When most people think of DC television shows, they usually think about the Arrowverse. The CW’s franchise of superhero shows spanned more than a decade and six series over its run and helped to redefine what superhero television could look like. The franchise was a huge success, with shows like Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl specifically becoming their own pop culture moment.
Videos by ComicBook.com
However, while there’s no denying that the Arrowverse was entertaining and certainly contributed a lot to superhero entertainment, the shows from that franchise aren’t the best that DC has to offer. There have been many other great DC television series both before and after the Arrowverse and, some of them, are simply some of the best superhero entertainment around. Here’s five DC television shows that were better than anything in the Arrowverse.
5) Doom Patrol
Debuting on the now-defunct DC Universe before landing on HBO Max, Doom Patrol is technically a spinoff of Titans but is the vastly superior show — and one of the best television shows DC has ever done. The series follows a group of traumatized individuals each who has ended up with superpowers as a result of horrible accidents or circumstances, who come together under Niles Caulder/The Chief and become superheroes. When The Chief disappears, they embark on a journey to rescue him and learn some surprising truths about exactly how they came to be as they are in the process.
A series as much about the idea of found family and healing as it is about superheroes, Doom Patrol is a beautiful (and frequently hilarious) exploration of finding peace and acceptance in yourself as well as a reminder that you can be broken and still be loved. It’s a one-of-a-kind series.
4) Wonder Woman
When most people think of a live-action Wonder Woman, it’s not Gal Gadot they’re thinking of; it’s Lynda Carter and there’s a very good reason for that. Carter starred as Wonder Woman in the iconic ABC and CBS series from the 1970s. The series only lasted for three total seasons, but it left an indelible mark on superhero entertainment, so much so that Carter has appeared in both the Arrowverse and in The Flash movie as well as in Wonder Woman 1984.
Carter’s Diana Prince/Wonder Woman is the gold standard. Sure, it’s a little campy, but that’s just part of its comic book charm and when it comes to adapting the Amazonian princess for screen, this show has yet to be beat.
3) Pennyworth
As DC television shows go, Pennyworth is a little bit of an odd one. The series, which started on Epix and moved to HBO Max for its final season, is set in the same general universe as the series Gotham so it’s not exactly the DC universe one might expect. But honestly, that’s part of its charm.
Set in England in the 1960s, the series follows Alfred Pennyworth before he was the Wayne family butler and is a wild spy thriller style series that finds Alfred working against the fascist Raven Society alongside American agents of the CIA-affiliated No Name League (who just so happen to be Thomas and Martha Wayne). The series manages to be a Batman-ish story and also tie into V for Vendetta and while it’s absolutely bonkers, it’s also incredibly fascinating and wildly underrated.
2) Peacemaker
Peacemaker may be a spinoff of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, but it’s really very much its own project and a great one at that. Picking up after the events of that film, the series follows John Cena’s Christopher Smith/Peacemaker trying to be a genuine hero all while trying to reconcile his own past. And it’s not just a show about Peacemaker. The whole team around him are all kind of misfits themselves and it all works, even as they all have to try to save the world together.
Peacemaker is funny, bloody, a little raunchy, and a lot of fun but it is also deeply thought provoking and very moving. Add to that and Cena is absolutely incredible as Peacemaker and you’ve got a damn near perfect series.
1) Watchmen
A lot of people have a lot of feelings about adapting Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen generally, and those feelings were only exacerbated when Damon Lindelof took things one step further with HBO’s Watchmen television series that wasn’t an adaptation but a completely original sequel, but let’s be honest: the result might just be the best DC television show ever made.
The series takes viewers 34 years after the original story and to Tulsa, Oklahoma where, after a white supremacist attack on the police, cops hide their identities behind masks. Years after that so-called “White Night”, detective Angela Abar/Sister Night investigates the murder of her friend and police chief Judd Crawford only to discover some dark secrets about vigilantism, herself, and more. It’s an incredible story that uses real world history to craft and extended tale in the Watchmen universe. It also managed to capture the same feeling and energy of the original comic, featured incredible performances, and ended in a way that was both satisfying and left audiences wanting more. It isn’t just an adaptation done well, but it’s incredible television, too.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Prime Video -
Image Courtesy of MAPPA -
A-1 Pictures/Satelight
