It’s no secret that I love superheroes. There is just something so compelling about heroes who transcend the limits of human capabilities, something so fascinating about stories of good, evil, and the grey areas in between, something so uplifting about watching characters of incredible power struggle with their dramatic foils or darker natures. And right now is an amazing time to be alive and writing if you love superheroes. In my last post, I detailed my thoughts on some upcoming superhero films based on their trailers (link), but now I want to talk a bit about the television versions of these beloved characters.
The best place to start when talking about T.V. and superheroes is, undoubtedly, the D.C. television universe, or “CW-verse” as it is more popularly known. This universe includes Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. While each show has had its struggles this season, there have definitely been unique and interesting elements that kept bringing me back week after week.
Arrow, as the most solidly established show has had some rocky ground to cover this season, as Oliver Queen is forced (once again) to confront the darkness inside of him after his decision to kill Damian Darke. The problem I have with this season is that we have been forced, over the course of five seasons now, to continually watch Oliver struggle with his “darkness.” I understand that the struggle against internal darkness is perpetual, but I thought that over the previous seasons we had seen Oliver make a lot of progress, and mature and develop as a character. This season regressed him a bit, causing him to continually question his own strength of character and morality. I understand that choosing to kill someone is a massive choice that has repercussions on the individual psyche, but I would like to see him deal with those repercussions in a manner that is consistent with his previous development over the course of the show. That being said, there are a couple of thing I have really liked about this season. It is no secret that Arrow knocks off Batman a lot, and one of the most interesting ways they have done so recently has been in the widening of Team Arrow. Originally just Oliver, his friend and bodyguard John Diggle, and hacker extraordinaire, Felicity Smoak, the team has widened to include the tech based hero Mr. Terrific, the rough around the edges, street wise Mad Dog, a new Black Canary, and the magic based Rag Man. The addition of each of these characters has altered the dynamic on the team in new and interesting ways, as they mirror or oppose the original team members in ways that highlight the way those old characters have changed over the years. All in all, this season of Arrow has provided interesting new characters while allowing for new developments in the old ones. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hindered by the darker tone and melodramatic mopey-ness of the original cast. Overall, a good watch, but never my first priority on any given week.
Almost as established as Arrow, and certainly receiving wider attention is The Flash. While Arrow was defined by its dark, gritty, “Batman” like approach to the superhero genre, The Flash reached success by being deliberately campy, lighthearted, a tad melodramatic, while still developing interesting characters and insightful story arcs. This most recent season has continued in that tradition, including more lighthearted episodes like “Duet,” a musical episode, and “Dead or Alive,” a delightful action chase episode in which Barry and friends have to battle a (very sexy) inter-dimensional bounty hunter. But this season has also had its struggles, mainly in the relationship between Barry Allen and his romantic interest, Iris West, and with the developments in Caitlin Snow’s character. The chemistry between Barry and Iris has always been one of the weaker aspects of the show, and because Iris’s immanent death is the inciting incident for this season, the relationship has been pushed to the forefront. The Flash is at its strongest when Barry is focused on saving Central City; he is a genuinely good hero who is fighting to make the world a better place. By putting a selfish spin on his heroics (he is trying to “save the woman he loves”), the heart of the character is lost. Similarly, Caitlyn’s struggle with the apparent inevitability of her turning into her evil meta-human counterpart, Killer Frost, shifts the focus of the story away from the external mission of saving the world to the less compelling internal struggle to save herself. Again, while it is possible to have characters struggle with their internal darkness or their selfish desire, with a character like the Flash, who is a genuinely good and well intentioned hero, the focus on the inner darkness makes the storytelling disjointed and less compelling. For all that, there have been some wonderful developments this season, again with the widening of the team and the development of secondary characters. Cisco Ramon has really come into his own this season; with the departure of Dr. Harrison Wells, Cisco has become the foremost scientific mind on the show, and with the development of his meta-human powers he has also had opportunities for some choice heroics. We have also had the addition of a third iteration of Harrison Wells, H.R., whose lack of scientific background/intellect and quirky social skills are beautifully balanced by over-bounding enthusiasm and a deep emotional sensitivity. The new Wells is everything the old Well was not, and it has been fascinating to see the character carve out his own niche on the team, despite his obvious shortcomings. Another delightful addition has been Julian Albert, an antisocial meta-human specialist whose transition from antagonist to valued member of team Flash has been fascinating and well conceived. Much in the way that Eddie Thawne and Jay Gerrick/Zoom served as mirrors for Barry in the first two seasons, Julian’s well intentioned desire to help, complete lack of social skills, and thoroughly British sensibilities contrast and reflect Barry’s nature in interesting and compelling ways. While season 3 of The Flash, has had its bumpy moments, the integration of new characters and thoughtful development of some old ones has made it must view T.V. every week.
