Superhero TV Catch-Up

There's a lot of good stuff out there right now - more than I can keep up with - but I am working on it.

• Daredevil - waiting for Season 2!

• Jessica Jones - need to finish it (I know I know!)

• Agents of Shield - working my way slowly through Season 2. So far so good. 

• Supergirl - I am several episodes behind but there have been some important developments and revelations in what I have seen and it's been a pretty good show. There is a different feel to it than say the Flash, and I suspect it's because it's a big network show. I'm not sure how to describe it but there's a little more formula to it than some of these other shows. I still like it and it is still another unabashed comic book superhero show. The actress is perfect and Calista Flockheart has a great part as her boss. I do have one technical issue though and that is that the flying scenes look ... weak. The special effects on all of these other shows are pretty solid, and this is a big network show so I never would have expected it, but the flying effect just looks fake and wrong to me. Given the amount of flying in the show I hope it gets better. 

• Ash vs. Evil Dead - That first season was epic! Exactly what this character should be! I am very much looking forward to Season 2!

• Arrow - I haven't started my big catch-up on this one but if they're going to keep launching shows off of it I know I need to do it. 

• The Flash - I really like this show. It's so much better than I expected it to be, probably better than it ought to be as a pretty-people show on the CW of all things! However, Smallville it is not - there is actual in-costume superhero action on this show! And he's not fighting normals! he's not the only hero in the world! He's not hated and feared by the city he protects! The people running the show actually seem to get the whole comic-book thing! The trip to Earth 2 this season was very cool and went head-on into the issues you might expect from visiting a parallel earth. Killer Frost, Zoom's identity, and various other revelations have been pretty cool this season.

• Legends of Tomorrow - Another Arrow/Flash spin-off that has a lot of potential. Bits of Star Trek, a helping of Doctor Who, an interesting mix of good and bad guys all trying to accomplish the same goal - it's an interesting show, Captain Cold is awesome. Heatwave brings the thug/brick and has really grown on me though recent developments have me concerned about how the show is going to treat him. I like Ray Palmer though he's way more Iron Man than I remember from any previous incarnation. The Firestorm pair is interesting enough. I'm not sure about ninja girl yet. I'm also not sure about the actress playing Hawkgirl. I'm just not getting "Immortal Warrior Priestess" from her much even though she's supposed to remember a bunch more of her past now. Hopefully it will smooth out over the rest of the season. I do like that they aren't afraid to spend more than one episode in a particular time or solving a particular problem - it's a serial show, not trapped by an episodic formula. 

So Much Potential!

Finally, the upcoming (March 28th) Flash-Supergirl crossover episode is one of those things I think a lot of us have wished for over the years but never expected to happen. I mean, first up you have to have more than one superhero show on the air! That's really not been a regular thing outside of Saturday morning cartoons. Then you have to have cross-network cooperation which is another rare occurrence. Then your shows have to be worth a damn to get anyone excited about seeing characters cross over. In this case all of these things have come together and I am a lot more interested than I ever expected to be. It's another comic book tradition crossing over into a new form and it's very very cool. I hope it opens up the concept for these other shows and in the movies too.