fray-adjacent

That's pretty much the status quo for procedurals, sadly. I watched Law and Order (all flavors) for many years, and they were all like that the whole way through, with just the occasional longer story arc. I never quite got the satisfaction I wanted out of those kinds of shows. I generally don't watch procedurals now, I prefer shows where the story has weight from episode to episode. I only watch Elementary because I like the characters so much, haha.