Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 2: 0-8-4

[MovieBob]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 2: 0-8-4

Motley crew of misfits packed together in an aircraft bouncing from adventure to adventure? Okay, Joss. It?s not exactly more Firefly, but I?ll take it.

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[Makabriel]

Good analysis, Bob. I wholeheartedly agree on the amount of "quipping" that's going on in the show. It's just wading too deep in it and it makes it hard to take the show seriously at times..

One thing I'd like your opinion on, if possible.. What did you think of Fury's remark to Coulson about "Trading you in for a Winnebago?" It kinda step in line with your idea of Coulson being a robot or android of some sort..

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Im also wondering if they will use the show to introduce new heros as a taster for fans to see if they are movie worthy. Also I know Scarlet Witch and Quick Silver are in Avengers 2. But will they be introduced in this show, or atleast discussed in some way before Avengers 2? Maybe hints about Ultron set up in advance.

 

[Faith Meade]

I just had an awesome thought about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Since it exists on television, it could allow the Marvel Movie Universe to include more characters that are out of reach due to various studios owning the rights. Spiderman could never be in Age of Ultron since Sony Pictures owns the rights to use him in movies, but that exclusivity does not extend to television.

 

[Mr. Q]

Sweet to see more of these reviews of Agents of SHIELD, Bob. I can understand the characters being a bit too perfect but I'm hoping it will work its way out as the show develops. I would like to see more villains and nods to the Marvel Universe pop up but I get the feeling that if they did that all the time, it might be a case of "too much of a good thing".

Still, I'd like to see a more cerebral villain take on the agents like Purple Man or Mister Fear. Someone who can manipulate the fears and weaknesses of these characters for their own advantage or just for their own sick perversions.

Also, when Bob brought up Tarantula and his pointy shoes, am I the only one who immediately thought of Wizard's Twisted Toyfare Theater?

 

[Makabriel]

Good analysis, Bob. I wholeheartedly agree on the amount of "quipping" that's going on in the show. It's just wading too deep in it and it makes it hard to take the show seriously at times..

One thing I'd like your opinion on, if possible.. What did you think of Fury's remark to Coulson about "Trading you in for a Winnebago?" It kinda step in line with your idea of Coulson being a robot or android of some sort..

He said "Downgrading you to a Winnebago", not "Trading you in for a..."

He was referring to the damaged plane, not Coulson.

Hah, I just rewatched that scene "I have the authority to downgrade your a$$ to a winnebago" I took it literally, not talking about the Bus...

My bad!

 

[craddoke]

Yeah -- the casting on this show just isn't working for me. I spend quite a bit of time during each episode thinking how lucky Whedon has been in this particular department in the past. Everybody really seems like a pale imitation of an earlier Whedon character -- May/Zoe (Firefly), Skye/Willow (Buffy), Fitzsimmons/Topher (Dollhouse), etc.

The only person who is spot-on with his precursor is Ward -- and nobody ever asked for the continuing adventures of Riley Finn.

 

[Seneschal]

I cannot express how glad I am at the show's "90s-ness"; it definitely wouldn't look out of place alongside Xena and the X-Files. I haven't been the biggest fan of the tense, breathless, season-long plots custom-made to give every episode a cliffhanger that have been trending since 2004 - they can be effective, but keeping up with more than two such shows saps all of my attention.

I prefer the episodic style that S.H.I.E.L.D. is going for. Not that 90s-style plots couldn't be terrible (Brannon Braga's Terra Nova is a good modern example of how NOT to do a monster-of-the-week show), but S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing it justice. I'm still worried (justifiably, based on some of the comments) that modern audiences don't really want something like that. The ratings probably plummeted this week, though I haven't checked.

 

[Makabriel]

Yeah -- the casting on this show just isn't working for me. I spend quite a bit of time during each episode thinking how lucky Whedon has been in this particular department in the past. Everybody really seems like a pale imitation of an earlier Whedon character -- May/Zoe (Firefly), Skye/Willow (Buffy), Fitzsimmons/Topher (Dollhouse), etc.

