Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 11: The Magical Place
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
It was mentioned right at the beginning of the episode that it had been 36 hours since Coulson had been captured.
this series is kind of losing my attention. they started of good and did some good world building. but now i want some answers to all the unanswered questions or mysteries they throw in every now and then into the overall narative. ofcourse a show like this needs some mystery, but too many different plotlines and it starts to go all over the place.
btw, am i the only one who gets a 'would you kindly' vibe from Coulsons line 'it's a magical place'?
btw, am i the only one who gets a 'would you kindly' vibe from Coulsons line 'it's a magical place'?
I missed a good portion of the Coulson reveal because my local TV station cut into the show to air commercials about the lousy weather and the crack news team it has working for them. This was not a breaking news report explain a tragedy or severe weather heading our way, these were commercials. I was seriously pissed about that.
Kinda bummed Coulson is not a LMD but it makes me wonder why Fury went to such lengths to bring back a friend of his. Is Fury really that kind of a person or was this an order from higher up (possible tie-in to Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
Also, my money is still on the Leader being the main baddie behind all of this. But we shall see.
Kinda bummed Coulson is not a LMD but it makes me wonder why Fury went to such lengths to bring back a friend of his. Is Fury really that kind of a person or was this an order from higher up (possible tie-in to Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
Also, my money is still on the Leader being the main baddie behind all of this. But we shall see.
I'm confused as to why Coulson is so pissed about all this. I mean, I can understand his problems not knowing what happened, but now that he knows, what's the problem? They brought him back to life (some appreciation for that might be in order), but the process was traumatic so they gave him pleasant memories instead to save him the pain and scarring. That sounds downright charitable to me.
Bob, I am amazed at how much effort you are putting into this in hoping that it does get better. Marvel does some cool stuff, this show isnt one of them so treat it for what it is now and not for what you hope it becomes.
You put so much effort into ripping apart any non-Marvel superhero stuff that it comes out very poorly when every review for this show ends up like "It seems like the next episode will really start the good stuff"
You put so much effort into ripping apart any non-Marvel superhero stuff that it comes out very poorly when every review for this show ends up like "It seems like the next episode will really start the good stuff"
Yeah, except Coulson didn't go to heaven. He just went black, then Tahiti. If anyone stole him away from paradise, it was Centipede when they robbed him of sandy beaches and replaced it with brain surgery.Kumagawa Misogi said:
Well, he is a super secret agent (supposedly) high up on the command chain. Finding out secrets is in his job description, and something I'd imagine he'd do naturally. He's built to be a curious person. Meanwhile, he's high up enough that he expects some amount of trust from his superiors.MahouSniper said:
Plus, this is the comic book universe. Doing good things for good reasons always ends up horribly, eventually.
There's a lot of potential possibilities since we don't know Coulson that well. There are VERY large ethical issues here from the ethics of forcing a patient into treatment against their wishes, to SHIELD having resurrection technology (and probably other medical tech) not being shared with the general public for one reason or another. There's a lot to be pissed off about in the big picture.MahouSniper said:
Then there's the personal side: why lie? Even assuming he'd have no issue with the resurrection for ethical reasons, why not just be straight up and tell him he was dead for days, brought back the hard way and given false memories to spare him the trauma? It would have spared him the confusion of the season, and kept him from being tempted into the bad guy's brain scanner. Again, it's an ethical line that might have crossed coulson, but moreover, he probably realized he's being manipulated. For what reason, he doesn't know, but he does know that he isn't important enough as an asset to SHIELD, or even Fury to be brought back without reason. From the audience perspective it's extra true since Coulson was prior to his death, more doofy comic relief than super agent.
That last parting thought was exactly what flashed through my mind an hour after watching the show.
Fury resurrected Coulson *BECAUSE* he saw SHIELD going bad -- remember, they wanted to weaponize the Tesseract Cube (like Hydra did) and prevent Fury from forming the Avengers -- and Coulson was the one man Fury trusted to help put things right...
Fury resurrected Coulson *BECAUSE* he saw SHIELD going bad -- remember, they wanted to weaponize the Tesseract Cube (like Hydra did) and prevent Fury from forming the Avengers -- and Coulson was the one man Fury trusted to help put things right...
Kind of an anticlimax, but I suppose they can't lay everything on the table at once. We know the what and the how, but not the why, though Coulson will likely get the chance to ask before too much longer.
I believe Skye's decision to impersonate May arose from a grudge for getting her kicked off the Bus along with the previous harshness she has displayed towards everyone, especially Skye, and for me her trying and failing with improvised trick after improvised trick was the highlight. It certainly worked to intimidate that businessman.
I believe Skye's decision to impersonate May arose from a grudge for getting her kicked off the Bus along with the previous harshness she has displayed towards everyone, especially Skye, and for me her trying and failing with improvised trick after improvised trick was the highlight. It certainly worked to intimidate that businessman.
Those numbers don't really say a lot in regards to this episode, ABC did a piss-poor job of marketing when Agents would return after mid-season.Kumagawa Misogi said:
While I haven't seen too much of the show so far (mainly due to forgetfulness), curiosity prompted me to give it a look. And... it was interesting.
[SPOILERS, obviously]
We get a glimpse of what happened to Coulson after his death, and I have to say, I was not expecting seeing a man seemingly conscious on an operating table getting open brain surgery even as he pleads form them to just let him die.