While Arrow and The Flash have sometimes been a slog this season, Supergirl has been a highlight of my T.V. week. The show has retained (most of) the optimism and joy of the first season, while exploring new directions for characters. Particularly delightful has been the relationship between Supergirl and Mon-El, a prince from Krypton’s sister planet Daxom, whose epicurian lifestyle and carpe diem attitude contrast nicely with Kara’s staunch morality and heroic persona. It has been a pleasure seeing these two work through their differences and begin to appreciate each other for their own strengths. I have also enjoyed watching the friendship between James Olsen and Win Schott develop this season. With Win working at the DEO and James becoming the superhero Guardian, there have been some really interesting opportunities for the show to look at what it means to be a hero, the importance of people who work behind the scenes, and the cost of choosing a life of heroics. Win and James' friendship has provided a nice foil for the friendship between Kara and her sister Alex, as each explores the dynamic between open heroism and behind the scenes support. Another wonderful part of this series has been the team-ups with other shows. There have been two major cross over events this year; “Invasion” which crossed over all four “CW-verse” shows, and “Duet” which crossed over with The Flash. Both crossovers brought the shows closer together and provided opportunities for the ever growing cast of heroes to show their capabilities. Supergirl in particular shined in these opportunities, as her position as an outsider (alien, from a different universe) has allowed her to provide an “other” perspective on the problems and potential of the other shows. She is also immensely powerful in comparison with the other heroes, which has created an interesting dynamic and opportunity for growth in the heroes from Arrow, or Legends of Tomorrow. All this being said, there have been a couple of minor disappointments with this season. First has been the loss of Cat Grant for the season. While Cat Grant walked a fine line between being an frustrating and annoying character and being a wise mentor, she provided a mature, successful female role model for Kara. In a show where most of the mature women turn out to be evil, it was refreshing to have a successful, powerful woman who could be the voice of experience to the growing Kara. Each of the other show heroes have their mentors; Oliver has Diggle, Barry has Joe West, Jay Gerrick, and Harrison Wells (all three of them). While there are still older, mature characters on Supergirl (J’onn J’onz and Snapper Carr), there is not the same female presence that we had the in first season, and I think the show is a bit lacking for it. Similarly frustrating has been the portrayal of Alex Danvers as lesbian this season. While I understand the desire to add sexual diversity, and while I felt the choice was consistent with Alex’s character, I don’t like the way it has been over-emphasized. This is a consistent problem with the “CW-verse” shows generally, but it comes to a point in Supergirl. The show is so “in your face” with its “enlightened” view of sexuality. Every episode there has to be a reminder that this character is lesbian, that this character has a girlfriend, that this character finally came out of the closet. It overemphasizes Alex’s sexuality to the detriment of her wider character development. She is a smart, capable, badass character who has been reduced to nothing more than her sexual orientation. Of course I understand the difficulty of portraying a loaded concept like divergent sexuality tastefully, but I also know it can be done very well. For all its faults, the MTV show Teen Wolf does an amazing job portraying differences in sexuality. Characters are gay without it being a big deal; that is just who they are, a (minor) part of the sum of who they are as a person. Supergirl could stand to take a page from the Teen Wolf playbook and present Alex as a character who happens to be lesbian, but mostly as a character who is a brilliant scientist, a strong, capable agent, and a loving and compassionate sister. It is these qualities that make the character interesting and likable, regardless of the type of person she likes to have sex with.
The final “CW-verse” show is D.C.’s Legends of Tomorrow. This show follows a “ragtag group” of heroes and villains as time travel to protect history from villains who would rewrite it for their own benefit. The first season of this show was thoroughly campy but also delightfully enjoyable. This most recent season was able to offset a number of the shows initial flaws while maintaining the sense of wonder and absurdity that made the show enjoyable in the first place. From a strictly technical perspective, the decision this season to eliminate a lot of the “poster shot” moments (elaborately contrived moments where each hero strikes an awesome pose mid battle for a sweeping camera camera shot) was a definite improvement. The season also embraced the delight in time travel; allowing the heroes to visit various historical periods such as the Revolutionary War and American Civil War, World War 1 and 2, Arthurian England, the Apollo 13 moon mission to name a few, along with various “future” locations, and creating opportunities for the Legends to meet famous individuals such as Einstein, Al Capone, George Lucas, and J.R.R. Tolkien. The delight the show takes in the time travel sections is obvious and a large part of the show’s charm. This season also had some good character additions; Nate Haywood (aka Citizen Steel) joined the group along with Amara (Vixen), with the Justice Society of America (the 1940s version of the Justice League) making multiple appearances. Haywood’s addition seems an attempt to bring a sense of historical verisimilitude to the show which creates a humorous dilemma when the rules of time travel mean that history is constantly changing, while Vixen provides a much needed feminine presence while proving continually that she can go toe to toe with the boys and come out on top. While Legends of Tomorrow is not necessarily as thematically dark or involved as Arrow, or even The Flash, it has had its more serious moments. Watching Sarah Lance struggle with the burden of leadership and with her own doubts about whether she can be a hero, seeing Martin Stein discovering that his meddling in time has altered his own history and he now has a daughter that he never knew, and watching Nate and Amara come to terms with their families' pasts and future, have shown that Legends has the ability to make it, not just on the merit of its fun time travel, but on character development and emotional involvement as well. (On a parenthetical side note: my favorite episode of any superhero show this year was from Legends of Tomorrow, and was the episode “Fellowship of the Spear,” where they went back to World War 1 and met J.R.R. Tolkien on the battlefield. The episode was rife with Lord of the Rings allusions and was a delightful combination of nerdy reference and epic quest.)
