22. Helstrom (2020)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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2020\u2019s Helstrom<\/em> <\/em>was the last of the live-action MCU shows released on Hulu before the launch of Disney Plus, and it was canceled after one nearly universally panned season. The show is borderline unwatchable, a dour procession of exorcist and paranormal tropes with only the loosest connection to the comic book characters it\u2019s based on. Following a pair of siblings with demonic blood that gives them superpowers, it lacks likable characters, meaningful stakes, nuanced performances, or even impressive special effects. If you\u2019re looking for a spooky supernatural story about fighting demons, check out Evil <\/em>on Paramount Plus. If you want superheroics, you\u2019re better off watching anything else on this list. \u2014Samantha Nelson<\/em><\/p>\n

21. Inhumans (2017)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Originally planned as an MCU movie and its own MCU sub-franchise, Inhumans<\/em> suffered in part from the same thing that gave it so much potential: It\u2019s built around an entire society hidden from the rest of the world, where separatist superpowered folk live according to their own laws. But a series about supers who aren\u2019t attached to human society has none of the relatable aspects that make MCU characters interesting. And the story, about a coup that might turn the Inhumans\u2019 awful, oppressive oligarchy into a different kind of awful, oppressive oligarchy, doesn\u2019t have a lot of stakes for the average viewer.<\/p>\n

When an alternate version of Inhumans<\/em>\u2019 <\/em>Black Bolt (still played by Anson Mount) eventually turns up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness<\/em>, that gave MCU fans a lot more rooting interest in the character. But it still doesn\u2019t make Inhumans <\/em>any more interesting or watchable. The acting is stiff, the writing is clunky, bad guy Maximus (Iwan Rheon, famous for playing Game of Thrones <\/em>sadist Ramsay Bolton) is ridiculously obvious in his clumsy evil, and even once the action moves from the moon to Earth, the story never feels like it\u2019s about actual people. Technically, it\u2019s all there in the series title, so we can\u2019t say we weren\u2019t warned. \u2014Tasha Robinson<\/em><\/p>\n

20. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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James Gunn\u2019s Christmas special featuring his take on Marvel\u2019s Guardians of the Galaxy team is consciously cheesy, but the self-awareness doesn\u2019t make it any less grating. At feature length, Gunn has much more space to veer between action, silly character bits, and sentiment, but the roughly 40-minute run time here makes all those twists feel rushed and clumsy, and the humor is particularly forced.<\/p>\n

Marvel rounded up most of the GOTG regulars (apart from Zoe Salda\u00f1a as Gamora, for story-continuity reasons) for this outing, but the story centers on Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) trying to give their buddy Peter \u201cStar-Lord\u201d Quill (Chris Pratt) a traditional Earth Christmas by giving him a human present: his favorite movie star, Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon). So the story directly centers the kind of shallow \u201cnon-humans trying to understand human stuff\u201d that\u2019s usually more of a welcome side note in GOTG stories, and the results are pretty dire. All the broad, flat conversations about The Meaning of Christmas, meant as retro callbacks to an earlier era of holiday specials, are probably meant to feel playful and nostalgic, but they aren\u2019t clever enough to feel like commentary instead of copycatting. \u2014TR<\/em> <\/p>\n

19. Runaways (2017-2019)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Frankly, Runaways<\/em> would probably be several notches higher on this list if the titular runaways had run away earlier. Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona\u2019s original comics series, which launched in 2003, let the young protagonists find out early that their parents were powerful supervillains, and run off together out of fear and frustration, leading to plenty of plots about the difficulties facing homeless kids coming to terms with their powers and fighting villains without adult assistance. But the 2017 TV adaptation spends its entire first season with the kids wheel-spinning about what to do after they see evidence their parents are murderers. As they dither in uninteresting ways, the series dilutes the focus on their characters further by giving equal screen time to their parents\u2019 soap-operatic power struggles and relationship dramas.<\/p>\n

Subsequent seasons finally put a little more focus on the young heroes, but the show really never overcomes the problem of its overcrowded cast, or its baffling attempt to make the parents personable and sympathetic, even as they\u2019re systematically exploiting and murdering young people. And its focus on short-term, quickly resolved subplots, like a trying-to-be-current plot about mind control spread through cell phones, prevented the show from building up series stakes or meaningful energy. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

18. Cloak & Dagger (2018-2019)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The Freeform show Cloak & Dagger<\/em> <\/em>started off strong, driven by the powerful chemistry between Tandy Bowen, aka Dagger (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone Johnson, aka Cloak (Aubrey Joseph), teenagers trying to understand their new powers and the nature of the accident that sparked them. Because the writers were focusing on extremely minor Marvel characters, they didn\u2019t need to adhere to comics canon \u2014 they were free to deliver a mix of heady wonder and romance, combined with sharp examinations of police brutality, addiction, and corporate malfeasance.<\/p>\n

