Looking at this list of fifty televisions shows based on comic books, on air currently or in development the clear answer is yes. There are too many Superheroes on TV. The majority of these upcoming shows I am not familiar with and will probably not watch. Not only that, but some of the current shows have given me a reason to stop watching. In the case of Arrow on CW, I literally stopped watching that series in the middle of an episode, because it was so stupid. Since I'm not familiar with most of these shows I'll focus on the ones I am familiar with, and brain out loud about them for a few paragraphs.
First of all, it's not just me that thinks that television is becoming overly saturated with Superheroes. The recent Fall Upfronts where the networks announce their upcoming season as well as their cancellations, to the press and advertisers, mirrors my concern. None of the major networks ABC, CBS, FOX nor NBC picked up any new hour-long dramas. In fact, ABC canceled Marvel's Agent Carter after it's substandard second season. There is a great story to be told, which was the point of the show that I think they forgot about. Or rather they became complacent and assumed the show would go on for several seasons before they revealed how the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) became SHIELD. There is hope that Agent Carter could be moved to Netflix as a show or a feature length movie in order to finally make the connection to the current day Marvel Cinematic Universe. Further proving that Marvel is not impervious to failure, ABC also declined to pick up Agents of SHIELD spin-off Marvel's Most Wanted. On the brighter side, Agents of SHIELD continues to pull strong ratings and the season finale teased a major part of the Marvel continuity that has not appeared in the films, other than a throwaway comment from Tony Stark in The Avengers.
Over at CBS, they moved Supergirl to sister network, and comic book character pack rat, The CW. This is the networks fourth show based on a DC property that also includes; Arrow, The Flash, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. As I mentioned above I stopped watching Arrow in the middle of an episode. It was a scene featuring the outrageously cliched tech whiz, Felicity in a cross over episode with The Flash that laid the ground work for DC's Legends of Tomorrow. The scene was so bad, I had the epiphany that the entire series was no longer worth watching. Plus due to the connection with those other shows, I also stopped watching The Flash and never tuned into DC's Legends of Tomorrow. So one scene gave me a reason to not watch three shows. That is a phenomenon I've never experienced, or even heard of. To be honest, I had already begun to dislike The Flash and the group of D-List heroes and villains in DC's Legends of Tomorrow never had me excited to watch. That horrible scene with Felicity attempting to view an old Beta Max Video Cassette was the last straw. Plus Oliver's incoherent, and unnecessary flashbacks, as well as John Diggle's ridiculous helmet, were just as guilty.
Gotham on Fox had a horrible first episode, with the non-stop, contrived introductions of nearly every villain in Batman's rogues gallery. Regardless, I gave it a shot. After one and half seasons I removed it from my watchlist on Hulu. The writers seemed to know the names of the bad guys but apparently nothing else. They botched the origin of every single character, hero or villain, on the show. New interpretations are one thing if they are good, but the poor acting, the multitude of annoying characters and laughable plots made it unwatchable.
The shows based on comics get more mature on cable networks, but the over saturation is still a problem. Preacher premiered Sunday on AMC to positive reviews but low ratings, supposedly due to stiff competition. Preacher does have a lot of buzz, and of all the new shows it may be one worth checking out. Fox is developing Legion and Hellfire for FX, extending their X-men universe to the small screen. TNT and M. Night Shyamalan are working on a Tales from the Crypt series. So that will probably be awful. Krypton, based on Superman's home planet, is in development at SyFy. The list goes on. Perhaps the most popular comic book show on television, network or cable is The Walking Dead. The show draws huge audiences but, how much longer can Rick Grimes and the band of zombie apocalypse survivors essentially do the same thing. Season after season they find a safe place to live and avoid the undead masses, and season after season they have to leave that place and find another. The CDC, Hershel's farm, the prison and now Alexandria. After the last few seasons of this repetitiveness, the painfully slow pacing, and the needlessly drawn out teases of the character's fates I'm close to calling it quits. Last season's finale may have been the worst episode yet. The 90-minute finale was basically; 60 boring minutes of the group driving around in a camper, 20 boring minutes of Morgan walking around looking for Carol, and 10 minutes of the nail-biting introduction of next season's vile antagonist, Negan. The show does cliffhangers better than most, the zombie/walker killing action scenes are great, the make-up effects are astounding, and the fights between Rick's group and other groups are action-packed, but those things make up the smaller percentage of a season. The majority is comprised of unpleasant things like waiting around, waiting for Daryl to get back, boring conversations, wondering where Carl is, and more waiting.
