TV Review: Marvel Zombies (2025)

Marvel Zombies (2025) created by Bryan Andrews 

The world is overrun with zombies, including many transformed superheroes like Hawkeye and Captain America. Ms. Marvel (the Kamala Khan version), Iron Heart, and Hawkeye (the Kate Bishop version) are wandering around New York City trying to stay alive since they are still human. They see a Quinjet crash and rush to grab supplies from the wreckage. They discover the pilot has swallowed a gadget that turns out to be transponder that will contact the Nova Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement agency. If activated the Corps will come and help the Earth with the zombie plague. No one has come yet, so they take it to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to figure out how to activate it. The nearest one is in Ohio, so it's a road trip through the zombie apocalypse to try and save the world.

While this follows the tried and true formula of taking a genre and throwing Marvel heroes into it, the execution here is not satisfactory. Sure, the show has all the current (as of 2025) heroes--the Shang-Chi set, the New Avengers set, the Disney TV show characters. Ms. Marvel is the central character (she is the most popular). Everyone else comes off formulaic with little development. The animation style is a hybrid of CGI and hand drawn that just looks bad to me. They seem to want the gritty realism of zombie films (with plenty of gore) but the family-friendly animation (without being really family-friendly at all). The story runs through a lot of the Marvel universe but almost always with glum results.

I didn't enjoy the show on any level which is unfortunate because I have liked some of the Marvel Zombie comics. At least the show is only four half-hour episodes, so not a big time commitment. 

Not recommended.

As I write (October 2026), this is only available streaming on Disney+.

TV Review: Daredevil Born Again Season 2 (2026)

Daredevil Born Again Season 2 (2026) created for television by Matt Corman and Dario Scardapane based on the Marvel comics character

Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) is New York City's mayor and has enacted an anti-vigilante law which comes along with a heavily armed and armored task force. He claims he's reduced crime in the city and made things a lot safer for the city that he loves. But the cost is a lot of overreach by the task force. And Fisk is still running some illegal operations, especially through a port that doesn't have oversight by anyone else. A ship comes in with a secret cargo of military-grade weapons. Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) as Daredevil goes on board to find evidence only to come into conflict with the task force. The captain and his first mate have orders to scuttle the ship if things go badly, which they do. But the ship is already in New York Harbor and doesn't sink all the way. Fisk scrambles to control the situation while Daredevil also scrambles to make the most of the situation. He's been fighting from hiding along with Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), who is running the propaganda part of their anti-Fisk operation. They have few allies.

While I love the characters here, the show is quite bleak and a bit of a slog to get through. People are miserable on all sides and not much hope comes from any direction until the last five or ten minutes of the show. The courtroom drama parts are not authentic and feel designed to be melodramatic rather than to reflect how the legal system actually works. If that wasn't jarring enough, Fisk enters a celebrity boxing match while he's also on high alert for threats to him and his wife. What's the mayor of New York doing that for? The whole plot of Fisk's overreach with his task force is a clear parallel with President Trump and the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a very heavy-handed and obvious commentary. With the somber and realistic tone of the series, the departures from reality stick out too much. The ending managed to pull things together but this is only an average drama for an exceptional character.

Mildly recommended.

As I publish this (October 2026), this is only available streaming on Disney+.

TV Review: X-Men '97 Season 2 (2026)

X-Men '97 Season 2 (2026) created by Beau DeMayo based on the 1990s series based on the Marvel Comics

This series has the X-Men fighting the supervillain Apocalypse. He starts out in ancient Egypt as an insignificant slave and rises to become the first mutant. He lives on for thousands of years. The X-Men fight him in the far future, the past, and the present. The far future is dominated by Cable, the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey, who is fated to kill Apocalypse. Cable knows about his fate and has become obsessed by it. His aggression leads him to form his own mutant team, X-Force, who travel through time to fight Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Professor X and Magneto try to stop En Sabah Nur from becoming Apocalypse in 3000 BC. When all the X-Men return to modern day (1997, that is), they have to deal with X-Factor, a group of mutants hired by the American government to keep mutants in line. Naturally, the three X-groups come into conflict with each other as they are trying to deal with Apocalypse in their own ways.

The show gets a little convoluted as it goes along. The main story line gets scattered, especially when filler episodes show up, like the one where Wolverine gets his adamantium back while on a mission to the Weapon X facility. The stories are exciting even if they don't all gel together. The finale introduces a new problem, the election of an anti-mutant president of the United States. Also, Mystique takes over the identity of the head of X-Factor, which probably won't be good news in season 3. I enjoyed this season enough to be looking forward to next season.