That early charm wore away as the show\u2019s stakes increased and the comics tropes piled up. A twist on fridging meant to be edgy still came off as unnecessarily brutal, the writers tried to make the show\u2019s least interesting character work by giving her an evil personality, and both seasons ended in near-apocalyptic conflicts. It isn\u2019t a terrible YA adventure, but it\u2019s a textbook case of diminishing returns. \u2014SN<\/em><\/p>\n

17. Iron Fist (2017-2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The first season of Iron Fist<\/em> <\/em>was rightly maligned for its rich, white man-child hero Danny Rand (Finn Jones) using his Chosen One powers to show up the people of color who are meant to be his loyal friends. But when Raven Metzner took over as showrunner for season 2, he oversaw a remarkable course-correction by shifting the focus away from Danny and building up the supporting cast.<\/p>\n

Sacha Dhawan does a remarkable job as Danny\u2019s brother-in-arms-turned-bitter-rival Davos, and Luke Cage<\/em> cop Misty Knight (Simone Missick) is just as dismissive of Danny\u2019s abilities as a vigilante as she works to come up with better solutions to Chinatown\u2019s problems. The writers still didn\u2019t seem to know what to do with some of the supporting cast, and the show continued to suffer from having too many subplots and villains, but it ended in a strange and surprising place compared to where it began. It\u2019s almost sad that there wasn\u2019t a third season or spinoff that could have really embraced the potential to explore the MCU\u2019s deep well of mystic kung-fu weirdness. \u2014SN<\/em><\/p>\n

16. Agents of SHIELD (2013-2020)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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ABC\u2019s Agents of SHIELD<\/em> <\/em>was the show most closely tied to the MCU before Disney Plus came along. It stars recurring MCU film character Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who is mysteriously resurrected after being killed by Loki in The Avengers<\/em>, then tasked with leading a group of agents investigating everything from rogue Asgardians to cyborgs. The show\u2019s first season was written to complement the Captain America: The Winter Soldier <\/em>revelation that SHIELD had been infiltrated by Hydra, which gives the story an excellent twist as several main characters show their true loyalties.<\/p>\n

But that connective tissue wore thin over time, and later seasons saw the characters sent to space or entirely different timelines so they could avoid intersecting with the MCU films. When the show is firing on all cylinders, Agents of SHIELD <\/em>is among the top Marvel series, embracing the genre-bending sensibilities of comic book stories and a heavy dose of meta humor. Unfortunately, it spends a lot of time foundering, taking several seasons to become a true ensemble show, and even then, struggling with separated characters and a rotating cast of varying quality. \u2014SN<\/em><\/p>\n

15. The Punisher (2017-2019)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Jon Bernthal\u2019s gruff, fierce portrayal of Marine-turned-vigilante Frank Castle is the true highlight of Daredevil <\/em>season 2, and the first season of The Punisher<\/em> <\/em>is among the best stories in the Netflix MCU. While the character\u2019s legacy is highly problematic, showrunner Steve Lightfoot manages to keep the show from being just a brutal revenge fantasy by delivering plots that examine PTSD, the military industrial complex, and ethical hacking. The show is also buoyed by a fantastic supporting cast, with Ben Barnes playing an all-too-charming villain, and Castle\u2019s sidekick, Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), giving the series some desperately needed levity.<\/p>\n

The second season fails to recapture that magic, though, with Micro\u2019s absence keenly felt and DHS agent Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah) going from fierce foil to victim. That season\u2019s plot also feels like a retread of the same conflicts presented in season 1, with little new to say. Most of the Netflix MCU shows experienced a quality dip after their first season, but The Punisher<\/em>\u2019s second and final outing was the worst offender. \u2014SN<\/em><\/p>\n

14. The Defenders (2017)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Netflix\u2019s single-season crossover series attempted to be a kind of miniature TV version of The Avengers<\/em>, one-upping Daredevil<\/em>, Jessica Jones<\/em>, Luke Cage<\/em>, and Iron Fist<\/em> by bringing all the heroes together in one big plot line. It lacks Avengers<\/em>\u2019 impact or scope, but it does share some of its strengths: Bringing these four heroes together in different combinations lets the writers explore their personalities and abilities in new contexts. As they banter and snark at each other, they highlight some of the individual faults that bugged fans of their solo shows. And as they learn to work together, the ways their abilities and personalities synergize injects some fresh energy into their individual stories. The overplot here is disappointing, but the characters themselves are generally both funnier and more thrilling than they were on their own. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

