Superheroes!

After seeing Watchmen over the weekend, I've been musing on a top-10 live-action superhero shows that I've seen. I decided to do it by season, rather than by show, and this is a "1st draft", so to speak.

1. Daredevil, season 1
2. Jessica Jones, season 1
3. Watchmen, season 1
4. Daredevil, season 2
5. Legion, season 1
6. The Boys, season 1
7. ...

Hm. Not sure what the last 4 ought to be. Or rather, there are a lot to consider, and I'd have to narrow it down. I think these 6 are the ones I'd call "great", and worth recommending to people who don't normally watch superhero stuff.
 
I've never watched it, but I'm guessing that some of the early seasons of Arrow must have been pretty good for it to have spawned the entire Berlantiverse. I liked The Flash a lot early on. Not sure if it qualifies as superhero, but I was totally captivated by iZombie and watched the entire series at like a season a week pace.

Daredevil season one is definitely a strong number one candidate though.
 
I've never watched it, but I'm guessing that some of the early seasons of Arrow must have been pretty good for it to have spawned the entire Berlantiverse. I liked The Flash a lot early on. Not sure if it qualifies as superhero, but I was totally captivated by iZombie and watched the entire series at like a season a week pace.

Daredevil season one is definitely a strong number one candidate though.
Yeah, I need to go back and look at The CW shows, season by season. Good call on iZombie. I loved that show.

I also can't decide whether to judge a show in its historical context, against its contemporaries, or not. Like trying to decide whether Babe Ruth was better than Barry Bonds; they were almost playing a different game. I still have fond memories of Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman and Bill Bixby's The Incredible Hulk, but I haven't seen either one since I was a little kid, and one suspects that they may not hold up in comparison with more modern works. :lol: Although, Bixby's Hulk was much more of a character drama and relied less on the superhero shenanigans. I found it almost unbearably melancholic when I was little, every episode ending with "David" Banner leaving behind whatever new friends he'd made and walking off alone into the sunset. Still, it was a television show in an era when television was considered minor league. I am kind of writing off Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man, George Reeves' The Adventures of Superman and The Six Million Dollar Man, without bothering to revisit them, even though I liked all of them as a kid. I'm not sure about Adam West's Batman or Lois and Clark.
 
Early Arrow was very good, and rather daring for network TV. It was a hero willing to kill. Absolutely none of the wrist-wringing you're used to with superheroes who cause chaos and irreparable harm but then you have to sit through a ten-minute monologue about why it's wrong to kill.

Then... Well, then the CW Effect happened. It became hyper-focused on character drama, much to its detriment. Or, I suppose, its benefit, since it seems to have paid off for them.
 
Adam West's Batman is great, but from a practical standpoint it is a totally different genre. Looking back through the lens of The Dark Knight and the whole bleak and grim Gotham presentation the idea of Batman as camp comedy is pretty hard to grasp. Truly an inspired adaptation.
 
Early Arrow was very good, and rather daring for network TV. It was a hero willing to kill. Absolutely none of the wrist-wringing you're used to with superheroes who cause chaos and irreparable harm but then you have to sit through a ten-minute monologue about why it's wrong to kill.
You might like season 2 of Daredevil, if you haven't seen it yet. The season loosely adapts two of the classic Frank Miller-era stories, one being the confrontation between Daredevil and The Punisher.

Then... Well, then the CW Effect happened. It became hyper-focused on character drama, much to its detriment. Or, I suppose, its benefit, since it seems to have paid off for them.
Berlanti's shows do have something of a "thumbprint", which is probably why few people watch all of them.

Adam West's Batman is great, but from a practical standpoint it is a totally different genre. Looking back through the lens of The Dark Knight and the whole bleak and grim Gotham presentation the idea of Batman as camp comedy is pretty hard to grasp. Truly an inspired adaptation.
There are a handful of superhero comedies, but the only other attempt at camp was Shumacher's Batman movies, which basically nobody likes. I suppose Tim Burton's movies could also be viewed as campy, especially the second one, and if someone wanted to call Jim Carrey's The Mask campy, I wouldn't argue too strenuously. But among the television shows, Batman kind of stands alone. At least he has his Bat-shark-repellent. :lol:

 
There are a handful of superhero comedies, but the only other attempt at camp was Shumacher's Batman movies, which basically nobody likes.
Okay, I feel bad now. Joel Schumacher just passed away.
 
I still have fond memories of Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman ... one suspects that they may not hold up in comparison with more modern works.
So, my kids are in middle school now, and both are interested in track and cross country. Neither of them has what you might call an efficient stride, and we've been working to get arms and legs moving together and reduce the flailing around. Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman is our example of how not to run. My kids enjoy the TV show, but we all find the incredible physical awkwardness hard to take.
 
So, my kids are in middle school now, and both are interested in track and cross country. Neither of them has what you might call an efficient stride, and we've been working to get arms and legs moving together and reduce the flailing around. Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman is our example of how not to run. My kids enjoy the TV show, but we all find the incredible physical awkwardness hard to take.
Well, she had all that hair, and that costume, and those... heels.
 
The '70s episode of Agents of SHIELD was a hoot.