The only person who is spot-on with his precursor is Ward -- and nobody ever asked for the continuing adventures of Riley Finn.

Sorry, but Skye is Faith reborn, just a geeky version of her. She is so much like Eliza Dushku it's scary. Mannerisms and everything..

 

[craddoke]

I cannot express how glad I am at the show's "90s-ness"; it definitely wouldn't look out of place alongside Xena and the X-Files.

But is it a good 90s ensemble/monster-of-the-week show? Not yet -- those shows overcame the limitations of their budgets and medium with rock-solid writing, characters that defied easy stereotyping, and an intimacy of action (i.e., the struggles were small-scale ones but served as microcosms for bigger issues/struggles that were beyond the reach of the shows). SHIELD doesn't have any of those things, although it could build them up if given the chance. Will it be given that chance, though? Will the interested/invested parties allow it to have its Buffy season 1? I'm doubtful.

On the bright side, though, there are looks of examples to show that good 90s shows in that mold have never really gone away -- although they do tend to be a bit more Canadian nowadays (e.g., Lost Girl, Continuum). Maybe SHIELD should relocate to Canada?

EDIT: Forgot one relevant example (since it's also a new premiere) of a current show that does the 90s Xena/X-Files/Buffy thing right -- Sleepy Hollow. Right now it's a much better show than SHIELD -- and I would not be surprised if Giles popped into their secret base/library to ask how their research on the latest monster is going.

 

[craddoke]

\Sorry, but Skye is Faith reborn, just a geeky version of her. She is so much like Eliza Dushku it's scary. Mannerisms and everything..

The actress does seem to be channeling Eliza Dushku (did she read for the part? Because it seems like it was written for her), but the flighty hacker geek is pre-witch Willow grown up -- with maybe a dash of Kaylee.

 

[unacomn]

Agents of Shield is Team Knight Rider without the talking cars.

If you take out Clark and Ming-na, it really just boils down to a puddle of nothingness.

Now, if they kept Gunn around (I forget the characters name), it may have had a chance, or at least... (puts on shades)... some color
(Yeaaaaaaaaah!)

 

[craddoke]

Agents of Shield is Team Knight Rider without the talking cars.

To be fair, we don't know for sure that Lola can't talk. I agree about Gunn (J. August Richards) and Ming-Na, though. They were the only actors able to portray three dimensional characters in the premiere.

 

[Falseprophet]

It's still pretty bland, but genre shows almost always need a few episodes to find their footing. Right now we're still in a housekeeping phase: introduce the team, bring the team together, start having them work as a team, hint that they have other things going on like mysterious past, etc.

And the bad guys would have gotten away with it, if they'd only used zip-ties instead of rope!

One slight tangent, though. I am so tired of those conversations where the resident smart guy/scientist character starts explaining things in techno-babble, only for another character to interrupt with, "English, please?" Can we ever get a smarty-pants character on a team who knows how to communicate with laypeople effectively? The snake expert from Snakes On a Plane is the only one I remember!

 

[Seneschal]

I cannot express how glad I am at the show's "90s-ness"; it definitely wouldn't look out of place alongside Xena and the X-Files.

But is it a good 90s ensemble/monster-of-the-week show? Not yet -- those shows overcame the limitations of their budgets and medium with rock-solid writing, characters that defied easy stereotyping, and an intimacy of action (i.e., the struggles were small-scale ones but served as microcosms for bigger issues/struggles that were beyond the reach of the shows). SHIELD doesn't have any of those things, although it could build them up if given the chance. Will it be given that chance, though? Will the interested/invested parties allow it to have its Buffy season 1? I'm doubtful.

On the bright side, though, there are looks of examples to show that good 90s shows in that mold have never really gone away -- although they do tend to be a bit more Canadian nowadays (e.g., Lost Girl, Continuum). Maybe SHIELD should relocate to Canada?

