Disclaimer: Only shows in the superhero genre will be used, including Arrow, Constantine, Gotham, and The Flash from DC and Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, and Daredevil from Marvel. iZombie and The Walking Dead will NOT be used. Ranking is based only on the past season and will not take past successes or failures into account. SPOILERS for each show.
7. Constantine
NBC tried to jump on the comic book bandwagon this season, but unfortunately failed. Constantine, which was just officially discontinued last week, never settled in on network television despite the casting of a great lead in Matt Ryan. Ultimately, the show never seemed to reel in the casual viewer despite its efforts to make the show more network friendly, possibly due to a tough time slot, and the small group of “Hellblazers” wasn’t enough to save the series. Creator Daniel Cerone attempted to shop the show around a bit to other networks in hopes of a second season -- even Stephen Amell helped by promising that he would appear in an episode -- but in the end Constantine could not find a new home. Hopefully we’ll see Matt Ryan reprise the role in the DC/CW universe, but that is highly unlikely.
As mentioned above, a major flaw of the series was that NBC really watered down the show to make it network friendly. Were it to had been originally picked up by Netflix or even SyFy we may have seen a show more willing and able to flex its comic book muscles which would have really set it apart from other shows on television, something NBC seemed afraid of. It’s first and only season was enjoyable, but nothing spectacular.
6. Gotham
Advanced reviews had the Batman prequel quickly sitting atop the genre, but unfortunately the FOX series never lived up to its potential. The first season was littered with references, cameos, and appearances by characters from the source material that had no business being introduced just yet. These characters included, Penguin, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Joker, Scarecrow and his dad, Electrocutioner’s dad, Harvey Dent, Salvatore Maroni, Carmine Falcone, Dr. Dullmacher, Harvey Bullock, Barbara Kean, Riddler, Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, and Lucius Fox. This was supposed to draw people in but instead led to a befuddled cast and an extremely weak plot that couldn’t even intrigue the biggest of Bat-fans.
The continuous foreshadowing of Bruce Wayne’s eventual transformation into Batman had even the most casual fan rolling their eyes. Ultimately, the first season felt more like a show that tried to fit in as many comic book characters and Batman references as possible instead of developing an interesting plot and intriguing characters. At times, it showed what it could be, but not nearly enough. Instead of focussing on Falcone, Maroni, Gordon and the struggle for power in Gotham, they spent time developing Fish Mooney in a storyline that truly went nowhere. And while the Penguin was one of the bright spots of the first half of the season, the character lost his way later on and his role in the main plot became tedious and unnecessary.
While the second half of the season did begin to improve, it couldn’t overcome the early writing woes and resulted in an extremely disappointing season. We'll see if they learn from their mistakes in season two, if they do not Bruce will most likely not be given the chance to become the Batman.
5. Arrow
Arrow came into the season as the king of the genre. The senior-most show had already delivered a very solid first season along with a riveting and truly spectacular second season. Unfortunately, the show couldn’t recapture the magic of the previous seasons as Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins were never able to pose the threat that Deathstroke had in season two. Also, the out-of-leftfield romance that quickly overtook the plot between Oliver and Felicity seriously dragged the series down as Marc Guggenheim and co. spent much more time developing a truly forced romance rather than developing plot and secondary characters like Roy, Diggle, and Laurel — all of whom are much more integral to the success of Team Arrow. This romance also severely hurt Felicity’s character who, outside of the Olicity fandom, quickly lost favor with the fan base after being one of the more popular characters in previous seasons. This was by far the most disappointing season out of the lot because the show had been so good coming in and had such high expectations.
The acting was considerably worse than the rest of the shows, with Willa Holland’s Thea Queen taking the crown for worst performance. Many of her emotional deliveries were cringe-worthy as she spat out empty threats through gritted teeth.