13. Werewolf by Night (2022)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Cheeky in the same way as The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special<\/em> but a lot more nuanced in its sense of play, the one-off (so far) Halloween special Werewolf by Night<\/em> leans heavily on classic Hollywood horror and Hammer Film Productions movies for its particular brand of self-aware cheese. But it also tells a solid (though abbreviated) story about misfits facing off and teaming up to address a power shift in a family of monster-hunters. It doesn\u2019t feel <\/em>like a part of MCU continuity \u2014 the tone and look are radically different from any previous MCU story, which is a breath of fresh air \u2014 but longtime Disney composer turned director Michael Giacchino confirms that it\u2019s part of the MCU narrative, which raises a ton of fun questions about the implication of this weird, gleefully ghoulish little side story. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

12. Luke Cage (2016-2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The first half of the first season of Luke Cage<\/em> is nearly perfect, with Mike Colter\u2019s titular hero with unbreakable skin still struggling to make a real difference when fighting against the formidable mix of criminal and political power wielded by Mahershala Ali\u2019s Cornell \u201cCottonmouth\u201d Stokes. Yet the series takes a hard turn when Stokes is replaced by the generic psychopath Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey), and it becomes borderline unwatchable. Season 2 is more consistent, though it never really reaches the highs of season 1.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too bad that the Netflix MCU ended before showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker could really develop the examination of moral compromises he was clearly setting up with Luke walking dangerously close to Stokes\u2019 path by the end of season 2. But in spite of those flaws, Luke Cage <\/em>is a vibrant portrait of Harlem, with an impeccable soundtrack and fantastic performances that call on the significant charisma of Colter, Ali, and Theo Rossi, who plays Stokes\u2019 opportunistic underling Shades. While the other Netflix MCU shows largely focus on withdrawn, brooding heroes, Luke Cage revels in his powers and fame, which gives the show a uniquely bombastic quality. \u2014SN<\/em><\/p>\n

11. Hawkeye (2021)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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It\u2019s reasonable that so many of the Marvel shows following Avengers: Endgame<\/em> deal with that movie\u2019s world-changing aftermath and the characters who are mourning, coming to terms with loss, and reflecting on their identities. But coming after several more dynamic shows dealing with the same issues, Hawkeye<\/em> feels unusually small and low-key, with minimal ambitions and a notable lack of original unique elements. It gets a little borrowed energy by bringing in a dangling plot thread from Black Widow<\/em> and a villain from Netflix\u2019s Daredevil<\/em>, but mostly it feels like an attempt to introduce a new hero (Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop) and to MCU-ify some other relative Marvel Comics obscurities. The show isn\u2019t bad, it just isn\u2019t much. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

10. Jessica Jones (2015-2019)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Jessica Jones<\/em> had the mixed blessing of a stellar first season with a near-unbeatable villain in Kilgrave (former Doctor Who<\/em> star David Tennant), whose voice is inescapably mesmeric, to the point where people kill each other or themselves at his casual verbal command. Krysten Ritter gives a consistently layered performance as the superhumanly powerful title character, a detective trying to ignore the deep traumas Kilgrave inflicted on her in the past, while dealing with his return. If the subsequent two seasons had been as targeted and intense as the first one, this series would probably top this list. Instead, Jessica Jones <\/em>suffers from the way its second and third seasons lose focus, tension, and personal stakes by comparison. Still, it\u2019s well worth sitting down to that first season, a street-level superhero series, crime procedural, and personal story about abuse and recovery all rolled into one. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

9. Moon Knight (2022)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Is Moon Knight<\/em> a canon part of the MCU? Executive producer Grant Curtis says it is, but apart from the tiniest references \u2014 a mention of Black Panther<\/em>\u2019s Ancestral Plane, another of Madripoor \u2014 the links are minimal, tenuous, and easily explained away, given Marvel Studios\u2019 new focus on multiverses. Still, Disney Plus includes the show on its \u201cMCU in timeline order\u201d list, placing it right after Hawkeye<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But Moon Knight<\/em>\u2019s <\/em>lack of visible MCU tie-ins also leaves it light on the usual burdens of forwarding a giant franchise\u2019s narrative agenda. That gives creator Jeremy Slater and his team plenty of room to tell their own thrilling weird-adventure story, built heavily around the mystery of what\u2019s going on with Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), whose visions of a supernatural world sometimes coincide with blackouts that leave him with blood on his hands and a contemptuous voice in his ears. The ending is rushed per usual in an MCU series, but most of what happens on the way there is engaging, exciting, and actually pretty weird and daring for an MCU show. It\u2019s all boosted by Isaac\u2019s clear enjoyment of his wild dual role, a constant series of surprising reveals, and action that takes place both on a worldwide scale and a very personal one. It\u2019s one of the stronger MCU series, marred mostly by a tendency to zip past important plot points without letting them breathe and to spend too much time on largely irrelevant red herrings. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

