DC is taking over tv! Do you have a favorite? First there was Oliver Queen. A wealthy playboy whose life was changed forever when his yacht sank and he was marooned on an Island in the South China Sea. His father gave his own life to save him. Robert Queen left his Son with a mission. He must survive, get off the Island and return home to Starling City. He gave Oliver a list of people that must be dealt with to stop the corruption. In four seasons we have witnessed an evolution. Oliver Queen has gone from a playboy to the Green Arrow. All of this under the watchful eye of Greg Berlanti
Soon after The Arrow the same creator had a young man named Barry Allen racing into our hearts. When the particle accelerator invented by Harrison Wells exploded something extraordinary happened. Some of the residents of Central City started experiencing special abilities, including Central City’s Forensic Scientist Barry Allen. When some of these Metahumans began to commit crimes the Police needed backup. Barry used his newfound abilities to fight others like him now that he was “The Fastest Man Alive”. With the help of his team which consisted Harrison, Caitlin and Cisco, Barry honed his skills to become The Flash.
The Flash is a very different show from Arrow. Oliver is dark and brooding. The cinematography used in Arrow is dark and slick. They spend a lot of time in a dim basement. Day never seems to dawn in Star City. On the other hand Central City is light and filled with color. It reminds me of everyday America where people hang out in coffee shops and go to work at the paper or police station. The Flash and his team do hang out in Star Labs but it is a brighter and more inviting place. Barry is a fun loving upbeat Superhero.
Greg Berlanti soon decided that he couldn’t let the boys have all the fun. In October 2015 Supergirl flew on to the tv screen. Kara was simply an assistant at Catco Incorporated when an accident threatened the life of her sister. So Kara had to show the world what she was really made of. In between grabbing lattes for Cat Grant Kara saved National City from escaped convicts. These were not average criminals. They were Aliens from across the galaxy that were set free when their prison crashed on Earth. Kara was originally sent to this planet to protect her cousin. However an unexpected layover in the Phantom Zone caused Clark to have to grow up without her. He turned out alright though. You might know him as The Man of Steel.
If your television schedule is packed and you need more time You might want to find yourself a time travel ship because this next show will be legendary. Built with characters we met on Flash and Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow premiered in January 2016. The team was built with each person’s special skills in mind. There are the criminals Captain Cold and Heat Wave. They steal stuff. There are Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They were imbued with magic in ancient Egypt that made them reincarnate. There is The Atom, a technology genius. Professor Stein is a scientific marvel and half of Firestorm. Jefferson Jax is a great mechanic and the other half of Firestorm. Last but not least Sara Lance, The White Canary. She was trained by The League of Assassins and resurrected in the Lazarus pit. She is full of bloodlust and willing to fight anyone who gets in their way.
The person in their way is an evil immortal tyrant named Vandal
Savage. In 2166 Vandal Savage killed the wife and son of Time Master Rip Hunter. It is the Time Masters solemn duty to protect the timeline at all costs. Totally lost without his family, Rip had other plans. He assembled this team in the hope of stopping Vandal Savage in the past before he has a chance to commit the crime that changed his life forever.
These four shows are all amazing. They have some common themes. They all stress the importance of working as a team. No Superhero can save their city all alone. I love how Oliver Queen started in the dark as a masked vigilante and now serves in the light as the Green Arrow. Currently on Arrow our heroes are up against magic an obstacle that has not been explored before. I love that Barry and Kara are still learning what it means to be Heroes and their innocence shows through. Flash and Supergirl are more lighthearted and provide laughs every week. I notice moral concepts such as forgiveness, tolerance and acceptance being explored on Supergirl each week. Legends is the new show on the block and is quickly finding its stride. Each week we explore a new time period and learn new consequences of messing with time.
You can spend most of your week watching the characters created in DC comic books come alive on your tv screen. Spend Monday 8/7c with Supergirl on CBS and download the Maid of Steel podcast. Speed on to Tuesday with the Flash 8/7c on CW and check out Central City Underground. Don’t fail to tune into Arrow on Wednesday 8/7c and join Arrow Squad. Then if you have the time check out Legends of Tomorrow Thursday at 8/7c and listen to Tomorrow’s Legends. Four great shows and great podcasts to go with them. Greg Berlanti brings lots of great entertainment into our living rooms. Golden Spiral Media’s wonderful hosts compliment these shows with AWESOME podcasts. Which show is the best? That is up to you to decide.
Which Greg Berlanti Show Do You Like Best?
- Flash (42%, 21 Votes)
- Arrow (24%, 12 Votes)
- All of the Above (20%, 10 Votes)
- Supergirl (10%, 5 Votes)
- Legends of Tomorrow (4%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 50
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Berlanti DC TV is good stuff. But you can’t forget about how good Gotham is this season. Great villains and good writing have really turned it around. Then on the humorous side you have iZombie. A fun show spun out from a DC brand comic book. Bottomline it is a great time to be a DC TV time!
This is all so so true Geoff. I definitely didn’t forget about these great shows. Just could not cover all the DC shows in a single blog So I decided to write up the Greg Berlanti shows first ?