Finally, my personal favorites, the Marvel properties on Netflix. Daredevil and Jessica Jones are both critically acclaimed and considered ground-breaking, but they are just the start of what may be considered over-saturation. Along with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Netflix ordered shows for Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Eventually those four will work together in a fifth series called The Defenders. The inclusion of The Punisher in Daredevil's second season was so well received the brutal vigilante will get his own series, making it six. There are also rumors that Blade, Ghost Rider and Moon Knight may make it onto the streaming network. Potentially bringing the total up to nine Marvel series on Netflix. That's a lot of Superheroes, but I think I'll give Netflix a pass, due to the nature of binge watching and the quality of the shows.
With that in mind, I actually may change my answer. It's not that there are too many Superhero shows on TV, there are too many boring and unimaginative Superhero shows on TV.
First of all, it's not just me that thinks that television is becoming overly saturated with Superheroes. The recent Fall Upfronts where the networks announce their upcoming season as well as their cancellations, to the press and advertisers, mirrors my concern. None of the major networks ABC, CBS, FOX nor NBC picked up any new hour-long dramas. In fact, ABC canceled Marvel's Agent Carter after it's substandard second season. There is a great story to be told, which was the point of the show that I think they forgot about. Or rather they became complacent and assumed the show would go on for several seasons before they revealed how the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) became SHIELD. There is hope that Agent Carter could be moved to Netflix as a show or a feature length movie in order to finally make the connection to the current day Marvel Cinematic Universe. Further proving that Marvel is not impervious to failure, ABC also declined to pick up Agents of SHIELD spin-off Marvel's Most Wanted. On the brighter side, Agents of SHIELD continues to pull strong ratings and the season finale teased a major part of the Marvel continuity that has not appeared in the films, other than a throwaway comment from Tony Stark in The Avengers.
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| David Ramsey as John Diggle on Arrow |
Gotham on Fox had a horrible first episode, with the non-stop, contrived introductions of nearly every villain in Batman's rogues gallery. Regardless, I gave it a shot. After one and half seasons I removed it from my watchlist on Hulu. The writers seemed to know the names of the bad guys but apparently nothing else. They botched the origin of every single character, hero or villain, on the show. New interpretations are one thing if they are good, but the poor acting, the multitude of annoying characters and laughable plots made it unwatchable.
The shows based on comics get more mature on cable networks, but the over saturation is still a problem. Preacher premiered Sunday on AMC to positive reviews but low ratings, supposedly due to stiff competition. Preacher does have a lot of buzz, and of all the new shows it may be one worth checking out. Fox is developing Legion and Hellfire for FX, extending their X-men universe to the small screen. TNT and M. Night Shyamalan are working on a Tales from the Crypt series. So that will probably be awful. Krypton, based on Superman's home planet, is in development at SyFy. The list goes on. Perhaps the most popular comic book show on television, network or cable is The Walking Dead. The show draws huge audiences but, how much longer can Rick Grimes and the band of zombie apocalypse survivors essentially do the same thing. Season after season they find a safe place to live and avoid the undead masses, and season after season they have to leave that place and find another. The CDC, Hershel's farm, the prison and now Alexandria. After the last few seasons of this repetitiveness, the painfully slow pacing, and the needlessly drawn out teases of the character's fates I'm close to calling it quits. Last season's finale may have been the worst episode yet. The 90-minute finale was basically; 60 boring minutes of the group driving around in a camper, 20 boring minutes of Morgan walking around looking for Carol, and 10 minutes of the nail-biting introduction of next season's vile antagonist, Negan. The show does cliffhangers better than most, the zombie/walker killing action scenes are great, the make-up effects are astounding, and the fights between Rick's group and other groups are action-packed, but those things make up the smaller percentage of a season. The majority is comprised of unpleasant things like waiting around, waiting for Daryl to get back, boring conversations, wondering where Carl is, and more waiting.
Finally, my personal favorites, the Marvel properties on Netflix. Daredevil and Jessica Jones are both critically acclaimed and considered ground-breaking, but they are just the start of what may be considered over-saturation. Along with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Netflix ordered shows for Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Eventually those four will work together in a fifth series called The Defenders. The inclusion of The Punisher in Daredevil's second season was so well received the brutal vigilante will get his own series, making it six. There are also rumors that Blade, Ghost Rider and Moon Knight may make it onto the streaming network. Potentially bringing the total up to nine Marvel series on Netflix. That's a lot of Superheroes, but I think I'll give Netflix a pass, due to the nature of binge watching and the quality of the shows.
With that in mind, I actually may change my answer. It's not that there are too many Superhero shows on TV, there are too many boring and unimaginative Superhero shows on TV.
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