That said, the season did have one redeeming quality that came in the mid-season finale. While Ra’s was not written to his potential, Matt Nable did as good a job as one could do in making him a viable adversary. The Oliver/Ra’s al Ghul sword duel atop a snowy mountain proved to be one of the best scenes of the season for all the shows. It was choreographed beautifully, had its viewers emotionally engaged, and offered the biggest WTF moment. Unfortunately, they couldn’t back up the great scene with more good storytelling and the episodes that followed seemed rushed and the season lost its way soon after.
Throughout the season Oliver was given even more parallels to Batman/Bruce Wayne, and in some cases the writers just took entire story lines from the Batman mythos and inserted them into the show. This began irk some viewers who would rather see a Green Arrow story rather than Oliver inserted into a Batman story.
Lastly, the flashbacks were terrible all season. There were times when I literally had no clue as to what was going on and others when I had no interest. Most of the flashbacks just served to take momentum away from the episode’s main storyline and ultimately hurt the show.
(Also Nyssa was great throughout, and by far my favorite character of the season)
4. Agents of SHIELD
AoS had a very unspectacular first season, although as fans will quickly tell you, it got much better after the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier. This season was much of the same. While the first half of the season was much better than the previous, there was a point in the middle where it felt they were just stalling a bit until Age of Ultron was released and then it picked back up. That’s my main gripe with SHIELD; it feels too tethered to a movie universe that doesn’t seem to really notice it at all. They spend so much time making references to the MCU and get nothing in return. In fact, Joss Whedon even admitted that in his mind Phil Coulson is still dead. This is the major problem with having a television universe connected to the movie universe and why I’m glad DC is keeping them separate for the time being.
Another problem with the show is the weak antagonists; they lack a “big bad”. For example, in Arrow and The Flash we’ve had Deathstroke, Ra’s al Ghul, and Reverse Flash as the main antagonists. SHIELD uses powerful groups as their antagonists but it doesn’t work as well because there is no face that the audience can latch onto. There seasons lack emotional attatchment and tension in that regard. In season one it was Hydra and in season two is was Hydra and then the Inhumans. Sure there are characters who sit atop these respective clans but they aren’t very strong characters in the least. In fact, the second season of AoS almost felt like it was cut into segments. The first half they battled with Hydra, then they kind of stalled for a few weeks with some episodes that literally went nowhere, then they battled “the real SHIELD” for a couple episodes and then the Inhumans — oh and Ward showed up every now and again. This lseverely acks cohesiveness and an antagonist whose antics will build up for the entire season until finally coming to a head in an emotional and heated battle; and while the show had a strong finale, it definitely struggled a bit because of it.
That said, SHIELD offered some very entertaining episodes and new characters this season; Mockingbird and Hunter were great additions. The action was entertaining, the acting very good, and while incohesive, the overall storyline was just good enough to bypass Arrow in this ranking.
3. Agent Carter
A miniseries that allowed us to enjoy the midseason hiatus proved to surpass the show it spun-off of in just 8 episodes; and this is a main reason as to why it was as successful as it was — 8 episodes. Unlike AoS, Agent Carter had no time to stall, no filler episodes, it went 0 to 100 and delivered an extremely entertaining story arc that pitted Agent Peggy Carter up against Hydra, Dr. Ivchenko, the Black Widow Program, and early 20th century sexism. Seriously though, Hayley Atwell delivered a great performance as Peggy Carter, as she always does, and was surrounded by some Grade A secondary characters including Howard Stark, Jarvis (the real-life one), and Jack Thomspson — an episode involving the Howling Commandos didn’t hurt either. While it wasn’t a perfect run, it was very impressive for an inaugural season and even forced it’s way into a second season.
2. Daredevil
Everyone was extremely excited when Marvel teamed up with Netflix to deliver some more characters to the MCU. Among those titles was Daredevil, looking to redeem itself from it’s previous incarnation starring Ben Affleck, and it did just that. While it took two, maybe three, episodes to really get going, it proved to be of superior quality to all other shows in the genre. The acting was phenomenal, Charlie Cox delivers a great performance as Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio gives an equally awesome performance as the antagonist Kingpin. On a smaller level, Rosario Dawson’s Night Nurse was also a highlight of the series even though she only showed up a handful of times.