Recommended, highly for X-Men fans.

As I write this (September 2026), this is only available streaming on Disney+.

TV Review: Wonder Man (2026)

Wonder Man (2026) created for television by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest based on the Marvel Comics 

Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a hard-working actor who works too hard on his performances. He tries to dig into his characters' back stories, even on set when the rest of the production is ready to go, not to renegotiate the narrative. He gets fired from his current job. Desperate, he hears a childhood movie hero, Wonder Man, is being rebooted by a German auteur director, so he moves heaven and earth to get an audition. He happens to run into Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) who is also down and out. Williams idolizes Slattery, who helps him out and is also trying out for Wonder Man, though in another role. Slattery has ulterior motives. The Department of Damage Control has taken him into custody and blackmails him into befriending Williams so he can get the dirt on Williams. Damage Control suspects Williams is dangerous, which viewers see at one point when Williams stresses out and causes a bit of destruction in his apartment through some sort of superpower. 

The show has more than a bit of Hollywood narcissism--a story about actors and their tough lives, with lots of name dropping and famous locales. I found that aspect disappointing though I am sure others would enjoy it. On the other hand, I liked the growth of Simon's character, away from a self-defeating perfectionism and self-centeredness. A lot of it is due to his friendship with Trevor, which is all a front at the beginning. Trevor learns to like Simon and hate that he is betraying him. They have good chemistry together and their misadventures are entertaining if not always sensible. The ending is especially satisfying.

Recommended, especially for Marvel fans.

As I write (September 2026), this is only available on Disney+.

TV Review: Daredevil Born Again Season 1 (2025)

Daredevil Born Again Season 1 (2025) created for television by Matt Corman and Dario Scardapane based on the Marvel comics character

Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) goes through a harrowing experience in a pre-credits sequence: Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) is brutally murdered by Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). After throwing Bullseye off the roof, Matt hangs up his Daredevil costume and moves to a new law firm while Karen Page (Deborah Ann Wohl) moves out of town. A year later, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) decides to run for mayor of New York City on a "make New York a better place" promise. He wins the election, which does not sit well with Matt. The two men confront each other and promise if the other returns to their former ways, he will take him down. The tension ratchets up as a new street artist, Muse (Hunter Doohan), makes displays lionizing the vigilantes Fisk despises and lambasting the politics Fisk engages in. Also, Muse is killing people and using their blood in his artwork. The situation only gets worse from there as Murdock and Fisk both try to protect their city.

D'Onofrio and Cox give great performances. Their confrontation scenes are among the best in this new series. But the series suffers from bailing out on the Murdock-Nelson-Page dynamic which is not recreated in Matt's new law firm, though they try to. Fisk becoming mayor is a little hard to believe since he would more likely find dirt on politicians and manipulate the system that way rather than come out front and center. He does some interesting things, slowly or quickly corrupting his subordinates depending on how receptive they are to his ways. Also, his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) has returned though they are in couples counseling (also some of the best scenes in the show). As a villain, Muse is underdeveloped and winds up more of a plot mechanic than an interesting (if diabolical) character. The show ends with a cliffhanger ending because, of course, they want to make another season. I will watch a new season but this is not as good as the previous Netflix seasons, so I am not very enthusiastic for more.

Mildly recommended.

As I write (October 2025) this is only available on Disney+.

TV Review: Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (2023)

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (2023) written by Russell T. Davis and directed by Rachel Talalay, Tom Kingsley, and Chanya Button

The Fourteenth incarnation of the Doctor has the same face as the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)! A series of specials for the sixtieth anniversary of the show features Tennant and Catherine Tate returning as Donna Noble. Three fun episodes?

The Star Beast--The Doctor lands on present day Earth where he nearly runs into Donna. He does not want to do that because if she remembers him, she will die (because of entirely fabricated complications, the usual Doctor Who blather). He tries to avoid her as everyone except Donna sees an alien spaceship crash in London's outskirts. Donna has a daughter named Rose (Yasmin Finney) and a husband and a supposedly happy life. Rose winds up finding a cute alien creature, The Meep, which she tries to protect from the hostile aliens that have also landed on Earth and want to capture The Meep. The show has the usual dramatics and action of a Doctor Who episode with a very cinematic visual flare. There's a nice twist for the third act and a great deal of fun leading to the Doctor and Donna going for one last adventure in the TARDIS. There are some clumsy woke moments in the show, e.g. it is hard to tell whether they are mocking or affirming a character choosing a pronoun.

