Friday 18 March 2016

Marvel vs DC: On The Small Screen


With season two of Daredevil releasing today, and me eagerly anticipating my boyfriend finishing work at 10pm so we can start our marathon binge-watching session, I thought I would look at the TV offerings from both Marvel and DC, what I like and don't like and maybe even pick a winner. Warning: this will be heavily biased and not at all technical.

Marvel:




Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
I watched two episodes and I was bored so I stopped. I've been told it "gets better" in like, the second season or something but I'm just not sure I have the patience for that shit. Well and truly shelved.

Agent Carter
Peggy Carter is, without a doubt, one of my favourite characters. She's resourceful, skilled, determined and sassy as hell. She also has impeccable style. Her responses to the institutionalised sexism she's constantly faced with are hilarious - as tragic as it is to see. I love her relationship with Jarvis which is so well developed over the first season and continues to grow in what I've seen of season two so far. I also think the storylines are really good.

Daredevil
It was gonna take a lot to redeem Daredevil after that film, and it's safe to say Netflix's first collaboration with Marvel managed to do so spectacularly.  Every fight scene is as beautiful as it is brutal and not even I, least TV-technical person ever, could write about this show without mentioning that epic single shot corridor fight scene. Wilson Fisk's character had such depth and growth which was so interesting to see from a villain and I loved Rosario Dawson's performance. I'm super excited for the introduction of Electra and the Punisher in season 2!

Jessica Jones
My favourite of the two Netflix collabs, Jessica Jones really gets off with a bang with the huge ending of episode one. It's dark and it's gritty and it's pretty feminist and fairly ugly in places and it's so, so glorious. It explores a lot of themes like abuse and PTSD that don't get the screen time they should, and I liked that's about a detective who happens to have superpowers. I genuinely never thought I would find David Tennant unattractive and I am ecstatic to be proven wrong because that's how much he commits to the character of Kilgrave. Krysten Ritter is absolutely fantastic as the titular character and I especially enjoyed Carrie-Ann Moss as Hogarth.

DC:



Gotham
AWFUL. Watched the first episode and it was really meh and apparently this also "gets better" but there's so much other awesome stuff to watch that I'm just not that interested in sticking around and waiting for that to happen.

Arrow
I genuinely didn't know what Arrow was when I started watching it. Somewhere along the line, somehow, it had gotten confused with Chicago Fire & I thought it was about firefighters so I just never bothered. Then one day I randomly looked it up, realised it was DC entity and so started watching it. A slow starter, the show improves exponentially when Felicity (the best thing about the show) is introduced. It's just so moody and a bit emo and I think DC thought that's what people wanted and then maybe they realised that wasn't what people wanted but there's only so much they could do to fix it at that point. Plus, no one actually enjoys the flashbacks anymore, do they?

The Flash
The perfect antidote to Arrow. It is everything Arrow isn't: lighthearted and fun and a bit silly, but it also has so much more of the emotion. You're faced with Barry who is so upbeat and so genuinely happy to help people and run super fast and wear a cool suit that everything involving him just has so much more emotion attached than it does for emo-Oli. And Harrison Wells is such an excellently complexly brilliant character with such multi-layered motives - he's just exceptional (and exceptionally acted).

Constantine
I really, really, really wanted to like Constantine, but I just really can not get past that awful accent. I really wish they'd just let him be Welsh rather than a Welsh person trying and failing to do a Liverpudlian accent. I tried really hard to get past this, but clearly I am not that good of a person. So I stopped watching it. I very much enjoyed his guest appearance in Arrow, though. I think I could tolerate that carrying on.

Supergirl
Supergirl is so fun and really feminist and that makes me so happy. When I first heard it was happening and I looked it up and realised the main cast was comprised of women and men of colour, I knew this was obviously going to be a really thoughtful adaptation and it is. I love everything they've done with it, I love all Cara's interactions with everyone in her life and I *especially* love Calista Flockhart's character (and her speech about reclaiming the word 'girl' - YES). The UK mid-season break has been TOO LONG and I need Supergirl back in my life post-haste. I genuinely don't think I've seen my boyfriend happier than when I told him there was going to be a Flash/Supergirl crossover.

Legends of Tomorrow
I've only seen three episodes of Legends of Tomorrow so far, but I'm really enjoying it. I like the dynamics of the team members and Rip Hunter's exasperation at their various ineptitudes. I really enjoy the time travel elements, Wentworth Miller's gleeful overacting and White Canary's super cool outfit. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

So who wins?

I'm actually really disappointed to be super predictable and pick Marvel, given that they are slaughtering D.C on the film-front. I genuinely thought I'd pick D.C but while they have a huge success story in The Flash, I don't feel like Arrow, Supergirl and LoT combined, as much as I enjoy them, can really hold up to Marvel's offerings. The quality Marvel has in just three shows, all of which have been clearly put together with a lot of thought and expertise, is stellar. For me, D.Cs success really lies in its crossovers and guest appearances. My favourite episodes are Flarrow ones, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the Supergirl/Flash meeting. I love that they've put Legends of Tomorrow together, giving us that crossover feeling without ruining how special the crossovers are. So yeah, Marvel gets the crown.

0 comments:

Post a Comment