"Agent Carter" season one discussion and spoilers

[Christopher]

I'll have to look for that, but it doesn't mean he was the writer.

Now if he was autographing the book of Dr. Faustus....

Dr. Faustus is the main character of the book, not the writer. The book Ivchenko/Fennhoff was reading was The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, a play based on the German legend of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, pleasures, and power (the source of the term "Faustian bargain"). The comics' Dr. Faustus (Johann Fennhoff) took his nickname from Marlowe's character.

 

[The Old Mixer]

^Yeah, I read Alidar's link....

I was aware of the literary allusion but thought the literary character's name was Faust and Faustus was the comic character's take on that...I didn't realize that the variant "Dr. Faustus" was actually used in the literature.

None of this would have been necessary if one of you had just squeee'ed.

 

[Guy Gardener]

My problem is that Richard Burton at his worst was far too thin to play Marvel's Doctor Faustus.

His missus on the hand would have been perfect.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

He was referred to as Johann Fennhoff, which is the real name of the comics Dr. Faustus. Source. It was an assumption up to that point, but it's not an assumption after that. He was reading the book (or, more accurately, play) that the comics character takes the name Dr. Faustus from.

OK, so those of you who spotted these references failed in your geekly duty to publicly squeee in delight over them.

Eh, I just did it elsewhere, sorry.

 

[Turtletrekker]

He was referred to as Johann Fennhoff, which is the real name of the comics Dr. Faustus. Source. It was an assumption up to that point, but it's not an assumption after that. He was reading the book (or, more accurately, play) that the comics character takes the name Dr. Faustus from.

OK, so those of you who spotted these references failed in your geekly duty to publicly squeee in delight over them.

Eh, I just did it elsewhere, sorry.

Yeah, me too. I know I squeee'd somewhere. I feel sorry for the person who finds it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I had no idea that Dr. Faustus had a "real name". Missed what ever comic that was revealed in. So no squeee from me.

 

[Skywalker]

I didn't know, either, I only found out when I googled "Johann Fenhoff" [sic] after hearing the name during the episode.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I was aware of Dr Faustus, of course, but never found him that interesting so I didn't pick up on the connection.

Dum-Dum appeared in early versions of the script. It was originally him in the plane chasing down Stark. Neal McDonough was unavailable and they changed it Jarvis, which they felt worked better.

That's surprising. Having Jarvis chasing down Stark was so perfect a character beat that I assumed it was planned from the beginning.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

I have enjoyed the series immensely and I hope that there is a second season.

I thought the beginning might have been a bit rocky because I grew tired of being bashed over the head almost every minute with she just a girl. The only part of that that made me smile was when she got into the back of the truck in Russia and said she hated them all.

But, I liked that the show had her "earning" her place although at times I found it tiresome.

For the most part, I really enjoyed it, and as a person that does not read the comics, I have enjoyed coming into this thread to see what references I missed as a non-reader.

 

[JD]

This was a nice finale.
I was kind of surprised they had Dottie survive, but it will be nice to have her stick around as a recurring nemesis for Peggy.
We got some pretty good emotional stuff during the scene with Stark flying toward NYC. I liked seeing Peggy and Howard dealing with their grief over Cap, and at the same time we got poor Jarvis preparing to shoot Howard down.
I loved Jarvis stealing Cap's blood for Peggy. I do question if dumping it into the river like that was a good idea, I would have thought it would have been safer to throwing into a fireplace or something. I was kind of surprised she actually did get rid of it, I was expecting her to save it. But I realize now that the scene was supposed to be showing her getting over Steve's death.
I was really annoyed that Thompson didn't acknowledge Peggy when the Senator (?) was visiting the SSR, but I guess he hasn't changed that much.
That end scene was a nice little hint towards the Hydra stuff revealed in TWS.
I really hope we get a second season.

 

[Christopher]

I loved Jarvis stealing Cap's blood for Peggy. I do question if dumping it into the river like that was a good idea, I would have thought it would have been safer to throwing into a fireplace or something.

Oh, there have been far worse things dumped in the East River...

 

[Captain Shaw]

I could only think of Pinky and the Brain with Zola and Fernhoff in the cell at the end.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You weren't also wondering who was going to be pitching and who was going to be catching?

Prison is a queer place.

 

[DEWLine]

Worse: both Zola and Fenhoff are Brains.

 

[Gaith]

Thought the finale was kinda meh, honestly. There's a Black Widow, the doctor, and Stark-presumably-under-hypnosis to contend with, so Carter, Thompson, Sousa and Jarvis go off to battle them alone? Four against three, when you've got a whole office of SSR agents, not to mention cops, on hand?? Also, boooo to the doctor magically getting the drop on Thompson, and for the at least three instances in the last two eps of people with guns getting stupidly close to their targets, who - surprise! - wrestle them away. Lame. Also, the low budget really stood out in the scenes where the cop pulled the baddies over and the press conference was held - didn't feel like an inhabited NYC at all, which wasn't helped by the doctor talking about how alive and vibrant it is. Peggy having to replay the radio scenario, and Jarvis hunting Howard, was a nice bit of symmetric storytelling, though; as was the resolution of Steve's blood, I'll give them both of those. I also wonder if Sousa is Peggy's future husband; we'll see, I guess.

So, after eight eps, I still couldn't really tell anyone anything about Peggy I didn't know from Cap 1. Does she have any family? Hobbies? Passions? Just how did she learn to fight well enough to take on several SSR agents at once, seeing as she's presumably a fairly upper-class Englishwoman? Atwell's likeable and pretty and all, and does a great American accent, but I'm really starting to lose interest in Carter as the lead character of her own series, even a short-season one. Even her affection for Cap is starting to get a bit old; yes, he was an honest, caring, and brave soldier, with awesome post-serum abs, but he didn't exactly have an abundance of wit or personality or anything. (Heck, the most non-plot necessary detail we've learned about him so far is that he's a decent sketch illustrator, and a monotheist.) If there's a second season, I hope she's well and good over him.

Overall, a decent first season, but, apart from Jarvis, nothing all that memorable; even the Zola tag scene, while nice, was a bit baggy, and didn't reveal or tease anything we didn't already know. Overall grade for the series so far: B-. This was fine, but I'm not at all sorry to return to Coulson and Co. for a while now.

 

[Mr Light]

<<I also wonder if Sousa is Peggy's future husband; we'll see, I guess.>>

She tells Steve in WINTER SOLDIER that he saved the life of her husband in the war. That always makes me think he was part of the Howling Commandos but I guess it could have been some random unit they worked with... wait did Sousa serve in the Pacific or European theater...?

 

[Turtletrekker]

Sousa deflected the question when Thompson asked.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Why would the SSR hire ex-(frontline)soldiers for this type of investigative fieldwork?

They should want ex-spies and ex-intelligence officers, maybe even military police?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Most intelligence operatives right at the start of the cold war were former soldiers

 

[Guy Gardener]

Everyone was a solider, it's a very broad term that covers almost everyone in the armed forces, which is why I used a modifier to refer to a smaller subset of soldiers.

But you're right, the quality the people putting the SSR together (or the CIA) were most interested in was durability and luck, while following impossible orders.

Who cares if you have the correct skillset, if you're also a bullet magnet who's wet himself again.