By Drew Taylor

The highly-anticipated spin-off “The Continental: From the World of John Wick” premiered Friday on a streaming platform some in the industry would find surprising.

What makes the show stand out — apart from its miniseries format, comprised of three movie-sized episodes spread across three consecutive Fridays (a callback to television events of yore) — is the fact that the prequel, spun off from one of the crown jewels of the Lionsgate portfolio, landed on the NBCUniversal-owned streamer rather than on Starz, Lionsgate’s own premiere cable channel and streaming platform.