The 9 Best Superhero Shows on TV

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Review: The CW's LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

★★☆☆☆

Ain't hubris a bitch? After the astonishing successes of Arrow and The Flash on The CW, most of the creative team behind those shows go for a hat-trick with DC's Legends of Tomorrow—essentially a small-budget Avengers wannabe, combining several of those previous show's best recurring characters, and a few of their lamest. It's a big, bold, brave decision to make something like LoT; it also takes a special kind of stupidity on the evidence of this ridiculous premiere.

The Best Television of 2015: No.9 - The CW's THE FLASH

A young forensic analyst called Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) becomes 'the fastest man alive' after a laboratory explosion endows him with super-powers, prompting him to fight crime and keep his city safe from other 'meta-humans' with more sinister agendas.

What made it so good? It helped that The Flash is a top-tier DC Comics character, sure, and it's made by the same folk behind The CW's excellent Arrow, but I still didn't expect The Flash to become this enjoyable so quickly. I think the main reason for its success is down to the casting: Gustin's the kind of handsome hero you can identify with as 'a normal guy in extraordinary situations', Jesse L. Martin as Barry's stepfather Joe is an undervalued joy, Carlos Valdes took one of those 'geek comic relief' roles and made you not want to chew your hand off in embarrassment, and Tom Cavanagh aced a tricky dual role as Barry's trusted mentor/secret arch-nemesis.

Autumn 2015 TV - Part One

We're a few months into the 2015/16 television season, so I just wanted to run down all the shows I'm watching, how I think they're getting on, and my degrees of continued interest in them.

'Agents of SHIELD' (season 3) - ABC.
Season 1 became good halfway through. Season 2 turned bad halfway through. Season 3's proving to be a real bore from the start. It seems someone decided what we really want from AoS is lots of people with superpowers, so they're going big on the whole Inhumans angle. I just wish the show didn't feel like a live-action X-Men more than a spy-fi show that could tackle a lot of different subjects and ideas. Unsurprisingly, the best episode (so far) concerned an hourlong flashback to Simmons stranded on an alien planet, having to survive until rescue arrived. While it was probably inspired by The Martian novel, or knowledge of the film adaptation, it was something you don't see TV do very often.

Watched: THE FLASH, 2.1 - "The Man Who Saved Central City"

The Flash was one of the best new shows of 2014, and managed to surpass its mother show Arrow with relative ease. (The heroes of Starling City had an off year, let's be kind.) I was very much looking forward to The Flash's season 2 premiere, but it concerned me that so much of the show's emotional arc for Barry (battling a supervillain who's faster than him, while trying to exonerate his imprisoned father for the murder of his mother), has been dealt with. Could The Flash be one of those shows that played its best hand early, to guarantee itself hit status, and will now struggle to maintain that standard? Time will tell. It's certainly too early to say anything based on "The Man Who Saved Central City", which was predominantly concerned with the aftermath of season 1's finale...

The CW launching a superhero team of ARROW/FLASH side characters?

The twin successes of ARROW and THE FLASH for The CW has resulted in a huge surge of interest for comic-book properties on U.S television. It also helps that Marvel's big movies continue to be popular, and are inspiring their own small-screen spin-offs. Today, The CW announced their intention to create a superhero Avengers-style team-up show, again developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim—the core writers behind Arrow and The Flash…

And this one will combine Arrow's Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh) and Sarah Lance/Black Canary (Caity Lotz), with The Flash's Firestorm (Victor Garber) and Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller). No idea why Robbie Amell wasn't included in that list, seeing as he plays the physical half of Firestorm. Is he being recast, or was that a mistake?

THE FLASH, 1.14 – 'Fallout'

★★★★

I don't read THE FLASH comic-books, so it's possible a lot of this season's twists and reveals aren't so exciting for DC Comics aficionados, but as a layman I'm having a great time watching this sprightly first season. It really seems to have hit its stride just lately, too, with a run of really good episode—but "Fallout" was particularly strong. In some ways all you want from a superhero television show is likeable characters doing cool things within entertaining storylines, and The Flash is now reaping the rewards of its careful build-up.

ARROW, 3.12 - 'Uprising' • THE FLASH, 1.12 - 'Crazy For You'

ARROW – 'Uprising'

★★☆☆

It amuses me how Arrow regularly applies ideas from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy; cleverly disguised by mixing plot-points together or splitting one character's role between various members of Arrow's cast. The recent arc with Oliver Queen challenging Ra's al Ghul to a fight to the death, which left him (apparently) dead overseas while his precious city was left to the mercy of a burly English supervillain? Tweak a few details and it's just The Dark Knight Rises—which likewise featured a resolution where citizens helped Batman's allies take back their city by force.

Superhero Saturday: AGENT CARTER, ARROW, THE FLASH and GOTHAM

There's a lot of superhero/comic-book television shows around right now, so I thought I'd dip into four of the most popular ones, which are all approximately halfway through their seasons...