This was another short series that was only given 13 episodes, and told a great origin story for the character and proved to be the most grim and dark of all Marvel franchises. This not only includes some very violent scenes, but also very deep and philosophical questions that Matt faces regarding his crusade, Catholicism, mortality, and morality, that were highlighted in some truly fascinating scenes with Matt’s priest. These are topics that other Marvel franchises will not touch, and it’s nice to see that they are willing to delve into the gritty side of the universe.
Any romance was used solely to supplement the main storyline; this show truly used romance perfectly for a 13-episode origin story. There were a few scenes involving Matt and Night Nurse, but most of the romance in the show revolved around Kingpin and his girlfriend Vanessa. The show delved into the fear of Kingpin’s associates regarding his relationship with her leading to him becoming soft and losing his touch and they even hatched a plan to kill her because of it. It was all just done to perfection.
The only reason this show is sitting at number two is that, while it was a fascinating and thrilling season, it wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before. In fact, it was easy to tell that the creators were inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, and that’s not a bad thing. If Batman Begins were given 13 episodes to flesh out it’s characters and plot, this would be it and that’s a testament to the quality of this series.
1. The Flash
Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen was introduced in two episodes of Arrow’s second season and was so positively received that instead of getting a backdoor pilot, which was originally planned, CW ordered a full pilot which actually leaked over the summer. This did not hurt the show at all, in fact it actually benefited from the leak as the first episode was received so well that word of mouth spread like wild fire and everyone tuned in for its official premier in October. And the show, quite literally, hit the ground running. It was easy to see that the pilot episode was not an aberration; each week the quality of the show improved and set up a truly fantastic storyline revolving around one of Barry’s most iconic rogues.
While the acting wasn’t on the level of a Daredevil, save for maybe Jesse L. Martin who was solid throughout, it was by no means bad and improved throughout the season, coming to a head in the finale in an emotionally charged scene between Barry and his dying mother. Barry’s STAR Labs team, including Caitlin Frost and Cisco Ramon, quickly found their footing and proved to rival that of Team Arrow and the, originally, ambiguous Harrison Wells had us all wondering just how he was going to play into the main plot from the very beginning.
Throughout the series we saw the likes of Reverse Flash, Firestorm, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, The Trickster (in a great performance by the legendary Mark Hamill), Multiplex and others. We saw numerous crossovers with Arrow, which were all very entertaining and exactly what fans want from a shared universe, including the final battle with Reverse Flash which saw the team-up of Arrow, Flash, and Firestorm.
Unlike Arrow, Flash’s romantic plots supplemented the main storyline rather than acting as a separate storyline that killed momentum. There was a bit of a love triangle but it was executed rather nicely and ended in a way that nobody saw coming. And Unlike Gotham, the plethora of comic book characters didn’t seem shoehorned into the story — sure there was a bit of a “metahuman of the week” complex, but it was ultimately handled very well.
The Flash was truly the best superhero show of the season because of its originality, superior special effects, excellent storytelling, dedication to the source material, and its aggressiveness. Nobody expected the show to tackle as much as it did in its first season and set up a riveting second season. The vibe of the show was exactly what you’d expect from a series revolving around such a fun character.
Lastly, the special effects were truly magnificent for television. No other show attempted anything close to what The Flash did, including a CGI Grodd that actually worked rather well. The battle between Barry and Reverse Flash in the past was probably the best example of this, as the team really saved their best work for the finale -- but it was awesome throughout. This was a major question mark going into the series and I was glad to see that they came through.
We’re all extremely excited for next season which will feature even more shows including Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and some more from Marvel on Netflix. Will The Flash be able to hold its ground atop the genre? Will Arrow bounce back with an exciting fourth season? We will surely find out.