I'm beginning to wonder if this season could be a clever tie-in to the Scarlet Witch series and Dr. Strange 2.

Spoiler :
"Chastity McBride" :lol:
 
(Little bit of language.)


The season 2 premier is September 4. The first 3 episodes will post together, then 1 ep per week for the following 5 weeks.
 
They should pay you. I haven't had any interest in AoF for several seasons, and I might watch that just because you.
This season's been a lot better than the last couple.
 
Dammit. Missed AoS again. 10pm on a Wednesday is such an awkward time for me.
It took an abruptly dark turn. I'm not sure what to think of it. I hope the rest of the season isn't going to be like this, it isn't really what I watch this show for. (I did look for the preview of next week's episode on YouTube, and it looks like they're returning to the silliness, so that's good.)

Spoiler :
Mack's parents being killed was enough of a downer, I didn't really need to know about Daisy being tortured. At least they kept it entirely offscreen. Even hearing her scream from the next room would've made me really unhappy with this show.

So Coulson is like a Time Lord now, and just regenerates every time he dies? :lol: I guess we'll see.

I was surprised to not see Reed Diamond, who had played Whitehall/Reinhardt in seasons past.
 
I haven't seen the BoP movie. But have heard nothing good of it. So probably for the best.

Exclusive: Birds Of Prey 2 Is Now Dead At Warner Bros.
By Liana Keane | 2 days ago




The Birds of Prey ending is pretty self-explanatory, so the biggest question for all parties is: what’s next? Is there room for Birds of Prey 2?

We’ve heard from one of our proven sources, one of the same sources that made us the first outlet to break the news that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is happening, that Birds of Prey 2 is now completely cancelled at Warner Bros.

There had been plans in the works to make Birds of Prey 2, but they’ve reportedly been scrapped and everyone has moved on. Our source tells us, “Warners no longer believes in the concept or in the creative team behind the movie.”

This probably explains why both Birds of Prey star Margot Robbie and writer Christina Hodson have moved on to another franchise at a totally different movie studio. The pair were recently announced to be reuniting at Disney for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Why Birds Of Prey 2 Isn’t Happening

Unfortunately Birds of Prey failed and failed hard at the box office, recording the worst opening of any DC Comics superhero movie so far. In the wake of that failure word is that Warner Bros. Studios is already discussing diminishing Harley Quinn’s role in the future of the DC Universe. That was never good news for the potential of Birds of Prey 2.

Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was expected be the lead in The Suicide Squad, since she just had a solo movie (sort of) in Birds of Prey and she’s easily the breakout character from the original Suicide Squad movie. Now she may not even be the lead in that movie, let alone the lead in a Birds of Prey 2.

DC had been hoping the draw of the character and of Margot Robbie would earn Birds of Prey at least a $55 million opening stateside but instead they barely got to $33 million. The movie will still make a profit thanks to international box office, but then almost everything Hollywood produces is able to make a profit thanks to international box office. For Warner Bros. Birds of Prey’s meager box office take was not enough to justify continuing on a path towards Birds of Prey 2, when that path has given the studio its least successful movie to date.

What Birds Of Prey 2 Could Have Been

Harley Quinn was supposed to have a biggest, busiest future after the Birds of Prey ending. Black Mask and Zsasz are dead(ish), but that’s only one threat neutralized. As Birds of Prey shows, she’s made plenty of other enemies along the way, many of whom have a bone to pick with the therapist-turned-outlaw. One of these looms larger than all the others, however.

Though she publicly breaks up with him by blowing up the ACE Chemicals plant, Joker is still very much alive and out there. She’s was supposed to have to deal with that eventually, and DC already announced a Joker/Harley Quinn movie that was supposed to happen. It’s likely the some suits over at Warner Bros are cancelling that project too, along with Birds of Prey 2.

DC also had a Gotham City Sirens movie in the works. Announced shortly after Suicide Squad, it would have seen Harley team up with fellow female outlaws Catwoman and Poison Ivy. That’s reportedly already on hold, but Robbie has said she’d like to see Harley team up with Poison Ivy, so you never know. It depends on if it’s just the creative team that would have made Birds of Prey 2 which WB has lost confidence in, or that they’ve lost confidence in Margot Robbie too.

The Good News

That said, even with Birds of Prey 2 cancelled, the Birds of Prey now exist in the DC universe. That’s a key. The movie left them well on their way to becoming a force to be reckoned with. With no shortage of baddies on the streets of Gotham, they’re sure to have a full dance card, and it would be easy to have them pop up down the road in the laundry list of connected films in the works. But given the box office do not expect to see more from Renee Montoya, Huntress, and Black Canary.

Cassandra Cain is a bit of a different question. In the comics, Bruce Wayne takes her under his wing, and she becomes Batgirl—she’s also had a number of other aliases. This tinkers with the formula somewhat. Instead of being Batman’s protégé, she now studies under the tutelage of Harley Quinn, a different education for sure. At least for the time being. It will be interesting to see how that develops. Will she become Batgirl or one of her other characters, does she ever hook up with Batman, or will she take a different path in this continuity? We’ll have to wait and see if WB does anything with it now that Birds of Prey 2 is dead.


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