Black Lightning is a CW Arrowverse show. The show has three seasons. The show is run by Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil. Mara is known for Girlfriends, The Game, and Being Mary Jane, among other shows. Black Lightning tells the story of DC Comic hero Black Lightning.

I adore this show. It’s different from the rest of the Arrowverse shows in that it’s more of a family drama that just happens to include superheroes. If you are familiar with Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil’s work then you know they do very will in the drama genre. This show features a Black cast and touches on issues affecting the Black community that doesn’t come off as preachy.

Black Lightning/ Jefferson Pierce is played by Cress Williams, who is known for Living Single, Heart of Dixie, and other shows. Jeff’s wife is Lynn Stewart who is played by Christine Adams. Jeff has two daughters, Anissa and Jennifer. Anissa is played by Nafessa Williams and Jennifer is played by China Anne McClain.

Over three seasons we have seen Jeff and his family deal with a wide array of problems in their town of Freeland, Georgia. Freeland is an offshoot of Atlanta. The show itself is the only Arrowverse show that is shot in Atlanta, as all the other shows are shot in Vancouver, Canada.

The guest stars on this show are amazing too. Jill Scott, Robert Townsend, Erica Alexander, Hosea Sanchez, and Wayne Brady are just a few of the fantastic guest stars these past three seasons. Mara and Salim do a great job of including stars many of us are familiar with.

This show also has the benefit of having short seasons. Season 1 had 13 episodes and Season 2 and 3 have 16 episodes each. The other Arrowverse shows have 20 to 25 episodes per season. I like that Black Lightning has short seasons because it cuts down on what’s known as filler episodes. With longer seasons, shows fall into this pattern where they have episodes that don’t really move the plot along. Shorter seasons allow for the plot to move along nicely and make it easy to follow.

If you haven’t seen Black Lightning, all 3 seasons are currently on Netflix. Due to Coronavirus, season 4 will not come out until January 2021 on the CW network, Mondays at 9 pm EST.