Er, the link should read "tomorrow night's show."
Graviton. Nice. Why do I get a feeling that AoS will be fodder to set up new movies and foes for the movie casts?
because it has just found its niche.
Why couldn't they mention anything from marvel comics? It IS a marvel television production.
Not that I want name drops in every episode...
Like the 1939 video-watch (Dick Tracy?) or something more concrete, like name dropping?
I didn't mind the video watch scene. It spoke volumes about Coulson's character and wasn't a fanboy moment exactly. I guess what I meant by name drops is when a show relies too heavily on references and doesn't stand on it's own feet. Fortunately AoS hasn't done that yet. Each reference they make fits the story and setting just fine.
So far it's been kind of deeply mediocre. Flashes of competenence - Clark Gregg is good, Chloe Bennett's snark seems to have comic potential, J. August Richards was good - but so far it feels like someone trying to make a Joss Whedon show with only actual intermittent help from Joss Whedon. It doesn't help that Wade is almost completely blank as a character, that the jokes are not funny and that the show simply does not feel like it inhabits the same universe as the films.
It's not unwatchably terrible. The show's biggest weakness is that after a strong few years (well, a decade) of shows launching strong and getting better (sometimes tailing off later, like BSG, LOST or, much moreso, HEROES), the audience isn't really in the, "Give it a few weeks to get good!" mentality any more. I think SHIELD is safe for a full season and maybe two (since Disney and Marvel may not want it to fail too soon, if they plan to use it to set up Phase 3 of the films) though.
I am 100% sincere. Of course Arrow is even better, but it's not a new show this year.
In terms of new genre shows this year, SHIELD is a bit better (so far, it's VERY early days) than UNDER THE DOME and ATLANTIS, which are both terrible bordering on the unwatchable. SHIELD is certainly absolutely nowhere near as good as THE RETURNED (which I don't think has made it to the USA yet) or ORPHAN BLACK for genre shows debuting this year though.
Haven't seen SLEEPY HOLLOW yet.
Ratings went down 30% from week 1 . People tuned into week 1 and didnt tune into week 2 (less 11.9 million). Similiar ratings trend compares to shows like dollhouse, the cape, and V.
Except they didn't. Once timeshifting was accounted for, ratings were on a part with Episode 1.
Of note it compare unfavorably to heroes (same producer as shield)
In terms of audience figures, not really as HEROES aired under a very different viewing and airing culture. In terms of quality, I would agree that HEROES's first season was vastly superior (though we should remember that we've seen a grand total of TWO episodes of SHIELD so far, hardly a reliable figure to base things off) but then of course it immediately fell off a cliff in Season 2.
I think many people saying "Oh Whedon should be able to do better ladida" and are kinda looking at his past work through some thick nostalgia goggles.
I think it's more a misunderstanding: this is NOT a Joss Whedon show. He just wrote and directed the first episode and has an oversight/consultant capacity. He may write and direct more eps before and after work on AVENGERS 2 takes place next year. However, he is not a hands-on producer on this show and its episode-to-episode quality is the responsibility of others.
Most of his shows have started off kinda shaky, at least in my opinion.
Buffy and Angel, even Firefly, all their first episode or two have been meh at best.
This is only really true of BUFFY (and maybe DOLLHOUSE, but I haven't seen that yet). ANGEL's first few episodes were pretty good, but it was building off four seasons of BUFFY. FIREFLY's two-hour pilot was excellent. 'The Train Job' was a little bit weak (you can tell it was a rushed first episode replacement), but it was certainly much better than either of SHIELD's first two episodes.
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Finally watched episode 2 last night.
I enjoyed it, though Ward's 180 with Skye seemed rather abrupt.
I didn't have an issue with the other plot holes people mentioned, but the decompression of the airplane (doesn't work like that. They would have been in more danger from lack of oxygen than getting sucked out of the plane) and the fact that the life raft was able to plug the hole were what bothered me. (If you do accept that fact that the giant hole in the airplane caused enough suction to draw grown men through it, a rubber raft would hit the hole and then get pulled through as well.)
I was surprised/amused they went through the trouble of bringing in Samuel L. Jackson just so he could yell about them wrecking the plane.
Eh, why not. A nice salary so he can take his family out, plus he gets to yell at someone looking cool.