Wild Blue Yonder--Of course the TARDIS goes off course, landing the Doctor and Donna at the edge of the known universe in a seemingly empty, gigantic ship. The TARDIS suddenly transports out, leaving them stranded. Donna panics and the Doctor realizes the TARDIS only leaves when extreme danger is nearby. They investigate the ship, hoping to stop the danger and thereby let the TARDIS return. The adventure is fun, along with a little bit of character development and revelation. Not the best Doctor story, but good enough.

The Giggle--Neil Patrick Harris guest stars as The Toymaker, a villain who wants to play games and win. He's used a puppet to drive human beings crazy, forcing the Doctor and Donna to team up with UNIT to stop him. The mechanics of the plot are very nonsensical which could have been okay if the cast was up for a bit of whimsy. For me, they played it a little too straight to make the fun outweigh the logical inconsistencies and incoherences. The new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) has a nice introduction, though I hope he gets a pair of pants in the Christmas special. Tennant's Doctor gets a nice coda and a huge opening to come back at any time. Donna gets the ending that she deserves, which made me very happy.

Overall, these are okay. I didn't see anything really great here but I was entertained. I want to go back and watch the Donna Noble episodes. She is the best of the modern companions, maybe the best one from the whole sixty year history.

As I write (December 2023), the episodes are available streaming on Disney+ in America and other countries outside of the UK (where it is available from BBC).

TV Review: Andor (2022)

Andor (2022) created by Tony Gilroy based on Star Wars by George Lucas 

In this prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is a down-and-out guy on an obscure planet that is more or less comfortable under the heel of the Galactic Empire. He does some black-market deals and winds up killing some Imperials who stumble onto his trail, bringing the wrath of the Empire down on the planet. At the same time, he is recruited by Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard), a shadowy figure who wants to fight back against the Imperial Government. Andor reluctantly joins Luthen's latest plot--a plan to steal millions from the government when raiding a payroll stockpile. Nothing quite goes according to plan, forcing Andor to make some tough decisions and decide where his future really lies.

While the plot focused on Andor is central and fascinating, there's a lot of other stories going on around it. The Empire's secret intelligence agency reacts to various rebellious activities with interesting political intrigue among the agency higher ups. One of them, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), seems to be following the right leads but others on the agency are wary of her working outside of protocols to get things done. Another very intriguing plot line involves Imperial officer Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) who tried to catch Andor for the initial killings; he loses his job but the story keeps following his downfall. He loses his job, moves back home with his overbearing mother, and gets a bureaucratic job, all the while hoping to prove he was right. On the capital world of Coruscant, Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) works with the Imperial Senate and with Luthen, hoping to get the rebels advanced enough to become the Rebellion.

The overall plotting and characters are very interesting and not the same old space opera of the Skywalker storyline. This show feels fresh and mature, with new ideas and exploring new corners of the Star Wars. Cassian Andor's origin story is well-told and I am looking forward to more. Or at least, rewatching Rogue One.

Recommended, highly for Star Wars fans.

TV Review: Werewolf by Night (2022)

Werewolf by Night (2022) directed by Michael Giacchino 

Ulysses Bloodstone, a famous monster hunter (at least, famous in the covert monster-hunting community), has died. His main weapon is the Bloodstone, an artifact of incredible power that would normally have passed on to his daughter Elsa (Laura Donnelly). She left the family long ago and only comes back to the funeral to claim what's hers by birthright. Ulysses had other plans--he organized a hunt with the greatest monster hunters from across the Earth. They gather at the funeral and are ready to do whatever it takes (including fighting each other) to win the Bloodstone. All they have to do is defeat a monster who has the Bloodstone attached to him.

While inspired by the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, the movie wobbles between serious and silly at the beginning. The set-up scene for the hunt unfortunately invokes Young Frankenstein rather than Frankenstein, making the proceedings hard to take seriously. The 54-minute running time does not give enough space to set up tension and horror, only a few gory moments and maybe two thrilling scenes. This show looks like it's just another Marvel action show, albeit shot in black-and-white. The labyrinthine garden where the hunt takes place is not used to any great effect, a lost opportunity. The show does have one interesting twist, some character revelation, and one menacing scene with the titular monster. But overall, it doesn't satisfy.

