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

[Extragorey]

I never really get these TV episode "reviews". The writer spends almost all of it providing a synopsis for the events in the episode - after warding away people who haven't seen it with the warning of SPOILERS - and then includes their actual thoughts as a footnote. I mean, is this really a review? A pretty shoddy standard if it is.

And the Escapist isn't exclusively weird in this regard - I've seen lots of other episode "reviews" do the same thing. Pretty much the only part of them worth reading is the last paragraph, where they actually state whether the thought it was a good episode or not and the reason for that opinion.

On topic, I watched the first two episodes back-to-back (which is how they aired here in Australia) so I can't really separate the two in my mind, but I do remember liking the second episode more because it had a lot more character development and team dynamics, which is what Whedon is reputed for.

 

[NQJ]

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!

That's actually truth in television. People who are part of a profession and deeply educated, such as smart people in a field where they only have others like themselves for company, gets so used to speaking in their own "lingo" that it becomes their default state.
Just look at doctors or lawyers, sometimes they might as well speak latin, it's because they are so used to speaking like that, that they forget that people outside their field lacks the knowledge to understand what the hell they are saying.

It takes something special to escape from that stereotype. Your snake expert was an exception.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Coulson keeps mentioning Tahiti as a "Magical Place"... I think the people who brought up a possible Dr. Strange or necromantic connection may not have been far off.

What if Coulson's a zombie?

 

[HBaskerville]

Coulson is a powerful and likable character because his is a normal guy. He makes his way through this world populated by super-heroes and larger than life characters and so we relate to him. If they decide to turn him into a robot or a decoy, some magical concoction or other such nonsense I believe that will rob the character of the very spark that makes us like and gravitate to him.

Also, this show needs to cool it with the side references to the movies. We get it. Tell your own story. You don't need to keep reminding us of those other cool things. BE the cool thing.

 

[ritchards]

I'm definitely over the whole "I'm in" plot hooks. I've seen a few shows do this recently, and none of them are real hooks because none of them involve characters that you would be surprised to find out are trying to get "in". I would take this as mildly interesting if she immediately shops her group in when they are ready to make their big (probably season arc) move...

 

[4Aces]

Joss Whedon was only there for the pilot. Now Jebb is the Whedon in control. So do not expect this to get much attention from Joss anymore as he is pretty busy.

As for this episode, they actually identify the weakest part of the show - the kids. Then they proceed to do nothing about it. In fact, Coulson says that just giving them a common enemy is all that it would take to turn them into a team. If that weak writing is the best they can do, this is going to be another Revolution. They need to treat is like Buffy, not a slapstick CW show.

Errors that jumped off the screen and poked me in the eye
Cavalary breaks her wrist to get out of the cuffs? Not possible since the wrist is not actually the part that prevents the cuffs from coming off, it is the thumb. She also proceeds to use the wrist for the rest of the episode.

The inflatable raft plugging the jagged hole? It even has a rip in the bottom left corner, and never makes a proper seal (the edge bounces for the whole shoot).

The only Shield weapon demonstrated in this episode is the Serenity (movie) staff concussion grenade. Why is none of that kind of tech available on the jet (or any time else). Why were their no automated defenses (like stun gas). After all that is what Shield is known for.

The two Wesleys (biochem and engineering) are seriously annoying. Half their techno-babble is just that in this episode. At least for the pilot the science was well written, but in this episode - not so much.

Lobbing a tesseract (or even the energy from one) into the Sun is a colossally bad idea. Add the Gamma from the sun to the power cell and suddenly we have a solar prominence heading in the general direction of the planet, as the cell detonates. Especially when Shield already has these types of weapons (Avengers - the one Coulson used against Loki).

Finally, the hacker is flown to a class A restricted site and still has cell service that is not going through Shield routers?

I am still going to give it another few episodes to see if it can find it's post-Joss feet, but even with Joss, the pilot was mediocre. Starting to develop plot holes by episode 2 just brings back bad memories of Revolution. I really, really want to like this. So I am just writing this off as a single bad episode and waiting until next week.


Is it just me or is it obvious that Coulson was resurrected by the Asgardians (as neural cloning is far too advanced for Shield) with Tahiti being the code word for Asgard. If Shield had cloned him, then no one else can truly die (think Avengers), and that takes all the thrill out of it. Hell, if they can clone then Fury can get a new eye (or two - it never hurts to have a backup)!