Also, is it just me, or does he look older then in Avengers? Like much older?
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As I suggested above, the simplest way to reconcile these is to assume that the original creation of the shield essentially created adamantium and alloyed it with vibranium. The later experiments only made it to the creating adamanitium stage.
Yeah, it's crazy easy to understand (they first discovered adamantium as part of an alloy, and it took them ages to figure out to make it on its own), and it was canon for thirty or forty years, but it's recently (in the last decade or so) changed, and everyone seems to think it was 'always that way.'
Whacky.
Next it'll be 'Wolverine always had bone claws under his metal claws' or 'Spider-Man always had organic web-shooters' or 'She-Hulk could always break the 4th wall.'
Heck, the current writers at Marvel can't keep track of what Rogue's powers are (she's been shown using Ms. Marvel's powers, despite not having them anymore), what Scarlet Witch's powers are (she's been shown doing her reality altering thing which went away at the end of Children's Crusade) and what 'absorbs vibrations' even means, in the case of Captain America's shield, which, in the new Avengers run, Cap had Havoc shoot his shield with a plasma blast to *provide thrust* to propel him somewhere, which, fairly obviously, wouldn't work, if the shield was working at all (since Cap not only wouldn't be pushed anywhere, he'd probably not even feel the impact).
If the writers at Marvel can't keep up with their continuity, or what Captains America's shield does or does not do (never mind what made-up gobbledigook unobtainium / unbreakium it's made of), who can blame the fans (or Wikipedia) for not keeping track?
Better episode this week but i did fast forward through a lot of the plane scenes.
still "meh"
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*stands up and starts the slow golf clap*
Much better this week. Still would like the scientists, agent blah, and hacker girl all gone. But this week was much better.
Best episode yet. Looks like we'll be seeing a gradual buildup of supers.
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Finaly something ineresting is happening.
That said, the episode was ok. Still not getting blown away.
I remember seeing the pilot of Firefly and then sitting day and night watching through all 14 episodes.
Maybe i am expecting too much from this. But seriously, this is Marvel. More then 60 years of comic book storytelling. Considering that, show is kinda weaksauce.
Also i loved the "after credits" scene. It was a nice piece of foreshadowing.
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Maybe i am expecting too much from this. But seriously, this is Marvel. More then 60 years of comic book storytelling. Considering that, show is kinda weaksauce.
I'm leery of this. Putting in a bunch of comic book mythology, jargon, and inside jokes might only serve to alienate the portion of the audience that are fans of the movies but not necessarily the comics. They might feel like they're on the outside of all the inside jokes.
I think that stuff is best used sparingly. After all, you can't expect most of the audience to "get" 60 years of comic book history right out of the gate.
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Yeah, my extensive novel of marvel stuff comes from watching marvel animated series like X-men, Spiderman, Avenger's earth's mightiest heroes, Ultimate Spiderman and Avengers Assemble. They can put at least that in the show. There are dozens of villains there.
I never read Marvel comics for the simple reason that they were not available in my country untill maybe six-seven years ago, and since i now have bigger concerns then reading comics, i still can't afford them.
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If anything, this was perhaps an even better origin story for Graviton than the couple of panels worth of backstory he had in his first Avengers appearance. (I was a scientist. Something went ker-flooey. Now I have gravity powers. And... scene.)
For such a top-tier villain, powerwise, he really was kind of thrown onto stage half-dressed in the comics, with the script still in his hands. :) Indeed, it was actually a plot point in his Thunderbolts appearances that he didn't really have any sort of motivation, and needed someone like Moonstone to give him an evil pep talk and turn him into a much more credible threat... (In the short term, it ended their immediate fight. In the long term, he came back with some real purpose and murdered the heck out of a few new teammembers!)
This version has a lot more personality, and he's got some sympathetic vibe to him, willing to sacrifice himself to make sure that the potential WMD he unintentionally co-created was destroyed for good.
And, after what happened (sacrificed and the weapon *not* destroyed), he's gonna have a very legitimate axe to grind, if he finds his way out of that situation...
Much like the 'Phase 2' situation, it seems that SHIELD may be once again sowing the seeds of their own future problems. If anything should have been 'slingshotted' into the sun, that probably would have qualified more than the ray gun from last episode.
