What went wrong with Secret Invasion? That’s a question every Marvel fan wants to know after the Samuel L. Jackson vehicle severely came up short, with its finale going down as the absolute worst-rated entry in the MCU bar none. It’s tough to pinpoint one sole reason why the show disappointed so much, but it’s certainly fair to say it left us feeling underfed. And that’s something that’s hardly unexpected when you take a look at its shockingly slim runtime.
Yes, with their weekly release schedule that leaves us hungry for more, many of Marvel’s Disney Plus shows have been criticized for delivering episodes that feel too short to fully enjoy, a problem that seems to have become more pronounced every time a new series hits the platform. But which of the MCU’s TV outings really did come up short and which gave us the most value for our subscription fee? The results may surprise you…
10. I Am Groot — 15 minutes
What, I Am Groot is at the bottom? *Pretends to be shocked* Yes, the animated miniseries about the eponymous infantilized sequoia is obviously the shortest Marvel Disney Plus series of them all, with the five shorts released at the time of writing comprising only 15 minutes in total. Even when season two arrives in September, offering up another five episodes of the same length, it’ll only double that runtime to around 30 minutes, which is about the average length of a regular MCU TV episode.
9. Secret Invasion — 3 hours, 43 minutes
And there’s the great and tragic irony of Secret Invasion in a nutshell. Of all the source material to inspire a Disney Plus series, the Samuel L. Jackson-led show is perhaps the most ambitious, as the original Secret Invasion comic book event was a massive crossover spectacular that spread to every corner of the Marvel universe. Meanwhile, its TV counterpart couldn’t even be bothered to phone in the Avengers and fell far, far short of being the “six-hour event” that it was initially sold as.
8. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law — 3 hours, 53 minutes
With nine episodes, the only live-action Marvel Disney show to date to have that many other than WandaVision, you might expect She-Hulk: Attorney at Law to be one of the franchise’s longest series, so its runtime of just shy of four hours may come as a surprise. That said, its brief total length is understandable in this case as She-Hulk was, first and foremost, a sitcom, so its episodes generally didn’t stretch much beyond 30 minutes in length.
7. Ms. Marvel — 3 hours, 57 minutes
Coming in just under five minutes longer, we have Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk‘s immediate predecessor in release order. Kamala Khan’s grand entrance into the MCU had a lot to do in its six-episode stretch, so it’s kind of impressive that it managed it in under four hours. To its credit, the show — which remains the highest-rated entry in the entire MCU to date — certainly made every moment count, as it not only set up mutants on Earth-616 but served as an effective prelude to The Marvels.
6. Hawkeye — 4 hours, 2 minutes
Ah, Hawkeye, middling when it comes to runtime and quality. No, I kid, I kid… mostly. Much like Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye did a commendable job with using its barely-four-hour overall runtime to tell what could be Clint Barton’s last ride in the MCU, establishing Hailee Steinfeld’s winning Kate Bishop as his successor, and teeing up Alaqua Cox for her upcoming Echo spin-off. Not to mention throwing in Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin ahead of Daredevil: Born Again. Now that’s what I call a Christmas present.
5. Loki — 4 hours, 8 minutes
Loki season one is easily one of the most popular of Marvel’s TV series to date, and yet it only barely scrapes into the top five longest. That just goes to show that, despite the fans’ frustrations with Secret Invasion‘s short runtime, what really matters is quality, not quantity. With its literally MCU-shattering season finale, that introduced Jonathan Majors into the franchise and foreshadowed the coming of Kang, Loki certainly left us wanting more in the best possible way. Watch out for this runtime to double once season two arrives in October.
4. What If…? — 4 hours, 9 minutes
As an anthology series that had to create an entirely new universe every episode, it’s no surprise that What If…? is among the longest of Marvel’s streaming series, even when the nine episodes of season one rarely went beyond 30 minutes in length. What If…? could easily have topped this ranking, though, if the originally planned tenth episode — featuring the Iron Man and Gamora variants who cameo in the finale — hadn’t been held over into season two due to the pandemic preventing production.
3. Moon Knight — 4 hours, 21 minutes
Moon Knight is perhaps among the more divisive Disney Plus MCU series to date, as while Oscar Isaac obsessives adore it, others have issues with its wackier sensibilities or can never forgive it for shortchanging us out of an epic fight scene in the series finale. Despite that, Moon Knight remains one of the chunkiest of Marvel’s streaming shows, which shouldn’t come as a shock considering this is a series that opens with a nice guy working in a museum and ends with a kaiju battle between ancient gods.
2. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — 4 hours, 26 minutes
Marvel really tried to give us the most bang for our buck when Disney Plus started out, huh? The studio’s second-ever TV show also happens to be the second longest of the lot, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s six-part arc perhaps being a lot more epic in scope than the fans remember. In many ways, it was a prelude to Anthony Mackie’s upcoming Captain America 4, with the story taking Sam and Bucky all over the globe as they faced the Flag Smashers. So maybe this one’s in need of a critical reappraisal.
1. WandaVision — 4 hours, 30 minutes
Yes, no prizes for guessing which show earns the top spot. With a nice, round 4-hour, 30-minute total runtime, WandaVision remains the longest of Marvel’s Disney Plus series. The wonderful thing about the series was that each episode had its own distinct flavor and pushed the mysterious narrative forward, meaning that each week felt like a satisfying meal on its own, as well as contributing to the enjoyment of the overall series as a whole. It would definitely behoove Marvel to go revisit the format of WandaVision in the future in order to recapture some of that old-school MCU TV magic. Yes, 2021 is old-school. It’s already been a long decade.