Agents of SHIELD. Season 1 Discussion Thread

^ As usual, I have no freakin clue what you're talking about.

 

Not even God knows what Guy is talking about.

 

"Did you learn that girl parts and boy parts are different and girl parts aren't penises?!" - Skye to Square McLockjaw when he suggests the van-team use a water bottle for their "bathroom."



That got a good, honest, laugh out of me.

 

To be fair, Skye did call her out on that "no ESP" thing and I was thinking the same thing before Skye said it. Really, this is a universe where there should be no "Skeptical Skullys" given everything that's happened in the MCU up to this point.

 

Guess so. Again, each episode has the series get progressively better. This one has been really good so far with some good lines and character moments. Hell, I'm even liking Cleft Chinderson in this episode! And FitzSimmons aren't making want to strangle them.

 

Tonight was good episode i was wondering if the gonna connect the spiderman cartoon with this show since carlson is train spidy

 

I've no idea what you said. Either you didn't make a clear post or I'm having a stroke. Eitherway, this series takes place in the MCU which has nothing to do with the Spider-man cartoon series.

 

Mmmmm. Good point, I think the vision thing (particularly the x-ray vision) could have gleamed her something.

Tag scene is....

 

Last I checked, the 616-'verse edition of SHIELD still has in-house telepaths. PSI Division, they're called. Never mind whether or not they can use Xavier, Grey et al. here, but SHIELD PSI Division is still legally accessible to Marvel for Cinema'Verse purposes, right?

 

So, is there ever going to be a super hero/villain IN COSTUME on this show? Aside from that, I like it. But they need to start introducing a larger storyline in more than tiny hints. Maybe it's just me but I feel in this day and age you can't wait until episode 8 to introduce your main storyline.

 

Umm, "comic books or the scifi genre" is not a single, monolithic category. There are millions of people out there who are fans of science fiction but aren't fans of superhero fiction. Heck, there are even plenty of comic books that aren't about costumed superheroes.

S.H.I.E.L.D. comics have always been primarily high-tech spy stories, tales of espionage, intrigue, and superscience in the vein of James Bond and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (the latter of which was a direct inspiration to Lee and Kirby when they decided to invent a spy agency with an acronymic name). So if you're expecting stories about people in capes and tights, you've missed the point. The reason they decided to make a show about S.H.I.E.L.D. was because they wanted to make a spy-fi show with the MCU as its backdrop. If they'd wanted to make a superhero show, they wouldn't be making this one.

It's also more expensive due to the special effects. But spy shows, even sci-fi spy shows like Alias (not the Marvel one) and The Avengers (not the Marvel one), have been successfully pulled off on TV for decades. Sure, they could've done a show focusing on a non-superpowered crimefighter in order to keep the FX budget manageable; we know that they spent years exploring the possibilities of a Jessica Jones or Mockingbird series. But in the end, they decided to go this route, to make a spy show rather than a superhero show. Perhaps because The CW was already going the non-powered hero route with Arrow -- and of course because they wanted a star vehicle for Coulson.

And there's nothing wrong with that. The Marvel universe has a lot more going on in it than just superhero stories. Besides, this probably isn't the only Marvel TV show we're going to get. The news just broke today that they're developing a package of four more series and a miniseries. So I don't think that this show's choice to focus on the spy-fi side of Marvel is in any way harmful to the prospects of seeing Marvel superhero series on TV in the near future.


As for this episode, I feel it was really firing on all cylinders, thanks to a strong script by Jeffrey Bell (his first solo effort, though he cowrote "0-8-4") and effective, stylish direction by Roxann Dawson. The opening sequence in particular was potent and creepy. I'm a little disappointed that the guys in red masks weren't Red Skull groupies or something, but it did subvert expectations that the people we naturally assumed to be the bad guys were actually the victims.

The plot overall was an effective spy/intrigue story with creative superscience -- again, just the sort of thing one would expect in a S.H.I.E.L.D. series. It also gave me something of an Alias vibe (not the Marvel one), which makes sense, since Bell was a producer on that show. I think this is probably the best exemplar so far of what this series is going to be. It's also the best exemplar so far of the characters and their interplay. Everything just felt deeper and more engaging than it has for the past couple of weeks. It felt like a more serious, edgy show, not as lightweight as the previous two. Let's hope it's finally finding its voice. And let's hope Dawson directs more episodes -- I feel she not only did a good job with the style and action, but brought out some really good performances.

 

Anyone notice the director was Roxann Dawson?

 

^Yup.

 

That's because the 3-part superhero documentary aired against it on PBS.

Have to wait for tomorrow and Hulu to catch up.