EDIT: Forgot one relevant example (since it's also a new premiere) of a current show that does the 90s Xena/X-Files/Buffy thing right -- Sleepy Hollow. Right now it's a much better show than SHIELD -- and I would not be surprised if Giles popped into their secret base/library to ask how their research on the latest monster is going.

I wouldn't say it's a good 90s show...yet! Pilots are generally audience-baits and second episodes establish the formula & status quo, but the meat of the show will be revealed in the next few weeks. As of right now, I love the setting and find the characters funny and endearing - it has me hopeful that the meat will turn out good. Of course, if it turns out rotten, if the stories go nowhere fresh, if they forget to develop the characters and just retread the same old mysteries that Picard could solve in his sleep, then no amount of funny quips and Avengers references will save the show, but my first impression is good.

I'm currently in the process of watching Continuum, and it has pleasantly surprised me, but it doesn't seem episodic (yet) - there is no ensemble, no standard plot, no base of operations. I haven't seen more than a few episodes, though, so I cannot say.

And that sounds like high praise for Sleepy Hollow. I'll be sure to check it out.

 

[Ferisar]

It's still pretty bland, but genre shows almost always need a few episodes to find their footing. Right now we're still in a housekeeping phase: introduce the team, bring the team together, start having them work as a team, hint that they have other things going on like mysterious past, etc.

And the bad guys would have gotten away with it, if they'd only used zip-ties instead of rope!

One slight tangent, though. I am so tired of those conversations where the resident smart guy/scientist character starts explaining things in techno-babble, only for another character to interrupt with, "English, please?" Can we ever get a smarty-pants character on a team who knows how to communicate with laypeople effectively? The snake expert from Snakes On a Plane is the only one I remember!

I think the Snake expert was taken this episode. Kind of a big deal.



OT:
Pretty much how I feel about the show, but it's already looking like I'm not going to stop watching it. I'm not really a comic-book (or at least new universe fluff) nut, so I can't really get excited and start looking up potential enemies because it kind of kills the surprise.

I cannot express how glad I am at the show's "90s-ness"; it definitely wouldn't look out of place alongside Xena and the X-Files. I haven't been the biggest fan of the tense, breathless, season-long plots custom-made to give every episode a cliffhanger that have been trending since 2004 - they can be effective, but keeping up with more than two such shows saps all of my attention.

I prefer the episodic style that S.H.I.E.L.D. is going for. Not that 90s-style plots couldn't be terrible (Brannon Braga's Terra Nova is a good modern example of how NOT to do a monster-of-the-week show), but S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing it justice. I'm still worried (justifiably, based on some of the comments) that modern audiences don't really want something like that. The ratings probably plummeted this week, though I haven't checked.

To be fair, the big thing that seems to be happening with this show is several continuous story-arcs that get resolved later down the road in the stead of typical "CLIFFHANGER, OMG YOU GOTTA KEEP WATCHING TO GET THE... NEXT CLIFFHANGERRR!!!!!" as you put it. Maybe it's trying to appeal to multiple types of people, but either way it's more interesting that way, at least to me.

 

[Seneschal]

To be fair, the big thing that seems to be happening with this show is several continuous story-arcs that get resolved later down the road in the stead of typical "CLIFFHANGER, OMG YOU GOTTA KEEP WATCHING TO GET THE... NEXT CLIFFHANGERRR!!!!!" as you put it. Maybe it's trying to appeal to multiple types of people, but either way it's more interesting that way, at least to me.

It seems to me it's doing the Fringe/X-Files thing of appending snippets of the myth arc in every episode, even if they're totally self-contained mysteries-of-the-week, and then when they reach critical-snippet-mass, you get a myth arc episode that's all about the "main" story. At least I hope that's what it's doing, since I loved how Fringe did it.

 

[Nimcha]

I preferred the pilot. The story of this episode was yawn-inducing and the plottwists one could see come from miles away.

Thankfully the interesting characters and dialogue keep me entertained. I want to see more original storytelling though. So far this show is crossing off every single cliché and trope they can find. Including the inevitable romance between the tough guy and pretty girl. Ugh.