MARVEL Agents of SHIELD

[ctg]

Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division

Since there was only a reminder thread I thought it would be better to create own thread to this unique series. And it truly unique as I don't think there has been this kind of superhero series before. Of course you could argue that various Superman, Batman and other things can be counted as superhero series and I'd agree, but SHIELD has an unique feeling that it's going to tie together all those hundred thousand mutants that go around in the Marvel Universe. Some could even say that the chances are high for us seeing the most famous faces over the course of this series, unless ABC decides to pull the plug next year.

 

[ctg]

Second episode continued mostly on same track as the first one with a "special" comedy relief from Nick Fury at the end. So I was quite pleased to find out that the show isn't just about one team going around the world, and doing things that makes little sense to the audience who didn't grow up reading comics.

What do you guys think the Rising Tide presents?

 

[Juliana]

Enjoying the show so far... So are my husband and kids (9 and 10)! Favorite character at this point is Simmons - my daughter agrees, though she likes Skye, too.

Loving the little mentions of other Marvel characters/movies (like Thor's hammer in ep 2).

 

[J-Sun]

Favorite character at this point is Simmons

Which one's that? The geek girl or the geek guy?

Loving the little mentions of other Marvel characters/movies (like Thor's hammer in ep 2).

Followed immediately by a commercial for a Thor movie.

I interrupted reading a book to turn the TV on for this week's episode. The way I feel now is that, if I'm not reading a book and want to watch TV, I'll probably turn it on again next week (possibly for the last time) but, if I'm busy, I won't. It was such a cookie cutter episode with such a hammer-over-the-head theme and, again, was just action with no real character development. I don't really like these people. The geeks are kinda cute but not much, the pilot/kung fu girl is pretty stereotypical and uninspired, I don't buy the leader guy at all, the combat dude is absolutely nothing, and spygirl is arguably the most interesting of them, but I don't much like her either. So paint by numbers plots with characterless characters isn't a winning combination for me. It's not *bad* in TV terms - it's all competently and swiftly executed and isn't viscerally boring, but it's mentally and emotionally boring. (It's possible that, if it was just some random show, I might like it better, but it's extremely disappointing to me. I can't help but compare it to other Whedon shows and it's plain terrible by *that* comparison.)

As far as what Rising Tide represents, I'm sure it's some front for a megalomaniacal villain but the foot soldiers, I guess, would believe, like spygirl seems to, that the government is keeping secrets it shouldn't and that the people should know. I mean, I think all that's been spelled out and beyond that, I don't know or (alas) much care.

 

[Juliana]

Heh, I'm easily pleased and I thought it was fun enough.

Simmons is the girl, btw. I like the way she grins at gore like its an early Christmas present ("ooh, look, charred bodies, fun!")

 

[J-Sun]

Heh, I'm easily pleased and I thought it was fun enough.

Well, that's sort of the feeling I have - that I'm not taking the show in the right spirit.

Simmons is the girl, btw. I like the way she grins at gore like its an early Christmas present ("ooh, look, charred bodies, fun!")

Okay, thanks - yeah, I guess if I was going to pick a favorite it'd be her, too. Spygirl is obviously the more central/problematic/interesting character but Simmons probably is the most appealing.

 

[jastius]

i am taping it to pvr. i like to replay the personal interaction scenes. my only question is why so many leggy girls? they all look scrawnier then any females i see at the gym. is that catering to the male element? a sort of superhero version of charlie's angels...

 

[Gordian Knot]

I'm enjoying it for what it is. I would have wished for something a little deeper, but I can live with what there is. Very glad to see Samuel Jackson show up for a cameo. That was the best scene of the second episode. And it ends with a classic Whedon joke.

Did anyone else catch the tech SHIELD stole from Serenity?

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

I thought the pilot was decent, but the second was very bland uninspiring stuff. Hopefully it picks up again for next week.

 

[Foxbat]

Watched episode two. Still underwhelmed.

Personally, I think The Rising Tide will be Hydra reborn (let's face it, SHIELD need to come up against something that will really test them).

 

[Bob Whitely]

I liked the show well enough to decide to keep watching, and I watch hardly any TV, so that's saying a lot! Of course, I have to admit, when it comes to Marvel, I do have a soft spot and so I'm easier to please in that regard. The writing for the show is decent, certainly better than I thought it would be, and the tie-ins to the rest of the Marvel Universe are a welcome sight.

I agree with Foxbat that Rising Tide might well be another Hydra, or maybe Hydra is secretly behind Rising Tide and will reveal themselves when the time is right. Skye probably doesn't know Hydra is behind it, if they are. I would hope the writers wouldn't make up Rising Tide as a replacement for Hydra instead of using the real thing. But then, I didn't recognize the strong man, so either that's a bad sign that they don't feel the need to adopt Marvel concepts or hopefully he later changes his name to be Luke Cage (maybe to start over with or without Shield's help), which is what I'm hoping.

