormac's orders.]]

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: KD is a police detective who's not in on the secret of the Continental, investigating one of its members for running guns [[spoiler:and to avenge her family's deaths]]. She slowly pieces it together, even as her boss/lover tells her to leave it alone.

* OnceAnEpisode: The first episode continues the franchise's tradition of introducing and then brutally destroying gorgeous classic msucle cars, and the series ends with KD telling Winston, "Be seeing you".
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Gene Jenkins is introduced stalking and sniping a convicted child molester before he can claim another victim.

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: During the banter between Cormac, Charon and Winston in the final chapter, Cormac taunts Charon to kill him, otherwise he'll send him back to UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}. This is meant to convey Cormac's GlobalIgnorance (Charon corrects him with "It's Nigeria!"), but at the time there was no Zimbabwe. Outside the circle of the ZANU, ZAPU and their Africanist sympathizers, the country was known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia Rhodesia]], and it was a rogue British colony under White minority rule a la its neighbor [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid South Africa]].

* BigRottenApple: The series is set in the New York City of the 1970s, when crime was rampant and the streets were piled with garbage due to ongoing strike action by sanitation workers.

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: During the banter between Cormac, Charon and Winston in the final chapter, Cormac taunts Charon to kill him, otherwise he'll send him back to UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}. This is meant to convey Cormac's GlobalIgnorance (Charon corrects him with "It's Nigeria"), but at the time there was no Zimbabwe. Outside the circle of the ZANU-PF and their Africanist sympathizers, back then the country was known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia Rhodesia]], and it was a rogue British colony under a White minority rule a la [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid South Africa]].

->''"But a wolf in sheep's clothing can't rely on killer instinct alone. It's his resourcefulness and perhaps an open heart that can turn garbage into gold and enemies into allies."''

--->'''Winston:''' We need guns. Lots of guns.

->''"Winston, your brother stole something from me. What he took is very important to a lot of very dangerous people. Find him. Because if you don't, I'll bring the weight of this whole institution down on you both."''
-->-- '''Cormac O'Connor'''

->''"We are taking this goddamn house and everything that comes with it."''

-->-- '''Cormac'''

* TheFagin: Don Li, the crime lord of China Town is also called the Orphan Master. He's willing to mutilate orphans because "a one armed beggar earns twice as much. Ironic, isn't it?".

* GenericGraffiti: Because it's NYC in the seventies, ''everything'' is covered in graffiti. Walls, subway cars, garbage trucks, trash cans...

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: KD is a police detective who's not in on the secret of the Continental, investigating one of its members for running guns. She slowly pieces it together, even as her boss/lover tells her to leave it alone.

* OnceAnEpisode: The first episode continues the franchise's tradition of introducing and then brutally destroying gorgeous classic msucle cars and the series ends with KD telling Winston, "Be seeing you".

* GenreShift: Though the show has the franchise's signature fight scenes and car chases, it is far more a SpyFiction (stale beer) and FilmNoir than the jam-packed high octane action films that preceded it.

* NonActionGuy: In the WorldOfBadass of Assassins, Winston stands out as a noncombatant.
* OnceAnEpisode: The first episode continues the franchise's tradition of introducing and then brutally destroying gorgeous classic msucle cars.