 

[Souplex]

Is it me or does Joss Whedon not understand what Gamma radiation is?
It's not magic plot juice, it's the regular kind of radiation that comes from radioactive elements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_radiation
I first had my doubts about his knowing what it was in the Avengers with this line "Nothing dangerous, just light amounts of Gamma radiation" light amounts can still give you cancer.

 

[FPLOON]

Well... This ain't no Warehouse 13 (since that was the first thing I thought of right when this episode's plot started), but it will do for now... even thought the only thing that truly caught my "undivided" attention was...

Spoiler: Wait... Why do I even have this tag, again?

That text from Skye's phone before the Nick Furry cameo...

...Other than that, I'll keep it locked until something else ends up distracting me and I forget to record the next episode... (only to watch it live, anyway...)

 

[DeimosMasque]

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 didn't say "trade you in for" he said "bust you down to a" as in he'll take the plane away and give him a Winnebago as his mobile command center instead.

edit: That'll teach me to read the whole thread first. Sorry about that as I see someone else already corrected you.

 

[A3sir]

I like to think Coulson is another try at the Captain America serum and he was the kid in the street in the Cap movie, so he has extendedly long age. Also, saying Tahiti is a magical place, makes me hope for some Dr Strange loving. And could Rising Tide be HYDRA?

 

[Soundwave]

I hate to be "that guy", but I don't think I'm alone when I say that I don't find the characters interesting, and the whole episode was about (unsuccessfully) trying to convince the audience that they were.

Also, is it just me, or does everyone in the show have brown hair?

I'm hoping the show picks up because I really want to like it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

good call Bob, on the whole Coulson thing. Its kinda the vein I was going on too ever since I heard this show was post-Avengers. I swear, the ability to Geek out on cinema/comic-verse knowledge is very meta, and unnerving at times and the fact that Joss Whedon is the seeming architect here just feels like a fan-fiction dream... Can I wake up yet? If it is, do I want to?

 

[Krogun]

I'm really not enjoying much of this show. Well, they do alright hand to hand fight scenes I have to give them that one. The Nick Fury cameo was helarious. The rest is eye-rolling, toe-cringing slapstick-teenage-drama-dribble.

 

[prpshrt]

Is it just me or does this show come across as insanely cheesy at times. I liked the first episode. I really did. The second one well... I tried REALLY hard to like it. I just didn't. I didn't even know there was a Samuel Jackson cameo till I read about it online since I kinda just switched channels the second that weird weapon was shot into space.

 

[frizzlebyte]

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..

My biggest problem with the show is that it is trying too hard at everything it does (humor, semi-family-friendly action, and scene composition (see below)) that it comes off as cheesy.

I mean, the first two episodes have scenes specifically set-up for the purpose of showcasing a forced "composition": the first episode had that weird moment where the agency's cars pull up in a row, with each one stopping so that it fills the next third of the screen from the last one; and this ep. gave us Coulson and May's choreographed gun-ballet scene, which I knew was coming a split second before it did.

I don't have a problem with these things, in general, but when it's so forced that I'm taken out of the show because of it, you're trying waaaaay too hard to be "cool."

 

[Whytewulf]

A little bland, but I am giving it about 6 episodes to pick up. I understand how a new show needs to get it's footing, and for every successful Lost that starts off Big and then explains, you get a Flash Forward or The Event, that doesn't work. So I think going small and building up may work. The other thing, is this an 7/8pm show on ABC, which has been known to keep it's prime shows until 10 a little cleaner. So this may not get very gritty and at this point Kids could easily watch. But they need to actually have a superhero or supervillian in it soon, which next week may do it.

Last note, I find it funny how people dislike Ward for being generic, isn't he supposed to be? I see him playing perfectly to type. Though with that said, it doesn't mean he is interesting yet.

 

[Milanezi]

Just be fast and brutal: is this show any good? I have a high degree of distrust with super-hero tv shows, don't ask me why. Many friends of mine enjoy Arrow, still I didn't even give it a try, I'm willing to give a try to both Gotham and SHIELD because they don't focus directly on the heroes, but rather the universe, SHIELD more so, since it links with the other Marvel movies (we're not sure about that regarding Gotham, are we?)

 

[Nimzabaat]

Joss Whedon was only there for the pilot. Now Jebb is the Whedon in control. So do not expect this to get much attention from Joss anymore as he is pretty busy.

