An article by SFGATE ponders whether some shows are failing because as a result of “superhero glut“. While oversaturation of a specific genre is certainly a possibility, the shows cited as examples in the article illustrate a more mundane causality…they just aren’t very good.
Marvel’s Inhumans
Despite a big promotional push aided by the theater chain Imax Corp Marvel’s inhumans received a middling audience viewership of 1.5 million nightly viewers in the 18-to-49 demographic. The article argues that this could mean the number of superhero shows on television and streaming has reached a saturation point. Instead of considering the quality of these shows a factor, the article makes a bizarre ipso facto relationship in that the reason why the shows received negative reviews was because there were too many of them. Which is like saying you don’t like potato chips…because the supermarket has a whole aisle of them.
Some Folks Just Don’t Like It
This odd argument might hold water if the show was actually praised more than it was panned. It would indicate that it was likely a show of decent quality…just not enough people were tuning in because they already had too much to watch. But this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Sitting at a whopping 5.2 on IMDB with a rotten tomatoes audience score of 51% we are given some early clues that some folks might not be very fond of the show.
Let’s see what some of the reasons were:
“Awful! An insult to Stan lee and Jack Kirby!
And the worst was Black Bolt…MIGHTY Black Bolt. you know? The guy who BEAT the Thing in hand to hand combat? Who took down the Hulk? Who can peel off Iron Man’s armor with his bare hands, or fly in the air and match against the God Of Thunder THOR, or fire Electron Bursts that defeated Shatterstar and made the Sphinx cry for mercy. Black Bolt the guy who fought toe to toe against the Near Gods Vulcan and Thanos? He was outfought and clubbed unconscious by two cops…..AFTER he ran from them in a STUNNINGLY feminine fashion (the actor looks so macho, HOW did he manage to run like that…it HAD to be intentional). My wife has collected ALL the Inhumans Graphic novels and is a huge fan as well….and I thanked AGON she was in the kitchen making chicken wings for me and missed the Black Bolt girly run.” —madridartist1 October 2017
Ouch. That person was not a fan of the character portrayal. This next individual perhaps highlights more than most what happened to the Inhumans viewership:
“I was actually a big fan of the first 2 episodes. Their powers were on display and there was some mythos going on.
Onto episode 5 and they’re losing me. So boring. Very little inhuman stuff. Heavier on the human stuff. Find myself wondering when will it end? Or get good at least? Really seems like a whole lot of filler and implausible human/inhuman interactions. Frankly, it’s getting as pooey as all the critics were saying. Crystal almost never uses her powers. Medusa is robbed of hers. Of course Black Bolt never does. Gorgon’s suck. And Karnak is a dork.” —willz18727 October 2017
This is likely the case for most. The show just didn’t hold their interest. It doesn’t even factor in the hard outliers like myself for whom it didn’t even pass the sniff test. For me it looked cheesy, it was on network TV, and the trailer sucked. Three strikes…you’re out.
Supergirl
Supergirl’s problem is a little different. Supergirl came out of the gate strong with a high critic rating (currently 93%) on rotten tomatoes and earned 2.4 million viewers with its first show. The production quality of the show is actually pretty decent. I had low expectations when watching the first season but I found myself enjoying a fair bit of it. There were definitely some nits to pick but I thought it had potential. Supergirl has dropped down to 1.19 million average viewers and I think I might have an idea why.
Liberal Agenda
With an IMDB score of 6.5 and a rotten tomatoes audience score of 55%, clearly not all is rosy in Kansas. In the shows second season the show went heavy and I do mean heavy in promoting the liberal agenda. The preaching and speechifying was almost beyond belief. Men bashing. Conservative bashing. It got to the point where the only reason I was watching was to see just how bad it was going to get. The writers were now too busy trying to wade into politics they were failing at creating compelling storylines. As a result, I have no intention of watching the third season. I doubt I was alone on that sentiment.
Does this jibe with why others are disappointed with the show?
“My most severe problems with Supergirl are the story lines and scripts. Riddled with political agenda topics, whiny and jealous main characters, and childish fights, the show has left me cringing so bad for three whole seasons that I’m ashamed to admit I’ve watched as much as I have. The only reason I’ve made it this far is because of a deep- rooted loyalty to DC and a misguided hope that the writers would figure out what isn’t working. I’ve given up hope.” — okjake-43351 4 October 2017 (IMDB)
“It was an okay TV show, but season 3 is such vile ideological, brainless propaganda it deserves to be canceled yesterday.
I love superheroes and it saddens me that Supergirl is hijacked by the leftist ideologues. Kids need someone to look up to teach them good values and proper behavior like courage, truth and selflessness. They don’t need to brainwashed into group think and identity politics, scared to even question that and think that silencing anyone they disagree with for whatever reason is acceptable in a democracy.” — Petar Stamenkovic 2 November 2017 (IMDB)
Sounds like they didn’t learn their lesson from last season. This show has no one and nothing else to blame for its problems other than itself.
Agent Carter
I wouldn’t classify Agent Carter a “Superhero” show. As for why it was cancelled, I honestly can’t say if I enjoyed the show so much as I enjoyed watching Hayley Atwell. As pleasant an experience as that may be, it alone isn’t enough to support a series.
Constantine
I don’t go near anything where David Goyer has a strong influence. No way. No how.
I think this guy said it best.
“If you have a quality show or a fun show, the audience will stay with it.” — Mark Pedowitz – President of CW
I think this covers the case of 99.9% of any type of TV show. Had the author followed that logic from the beginning, there wouldn’t have been a need for an article.
