For this list of recommendations, I thought I’d through the nerds a bone. Or better yet create some new nerds. Here are ten tv shows to binge about superheroes and superpowers.
- Arrow- This is the series that launched half of The CW’s programming schedule. Eight seasons of vigilante justice, brooding, and Oliver Queen growling “You have failed this city.” The first two seasons are excellent while the rest of the run can be a little hit or miss. But when it’s on, Arrow is as good as any other superhero show out there.
- The Boys- A show where the superheroes are the bad guys. And ordinary humans have to step up and kick them in the ‘nads. A brilliant satire of the superhero genre with a fair share of social commentary and dark comedy to go along with its over the top action.
- The Umbrella Academy- The X-men but if you actually wrote them with the accumulated psychological weight of all the trauma they had endured. Time travel, the apocalypse, Mary J. Blige shooting the shit out of everyone she meets. What else could you want?
- Legends of Tomorrow– Another Arrowverse show. And I’ll be real with you, its first season is terrible, and its second season is only mediocre with a few bright spots. But by season three it turns into one of the zaniest, craziest, most enjoyable shows you’ll ever find. Power through to that point and you’ll have a new favorite show.
- Smallville– By now the “no flight, no tights” rule is legendary among comic book fans, but this Superman: The Early Years concept lasted ten seasons, paved the way for more 21st-century superhero television, and gave us possibly the best Clark Kent-Lex Luthor dynamic of any medium. The corny and campy can go overboard but there is a reason this show was on the air for so long.
- Daredevil- Forget the Affleck movie, Charlie Cox makes this role his own. And Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is the best villain the MCU has ever produced. Period. It’s grim and gritty and the fight choreography has to be seen to be believed.
- Misfits- Not your traditional superhero show. This UK series is about a group of juvenile delinquents who get superpowers after an electrical storm. The UK isn’t really known for producing shows with superpowers which s too bad because this series is a gem.
- The Tick- I’m going three-for-one here. The cartoon series, the fox version with Patrick Warburton, and the most recent Amazon reboot are all worthy of your time and all different enough from one another to each be worth a watch. The original superhero parody. Spoon!
- The Greatest American Hero- A cult classic about an ordinary substitute teacher who is gifted a super-suit by aliens and promptly loses the instruction manual. This is primarily a comedy and has the sophistication of a Saturday morning cartoon so don’t go looking for dark and brooding ruminations on the nature of man in this one. But it’s fun and corny and is a pleasant way to pass the time.
- Jessica Jones- The most psychologically complex shoe on this list. The ensemble is excellent. Krystin Ritter is amazing as the titular hero. But the best reason to watch this show is for David Tennant’s villainous Killgrave.