Barely recommended, this is more like cheap Halloween scares.

Currently (October 2022) only streaming on Disney+.

TV Review: Moon Knight (2022)

Moon Knight (2022) adapted for television by Jeremy Slater from the comic by Doug Moench and Don Perlin

Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) is a lackluster British museum gift shop employee with an expertise in Egyptian mythology. His real problem is two-fold: blackouts that lead to bizarre circumstances and dreams that show a different life as an American soldier of fortune. He also has unsettling encounters with Harrow (Ethan Hawke), a man with some sort of connection to the Egyptian gods. Harrow is building a collection of disciples to enact whatever plan he has. Steven has a hard time keeping track of reality. Viewers quickly discover that his American version, Marc Spector, is sharing the body with Grant. Spector has a lot more ambition and drive. He is the avatar of Khonshu (voiced by F. Murray Abraham), a minor Egyptian deity obsessed with avenging people wronged in the middle of the night. If the wrongs happen during daytime, that's okay too. Spector transforms into Moon Knight, a cloaked superhero who rights wrongs, though mostly in this show he's fighting with Harrow and his minions.

The effort to navigate their dual lives and their conflicting goals make Steven and Marc interesting characters. Isaac gives a good performance, flipping between the characters with ease and making both of them sympathetic. The show uses reflections to show the other character trapped inside, giving the two personalities a way to dialog with each other. Harrow comes off as a less compelling character and only a mildly interesting villain. He wants to release a goddess who will punish evildoers before they even commit their crimes. Hawke tries to give Harrow some creepiness but it doesn't really work too often. 

The use of Egyptian mythology is uneven. The show starts acknowledging the basics and has mostly museum-type mythology, which does not get into a lot of detail. Then they go fully into it for the last half of the show, an unexpected and happy shift. Some bits worked less well than others because blending modern sensibilities with ancient mythology is tricky. The show became much more challenging to follow and think about, which I liked. 

The ending was a typical big battle. The show suffers from the worst post-credits sequence since Legion. That last scene presents a surprise twist that makes very little sense with the rest of the story and brought up the wrong sorts of questions a viewer wants to be left with.

Mildly recommended. 

TV Review: Hawkeye (2021)

Hawkeye (2021) created for television by Jonathan Igla based on the Marvel Comics character

Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is enjoying a little Christmas time with the kids in New York City when he gets dragged into a problematic situation. Some organized crime types hold an underground auction that includes items from the ruins of the Avengers Tower in Manhattan. Some of those items are compromising materials for Clint. Worse yet, an arrow-shooting Hawkeye fan named Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) happens upon the auction during a swanky party and she steals the costume that Clint used after The Snap when he went a little AWOL and was killing off criminals as Ronin. She puts on the suit and is mistaken for Clint's other alter ego, engaging the ire of some local criminals, including the "Track Suit Mafia," a group of Russian ne'er-do-wells who start gunning for Kate. 

Kate has her own problems as she discovers that her mom (Vera Farmiga) is romantically linked with a smarmy and potentially criminal guy (Tony Dalton). So she's dodging bullets from the Track Suit Mafia and investigating her maybe-future-father-in-law. She's also so new to the hero business that she makes lots of mistakes. As if the holidays weren't already tough enough.

The show is definitely a product of the Marvel Formula. It has humor and heart and drama well balanced. It connects with the continuity of the other Marvel films and TV shows (happily, even with Netflix) without being inscrutable or just a cog in the wheel of the greater Marvel narrative. The actors are well cast and no one is phoning in a performance for a paycheck. The new hero (Kate) has a lot of challenges to overcome in learning to be a hero. 

One of the challenges with the character Hawkeye is that he has, other than preternatural marksmanship, no superpowers. He doesn't have invulnerability or flight or magical healing. He even has a hearing aid because of the extremely noisy lifestyle he leads. The villains are appropriately scaled back to his level, giving him plenty of challenge without him being ridiculously overmatched. His main goal is to make it home for Christmas, though being a just man he can't leave people like Kate Bishop, who in many ways is her own worst enemy, in jeopardy. His heroism is that he does the right thing regardless, a message that is often repeated because it always needs reinforcement.

Recommended, highly for Marvel fans.

Currently (January 2022), the show is only streaming on Disney+.