Every MCU TV Show Ranked From Worst To Best
How does the Marvel Cinematic Universe fare on the small screen?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a smash success in cinemas with them setting the precedent for several wannabe copycats throughout the Hollywood landscape.
The idea of film characters connected by the same cinematic tissue was a groundbreaking one that transposed the formula comic books have been using for decades yet brought the concept excitingly to the big screen. How does that same formula work if stories from the small screen also joined the party?
Announced after the ground-shaking success of 2012’s Avengers Assemble, Marvel started a series of TV shows that would link up and intertwine with the big screen outings. Sadly, that hasn’t panned out as planned with the ABC shows failing to really do anything significant for its celluloid brethren. The Marvel/Netflix collaborations - asides from the sly Easter Egg or two - basically operate under their own umbrella too.
Still, even if that ambitious mandate has failed, it has lead to a handful of incredible shows that flourished when given the ability to operate on their own. There’s also been a handful of baffling stinkers as well though.
It all boils down to an opportune time to sift through this large bag of product and separate the wheat from the chaff in a ranking list - season by season.
19. Iron Fist: Season 1
The Marvel and Netflix team-up managed to stumble in baffling fashion with this adaptation. The production was rushed, the fight scenes amateurish, and the plot tropes and narrative were just plain old tired - it was a superhero story we had seen done before and done much much better.
There were plenty of behind-the-scenes problems going against it from the jump. Unfortunately, main star Finn Jones lacked the necessary charm to have fans forgive the plot holes, or the necessary fight experience to distract us with his fist-a-cuffs.
We were also saddled with not one...but two lame duck villains, played by David Wenham and Tom Pelphrey. Strangely enough, both are incredibly charismatic screen personas but manage to be painfully grating throughout this show - maybe it was something in the water?
More disappointing, the show never got a chance to embrace its enticing pulpy martial arts nature with only a mid-season episode directed by Rza, showing any semblance of energy or a glint of the material's potential.
It all boiled down to a half-baked misstep that made the worst seasons of Arrow look like peak HBO output. Let's hope the inevitable 2nd season is much improved - at this point, it's going to have to be.