The Comic Book TV Season’s End

The Comic Book TV Season’s End
Courtesy Photo

Courtesy Photo

Another year’s worth of television has gone by, and as everyone gears up for the final episode of their favorite show, I thought I’d take a minute to look back on the network fare that have already come and gone, and a couple that never got the chance.

Over on the CW, things seem to be quite safe in comic book land. “Arrow” and “The Flash” have played to joyous returns. Of the two, “Arrow” has had more stumbles, though I think that has to do more with light versus darkness, as “The Flash” tends to contain the fun and joy that some superheroes tend to ignore. As of this writing, only “The Flash” is still running, with “Arrow” having aired its finale and Oliver Queen hanging up his hood last week.

ABC doesn’t have much that I want to watch outside its comedy block, and comedies rarely have finales that change the game the way network dramas do. However, word did catch my ear of Shonda Rhimes pissing her fans off by killing characters in “Grey’s Anatomy” while leaving them alive in “Scandal.” While I don’t quite understand the specifics about these events, I know all too well the feeling that you’re being jerked around by a show’s creator/producer. It’s no fun. Marvel’s “Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.” made it through a pretty stellar season, though there weren’t as many game-changers as last year, though that may be the fault of our own expectations. In the final piece of good news from ABC, “Agent Carter” was renewed for a second season, which almost makes up for the cancellation of “Selfie.”

NBC has had a rough year. The peacock once ruled television, or at least comedy. With no more “Parks & Recreation” or “30 Rock,” and having canceled “Community” and passed on Tina Fey’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” NBC tried and failed, miserably, to create more of their “Must-see TV.” Shows like “Constantine” had promise, but the network that airs “Hannibal” weakened one of the greatest supernatural characters of all time, and fans were quick to give up on the diet-Constantine NBC gave us. “State of Affairs” just reeked of ripping of ABC’s land of Shonda, and to cap it all off, their best-cast and most-watched show, “The Slap,” was panned critically, and the fanbase seems to be there mostly for how utterly ridiculous the show is.

We’ve got season 3 of “Hannibal” to look forward to, but other than that, the Peacock’s television season has been the biggest failure of theirs in recent memory. Even “Saturday Night Live” had a rough season full of blown cues and a Weekend Update team that has ZERO chemistry.

As for Fox, they’ve taken NBC’s spot as the place people go to find risky, quirky comedy. Shows like “New Girl” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” are as good as they’ve ever been, and their Sunday Night animation block has pretty much never been beaten. “Gotham” still suffers from being disjointed and over-crowded, but it’s a lot of fun to watch, and we’ll be seeing a lot more where that came from.

Overall, it’s been a good year for good television. It’s been an even better year if you’re a superhero on television. Where we just had Arrow, now we have “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Gotham,” “Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Agent Carter,” “Daredevil,” and the upcoming “Legends Of Tomorrow,” “Supergirl,” and “AKA Jessica Jones.” As a fanboy, that excites me greatly. As a critic, the over-saturation of the market is worrisome, but thankfully they seem to be committed to making GOOD superhero shows, and as long as that keeps up, I don’t think anyone will complain.

Categories: Commentary