AGENT CARTER – 'The Blitzkreig Button'
We're halfway through this new comic-book drama, so how is Marvel's new show faring? After a good start, I'm beginning to feel less and less interested in anything going on. Some of that is an unfortunate byproduct of Agent Carter being a prequel—so it has no imperative ties to anything happening in the 21st-century set Marvel movies—and it's partly because I find its 1940s era a little drab and monotonous. I do like Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter; particularly the fact she's a "superhero" in the sense her alter-ego's a telephonist treated like a second-class citizen, but she's actually saving the world in secret. It's an amusing social spin on a hoary trope. Although it gets overplayed by the show, which hammers the 'battle of the sexes' angle all the time. James D'Arcy is also very good as her associate Jarvis. But am I eagerly anticipating the next episode? No. Would I care if Agent Carter was axed? No. It needs a shot of adrenaline, pronto. ★★☆☆

Mini-Reviews: THE AFFAIR, AHS, CONSTANTINE, THE FLASH, SLEEPY HOLLOW, WALKING DEAD, etc.

Reviews of television shows have been sparse over the past few weeks (apologies), so this little batch of mini-reviews will have to suffice...

THE AFFAIR (season 1). I fell behind the U.S airings on Showtime, so I'm playing catch-up now. I'm still enjoying this relationship drama a great deal, although a part of me's beginning to wonder if the narrative gimmick's more trouble than it's worth. It was a fun idea to split each episode into two halves (each from the perspective of Dominic West or Ruth Wilson's character), but I find myself more invested in West's "angle"... and yet it could be the "wrong one". But is there a singular truth? Maybe both versions of the story works of fiction and the truth's an amalgamation? Sometimes there are differences in the story that make me scratch my head, because there's no point in either character intentionally lying about certain things (like whether their interviewing cop's married or separated). And the cop stuff's happening in the present, so it's not even a case of the characters remembering the past wrongly, which I thought was partly accounting for the differences in their recollections... so the show itself has two separate outlooks. Weird. ★★★☆

THE FLASH, 1.4 – 'Going Rogue' • ice and smoak

★★★★

Crossover alert! Arrow's beautiful boffin Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) makes the trip from Starling City to Central City in "Going Rogue", ostensibly to visit her friend Barry (Grant Gustin) after hearing he's out of his coma. As a confidant of The Arrow, Felicity's let into S.T.A.R Labs' inner circle about Barry's new powers, during a time when jewel thief Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) decides to up his game and defeat the city's new super-sonic do-gooder...

THE FLASH, 1.3 – 'Things You Can't Outrun' • the gasman cometh!

★★☆☆

This was the first episode of THE FLASH I'd describe as workmanlike; which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a show of this nature (expected to produce two dozen episodes a year), but if the majority of The Flash is going to be of similar quality, I won't be reviewing every episode.

TV I've been watching lately...

We're fast approaching November and most of the new autumn shows have begun, plenty of old favourites are back, and the summer shows are a memory. But what am I enjoying watching every week, finding time to write about, or have given up on completely? Read on!

THE AFFAIR (Showtime, season 1). It's been a great two-episode start to this new Showtime drama starring Dominic West and Ruth Wilson as extra-marital lovers, with a unique flashback format that also bisects each episode into opposing perspectives on the same events. Even without those narrative devices, I'd like this The Affair in terms of the basic story and performances, but the twists are what makes this feel so compelling. And I was pleased the second episode didn't beat around the bush, so we already have an idea about why the main characters are being interviewed by cops a year after their affair began. My only vague concern is that it's hard to really side with West or Wilson's character, as each "part" of the tale casts one or t'other as the more dominant, mildly unlikeable one. Not knowing who to believe or trust is part of the show's mystery, of course, but it does mean the viewer's constantly unsure about anything... which makes it hard to settle into. ★★★☆

THE FLASH, 1.2 – 'Fastest Man Alive' • attack of the clones

★★★☆

Like countless second episodes, "Fastest Man Alive" half-existed to reiterate the concept behind THE FLASH, in a manner that wouldn't test the patience of those who saw the pilot. (Which is usually the majority of people watching.) It managed to accomplish that rather well, with dialogue recapping that wasn't always subtle, but felt reasonable. In some ways, the story was also a mini-version of the pilot—with Barry (Grant Gustin) testing the limits of his super-sonic movement before having to fight 'metahuman' Danton Black (Michael Christopher Smith), a one-man clone army.

What did you think of The CW's super-fast superhero drama THE FLASH?

Last night, The CW's new superhero drama THE FLASH premiered. It hopes to equal and perhaps even surpass the success of their other comic-book series Arrow, but do you think it stands a chance? I already saw and reviewed the pilot over the summer, but it would be great to hear your thoughts below!

October 2014 Highlights - ARROW • CONSTANTINE • THE FLASH • GRACEPOINT • HOMELAND • THE WALKING DEAD • more!

It's October. Officially autumn. So what treats does the television have in store for UK and U.S viewers from now until Halloween? Let's look at the most notable highlights...

The Television Shows I'll Be Tuning Into this Autumn...

The summer's almost over, TV-wise, but which new and returning shows am I likely to be watching and reviewing this autumn for DMD? Let's take a look...

Pilot preview: The CW's THE FLASH - super-fast, super-fun

Months ahead of its 7 October premiere on The CW, I take a look at the pilot episode of their new superhero drama THE FLASH.

Trailer: The CW's THE FLASH

Considering how awesome Arrow's become, hopes are high for spin-off THE FLASH—which, ironically, is adapting a superhero with considerably more public awareness than Green Arrow. How will this new show fare? We've already spent a smattering of episodes in the company of police forensic expert Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) during Arrow's second season, and the former Glee actor came across well.