Warning: Fullfor Season 1 of Constantine follow...

With Constantine wrapping up its first season last week, and its overall chances for renewal not looking all that great (though an official decision, one way or another, isn't expected until May, closer to the annual network Upfronts), it's time to look back and through these 13 initial episodes and sift through the bones.DC/Vertigo's John Constantine leapt from the sordid, scary pages of his Hellblazer comics thanks to EPs David Goyer (The Dark Knight, Man of Steel) and Daniel Cerone (Dexter, Charmed). And Matt Ryan, as the titular hero, was really effective in bringing Constantine to life on screen. Flippant when called for. Vulnerable when need be. All the while - whether casting out a demon from some poor body or battling one within himself - creating a very commanding, likable presence on screen. John Constantine was a the sort of hero you had to get right immediately and Ryan excelled.John's back up proved less reliable from a charisma standpoint. Its understandable that John should pop, but both Zed and Chas fell short in the pairing department. Their powers were splendidly different and uniquely useful in John's battles with the mysterious "Rising Darkness," but both felt flat in other ways. Likewise for Emmett Scanlan's Jim Corrigan - the man who is/was to go on and become DC's The Spectre, possibly even in his own series, if Goyer and Cerone's master plan for maneuvering more of DC's supernatural-verse to TV comes to pass. He had a great look, but both his dialogue and emoting were spare.In the comic series, John had a revolving door of teammates and helpers. And the framework of his tales lent itself to that style of sporadic comradery. Well, that and the fact that John's emotional walls and his tendency to not want to let people get too close were a recurring themes. Here however, on TV, that aspect didn't work as well. I really liked that Newcastle was used as the show's jumping off point, and that throughout the season John would have to atone in various ways with scattered members of that ill-fated team, but his own team often suffered.And the fact that weird excuses (art class, family time, fixing the cab, etc) had to be created for Zed and/or Chas occasionally not being around (granted, once it was because Zed's actual introductory adventure was moved up to the second episode when it was originally intended to air later) exposed weaknesses in the writing and planning. When John only took Zed along for an adventure, or just Chas, or just himself in one case, it immediately took the wind out of that week's case. It told the viewer, right off the bat, that this week didn't require the team and that whoever happened to be around would do just fine. Also, for a show trying to find its footing - especially after changing up the cast after the pilot - it made for a choppy, uneven experience.Even though we're only talking about 13 episodes here, the show still made good use of a seasonal arc format. Even using the "Rising Darkness" to both inform and be the cause of a procedural "case of the week" structure . The "Scry Map" gave John demons and ghosts to chase, all under the umbrella that hell was slowly encroaching upon the world of the living. And while not every "case of the week" landed, a couple of stories ripped from the comics came alive in (remixed) cool ways ("A Feast of Friends," "The Saint of Last Resorts: Part 1" and "Waiting for the Man"). Along with some DC notables like Felix Faust, Eclipso's Black Diamond, and Jim Corrigan (though, as mentioned, performance-wise he was kind of a quaalude).Constantine, as a show, is also very much its own thing. Similar in some ways to The CW's Supernatual, sure, but it brought us into a world of demons, angels and armageddon that the Winchesters didn't wind up tackling until seasons down the line. Overall too, Constantine is cool. It's a cool comic with a cool detached lead that makes the reader feel like a guest invited into a world that (quite possibly) could never fully be explained properly. And the show, as brief as the season was, made us feel that at times. Though it also showed us that having your hero being such a driving force that he's both the main source of drama and humor can create a vacuum elsewhere on the show.I liked that Manny turned out to be the villain right at the end of the finale. Mostly because the "Rising Darkness" needed a face. The Brujeria were mentioned quite a bit, but never shown. Was the twist worth sitting through a handful of episodes where I wondered why Manny was even there at all? Maybe, maybe not. But the show needed a "big bad," and whether or not Manny turns out to be Satan himself or just an evil angel, he still fits the bill nicely.As someone who didn't mind Lucy Griffiths' Liv in the pilot, but also who thinks Zed brought something necessary to the show in her own right, I kind of wish the show had went with both of them - with Zed being the one who pops in and out (like she wound up doing anyhow) and Liv being the constant. It's too late to change anything and I know I'm just unfairly phantom plotting here, but I feel like Liv's naive, newbie nature would have given John something better to play off of, as opposed to Zed's mysteriousness. Though I did like how enraptured Zed would with Manny, as John tends to thumb his nose at everything, angelic or demonic, under the sun.