While the D.C. “CW-verse” shows are the most well known, and arguably the best, superhero shows on T.V. right now, there are a few others that bear consideration. In the Marvel universe, the most recent additions are the latest season of Agents of SHIELD, and the Netflix series Iron Fist.
This season of Agents of SHIELD has been underwhelming to say the least. I had high hopes for this season given what the trailers indicated the show would be about, and how it would relate to the most recent properties in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Unfortunately, the hype surrounding the inclusion of Ghost Rider on the show, and the potential of an android sorceress have been completely overwhelmed by the show’s less interesting factors including Sky/Daisy/Quake’s emotional damage, the political battle between humans in the Inhumans, or the new director of SHIELD. While any one of these factors could be interesting in the right context, each one is given minimal time while the show bounces around between this and the really cool concepts they are building through the Darkhold/Ghost Rider/Ava the android story-lines. Even these story lines, which seemed to be building to a really cool climax seemed to fizzle out a bit. When Ava reads the Darkhold (an evil magical book that holds the "secrets of the universe") in order to save Coulson and Fitz from another dimension, it was a really cool set up for the potential of a powerful sorceress android who could manipulate magic as science/science as magic. However, this possibility lasted less than an episode before it was implied that Ava would be evil, and barely an episode more before we discovered that Ava was a pawn being used by her creator for evil purposes with no agency of her own. What could have been a really interesting direction for the character; a robot who believes in the power of science with all the knowledge of the Darkhold at her disposal was reduced to cliches. The same thing happened with Ghost Rider; this is a really cool character who could have been totally awesome. Instead, the show pushes his character to the periphery to focus on the Inhuman conflicts, and fails to embrace the post-Dr. Strange world of Marvel in which magic can be totally awesome. I was really looking forward to the show elaborating more fully on the role of magic in the Marvel Extended Universe (MEU), and was sorely disappointed to see them focusing on the Inhumans, to the detriment of the show.
While Agents of SHIELD consistently struggles with keeping a consistent tone and story-line with its ties to the MCU, Marvel’s Netflix shows have been very strong, taking advantage of the specificity of the medium and using the opportunity to challenge the status quo of superhero T.V. While Marvel’s Iron Fist was a well constructed superhero show that kept interest and was thoroughly enjoyable, it was not a product of the same caliber as what we have come to expect from Marvel’s Netflix shows. I am not saying Iron Fist was bad; there was some really good character development, some fun martial arts sequences, some interesting analyses on the treatment and stigmatization of the mentally ill. But in comparison with season one of Daredevil, with its interesting integration of violent action, faith driven heroism, and struggles with disability, or with Jessica Jones or even Luke Cage. I was whelmed by Iron Fist; it was exactly what I expected, but it did not manage to be anything more, and that was disappointing. Of the Netflix "Defenders," Iron Fist is one of the most powerful and interesting characters. Orphaned at a young age an raised in a hidden city in Nepal (kind of), Danny Rand literally has turned himself into a living weapon. He can channel his chi into his hand and punch through steel, and heal himself and others through a similar process. This should have been an awesome character to watch, a character who is dealing with having brought himself to the height of his potential physically, but who is still struggling to find his emotional and psychological center. Instead, we got a formula Netflix superhero show. Granted, it is a good formula, and a formula that works; very good fight choreography, the infamous “hallway” battle, recognition of deeper themes and playing with controversial topics. But it does feel like Iron Fist is going through the motions a bit, instead of bringing something fresh and new to the Netflix superhero genre.
