Agents of SHIELD. Season 1 Discussion Thread

[Alidar Jarok]

What are the recent numbers? Are they at least stable? Stable but disappointing could still work for ABC because they could at least predict what the acceptable returns would be. On top of that, there might be an incentive to create a viable DVD market for them (although I would imagine ABC doesn't see as much money with that, but it would matter for licensing fees).

 

[Turtletrekker]

Ratings were up for the first time this week.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ But not by much.

1x01 Pilot: 12.12 million
1x02 0-8-4: 8.66 million
1x03 The Asset: 7.87 million
1x04 Eye Spy: 7.85 million
1x05 Girl in the Flower Dress: 7.39 million
1x06 FZZT: 7.15 million
1x07 The Hub: 6.67 million
1x08 The Well: 6.89 million

Source

 

[DEWLine]

Not seeing the "live + 3" and/or "live + 7" data there.

http://shieldtv.net/forum/108/topic-661

 

[Christopher]

Not sure how to interpret those numbers, but it looks like the delayed viewing adds enormously to the ratings.

 

[Turtletrekker]

What's the Marvel movie timeline? How far will two years get you? Ideally, I'd like the show to last until Avengers 3 and then get cut off.

Two seasons will bring AoS through Age of Ultron.

It would have to run at least 5 seasons to last through Avengers 3.

 

[Ethros]

Just watched the 'Thor tie in' ep. Ah yes, a tie in to Thor: The Dark World... which has nothing whatsoever to do with Thor: The Dark World.

Apart from the opening 30 seconds or whatever the rest of the episode could have taken place at any time in the run of the show, from season 1 to say season 7, it wouldn't have mattered. Yeah I really wasn't expecting Chris Hemsworth or Natalie Portman to show up, but I thought it'd have some relation to what happened in London etc in that movie.

As I read in an article last week, I honestly wouldn't care now if that plane they all seem to live on crashed and killed everyone on board. Remember Riley Finn on Buffy s4/5? People used to slag him off as been dull, and even fellow character Spike called him "Captain Cardboard." AoS is a show entirely populated with Riley Finn's, only they're all 10 times worse.

 

[Mr Light]

Good lord, you're right. Ward *IS* Riley Finn.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Before Buffy took his balls for earrings.

 

[Christopher]

Just watched the 'Thor tie in' ep. Ah yes, a tie in to Thor: The Dark World... which has nothing whatsoever to do with Thor: The Dark World.

Apart from the opening 30 seconds or whatever the rest of the episode could have taken place at any time in the run of the show, from season 1 to say season 7, it wouldn't have mattered. Yeah I really wasn't expecting Chris Hemsworth or Natalie Portman to show up, but I thought it'd have some relation to what happened in London etc in that movie.

Well, it did have some relation -- it's just that it wasn't about the specific events of the movie so much as the general public reaction to the realization that "Norse gods" really existed. The "paganist hate group" was inspired by the violent descent of Asgardians and Dark Elves onto London, seeing it as a sign that they should pursue their own violence in the name of their "gods." (Never mind that the attackers were the enemies of the gods they claim to worship. People who practice hate in the name of religion never seem to notice or care that they're betraying the very faiths they allege to serve.)

Anyway, the movie had only been out a couple of weeks, so naturally they were aware that a lot of their audience wouldn't have seen it yet. Indeed, part of the reason for doing an episode like this is to encourage interest in the movie in people who haven't seen it yet. So the intent was to tease the movie, not spoil it. Not to mention that there's no way 100 percent of the audience is going to want to see the movie anyway, so any crossover story still needs to work as a self-contained episode.

 

[Greg Cox]

Anyway, the movie had only been out a couple of weeks, so naturally they were aware that a lot of their audience wouldn't have seen it yet. Indeed, part of the reason for doing an episode like this is to encourage interest in the movie in people who haven't seen it yet. So the intent was to tease the movie, not spoil it. Not to mention that there's no way 100 percent of the audience is going to want to see the movie anyway, so any crossover story still needs to work as a self-contained episode.

Exactly. I confess: I briefly flirted with NOT watching this particular episode since I hadn't seen the movie yet. And was relieved that it wasn't at all spoilery . . . .

Remember, not everybody rushes out to see the latest big movie right away and a lot of people wait for the DVDs to hit Redbox or whatever. Including, I suspect, a large percentage of the TV audience.

 

[JD]

I've never done drugs and OUAT is one of my favorite shows.

There you go.

You messed up the quote there. I said that.

 

[Trekker4747]

Just watched the 'Thor tie in' ep. Ah yes, a tie in to Thor: The Dark World... which has nothing whatsoever to do with Thor: The Dark World.

