The Only 6 Superhero Shows Worth Watching (They're Way Better Than You Think)

Hopefully, you're one of the people who dismisses superhero fare as silly and the portion of this article's title in parentheses caught your eye and gave your skepticism pause. Watch these shows and you will develop a new respect for people who can catch bullets, fly or beat the hell out of an entire hit squad blindfolded.

The Flash is pure amateur hour. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Arrow are unwatchable. DC's Legends of Tomorrow looks like the product of an elementary school class project. You may have heard that Supergirl has garnered rave reviews -- don't bother watching, it's ridiculous. These, bruhs and sisters, are the only superhero shows worth your time:
 


 

6. Jessica Jones (Season 1)

Bucking tradition, Jessica Jones eschews the usually requisite origin story and instead begins during the titular heroine's retirement from crime-fighting. The show doesn't illustrate how the heroine acquired her powers and set off on the road well-traveled by Clark Kent, Steve Rogers, etc. Instead, Jones is a portrait of a do-gooder in retirement, attempting to drink away regrets and memories of mistakes made and a mission gone horribly wrong. But if that were all the series was about it would be pretty boring. Fortunately for us, just when she thinks she's out they keep pulling her back in. 

When we meet Miss Jones, she's a broken woman full of self-loathing. The series is neo-noir with a twist: the bitter, alcoholic, private investigator with a past and the dangerous woman are one and the same. But the detective isn't an ex-cop, she's an ex-superhero. Well, maybe it's neo-noir-light (See what I did there?).

What's more -- all of the aforementioned reasons to watch are remarkably true to the source material.

Jessica is as much Jones' show as it is fellow-big city vigilante Luke Cage's and is a stupendous showcase for the both of them. The two cultivate a sexual relationship that comes across as far more believable than that between Dr. Bruce Banner (The Hulk) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) in The Age of Ultron.

What separates Jones from Cage, Daredevil and most other comic book heroes who transition to the screen is that she never actually has to wear her asinine costume from the  comics. Let's be real: Just because something looks great in a drawing doesn't mean it'll work with real people. As an added bonus, she refuses to use her alias from the comics, Jewel, as well.

It's entirely possible that Warner Bros. didn't put their best foot forward. But if the movie can be judged by its trailer, Wonder Woman has no shot of living up to the standard set by Jessica Jones. She's not Humphrey Bogart but she's not the bubble-head that Supergirl is either.

5. Hawkeye

Veteran assassin Clint Barton reluctantly takes a sidekick, Kate Bishop, under his wing when she gets herself into trouble with organized crime figures and needs to be rescued. Kate also happens to be Barton's biggest fan.

Wilson Fisk and Yelena Bulova both make not-so-surprising appearances as well. Though, ultimately, instead of enriching the story, the extended cameos end up taking up screen-time that should've been devoted to the title character.

Minus the LARPing bs, the stupid musical and the vast majority of the final episode, this should've-been-a-movie miniseries joins The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as one of the only two MCU streaming series that are actually watchable.

4. Heroes (Seasons 1-3)

Heroes is what the X-Men movies should have been -- a world in which people born with diverse superhuman abilities (mutants) face discrimination and government persecution and must unite in order to thwart menaces of their own kind (supervillains). This network television series far outshone the X franchise's unwatchable installments (except for Deadpool) with their six-figure budgets.

My appreciation for Heroes' complete absence of costumes is nearly indescribable.

Know what else is great about Heroes? It's unpredictable. No matter how important a character seems -- anyone can die. Oh yeah, people die. Lots of them.

Heroes deftly balances humor and lighthearted moments with an air of danger -- without ever being campy. This greatness is sustained through three entire seasons. The show's quality doesn't suffer until season four and is sadly not re-established in the ill-conceived Heroes: Reborn.









3. Daredevil (Seasons 1-2)

Marvel sucks at producing television. But Netflix is great at producing Marvel television.

The Daredevil television series is likely what the Daredevil film adaptation would've been like had Ben Affleck directed, as opposed to merely starring in it. The show doesn't take its cues from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but instead seemingly patterns itself after the best entrants in rival DC's filmography -- especially, the Dark Knight trilogy and Batman v. Superman. The difference is that while many people died in those films, they were rather bloodless affairs. Daredevil, on the other hand, has no qualms about showing graphic violence and the gore that results from it.

Daredevil's not the only beneficiary of Marvel's decision to follow The Dark Knight's realistic hero blueprint. After several failed big-screen attempts, this television series has managed to produce the absolute best live-action depiction of The Punisher. In fact, he stole the show. Hell, he stole the entire second season. And the Kingpin's portrayal has got to be the best instance of a comic book villain making the transition to the small-screen. 

Perhaps sensing his own limitations, attorney Matthew Murdock (Daredevil's real name) restricts his heroism to his own little part of New York City -- as opposed to his do-gooder peers, the globe-trotting Avengers. 

One very minor criticism is the presence of Joss Whedon-Scooby Gang-style interactions between the three youngest do-gooders on the series. Thankfully, this dynamic is short-lived. The only real flaw is the cringe-worthy costume that's introduced in the first season finale.

For 12 entire episodes Murdock prowled the Manhattan streets in a simple black shirt with matching pants, boots and make-shift mask. That understated ensemble was perfect for the purposes of rendering a believable human being who chooses to administer vigilante justice throughout Alicia Keys' home neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen. Then somewhere along the line, the show's creators apparently decided that loyalty to the source material was more important than artistic integrity and foisted a red-and-black clown suit on us. To their credit, there are plenty of in-show criticisms of the thing. The problem is, we still have to see it.









2. Moon Knight

Meek gift-shop worker Steven Grant learns that Egyptian deities are real. But that may be the least of his problems. He also discovers -- to his horror -- that he's afflicted with dissociative identity disorder.

1. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn't need to be a television series. A dope two-and-a-half hour movie could've been crafted out of this show. Having said that, the bar has been set so high that it's hard to imagine any comic book or superhero series topping it. Cinematic action, insightful social commentary and addressing all of the elephants in the room have made the rechristened Captain America and the Winter Soldier the best super show of all time (its only competition is the second season of Daredevil), redeeming the MCU's tv experiment after WandaVision's unwatchable snoozefest.

Television projects generally provide one of two things: either a thought-provoking look at the human condition (which can veer into boring territory) or escapist entertainment (which can be largely devoid of substance). The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gives us both.

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