While the “CW-verse” and M.E.U. represent multi-show worlds with crossover potential and inter-story referentiality, Fox has a couple of stand alone properties that are worth a mention in the discussion of superhero T.V. shows. The first is Gotham, the “what happened in Gotham before Bruce Wayne became Batman" show that wavers between melodramatic, uncertain, and occasional brilliance. I have found that Gotham is a show better binged than watched on a week by week basis. While I am watching the show I invest in the characters and carefully track the intricate plot-lines. The villains of the show (as is often the case with Batman properties) are a particularly fascinating collection. While they are each clearly psychotic, there is such a delightful variety of psychosis that it keeps the show constantly dynamic and changing. One episode the heroes are dealing with a group of thieves whose use of a red hood makes them feel invincible, the next with a genius intellect trying to frame a cop for murder, the next is a crime lord struggling to maintain his hold over the city’s various mob families. Each criminal’s psychosis is drawing them further toward a comic book absurdity that contrasts beautifully with the dark, grim reality of the struggling and corrupt Gotham P.D. and the solidity of the show’s heroes. The problem with Gotham is that it is not particularly memorable once you stop watching. While you are watching, it is impossible to look away, but once the collection of shows you have saved to watch is finished, it is very easy to move on and lose interest. This is not a show that makes me want to come back a week later and see what is going to happen. This is mostly a result of the convoluted plots and melodramatic (yet slightly boring) main character. Gotham keeps a lot of plates spinning at the same time; it is a police procedural with the episodic dead body to send detectives Gordon and Bullock into the chase, but it is also an ongoing mystery/ conspiracy story following who killed/had Bruce Wayne’s parents killed, while also being an origin story for the great villains and heroes of the Batman mythos. Each of these threads creates a complex tapestry of events that is fine for binge watching (where you remember from 10 minutes ago that this person is involved with this murder or that conspiracy), but make it complicated when you step away from the show for any length of time to keep characters and events straight. Another difficulty is that the main characters are a bit boring, and as a prequel, we know certain facts about them from the outset. There is never any real sense of danger for Jim or Harvey, as any Batman fan knows that they both make it to the Bat era of Gotham. We know Jim survives, we know he gets married (although not necessarily to whom in the show), and that he has kids. We know Bruce, Alfred, and Selina all survive the perils in which they are placed because they are all key components of the Batman story. While it is interesting to see them beginning to develop into the characters we know they will become, it does not provide the elevated dramatic tension necessary to bring viewers back week after week.
The newest addition to the ever growing collection of superhero T.V. shows, and one of the most interesting, has been Legion. Legion is an X-Men spinoff that follows David Haller, an extraordinarily powerful mutant with telepathy, telekinesis, and a large number of other powers that basically give him the ability to alter reality. The problem is that David is also psychologically unstable… or is he? This show balances on the blurry edge between the superhero and horror genres, as audience and character are forced constantly to re-evaluate what is real and what is not; if David is really crazy, or if his “psychosis” is simply his powers manifesting, or if there is a nefarious force trying to make people (and David) think he is crazy? The show starts with a complete sense of displacement as the audience picks up about half way through the chronology of the episodes. This displacement echoes the character’s uncertainty about what is going on as they try to sift through David’s memories and reconstruct his past to reveal his powers and uncover his secrets. David’s memories are as uncertain as his sanity, however, and the heroes soon begin to doubt their own perceptions has his power to alter reality becomes evident. Legion is the most intellectual of the superhero shows currently running. It uses horror elements to create the sense of unease and uncertainty in the audience that the characters are feeling, while also using a wide variety of film techniques to foreshadow major events and leave hints about the “truth” of what is happening while simultaneously concealing enough to keep the audience guessing through the season finale. Each revelation only creates more questions, each victory only opens the world to new dangers, and each new character complicates the reality/unreality of the others. Legion is similar to Gotham in that it juggles a large number of characters, complicated plot-lines, and themes of madness and reality, but becomes the superior show through its stellar use of visual cues and avant guard story-telling details that support or undercut each of the themes. Legion demonstrates the potential of the superhero genre for more “literary” story telling and “artistic” expression. While I miss some of the levity more typical of the superhero genre, Legion does an excellent job of building a superhero story that is interesting, compelling, and intellectually satisfying. Legion is well worth watching, and I look forward to seeing what future season hold.
So there you have it; a (rather long) summary of the latest season of the superhero T.V. shows. While there have been highlights and disappointments, for anyone who is a fan of superheroes, this year has been a delight. Even the worst shows have had there fantastic elements, and the best have been truly wonderful. If you like watching vigilantes in bright colors, super-powered beings punching bad guys, or psychotic villains with a flair for the dramatic, all of these shows will satisfy, and all are worth the time to catch up.
Well, back to reality.
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