Apart from the opening 30 seconds or whatever the rest of the episode could have taken place at any time in the run of the show, from season 1 to say season 7, it wouldn't have mattered. Yeah I really wasn't expecting Chris Hemsworth or Natalie Portman to show up, but I thought it'd have some relation to what happened in London etc in that movie.

As I read in an article last week, I honestly wouldn't care now if that plane they all seem to live on crashed and killed everyone on board. Remember Riley Finn on Buffy s4/5? People used to slag him off as been dull, and even fellow character Spike called him "Captain Cardboard." AoS is a show entirely populated with Riley Finn's, only they're all 10 times worse.

Really it being a Thor-tie in movie I would have expected more than some lip-service in the opening scene. Other than that the only "tie in" seemed to be dealing with Asgardian stuff. Really a better tie in would have been if the team had to track down/capture the Jotunheim rancor. Would've been fun to see too. But there was only so much they could do without spoiling the movie.

 

[DEWLine]

Or burning through the whole season's budget in one episode. For all the trouble they've gone to for this series, they still have their fiscal limits.

Besides, I'm betting SHIELD's London office could handle that Jotun-beast on its own. ;-)

 

[FPAlpha]

It's been said already but what i liked most about the episode is that Peter McNicol (Biscuit from way back in Ally McBeal) and several other roles turned out to be an Asgardian and a Berserker to boot!

Never did i see that coming and it's just funny to imagine McNicol going all berserk on his enemies.. i love stereotype misleading and destruction and i also liked the effect the staff had on people touching it (especially May who is so reserved all the time.. it was cool seeing her lose that calm).

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Just watched the 'Thor tie in' ep. Ah yes, a tie in to Thor: The Dark World... which has nothing whatsoever to do with Thor: The Dark World.

Apart from the opening 30 seconds or whatever the rest of the episode could have taken place at any time in the run of the show, from season 1 to say season 7, it wouldn't have mattered. Yeah I really wasn't expecting Chris Hemsworth or Natalie Portman to show up, but I thought it'd have some relation to what happened in London etc in that movie.

As I read in an article last week, I honestly wouldn't care now if that plane they all seem to live on crashed and killed everyone on board. Remember Riley Finn on Buffy s4/5? People used to slag him off as been dull, and even fellow character Spike called him "Captain Cardboard." AoS is a show entirely populated with Riley Finn's, only they're all 10 times worse.

Really it being a Thor-tie in movie I would have expected more than some lip-service in the opening scene. Other than that the only "tie in" seemed to be dealing with Asgardian stuff.

I don't think it's fair to claim that an episode that deals with Asgardians just after the movie came out isn't a tie-in. Asgardians are from Thor movies, so it's a tie-in.

Really a better tie in would have been if the team had to track down/capture the Jotunheim rancor. Would've been fun to see too.

Really, build an entire episode about the cute joke at the end? I thought the episode was pretty good. Do you really think the episode would have been better with a massive manhunt for a giant creature who would be easy to spot with all the SHIELD technology? The episode was called "The Well" because, deep down, it was about Ward and his asshole brother and how he was forced to drown or nearly drown his other brother. How this led him to have shame and want to protect others. To me, that's far more compelling than a giant dog-like thing chasing after birds.

Now I wish they at least referenced it. That would have been amusing. But it is a minor complaint. Not having the creature is better than making the entire episode about it.

 

[Christopher]

Besides, a lot of moviegoers wouldn't have stayed for the second post-credits scene anyway and wouldn't have gotten the reference to the Jotun-beast. In the theater where I saw the film, only a handful of people stuck around for the second scene.

Anyway, we saw Thor return to Earth just before we saw the beast still romping about. I'm sure Thor himself handled the beast. Maybe Marvel will do a tie-in comic about it sometime.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Remember in the John Laroquette Show how they had this escaped circus elephant running around StLouis for a couple seasons sexually violating small cars?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Besides, a lot of moviegoers wouldn't have stayed for the second post-credits scene anyway and wouldn't have gotten the reference to the Jotun-beast. In the theater where I saw the film, only a handful of people stuck around for the second scene.

Yeah, I think there were three of us by the time that scene appeared.

Anyway, we saw Thor return to Earth just before we saw the beast still romping about. I'm sure Thor himself handled the beast. Maybe Marvel will do a tie-in comic about it sometime.

Actually, I wonder about the timeline. Is it possible the events in the episode occurred just before Thor returned in the post-credits scene (explaining why he was "off the grid" and unavailable to help)?

 

[DEWLine]

You mean the episode?

No. Coulson's team was part of the clean-up operation at Greenwich.

Now that I think on it a bit, that scene was a good way of reinforcing the biohazard protocol lesson of "F.Z..Z.T."...