I'm a little nervous about the Avengers in general because Thanos should have been the main villain for the next movie, not Ultron, IMO (He appeared in Avengers 1 after all) and also I heard that they are writing a whole new origin story for Ultron, rather than being an Ant Man creation,which bugs me. They did leave Ant Man and the Wasp out of the Avengers, which was a tad annoying, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised that they are taking so many liberties....

Anyway, I'll keep watching and hopefully the next episode will be better. I think they've got some solid writers, and every new show struggles to find their way for several episodes, so as long as the network doesn't give up on it too soon, hopefully it will turn out to be a good show. I remain hopeful that it at least won't get any worse, but maybe a little better instead!

 

[Dave]

I was quite pleased to find out that the show isn't just about one team going around the world, and doing things that makes little sense to the audience who didn't grow up reading comics.

I watched the first episode with my adult daughter and even though I was never a comic reading youth, I still got things that I could see went way over her head. So, I have to agree with that analysis.

I didn't think much of the plot. Revelation: he isn't a superhero really but a secretive corporation has back engineered an alien device on his arm that makes him superhuman. I think that isn't very original.

What skills does the Blogger bring to Shield exactly? She is simply a plot device so we can see Shield from an outsiders eyes.

Also, the two comedic relief geeky nerds in the tech lab will irritate me if I watch any more.

So, I was unsure whether to bother with episode two, having better things to watch.

Watched episode two. Still underwhelmed.

I guess that settles that then.

 

[J-Sun]

Vague spoilers for... I think it's #3.

If this had been "meh" or worse this would have been the last ep of this show I watched but it won itself a reprieve - I wasn't so much into the touchy-feely family stuff but I liked the dynamics of the "bad guy" and the "hostage" vs. the gang and thought the effects and all (silly science or no) were a blast. Plus, hey, oops, we may have made a supervillain. I think one of the problems with the first couple of shows were that they weren't fun enough to really achieve escape velocity - this one was fun for me. Also, while this was plenty action-packed, there were spaces to breathe - a little systole/diastole that made the fun parts more fun. The first couple of eps seemed to just stumble headlong for the most part. So maybe this can make it after all... though it doesn't matter what I think if it loses another 30% of its initial audience this week like it did last.

 

[Lenny]

I had already made the decision to watch at the first series until the end regardless, because it's not every day you get a big-budget Whedon-attached comic-based film-tie-in television series.

If every episode continued in the same vein as the first and second, I would have probably regretted my decision, but thankfully the third episode is kinda fun, and with it the story seems to have gained at least one focus point, with the potential development of Skye into a proper SHIELD agent, if not two (because, after all, Wikipedia tells me that in the comics,

Spoiler

Dr. Hall becomes the super-villain Graviton after a terrible accident with graviton particles

).

Let's just hope that we don't get a reset to something like the second episode next week, where we simply have an action-y episode centred on the retrieval of an artifact, with no character development.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I quite liked Supermodels of SHIELD. Got to agree that episode 2 was just action, and the writers appear to have forgotten to make a reason for blogger-girl joining. It's not quite as bad as Gary joining Team America: World Police because of his awesome acting powers, but it's not that far off.

I'll still watch it and give it a chance. They need to sort out their personnel, though. At the moment they've got:
1 fighter fellow
1 fighter lady who really doesn't want to do combat
2 scientists
1 blogger/hacker

They could use some more muscle.

 

[REBerg]

Heh, I'm easily pleased and I thought it was fun enough.

Simmons is the girl, btw. I like the way she grins at gore like its an early Christmas present ("ooh, look, charred bodies, fun!")

I gotta say, I'm liking this series. I'm not a comic book fan, but I've enjoyed most of the Marvel-based movies thus far.

Maybe I'm also too easily pleased. I'll watch anything Wheden-connected. Even liked The Cabin in the Woods.

 

[Dave]

Maybe I'm also too easily pleased. I'll watch anything Wheden-connected. Even liked The Cabin in the Woods.

Alien: Resurrection?

 

[REBerg]

Alien: Resurrection?

Yup. Afraid so. I liked it, and I didn't realize Joss Whedon was involved until I watched the credits.

 

[ctg]

Third one was the special episode, and I'm tempted to create episodic ones as it seems to me Wheadon is back with a bang. The Marvel Agents of SHIELD works very well on me, and it shows brilliantly how some of the special ones arrive on the world and expand it more than they could had done with the movies.

And in the regards of Marvels universe, you can almost place bets on the chances that expanded universe characters might end up on the Big Screen during the new phases, as there just too many major historic events that they haven't even touched yet.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Yeah, episode three was far better. It almost could have been a different show from last week.