And throwing away the records of what it is and where it is only runs the risk of people having no idea what's going on when the digested matter hits the air recirculator.
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If anything, this was perhaps an even better origin story for Graviton than the couple of panels worth of backstory he had in his first Avengers appearance. (I was a scientist. Something went ker-flooey. Now I have gravity powers. And... scene.)
For such a top-tier villain, powerwise, he really was kind of thrown onto stage half-dressed, with the script still in his hands. :)
My favourite thing in the Marvel universe is that someone like Electro is on par with Magneto power wise, but he's so small minded he ends up acting like a second-stringer.
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My favourite thing in the Marvel universe is that someone like Electro is on par with Magneto power wise, but he's so small minded he ends up acting like a second-stringer.
True. There's no end to trouble that someone like the Absorbing Man could get up to, but he's just not that clever. The Radioactive Man has ridiculous amounts of power, as well, but he's just not really interested in exploring that, being more comfortable in a lab.
Meanwhile, someone like Luke Cage, who is seriously underpowered compared to the people he sometimes end up facing, works well with what he has, and punches well above his weight class.
The show keeps getting better with every episode, and (yes I know I'm in the minority) I was actually quite happy with the pilot.
I'm actually not that surprised that they went with Graviton. His shtick isn't too costly to reproduce, and the fact that he's only had a bit of exposure outside of the comics means that they have a lot of room to play with him as a character.
The show has a tightrope to walk. We know that it's going to tie into the movies somehow, and it should, but they don't want to go too heavy with it since it deserves to also stand on its own.
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Hmmm. I go back and rewatch the first season of Buffy and I'm reminded that a show like this takes time to get rolling. Sure, you have the whole Marvel back catalog of foes and such to pull on, but the movie verse is pretty limited in full wonkiness yet. It's getting there.
What AoS needs is it's own foes and plots. They need to build up more who Skye is working with in the Rising Tide, and maybe fill in some blanks with who created centipede this season and I think the cast can finally sink their characters into it. Set up first 1/2 seaons are always slow grind. Sadly the expectations are SO high, we can't do that like Buffy/Angel did back in the day.
Kinda what killed Dollhouse...that and a whole lot of the boring. So we'll say that's what killed Caprica (then again that' Syfy being their usual bag of *ahem*)
Anyrate. GOOD 3rd show. Better team dynamic and Capt. Whitebread is finally filling out more as a character. And...heh. Skye still has issues but having her something of a backstory and a like for Capt. Whitebread's hard luck past was nice. Hope they flesh those two out more. If they keep the mentor/friend relationship going I'll dig it. It doesn't have to be romance this season.
Oh...I hope Graviton becomes one of this shows iconic foes. As a Thunderbolts (classic) fan of Marvel he's one of my top 3 Marvel foes recently.
I don't think Coulson is an LMD...but chance of clone or such is rising.
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Hmmm. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not exactly riveted. Right now everyone feels like a parody of a classic action hero trope. FitzSimmons particularly get to me because I feel like I've seen characters like them 8,000 times before now (they'd be cute if they weren't so very cliched). The only character I like besides Colson is the woman they call the Cavalry, and that's just because she's a cliche I at least enjoy.
I really hope this is addressed as the series goes on.
Right now many of the antagonists are interesting me more than the heroes--J. August Richards' character in the pilot, the scientist in this week's episode. Even the military chick last week.
Apparently they're doing well enough that they've been picked up for the full season. Let's hope that's incentive to keep the show getting better as it goes along.
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Episode 3: More America Knows Best.Got a problem with that?
As an American, I do.
One of the problems with the premise is determining what SHIELD is. Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is a very American sounding name (specifically the "Homeland" part). Which is fine, but it means that they should be limited just like any other American "Combined" Military/Police force.
Actually, the strains of cooperating with their Chinese or Russian counterparts could be an interesting source of character and plot development.
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What's missing for me, is the fact this isn't set in the Marvel Universe, but rather the Movie version of the Marvel Universe, which has pretty much just the avengers in it. SNOOZE...
Don't get me wrong. I LIKED the Avengers, but Cap, Thor, and the team is so overdone, it's dull. Sorry I was a bigger fan of the New Avengers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Wolverine, etc. A new dynamic, not the usual lineup.
