By MEGHAN O’CONNOR
Staff Writer
Recently, I wrote about the television show “Constantine” and how it was a continuous struggle for the show to stay on, due to its up-and-down ratings. Some weeks’ episodes were getting higher ratings than others, and with NBC’s change of time slot, fans were wondering whether or not the show would come back for a second season.
Well, now it’s April. It’s been about a month since the season finale of “Constantine” aired, and fans still don’t know if there will be a season two. Recently, it was released that NBC was in the discussion stages regarding a second season, but there would not be a result until May at the earliest.
Perhaps the ratings have been continuously up and down because that seems to be how the quality of the show goes. It has its great moments, and it has its not-so-great moments. When I previously wrote about the show, I praised the actors and the quality of the storytelling that the writers were doing. I was hooked and thoroughly enjoying the show. I was very certain I did not want it to end. Now, I’m not so sure.
After watching the season finale, I felt very uneasy. It was like any other episode of “Constantine.” There’s something bad happening, Constantine has to figure out a way to save the day, and in the end he does.
Sure, there was one big plot reveal right at the end of the episode to keep people coming back and asking for more, but it my opinion it was a little predictable. Nothing about this episode stood out to me and made me go, “this is a fantastic season finale.”
That’s not to say that I don’t want more of the show. In fact, I seem to be at war with myself as I write this. I would love to see more of the world of “Constantine.” I still love all the actors and I think they’re fantastic in their roles. I enjoy the case-by-case story arc and seeing a new kind of dark force/demon every week. I even enjoy the flimsy overarching storyline they have right now for the entire series.
What I personally would like to see is the writers of “Constantine” taking their show somewhere else. In the previous article, I had talked about the rumors that the writers were going to take the show to a new network that would cater more towards their genre of show. I think this would be the perfect way to keep the show going and even make it stronger.
Doing this, the writers might even have a little more freedom should they decide to go with a cable network, like Syfy. They could write grittier stories without having to worry about upsetting the network. They could push the envelope a bit more.
However, the rumors that the writers were going to another network quickly died once NBC reported that they were in discussions about creating a second season. So it appears that it’s going to be either NBC giving the show a second season, or the show not having a second season at all. There hasn’t been any rumor or hint as to which direction they are leaning, and it’s making me weary, waiting this much.
I can honestly say that if it was between NBC giving the show a second season and the show not coming back, at this point I would not want the show to come back. If NBC is going to continue on the way they did during the first season, and try to pull off a second season with the same formula, it will not work.
It will become stale. The demons of the week will become boring, fans will stop caring about the characters, and even John Constantine’s wit and sarcasm won’t be able to save the show from crumbling. Should they decide to start fresh, go somewhere that they haven’t gone before… well then, that’s a completely different ballgame.
The fact of the matter is, fans won’t know the fate of the show until it is revealed by the network. I know what I’m rooting for in the end, but I’m not the one making the decision. Overall, the show has been fairly solid throughout. I just hope that if there’s more to come from NBC involving “Constantine,” that they step outside the box a little bit and dive a little deeper into the dark world that the show seems to desperately want to go to.
