***Spoiler Warning: The following article contains in-depth spoilers for the MCU and its Disney+ television shows. If you don’t want spoilers for Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, and all of the Marvel movies, don’t read any further.***
6. Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Ranking the MCU Shows Worst to Best
Let’s get one thing straight: Falcon and the Winter Soldier has a lot of good moments in it. Those high points include a solid dynamic between Bucky and Sam, an arc that is pivotal to legitimizing Sam as Captain American, and side characters that really shine like Baron Zemo and Isiah Bradley.
With that said, Falcon and the Winter Soldier is easily the worst show that Marvel has produced so far. Its plot is all over the place, as it can’t really tell where it wants to go with its conflicts and who the story’s antagonists are supposed to be. As a result, its characters and overall message suffer.
One second, John Walker is the worst thing on the planet, bashing in skulls with Captain America’s shield, while Karli and the Flagsmashers are simple, man-of-the-people vigilantes. The next moment, Karli is setting fire to innocent people and just murdering for fun while Walker puts his life in harm’s way to protect people again?
Sure, this is supposed to display the dualities of man and paint things in more of a gray light. The problem is that the motives and consistency aren’t there, as one small thing changes these characters’ personalities multiple times.
As such, instead of viewing Walker and Karli and The Flagsmashers more as anti-heroes that oppose Sam and Bucky, they come off as bipolar hotheads that are impossible to sympathize with or fully relate to. The show just feels like an excuse to have cool action sequences and very little more.
5. What If…?
Ranking the MCU Shows Worst to Best
What a weird show. What If…? has some of the best MCU TV that you can find on Disney+, and then it has some of the absolute worst episodes that you wouldn’t even show to your dog. I’m looking at you, party boy Thor.
What If…? is narrated by an all-seeing character known as Uatu or The Watcher. This godlike being is tasked with merely watching the events of every universe without interfering.
This series introduced some interesting new characters to the MCU, like Peggy Carter as Captain Britain and Supreme Strange. It also marked the first time we saw a universe falling apart thanks to the actions of Doctor Strange — seemingly a common thing in the multiverse. Plus, many of the ideas and concepts of the multiverse seen in Multiverse of Madness were first explored in What If…?
The best parts were, without a doubt, the Doctor Strange and Ultron episodes. But the other two-thirds of the first season range from forgettable to this is so bad I wish it was forgettable. The zombie episode beat to death an already dead genre, T’Challa as Star-Lord was fine, but a bit boring, and party boy Thor was just plain bad. It was a bit funny at times, but it was not good TV.
Besides the wide range of quality between episodes, the fact that none of these episodes truly have had an impact on the MCU yet makes the show feel pointless. We’ve seen similar characters from What If…? show up in Multiverse of Madness (Peggy Carter, a corrupt version of Doctor Strange), but there’s no indication these people are the ones we’ve seen before or if they’re just variants.
Although the show is canon, it seems like What If…? is almost like a testing ground for multiversal characters that they want to introduce in the future. Yet, none of it will ever truly matter in the grand scheme of the MCU.
4. Moon Knight
Ranking the MCU Shows Worst to Best
Moon Knight is the most disappointing MCU show to launch on Disney+. It’s certainly not the worst, but it had so much promise thanks in part to the fantastic acting talent like Oscar Isaac (Marc Spector) and Ethan Hawke (Arthur Harrow).
Unfortunately, there were multiple questions left unanswered at the end of the series. And with no sign of a second season, it just makes the holes left at the end of the first season even more glaring.
On top of that, the CGI mostly didn’t look good, the suit wrapping around Isaac never looked great, and the chase scene in episode one made a bad impression. Although Ammit looked a little awkward, Taweret and Khonshu actually looked decent. Fortunately, many of the fights taking place in low light undoubtedly helped them cover up some of the lackluster CGI.
Despite all of that negativity, Moon Knight was still an enjoyable Indiana Jones-esque romp around London and Egypt. The performances from Isaac, Hawke, and May Calamawy were all fantastic, and the fight scenes were well-choreographed.
It was also nice to just be able to focus so intensely on a single character. As the first MCU show to focus on one hero’s origin story, it did a good job of introducing Steven Grant/Marc Spector to the MCU. It certainly fit into the universe and referenced known parts of past Marvel content without using them as a crutch.
Overall, Moon Knight certainly could have turned out much better than it did. Yet, it’s hopefully just the first time we’ll see Moon Knight in the MCU. But with no current plans publicly set in stone, there’s no way of getting around the fact that this is the official end of this story for now.