But what turns me off on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the lack of imagination the writers and producers have put into it.
Yes it's a CSI for the Marvel movie-verse. But if you want to make it amazing, or even spectacular, add a billboard advertising Jennifer Walters Legal Firm, or Matt Murdock.
What I'm saying is there is a desperate need to add some fluff to the set, fun easter eggs that make people who know and love the comics smile.
This is my short list of examples of what I'm talking about:
1)Rand Corporation (Daniel Rand/Iron Fist)
2)Jennifer Walters Law Firm (She-Hulk)
3) The Gem Theater (Luke Cage's fave haunt)
4) Matt Murdock's Law Practice (Daredevil)
5) Van Dyne Industries (Wasp)
6) A Construction crew (who look like the future wrecking crew)
Just simple things that fans actually might bother to look for. While I understand the whole copyright issues for some heroes, there are hundreds more they could use, just to build the feel of this show being more than a James Bond wannabe set in the Marvel Movie-Verse.
I like the show, I do, but it could be so much better.
But Graviton? Really? Ah well, I can understand using a character with minimal history being an appealing thing. Some downsides to the comics to film transition is the hordes of luggage they haul around. Spidey has been through how much? He was married, and rebooted, he was 22 now he's 18 again! Hell, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde was 16 for 20 years! LOL
So Graviton is a good thing, not a load of backstory. This could start getting better! I say could, because it desperately needs to.
One last gripe, I promise...
The agents are just dull, Phil is at least making people curious what's going on with him coming back from the dead, or so it seems. Ward is hopefully going to get a superpower, like developing a personality, or make himself disappear! Now that would be just peachy!
I'm not a Troll, just a Troglodyte. I like the show, but it needs more!
I think at the moment they are just trying to solidy the place of the show within Marvel Movie universe. I expect we will get more name checks (Graviton) as the show goes on.
It might be also they are sensitive about dropping references to characters which could support major franchises, since they want to keep options and might go a different route
Chloe Bennet looks very nice wet.Chloe Bennet looks good period.
I prefer Elizabeth Henstridge myself--a smile to die for!
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Spidey has been through how much? He was married, and rebooted, he was 22 now he's 18 again! Hell, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde was 16 for 20 years!
Dunno what you mean by "he's 18 again". Perhaps you meant Ultimate Spidey, who was not the same character? Anyway:
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I'd be giddy if they mixed the cast up more. As it stands...with the exception of Kim, it's a very anglo looking group. I was hoping the Gunn character would return an join the cast as the powered member of the team.
Marvel's been trying to mix up the look and race of their characters in the past few years. It would be nice to see some of that show through more.
Hell, having Luke Cage or Ironfist show up in a Heroes for Hire as a rival group would be AWESOME.
And since Marvel got the rights back for Daredevil and Blade...:3 So many options.
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I'd be giddy if they mixed the cast up more. As it stands...with the exception of Kim, it's a very anglo looking group. I was hoping the Gunn character would return an join the cast as the powered member of the team.
Marvel's been trying to mix up the look and race of their characters in the past few years. It would be nice to see some of that show through more.
Hell, having Luke Cage or Ironfist show up in a Heroes for Hire as a rival group would be AWESOME.
And since Marvel got the rights back for Daredevil and Blade...:3 So many options.
True, but heroes for hire might operate on the opposite side of the law. Cage never played by the rules much, so as a rival group associating with rising tide would be "Sweet Christmas". LOL
I know we can hope for such things, but ultimately the show is what it is. And that's not so terrible right? Just remember as long as the Marvel on TV franchise door stays open, there's a bigger chance of other things happening. Or, a bigger disaster... Wait, isn't Spider-Woman an agent of shield? Or was? Aha! That would be an improvement, just keep out the costume. Red & yellow is so 70's, just ask cage & fist. (whom both rock still.)
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One of the problems with the premise is determining what SHIELD is.
There is that. Ep 2 suggested truly multinational with UN-style jurisdiction.
And yet, pretty much everything seems American-run and only 1/3rd of the team are non-Americans, and both are the 'acceptable' sort of non-Americans (cute young white Brits outside of / below the command structure, mostly comedy relief anyway).