Jesus, no one should have to go through that. I think Coulson could use a hug or two now...
(Also, I like that one of the surgeons who worked on him is the same guy who played Shepherd Book on Firefly. I wonder if Joss Whedon likes getting people from his previous works to appear in his current ones.)
There's also the matter of WHY Fury wanted Coulson back, though it might be due to some as-of-unknown plan. Also, it looks like the "Coulson as The Vision" theory might be just a red herring. [small]Damn, and I liked that theory too...[/small]
And hey, Mike's alive! He doesn't look too good, but it's nothing a few skin grafts and a prosthetic won't fix... wait, what's that... [small]oh no... [/small]
So yeah, now I'm interested in what happens next... now I have to wait another week. Ffffffffff...
[SPOILERS, obviously]
We get a glimpse of what happened to Coulson after his death, and I have to say, I was not expecting seeing a man seemingly conscious on an operating table getting open brain surgery even as he pleads form them to just let him die.
Jesus, no one should have to go through that. I think Coulson could use a hug or two now...
(Also, I like that one of the surgeons who worked on him is the same guy who played Shepherd Book on Firefly. I wonder if Joss Whedon likes getting people from his previous works to appear in his current ones.)
There's also the matter of WHY Fury wanted Coulson back, though it might be due to some as-of-unknown plan. Also, it looks like the "Coulson as The Vision" theory might be just a red herring. [small]Damn, and I liked that theory too...[/small]
And hey, Mike's alive! He doesn't look too good, but it's nothing a few skin grafts and a prosthetic won't fix... wait, what's that... [small]oh no... [/small]
So yeah, now I'm interested in what happens next... now I have to wait another week. Ffffffffff...
Watching the show and reading Bob's reviews is consistently confusing the crap out of me. When i watch the show i find myself loving nearly every minute of it and thinking its good and all making sense, then i read his breakdown/review and he seems to constantly imply that he's enjoying it and then blowing the notion that he is away with the next sentence and then still appearing some how to have an overall positive opinion of each episode and or the one to follow. As for me personally i enjoyed the episode overall and felt that it flowed consistently and without any hang ups and that the answers and dropped plot points were given were sufficiently satisfying and surprising
I think we can categorically rule out the clairvoyant being M.O.D.O.K now. In a weird way. The new Lego "Captain America" set, while not movie based, features a MODOK minifig. In the classic big head, purple pants look. Marvel has absolute veto on the Lego sets. I don't think they would have allowed the character to be used in a set if they were on the table for an MCU reveal.
Now Peterson? Sigh! In the more and more unlikely chance that they do actually choose to use some small tokens from the Marvel Universe in this supposed Marvel Universe show? Maybe Deathlok?
Now Peterson? Sigh! In the more and more unlikely chance that they do actually choose to use some small tokens from the Marvel Universe in this supposed Marvel Universe show? Maybe Deathlok?
Coulson, as a character, shouldn't be shouldering the majority of the arc based story progression. It detracts from the ability of that character to be the wildcard element that could pull victory out of a hat, which is part of what made him an interesting character to begin with. I don't dislike the show but it has just enough glaring flaws to be, for me at least, a pain to watch. I'll still watch it as I am interested to see if it can pull out of the nose dive that I see it in at the moment.
Most of the characters seem to be trying to do double duty in terms of what their archetypes are, this is causing conflict. One of the most obvious places you can see this is in the Fitz-Simmons character interplay. Even totally discounting how desperate the writers seem to be to get some kind of fandom shipping going between those two characters there is a glaring problem in the way that, thus far, they've been scripted for me. Fitz is far more potentially interesting without Simmons, whereas Simmons is entirely reliant on other characters (not including Fitz) to be of any interest. I've said it before, if Simmons had died/been presumed dead it'd be a much more interesting show right now. Fitz is a character trapped between who the world expects him to be and who he really is. He is desperately trying to be the former, the helpful and highly intelligent support officer, but the few glimpses we've seen of the latter, the vaguely authoritarian genius with no time for other peoples mistakes, has been interesting to say the least.
Other examples of the double duty are Ward, spending equal time in grizzled bad-ass and earnest recruit, and Skye, who can't seem to decide whether she'll believe in herself and become the princess she really was all the time or simply focus on actually achieving her personal goals.
Most of the characters seem to be trying to do double duty in terms of what their archetypes are, this is causing conflict. One of the most obvious places you can see this is in the Fitz-Simmons character interplay. Even totally discounting how desperate the writers seem to be to get some kind of fandom shipping going between those two characters there is a glaring problem in the way that, thus far, they've been scripted for me. Fitz is far more potentially interesting without Simmons, whereas Simmons is entirely reliant on other characters (not including Fitz) to be of any interest. I've said it before, if Simmons had died/been presumed dead it'd be a much more interesting show right now. Fitz is a character trapped between who the world expects him to be and who he really is. He is desperately trying to be the former, the helpful and highly intelligent support officer, but the few glimpses we've seen of the latter, the vaguely authoritarian genius with no time for other peoples mistakes, has been interesting to say the least.
Other examples of the double duty are Ward, spending equal time in grizzled bad-ass and earnest recruit, and Skye, who can't seem to decide whether she'll believe in herself and become the princess she really was all the time or simply focus on actually achieving her personal goals.