I think The Flash is an excellent show. LoT and Supergirl have both developed into very strong, entertaining shows. The quality of these three shows is contrasted by the amazing unevenness of Arrow. Now in it’s fourth season, Arrow has shown us that it’s flaws are systemic. They include: 1) the writing staff’s ridiculous addiction to the flashback subplot, 2) the lack of the our heroes behaving as a real people. The members of Team Flash hang out with each other during their leisure time. Team Arrow has to be celebrating a victory or at some special event to appear together without a case as the reason. 3) The threat for the existence of Starling/Star City has been the plot line for each season since the show premiered. It’s not old, it’s prehistoric. 4) Finally, Arrow relies much too much on the assumption that the well-crafted fight choreography can make up for story arcs that don’t engage viewers. The Flash uses special effects. Both Supergirl and LoT use a mixture of staged fights and special effects to great effect. But unlike Arrow, those shows use the fights, practical stunts and special effects as storytelling tools. Arrow, on the other hand, thinks that the dramatic weaknesses of the story can be glossed over by a spectacularly choreographed fight, as in the case of the hand decapitation of Malcolm Merlin or the second fight to the death with Ra’s Al Ghul. In both cases the fight was built up by dialogue only to disappoint with execution.
Because it’s allowed, I’m going to pick the “cop out” option and say “all of the above” just so I don’t have to chose between “Supergirl” and “Arrow”.
I don’t watch “The Flash” because Barry Allen, while likable, isn’t my Flash; I’m a Wally West as Flash fan for his banter, so I can’t really speak to it. “Legends Of Tomorrow” has aspects I like, mostly Captain Cold with his banter and being the one who fulfilled my hope of seeing a character try to change their past (next up I would love to see Sara being presented with a chance to change her death and how she deals with that), so it’s definitely growing on me but I don’t know if I would put it over “Arrow” or “Supergirl” just yet because it’s taking longer for me to really connect to the crew versus how much I great to like the groups from the named two shows and there’s some plots I could without – the love triangle stuff for example because I’m over those for most series. To be fair, I don’t know if it’s “Arrow” as a package I really like or if I’m just in love with it because of Felicity Smoak.
There are other good things to “Arrow” besides Ms. Smoak such as the villains and the way they do nods to other comic characters/events, but she is pretty awesome. I really love how “Arrow” this season is handling the paralyzation of Felicity so you can add they have good story handling on topics as well depending on how you feel about plots. I’m not saying the other characters are bad, but I just gravitate towards her because of her wits and how she refuses to let the team get by with things; I just smile thinking about Felicity Smoak.
If I had to pick just one show though out of the four listed above I would feel alright with it being “Supergirl”; it’s a fun series which is mainly light but feels like it could easily go to the dark places like “Arrow” given Kara is not as much of a scout as her cousin – she’s not an anti-hero but she’s does allow darker tones into her world more than Clark and that’s always one thing I’ve enjoyed about her. For example, while it didn’t happen on “Supergirl”, Kara chose to give Brainiac 5 a chance in “Justice League: Unlimited” despite what Oliver and John told her because of their experiences with Brainiac 1 because she believed he was a good guy who wasn’t his ancestor. Another plus is the good plots; “Livewire”, “Hostile Takeover”, and the pilot are just some examples.
I really love how they grew Kara’s powers organically, the jumps needed to get airborne again because it had been so long and the learning to adjust her strength in situations because others she might do more damage than intended for examples, as well. The characters and the relationships between them, the great CGI and fight scenes, and the organic sounding dialogue are just more reasons to watch. I also love that it’s a female lead series because it’s been awhile since we’ve seen one of those in the comic genre so it’s great seeing the female comic characters represented and represented well.
Mr. Geoff Gentry makes a great point though, is this just a Berlanti DC discussion or is it a general DC Comics one? Thank you for pointing out “iZombie” Mr. Gentry, I don’t watch the show myself but I know how it feels to have your lesser known favorites be excluded because people forget they’re in the catalog as well. If we’re counting animated DC media as well there’s a new cartoon called “DC Super Girl Heroes” starting March 19th on Boomerang which might be good as well; it is aimed at a younger audience as one might imagine, but if it’s a good show it’s a good show regardless of the targeted age.
Regarding “Gotham”, I haven’t watched it since early season one because the plots and characters just didn’t grab me; Penguin and Catwoman are great and there were good moments to the season but it just didn’t hold my attention through most episodes.
“The members of Team Flash hang out with each other during their leisure time. Team Arrow has to be celebrating a victory or at some special event to appear together without a case as the reason.” – this is a fair statement Gary; I’m hoping we see the team members, and Momma Smoak, talking to both Felicity and Oliver about the pause and it not all just being from Oliver’s point of view even if he is the lead. That said, I do like that they aren’t always tied to each other as well and get their own plots at times.
“as in the case of the hand decapitation of Malcolm Merlin or the second fight to the death with Ra’s Al Ghul. In both cases the fight was built up by dialogue only to disappoint with execution.” – I thought the hand decapitation was good; it was a clever way to get the ring without Malcolm having to die so they can use him later. Could it have been longer and/or more intense? Sure. But it worked for me personally.