As for this episode, they actually identify the weakest part of the show - the kids. Then they proceed to do nothing about it. In fact, Coulson says that just giving them a common enemy is all that it would take to turn them into a team. If that weak writing is the best they can do, this is going to be another Revolution. They need to treat is like Buffy, not a slapstick CW show.

Errors that jumped off the screen and poked me in the eye
Cavalary breaks her wrist to get out of the cuffs? Not possible since the wrist is not actually the part that prevents the cuffs from coming off, it is the thumb. She also proceeds to use the wrist for the rest of the episode.

The inflatable raft plugging the jagged hole? It even has a rip in the bottom left corner, and never makes a proper seal (the edge bounces for the whole shoot).

The only Shield weapon demonstrated in this episode is the Serenity (movie) staff concussion grenade. Why is none of that kind of tech available on the jet (or any time else). Why were their no automated defenses (like stun gas). After all that is what Shield is known for.

The two Wesleys (biochem and engineering) are seriously annoying. Half their techno-babble is just that in this episode. At least for the pilot the science was well written, but in this episode - not so much.

Lobbing a tesseract (or even the energy from one) into the Sun is a colossally bad idea. Add the Gamma from the sun to the power cell and suddenly we have a solar prominence heading in the general direction of the planet, as the cell detonates. Especially when Shield already has these types of weapons (Avengers - the one Coulson used against Loki).

Finally, the hacker is flown to a class A restricted site and still has cell service that is not going through Shield routers?

I am still going to give it another few episodes to see if it can find it's post-Joss feet, but even with Joss, the pilot was mediocre. Starting to develop plot holes by episode 2 just brings back bad memories of Revolution. I really, really want to like this. So I am just writing this off as a single bad episode and waiting until next week.


Is it just me or is it obvious that Coulson was resurrected by the Asgardians (as neural cloning is far too advanced for Shield) with Tahiti being the code word for Asgard. If Shield had cloned him, then no one else can truly die (think Avengers), and that takes all the thrill out of it. Hell, if they can clone then Fury can get a new eye (or two - it never hurts to have a backup)!

Since you were paying attention better than I was... how did the 1,500 year old (it pre-dates the temple!) artifact go to being a 70 year old (WWII era German technology!) artifact then to a 5-10 year one? (made for the Peruvian government in between the time Coulson and his lady friend worked together?) That was a little strange.

 

[JSF01]

Lobbing a tesseract (or even the energy from one) into the Sun is a colossally bad idea. Add the Gamma from the sun to the power cell and suddenly we have a solar prominence heading in the general direction of the planet, as the cell detonates. Especially when Shield already has these types of weapons (Avengers - the one Coulson used against Loki).

Finally, the hacker is flown to a class A restricted site and still has cell service that is not going through Shield routers?

While I don't have any actual proof I don't think that device is actually going to the sun. I am thinking shield has a top secret space station that it is going to instead. Shield has a flying aircraft carrier, so them also having a space base is not a far fetched idea. Potential evidence though is Fritz saying that that they could get there faster if they used some type of rocket, but they are having fun. Now to me a top secret organization intending to destroy an extremely dangerous object to make sure that it dos not fall into the wrong hands is not going to just have fun with launching said object into the sun. And Now that I am thinking about it, in the Avengers they were experimenting on the Tesseract directly, yet this device that that is only infused with a tiny bit of the energy of the Tesseract is some how so much more dangerous that it warrants being launched into the sun?

As for Skye still having access to a cell service, have you considered the possibility that maybe they let her have access on purpose, and Coulson is playing a bigger game. I think everybody has said she is a risk, and even Coulson himself admitted it to Furry. So why is Coulson insisting that she be on the team. Even Furry who has the authority to kick her out of the group and tells Coulson point blank she is a risk is leaving her on the team even though he clearly does not like it. I think it is possible that Furry's comment was based on the fact that he (and Coulson) knew that she sent that text. I think that Coulson expects her to act as a double agent , and is actually secretly using her to unknowingly lead them to the people behind the rising tide. So the risk is not that she might be a spy, as they already know she is, but the fact that Coulson believes overall she is a good person (and because of her conflicting feelings) she won't reveal the most dangerous stuff (that she will realize needs to be kept secret).





As a side not does any one know if the Anti Matter meteor crashing off the cost of Miami a reference to an actual marvel event, or was that some world building in the TV show