Constantine‘s season finale was fairly indicative of the series as a whole so far: very, very procedural.

Watching the episode, I had a distinct advantage that the writers and producers did not when making this episode: actually knowing this was a finale. Having not gotten the “back nine” (warning: TV Tropes) ordered, this initial season is composed of one-off episodes with a few drips and drops here and there of an overarching story without really being able to flesh said story out. If the goal (or, perhaps, network mandate) is for a more procedural show, the series’ foundation is already on shaky ground, as genre shows work best when serialized, with a few exceptions here and there.

So, to look at this episode, are we looking at it as an episode or as a finale? As an episode, it’s pretty run of the mill with one or two surprises (okay, two surprises). It does feature the return of Jim Corrigan, who, as a huge fan of his more famous alter ego, I have to remind myself each time he’s on that this isn’t his show, it’s John’s show. And Matt Ryan is doing a great job of portraying Constantine, but he’s sorely lacking for other, more colorful characters. Chas is a fascinating character, but is more often used as cannon fodder, and as we just recently learned, that talent has a finite amount of uses. Zed is never given much more direction than frowning and talking about how awful her visions are that she uses on a weekly basis to help save lives. We do have Papa Midnite, who does have an antagonistic relationship with John, but not one that they haven’t been able to set aside differences before in pursuit of a larger goal.

Other than that, it’s pretty much just been killer-of-the-week episodes. And this week was no different. Some bayou Satanist is taking child brides and murdering them. While John has faced evil of every form and fashion before, for some reason, this human evil seemed to get to him more, culminating in his and Corrigan’s executing of the guy at the end.

There was mention of a bounty of John’s head, and we did see Papa Midnite try to collect on that, but with the case of the week going on, I don’t know that the conflict between the two mystics served as a decent enough B-plot. Look, if a spiritual and open contract has been opened for John Constantine, that’s an episode in and of itself. Introduce it there and have killers and demons come out of the woodwork. Use that episode to really show John’s resolve in the face of conflict, and use it to strengthen the camaraderie between him, Chas, and Zed. Instead, it was used as filler for when the search for the bayou Satanist wasn’t interesting enough.

And an episode about said Bayou Satanist, when compared to previous (and better) episodes about fallen angels and enemies coming together to combat corrupted magic, just won’t hold our attention as much. If there’d been some examination of the Satanist, sure, explore his character, who he is and why he’s doing this, and save the Constantine/Papa Midnite stuff for its own episode. But as it stands, we don’t know anything about the evil guy in this episode, except that, what, he was more influenced by the Rising Darkness than he normally would’ve been? As the episode pointed out, John’s used to facing demons. They’re the epitome of evil for evil’s sake. But we finally get a human to confront, and there’s zero examination of where he’s coming from. I mean, we got more exploration from the freaky Freddy Krueger knockoff a few weeks back.

That said, I was curious about his trio of brides, and to be honest, I didn’t see the twist of them being ghosts coming at all. So the show got me on that one. And the gimme is the Manny proclamation at the end. Let the speculation ensue. I actually really want to know more about that, because the episode between Manny and the fallen angel was probably the best of the season. The dynamic between the restrictions placed on Manny and the humanity gained by the angel (a humanity which Manny got to experience up close and personal last week) was riveting to watch, especially as Manny had to steer their conservation away from talk of unhappiness with their angelic roles and their place in “the system” (my words, not the show’s).

So the episode over all, meh. More Corrigan is always a good thing, and Zed actually telling him of her visions was a pleasant end to that tension. The discussion between John and Manny at the end was also an interesting one, with John basically saying that he’s had to endure the deaths of friends so often, he’s steeled himself and is almost used to it, leaving unsaid that he actually has no idea how to handle his friends embracing life.

For a quick season in review, I’ll just say that for the most part, I enjoy the actors’ work, I just wish they were able to give us more. Matt Ryan’s John is great. He comes off as actually an asshole instead of the rugged “asshole with a heart of gold” that so many try to pull off. I mean, hell, he lied to Gary Lester at the beginning of the season just to lure him unknowingly to his death. And he was a friend. That’s some harsh stuff.

For Zed, it would be lovely if Angélica Celaya was given more to do than grouse about her abilities and freak out at the simple use of them. I know they’re intense, but having her character actually deal with them and overcome that weakness would be some magnificent character development. As it stands, we got eleven episodes of dreariness. And if last week’s reveal of her brain tumor was supposed to be important, it was so important as to not even rate a mention this week.

Charles Halford’s Chas has been used to better effect, with his temporary immortality coming in handy several times over the season. We learned where it came from and saw the state it had left his family in. Compare this to the mystery surrounding Zed’s family, which remains at… reasons.

As I mentioned above, whether the show is this procedural by conception or studio mandate, it has got to stop. I applaud the destruction of the bloody map last week as a step closer to the end of the case of the week, and one every now and then can be fun, but for genre shows, even if it has to be kept to a 13-episode run, a more serialized approach works best. When our characters are facing literally the end of the world by a thought-long-dead cult, it’s harsh, but some hick murdering people in the middle of nowhere just doesn’t seem to rate as that important. I’m just saying some urgency would be nice.

Maybe it’s not a fair comparison, but it’s one I’m going to make anyway. The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has said if he could rewrite the first arc of his comic, he would, because at the time, he didn’t know if each issue was going to be his last. He just wanted to get those first six issues out and say what he wanted to say. I think that’s a pretty good strategy for anything getting off the ground, especially a TV show. I’m aware of the “first six episodes are the pilot” mentality to grab in new viewers, but we just finished a 13-episode run. I think we’re good, guys. Give us some story.