8. Powers (PlayStation Network)
Look, I’m biased for Brian Michael Bendis productions, so I wanted Powers to be good. And it is, it just takes a bit to get there. The pilot for Powers was a rough as it gets. Maybe one of the roughest pilots I have ever seen and I watched that 90’s Justice League pilot like three times. Once the show focused more on Eddie Izzard as Wolfe, things picked up. By the end of season one, things were downright compelling, led by Izzard, Michelle Forbes as Retro Girl and Noah Taylor as the big villain, Johnny Royalle.
The rest of the cast is fine, though a bit unknown, sure. Sharlto Copley is Christian Walker, a former super hero turned cop who lost his powers and now rounds up those who use theirs for bad, not good. One has to guess that many actors turned down the role after the start-and-stop nature of how long it took Powers to become a show. Put any number of rugged lead actors with a tad more range in that role and the show could be a real hit.
It looks like season two is going to focus more on Olesya Rulin as Calista, someone convinced during season one she had powers she had yet to unlock and a lynch pin to the overall story. More attention on her in season two will not be a bad thing.
| Show | Hero/ Show Lead | Support Cast | Main Villain | Other villains | Overall Storyline | Crisis of the Week | Show “Look” | Overall Score |
| Powers | 6.50 | 6.33 | 6.67 | 6.33 | 6.83 | 6.20 | 6.00 | 6.41 |
“A so-so execution of a terrific comic book.” – Jordan White
“To be fair, I only watched the pilot and am told the series gets better after that. I loved the comic book series, and the TV show feels like a poor imitation that doesn’t get the tone or characters right. I’d probably give it more of a chance if available on Netflix or Amazon.” — Ian Casselberry
“I have literally never even heard of this show.” – Mike M.
7. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC)
Perhaps the most polarizing show on this list, SHIELD (because it’s annoying to type the punctuation) was really, really, really bad when it started, but the weeks leading up to Captain America: Winter Soldier were better and better until, boom, SHIELD is full of Hydra agents, the world is upside down and suddenly SHIELD, the TV show, was awesome.
Never, maybe in the history of television, has a show gone from being so bad to being so good in an instant. This had to be Marvel’s fault, stunting the show’s growth until the big movie reveal. Frankly, they should have held the show off ABC’s schedule until after that, though from a storyline standpoint that probably wouldn’t have worked. Now, if you hung around long enough, SHIELD is a pretty good show.
Led by Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, the show still has its warts, namely the main villain which, I guess, is former agent turned Hydra henchman (and maybe leader) Grant Ward, played by Brett Dalton. He’s not great, and neither is the character. But the rest of the supporting cast is pretty good, and the show, again, has gotten much better as it’s gotten bigger.
| Show | Hero/ Show Lead | Support Cast | Main Villain | Other villains | Overall Storyline | Crisis of the Week | Show “Look” | Overall Score |
| SHIELD | 7.17 | 6.88 | 5.96 | 5.75 | 6.46 | 6.33 | 7.00 | 6.51 |
“I want to like this show, I want to care about it, but I never get pulled in. The HYDRA twist saved season one and the Inhumans storyline is intriguing, but let me know when something interesting happens, and maybe I’ll start watching again.” — Ian Casselberry
“Finally have the right mix in the cast, or at least the mix that works best together.”
“Like Arrow, this show is suffering from being around for a while and not making due on some promises (real or implied) the fanbase took from it.”
“The ‘its all connected’ nonsense has long been proven false, as the show has been set up by movies, but any actual connection is more implied than real, the fact no major MCU stars have made the trip over to AoS other than a few Nick Fury cameos early on is somehow less disappointing than the fact Agent Coulson is supposedly running a SHIELD team under the nose of the Avengers.”
“The truly good episodes are matched one-for-one with the truly unwatchable ones and the average episode seems to be getting worse every season. There was a slight uptick before the mid-season break, which could get people back on board.”
“Sometimes this show is great but overall it is very average.” – Paul L
“The show I’m most disappointed by. When it debuted, I thought “Great- a way to keep the Marvel movies going on TV each week.” It basically became CSI: Marvel. Just a bunch of agents doing stuff every week. Marvel has great heroes and villains — use them! Phil Coulson is a neat character, but building a show around him? I dunno, I can’t get into it. I’ve tried, it’s just lost me.”
“I can’t seem to get into this show no matter how hard I try.” – Zach Burke
“I’ll give Agents of SHIELD this: the show has consistently improved in almost every facet since it debuted. Assuming it continues to improve at this rate, it’ll finally be better-than-average somewhere around Season 10. The fact that I keep watching it is a major personality flaw.” – Matt Terl
“I’m considering Ward the main villain even though he isn’t really. I loved him early on, but feel he’s hung on about a season too long already.” – Joe Coblitz
“Once they figured out what to do with this show, I loved it. The first half season was super blah as they tried to make the show appeal to a mass audience instead of to the comic book people who were actually interested in the show.” – Mike M.
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