The Curse of DC Television Shows

Recent news has broken of the latest DC / Comic TV show to be cancelled, resulting in another sad day for fans. Krypton is the latest show to be cancelled after a short lived two seasons. The news comes because apparently the audience ratings were lower than expected.

Krypton is the most recent comic book adapted television show to be cancelled by their studios or networks either due to low audience ratings or issues with production. Shows such as Swamp Thing, Happy!, and Lucifer (although it was picked up by another network) have all been victim to these cancellations along with many other shows. However, each one has recieved backlash from fans for the cancellations with many fans starting petitions to renew the shows or even have characters brought back via appearances in other shows such as Constantine, played by Matt Ryan, becoming a series regular in DC's Legends of Tomorrow after his show was cancelled.

Constantine (Matt Ryan) & Sara Lance (Caity Lotz)

So what's been going wrong?

Although we know nothing can really be done about audience ratings, although I personally don't think these shows get as much advertisement as they deserve. I heard about Krypton on Social Media, and didn't see a single advertisement on television though I suspect they appeared specifically on the channel on which the show was aired (SyFy). However I think that shows like this need to reach a larger target audience, and I believe the best way to do that is by using streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime and other services like them. This way the studios can reach the target audiences they need. Just look at shows like Stranger Things, because that probably shares a similar audience to the comic book franchises and that has done phenomonally well due it being on Netflix.
     I myself don't watch television nowadays, and so I don't see any of the advertisements for new shows unless they appear on my twitter feed, so maybe the networks need to explore more ways of advertisement for those of us who have ditched the old ways, so to speak.

In regards to the other shows that seem to have been cancelled due to production issues, it feels like the studios don't understand how important these shows are to the fans. Characters like Swamp Thing, Constantine, Lucifer etc. are all characters that get very little time in the spotlight. There have been movies previously for Constantine and Swamp Thing which recieved somewhat negative reviews due to not being as closely adapted as fans wanted or for poor production visuals, although the issues with production probably came from the time in which they were made because CGI effects, practical effects have evolved incredibly over the years in both film and television.
     TV shows now have the production budgets of low budget films to some extent so we have all the opportunities to bring the world of comic book movies to life, and if these recent shows have proven anything, it's that the people working on these shows have done just that, brought the comics to life and audiences are loving the shows so far.

I've heard nothing but great things about Swamp Thing, and I've recently started watching Krypton and so far it's been a great show. I've enjoyed the idea of seeing Superman's home planet before Kal-El even exists because it gives us whole new stories that can't be viewed as poor adaptations to the stories we already know and love. Krypton has been adapting some of Superman's greatest villains, and we didn't need to see any of Superman to make it work.

Are comic book TV shows just doomed from the start?

DC recently released Titans earlier this year (for Netflix viewers), and that show has not only been renewed for a second series, but it also spawned the Doom Patrol series which has also been renewed for a second season. However, can we expect them to continue for much longer with the way things have been going for these types of shows?

As fans we can only hope another network picks these shows up so that we can continue to see them thrive and evolve into something even greater. Hopefully Titans and Doom Patrol can continue to entertain audiences and producers enough to stay alive at least until there's a memorable story arc which is finished properly and not leaving fans with thousands of questions. These shows deserve the chance to shine because they're important to us as fans, because they explore stories and worlds we haven't seen yet, with enough familiar material for us to appreciate what we have been given.

What are your thoughts on the cancellations of these types of shows?

Are comic book shows doomed to be short lived all the time?

Which one(s) would you save?