I'm liking Fitz-Simmons less and less. They were too cute by half, finishing each others sentences and stuff in the first episode, and now that they've gotten a tiny bit more exposure, they continue to be obnoxiously over-excitable about everything, like a pair of overbred chihuahaus, with a dash of 'dude = snippy Sheldon-wannabe' and 'chick = fluttery and breathless.'
Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is a very American sounding name (specifically the "Homeland" part).
I still associate 'Homeland' with Nazi Germany, since it was used in place of Vaterland/Fatherland in anti-Nazi stuff way back when. I guess it's come around to become an American term now...
Episode 3: More America Knows Best.Got a problem with that?As an American, I do.
One of the problems with the premise is determining what SHIELD is. Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is a very American sounding name (specifically the "Homeland" part). Which is fine, but it means that they should be limited just like any other American "Combined" Military/Police force.
Actually, the strains of cooperating with their Chinese or Russian counterparts could be an interesting source of character and plot development.
Yes.... This
The problem is though..the stereotypes that "Hollywood" perpetuates, the cowardly arrogant French, all British people are either villains or Aristocrats, all Australians are crocodile Dundee or cocky jerks, and on top of the racism you can't even get the right nationality to play the role, Chinese people playing Japanese people because they all look the same to a studio exec (memoirs of a Geisha comes to mind), Americans doing terrible accents, don't tell me you can't find an Australian in Hollywood, we have a spare Hemsworth, the crap soapy that Ryan Kwantin is off has 5 actors all the same, NIDA creates Cate Blanchettes and Miranda Ottos by the dozen....
Markets other than the US are can bring in more money but the US need to have some respect when portraying other countries.
Before anybody says...can't we have other nationalities playing other nationalities - there is a difference between Paul Hogan playing Lincoln and Geoffrey Rush playing Lincoln.
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My problem with actors playing foreign parts is that I got so use to the fake British accent that most American actors seem to use (the 'Ren Faire' accent), that I occasionally see someone and think, 'Wow, that's a terrible fake British accent' and then find out that the actor was actually a Brit, it's not his accent that's 'wrong,' it's my idea of what a British person actually sounds like...
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Have sympathy for us Brits who frequently have to endure what is laughingly believed to be a British accent.
In the brilliant 'Frasier', the part of Daphne Moon is played by Jane Leeves, who is English. Unfortunately she is a Londoner while her character is from Manchester. Her Mancunian accent fools no-one over here.
When her brothers came over for her wedding, they all had different accents, none of them Mancunian, even though three of the four actors were British!
For a good English accent on American TV, from Buffy/Angel Giles' was authentic, and he taught Spike and Wesley well. The doctor from DS9, played by Alexander Siddig had a good accent, while Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard is, of course, spot on, despite him being a Yorkshireman by birth, being born in Mirfield, where I used to live 30 years ago. : )
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Episode 3: More America Knows Best.Got a problem with that?As an American, I do.
One of the problems with the premise is determining what SHIELD is. Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is a very American sounding name (specifically the "Homeland" part). Which is fine, but it means that they should be limited just like any other American "Combined" Military/Police force.
Actually, the strains of cooperating with their Chinese or Russian counterparts could be an interesting source of character and plot development.
Yes.... This
The problem is though..the stereotypes that "Hollywood" perpetuates, the cowardly arrogant French, all British people are either villains or Aristocrats, all Australians are crocodile Dundee or cocky jerks, and on top of the racism you can't even get the right nationality to play the role, Chinese people playing Japanese people because they all look the same to a studio exec (memoirs of a Geisha comes to mind), Americans doing terrible accents, don't tell me you can't find an Australian in Hollywood, we have a spare Hemsworth, the crap soapy that Ryan Kwantin is off has 5 actors all the same, NIDA creates Cate Blanchettes and Miranda Ottos by the dozen....
Markets other than the US are can bring in more money but the US need to have some respect when portraying other countries.
Before anybody says...can't we have other nationalities playing other nationalities - there is a difference between Paul Hogan playing Lincoln and Geoffrey Rush playing Lincoln.
but, but, isnt this how the world is?
I kid I kid. Wow this series of posts almost rivals "how much unobtanium is in cap's shield"