8. She-Hulk (2022)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Jessica Gao\u2019s series She-Hulk <\/em>has a whole lot going on in its first season \u2014 too much to fully cohere by the end, though its week-to-week attempts to balance a legal drama, a fourth-wall-breaking comedy, and a wry running commentary on societal sexism are still a lot of fun to watch. As the title character, Jen Walters\/She-Hulk, Tatiana Maslany carries a lot of weight on her shoulders as she tries to keep the show\u2019s emotions relatable and realistic, even when she\u2019s turning directly to the camera and mocking her show\u2019s structure or the latest plot development. The first season fizzles out a bit by the ending, leaving Jen in a weird state of \u201cIs anything here real, and does any of it matter?\u201d, but the journey to get there is light, airy, and often sharp as hell in its observations about the day-to-day flak professional women have to navigate over their gender. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

7. Loki (2021)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Loki<\/em> seems likely to climb the ranking charts once the series finds its way closer to an actual conclusion. Rating it after the closing of season 1 feels like rating it in the middle of its story, given the cliffhanger ending that\u2019s far more about setting up the next wave of Marvel movies than about actually respecting the characters or themes on deck throughout the show. Season 1 is a mind-bending whirl through a game-changing series of reveals for the MCU, and specifically for Loki, who\u2019s been through so many changes over the course of a decade in the movies, even accounting for how many of those changes have been retracted or reversed. Tom Hiddleston remains a standout in the MCU, an expressive, electric presence who\u2019d make this series stand out no matter what. But while Loki<\/em> is creative, colorful, and often a lot of fun, season 1 perpetually feels like it\u2019s been edited down to the bone, with no time for the stronger character development or emotional exploration of some of the other shows on this list. It\u2019s Disney Plus\u2019 most purely fun MCU show so far, but at the moment, it\u2019s still a story half-told. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

6. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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As a story about how former Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes deals with his many MCU traumas and how Sam Wilson decides to take up the Captain America mantle, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier<\/em> is pretty rushed, and in the end, clumsy. As a story about a network of secret super-soldiers who could be labeled terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on your perspective, it\u2019s well-meaning, but often just graceless. But as a story about two men trying to separately deal with losing their mentor and inspiration, each resenting the other for doing it wrong until they finally bond over what they learned from him, it\u2019s resonant and thoughtful in a way MCU stories rarely can be.<\/p>\n

Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, as the titular main characters, bring a vital combination of warmth and prickliness to their roles, which helps make their sometimes broadly drawn characters feel vulnerable, human, and engaging. At its absolute best, this action bromance is so good that it\u2019s actively frustrating when it blows some of its narrative potential by zipping past important plot points with a hand-wave or a stuffy speech. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

5. WandaVision (2021)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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WandaVision<\/em> takes quite a while to reveal its agenda as yet another post-Avengers: Endgame <\/em>story about navigating grief and loss. It starts with its central character, Wanda Maximoff, in complete denial, having created her own cheery sitcom reality with a re-creation of her dead love, Vision. The series creators play around with that faux reality, jumping through decades of sitcom styles and generally having more fun with design, direction, and overall style than any MCU show so far.<\/p>\n

That freedom to creatively explore her character while being outright weird is one of the two biggest things that makes WandaVision<\/em> a standout. The other is the depth of the series\u2019 emotions, as Wanda navigates her own rage, guilt, and selfishness on top of everything else. The series wraps up messily, with plenty of loose ends that it means to set up future movies, so it never feels like a fully self-contained story, but it certainly is a wild ride while it lasts. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

4. What If\u2026? (2021)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Still a lock for Most Underrated MCU Show, the What If\u2026?<\/em> series may have been a victim of MCU fatigue, of prejudice against animation, or of fans\u2019 feeling that a series of speculative multiverse stories don\u2019t really matter to the overall MCU continuity. One way or another, fans of the franchise don\u2019t seem to have engaged with the show nearly as much as they did with some of the series on this list. They\u2019re missing out. The nine-episode opening season starts out straightforward, in a universe where Peggy Carter got the super-soldier treatment instead of Steve Rogers, but events otherwise mostly played out in a familiar pattern. But once the AU training wheels are off, subsequent episodes escalate the stakes and the distance from familiar canon, either heading in much darker and more brutal directions than the mainstream movies ever could, or having much more fun with the characters, as Black Panther\u2019s T\u2019Challa heads to space (and proves the universe is better off without Peter Quill) or Thor throws a worldwide party.<\/p>\n

But what really locks What If\u2026?<\/em>\u2019s place on this list is the final two episodes of the season, which integrate all those previous episodes in surprising ways, paying off some plot lines that didn\u2019t seem like they were designed to be resolved. The show gets big and cosmic in exciting ways, but it\u2019s also meticulous about the details, from in-jokes like multiple Howard the Duck cameos to the way all the seemingly stand-alone stories line up in the end. The individual episodes are uneven, but this season is more about the integrated package and where it all leads in the end. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Ms. Marvel (2022)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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In a world inundated with superhero properties (the 19 on this list are just a drop in the bucket of the broader slate), Ms. Marvel<\/em> actually managed to make an origin story feel like a treat. Credit any number of creative choices, including the show\u2019s vibrant, Into the Spider-Verse<\/em>-esque visual identity, or the way it gives protagonist Kamala Khan an actual life beyond the bounds of superherodom. But some acclaim should certainly be reserved for Iman Vellani, the absolute star at the center of it all. She makes Kamala feel alive whether she\u2019s staring down a big bad or a big crush. <\/p>\n

In her hands, Ms. Marvel<\/em> is the all-too-rare MCU property that feels like it has the engine to run for a while, even if it\u2019s still sorting out how to handle Ms. Marvel\u2019s villains or cultural identity. At six episodes, its weakest link (hopefully) is that it\u2019s only just getting started. \u2014Zosha Millman<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Agent Carter (2015-2016)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Where WandaVision <\/em>explores what happens when an immensely powerful superhero loses the love of her life, Agent Carter<\/em> <\/em>flips the formula by exploring the same kind of grief, but steeping it in powerlessness. After the events of Captain America: The First Avenger<\/em>, Captain America\u2019s \u201cbest girl\u201d Peggy Carter is mourning his supposed death, but also trying to carry on as a hero in an environment that increasingly doesn\u2019t want female heroes.<\/p>\n

Mimicking the real-life societal shift that moved women into traditional men\u2019s work during World War II then sidelined them again when the soldiers came home, Agent Carter <\/em>deals closely with the sexism and condescension Peggy (played fiercely by Hayley Atwell) faces on the job at the FBI-like Strategic Scientific Reserve. When her sexist fellow agents contemptuously treat her like a side-piece Captain America foolishly allowed a little equality, she\u2019s forced to chase down America\u2019s enemies on the sly alongside Howard Stark\u2019s butler Jarvis (James D\u2019Arcy). The series is sharp, with meaningful conflict, a satisfying Marvel-movie overplot, and a noir-movie concept of both the gender wars and the job of a private investigator. Atwell and D\u2019Arcy make a terrific team. And the show even looks spectacular, with a Technicolor-style sense for style. It\u2019s unquestionably MCU-modern rather than a period piece, but it takes all the most beloved ideas about costuming, cinematography, humor, and storytelling from the period it\u2019s evoking. \u2014TR<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Daredevil (2015-2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Photo: Nicole Rivelli\/Netflix<\/cite><\/p>\n

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The first of the Netflix MCU shows, Daredevil <\/em>established the darker, street-level tone of the venture while still feeling very much like a superhero story, complete with costumes, secret identities, and spectacular fights. The one-shot hallway fight scene proved that Marvel didn\u2019t need a movie-sized budget to create epic set pieces, while the battle between Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), which weaponizes every stray object found in a newsroom provides a strange mix of high stakes and whimsy.<\/p>\n

But even more astounding than the combats are the performances. Cox is absolutely believable in his portrayal of a hero driven by a mix of rage and Catholic guilt as he tries to make the world better, both as a lawyer and as a vigilante. Vincent D\u2019Onofrio\u2019s Kingpin is a study in how to make a compelling villain. The show is also a launchpad for The Punisher<\/em>, <\/em>with Frank Castle serving as a perfect cautionary tale of what Matt Murdock could become if his friends don\u2019t keep him in check. Daredevil <\/em>isn\u2019t perfect: The back half of the second season descends into an endless onslaught of ninja to set up The Defenders<\/em>, <\/em>and the writers never seemed to know what to do with some of the supporting cast. But the show never failed to be creative and ambitious, and its finale provided a satisfying and hopeful conclusion to a major chapter in superhero television. \u2014SN <\/em><\/p>\n

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